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He Wasn’t Lying Then, He’s Lying Now
You heard it here first.
I don’t think Bush was lying when he told reporters last week that Rumsfeld was here to stay. I think he was lying when he told reporters this week that he was planning to get rid of him all along.
I mean, come on, since when has Bush/Rove ever been careful not to do something that would impact an election, the justification he gave for not announcing Rumsfeld’s departure sooner?
Think about it. If Bush had done as “fine” as he expected, do you think for one minute he’d have gotten rid of Rummy?
And the reason why is I didn’t want to inject a major decision about this war in the final days of a campaign…
And so [Rumsfeld] and I both agreed in our meeting yesterday that it was appropriate that I accept his resignation. And so the decision was made — actually, I thought we were going to do fine yesterday.
Think about it. If Bush had done as “fine” as he expected, do you think for one minute he’d have gotten rid of Rummy? Hell no. He’d have stayed the course with maniacal glee, tacking that boat right over a tsunami without a backward glance.
On the other hand, if they had realized how fed up we all were with his conduct of the war (among other things), do you really believe he wouldn’t have rushed to dump Rumsfeld? Think how differently the election would have gone if he had. People would have taken it as a sign of hope that things were going to change, and that maybe the Republicans aren’t such bad fellows after all. And they would have softened on throwing the bastards out.
He blew it but he wasn’t lying then, he’s lying now.
That’s my take. So what do you think?
First Mehlman, Next Karl Rove?
Somebody measure the drapes in Karl Rove’s office. It didn’t take long for Georgie’s vexation at his party’s sorry showing in the midterm elections to manifest. First Rumsfeld was gone and now Ken Mehlman has gotten the ax. Yes, the Republican National Committee’s chair is outta there at the end of the year.
No one’s pointing a finger at the guy who was really in charge of all the losing strategies. Yes, I’m talking about Turd Blossom himself, Karl Rove
And while rumors abound about both men — Mehlman being pretty much known to be gay and Rumsfeld’s head supposedly on the chopping block for at least a week before his “resignation” was “accepted” — no one’s pointing a finger at the guy who was really in charge of all the losing strategies. Yes, I’m talking about Turd Blossom himself, Karl Rove.
Karl has shown the pressure lately. After Florida Governor candidate, now Governor-elect, Charlie Crist failed to attend a rally with the President in his honor just before the election, Karl was feeling it. One moment of Rovian pique was even immortalized by Crist’s campaign workers at a victory party.
…dozens of campaign staff then arrived wearing black T-shirts that said “Ask George LeMieux.”
…Asked [earlier] by CNN why Crist wouldn’t appear with the president at an election eve rally in Pensacola, a miffed Rove snapped that the reporter should ask George LeMieux.
LeMieux was Crist’s campaign manager.
Mehlman was hand-picked and cultivated by Rove, so his failure and subsequent exit can’t be good news for Karl.
A protege of Bush’s top political adviser, Karl Rove, Mehlman became RNC chairman after managing Bush’s re-election campaign in 2004, when the president won re-election and Republicans expanded their majorities in the House and the Senate…Before that campaign, he served as White House political director under Rove.
Bush’s comment to reporters post-election speaks volumes about his current feelings toward the man who more than likely took a fall for Bush in the Valerie Plame affair.
Bush also got in a dig at his trusted top political adviser, Karl Rove. Rove is widely credited with Bush’s presidential victories in 2000 and 2004 and GOP gains in the 2002 congressional elections. As recently as last week, Rove predicted Republicans would retain both House and Senate.
“I obviously was working harder in the campaign than he was,” said Bush…
Ha ha, funny. Unless you’re Karl Rove, and then there’s a big sweat stain spreading under both your arms. People contrast George with his little brother, Jeb, finding the elder sibling more affable, down to earth, etc. (Not me, of course, but people.) Jeb has always made it abundantly clear he’s a conniving, nasty, petulant asshole who will take you out if you cross him. But I think this trait, inherited from Mom’s side of the family, is present in all the offspring.
And Karl Rove should be putting his affairs in order.
