Day: April 2, 2007

McCain Walks ‘Freely’ in Baghdad – With 100 Guards and Helicopters

Jon Ponder

The slo-mo wreckage of Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign continued this weekened when his surprise trip to Baghdad produced a horribly embarrassing spectacle.

It started last week when McCain told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that parts of Baghdad had been secured since the surge began, and were now safe enough for Westerners to walk around in freely. He was immediately contradicted on this by CNN reporter Michael Ware, who covers Baghdad,

Ostensibly to prove his point, McCain took a walk in an open air market just outside the Green Zone. He did move about “freely,” except that he had 100 soldiers with him who were armed to the teeth, as well as Blackhawk helicopters keeping watch overhead.

Offering an assist to the GOP from back home, Drudge reported falsely that at a news conference after McCain’s walkabout he was heckled by Michael Ware.

This morning on CNN, Ware denied the charge:

I did not heckle the senator. Indeed, I didn’t say a word. I didn’t even ask a question. In fact, when I raised my hand to ask a question the press conference abruptly ended. So, what I would suggest is that anyone who has any queries about whether I heckled, watch the videotape of the press conference — Soledad.

Movie in the Works on the Life of Whitewater’s Only Hero, Susan McDougal

Jon Ponder

Out of the morass of GOP dirty tricks in the 1990s variously known as the Whitewater scandal, the Arkansas Project and the Vast Rightwing Conspiracy, only one person was a true hero: Susan McDougal.

Remnants of the Gang of 500’s sneering tone about Whitewater and the Clintons are evident in the US News blurb, which referred to Susan McDougal, who is a true American patriot, as a “bit player” in the scandal.

To truly comprehend the skullduggery deployed by the Republicans to lay the way for saddling the nation and the world with the Worst President Ever, you have to understand what they were up to in the 1990s. McDougal’s autobiography, The Woman Who Wouldn’t Talk is one of the best primers around on the story. When it came out in paperback earlier this year, she was interviewed by Robert Scheer at Truthdig. The video is posted HERE.

US News is reporting that McDougal’s story is going to be made into a movie, with Paul Haggis — director of two Oscar winning movies, the horribly written “Crash” and “Million Dollar Baby” — and Charlize Theron in the lead role.

Remnants of the Gang of 500’s sneering tone about Whitewater and the Clintons are evident in the US News blurb, which referred to Susan McDougal, who is a true American patriot, as a “bit player” in the scandal.

The truth is, McDougal is the only person in the scandal who stood up to evil “Judge Starr,” and for that service she should be applauded.