USA Today: Bush Quietly Resumes Training of Rightwing Latin American Militaries
Iran-Contra Redux: USA Today reports that on Oct. 2, in the wake of the election of liberal governments throughout Latin America, Pres. Bush lifted a ban on training rightwing militaries from the region:
The 2002 U.S. law bars countries from receiving military aid and training if they refuse to promise immunity from prosecution to U.S. servicemembers who might get hauled before the International Criminal Court. The law allows presidential waivers.
The White House lifted the ban on 21 countries, about half in Latin America or the Caribbean, through a presidential memorandum Oct. 2 to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The training is conducted in the USA.
A ban on giving countries weapons remains. Commercial arms sales are not affected, said Jose Ruiz, a U.S. Southern Command spokesman.
The training ban had resulted in a loss of U.S. influence in the region. The issue gained urgency after a string of leftist candidates came to power in Latin America. Rice said this year on a trip to the region that the impact of the ban had been “the same as shooting ourselves in the foot.”
With the United States strapped down in Iraq, China has moved into Latin America to support the new governments:
[U.S. Southern Command spokesman Jose] Ruiz said China “has approached every country in our area of responsibility” and has exchanged senior military officials with Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Cuba and provided military aid and training to Jamaica and Venezuela.
Rummy: Problem with Iraq War Is Americans Are Too Dumb to Understand It
In the Oval Office yesterday, Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s exit statement to the American people summed up why the Iraq war has become a debacle:
The great respect that I have for your leadership, Mr. President, in this little understood, unfamiliar war, the first war of the 21st century — it is not well-known, it was not well-understood, it is complex for people to comprehend. And I know, with certainty, that over time the contributions you’ve made will be recorded by history.
Sorry, sir, but some of us mere citizens understood from the outset that invading Iraq would open a Pandora’s Box of nasties — the ratcheting up of terrorist activities worldwide, the creation of a 51st American state in the Third World, as well as the insertion of American secular democracy into the one-thousand-year-old-conflict between Islam and Christendom, a long and unwinnable war that has only brought death and destruction to both sides.
With not a smidgeon of military expertise — but perhaps with an insight into world history not shared or that was simply ignored by our betters in Wasington — we saw that once these nasties had been released, there would be no way to put them back in the box.
Why did Rumsfeld, Cheney, Pres. Bush and the others do it? As the president finally admitted during a campaign stop last week, it was always about the oil, stupid. These high rollers took all our chips, placed them on top of the Iraqi oil fields and rolled the dice. It was anything but a sure bet, as we have seen.
Rummy is right about one thing: Pres. Bush’s “contributions… will be recorded by history.” He will be remembered as the Worst President Ever, in large part because he took the United States into a needless and disastrous war under false pretenses.
Impeachment is too good for him.
Bob Gates Was Accused of ‘Shaping Intel’ for Reagan
Former CIA agent Larry Johnson reminds us that Bob Gates, Pres. Bush’s nominee to replace Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, was accused of tailoring intelligence to fit the political agenda of the Reagan Administration:
The press has forgotten that Bob Gates, during his time at CIA, acquired a reputation for trying to tailor intelligence to satisfy political masters in the Reagan White House.
In addition, Bob Gates, a man of enormous intellect and a photographic memory, conveniently forgot salient facts and meetings surrounding the Iran Contra scandal.
The doubts about Gates surfaced during confirmation hearings held in the fall of 1991 to consider his nomination to become the Director of CIA. Ironically, the questions then are still relevant today. Several analysts came out publicly against Gates. These included Melvin Goodman and Harold Ford. Remember Harold Ford? The guy who moved to the Department of State and faced the bullying of John Bolton?
And:
I remember talking to the South African analyst back in 1988, who told me about the time Bob Gates tried to change the lede on an intelligence piece, which argued that Nelson Mandela was NOT a communist. Gates wanted the lede to say that Mandela was a communist. The analyst kicked back hard and ultimately prevailed, but this behavior was consistent with his reputation as a political animal willing to curry favor with the political masters downtown and sacrifice sound analysis.
Gates was also a key figure in the Iran-Contra Scandal. Primarily he is a Bush family factotum.
Sounds like damaged goods to me.
Dobson Quits Haggard Counseling Team
On Tuesday, while the media was focused its Election Day coverage, Rev. James Dobson, one of the leaders of the American homophobe movement, quietly removed himself from the team trying to cure Pastor Ted Haggard of his bisexuality and his drug habit:
“Emotionally and spiritually, I wanted to be of help – but the reality is I don’t have the time to devote to such a critical responsibility,” Dobson said.
The other two members of the team, Pastors Jack Hayford of The Church on the Way in Van Nuys, Calif., and Tommy Barnett of First Assembly of God in Phoenix, declined to comment…
The counseling process, called restoration, could take years, said H.B. London, vice president for church and clergy at Focus on the Family.
Yes, since changing a person’s innate sexual persona is like changing his left-handedness or eye color, it can take a very long time.
AP & NBC: Webb Wins Virginia – Senate Goes to Dems
Keith Olbermann is reporting now that the Associated Press is calling the Viriginia U.S. Senate race in favor of Sen. George Allen’s Democratic opponent, Jim Webb.
5:43 PST UPDATE: Olbermann reported just now that NBC is calling the race for Webb.
Bush Lied to Reporters Last Week When He Said He Would Retain Rumsfeld
Heckuva job, Rummy!
The news that Bush would retain Rumsfeld was not well received by the country’s uniformed personnel — a displeasure that was expressed in editorials that appeared in the military newspapers on Monday, the day before the election, calling for Rumsfeld’s ouster. Those editorials may have cost Republicans some votes in military circles.
In his news conference today, Pres. Bush inadvertently admitted that he lied to reporters last week when he said that he planned to retain Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney through the end of his term:
Q Thank you, Mr. President. Last week you told us that Secretary Rumsfeld will be staying on. Why is the timing right now for this, and how much does it have to do with the election results?
THE PRESIDENT: Right. No, you and [two other reporters] came in the Oval Office, and [one of you] asked me the question one week before the [election], and basically it was, are you going to do something about Rumsfeld and the Vice President? And my answer was, they’re going to stay on. And the reason why is I didn’t want to inject a major decision about this war in the final days of a campaign. And so the only way to answer that question and to get you on to another question was to give you that answer.
In other words, yes, I lied to you and so what? So what if lying to reporters is the same as lying to the American people.
The president continued:
The truth of the matter is, as well — I mean, that’s one reason I gave the answer, but the other reason why is I hadn’t had a chance to visit with Bob Gates yet, and I hadn’t had my final conversation with Don Rumsfeld yet at that point.
Many of us remember a time when the idea of a president admitting during a news conference that he’d lied to the media would have produced excitement and anger among the gaggle on the scene.
Today, however the session continued as if nothing had happened. Three or four reporters lobbed unrelated softballs, apparently oblivous — or apathetic — to the fact that he had just admitted to lying to their colleagues. Finally, someone asked for clarification — and the president, a certified pathological liar who is accustomed to murdering the truth and getting away with it, simply lied about lying:
Q Mr. President, thank you. Can I just start by asking you to clarify, sir, if, in your meeting with Steve and Terry and Dick, did you know at that point —
THE PRESIDENT: I did not.
Q — you would be making a change on Secretary Rumsfeld?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I did not. And the reason I didn’t know is because I hadn’t visited with his replacement — potential replacement.
Q But you knew he would be leaving, just not who would replace him?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I didn’t know that at the time.
And that was it. No follow up. No outrage. Not only did Chris Matthews not spew spittle in outrage, he did not even mention it, probably didn’t even notice.
There are consequences much harsher than the expectoration of pundits. This time — unlike any of the dozens, maybe hundreds of times this president has lied to the American people since 1999 — there was an immediate and unexpected consequence. Bush’s unqualified endorsement of Rumsfeld became a big news story in the run-up to the election that was not received well by the country’s uniformed personnel. Their displeasure was expressed in editorials published in the military newspapers on Monday, the day before the election, that called for Rumsfeld’s ouster.
But just like all the other uncountable lies told by this man since he’s been president, he’s has gotten away with this one, too. The media has moved on. It’s like they simply expect him to lie.
And what about Cheney? The results of the elections yesterday make it even more likely that the lameduck V.P. will be replaced with a GOP heir apparent — the party elders would no doubt like it to be John McCain — sometime before the commencement of election season early next year.
It is notable that Bush included Cheney with Rumsfeld in his “heckuva job.” Perhaps we should expect to hear stories about Cheney’s failing health or his sudden ennui with government soon after the holidays.
