Tag: Scandals

Republicans Form Circular Firing Squad over Ports Deal

Jon Ponder

Ready. Fire! Aim: Bush worshipers are already trying to make opposition to the president’s deal to allow the sale of major East Coast ports to his crony, the Emir of Dubai who owns Dubai Ports World, a Democrats versus Dear Leader fight.

But the opposition to the sale is dominated by Republicans, including:

  • Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who sent an email to supporters yesterday that said, “As of today, I’m requesting briefings on this deal. If the Administration does not put the deal on hold, I will introduce legislation doing so … to ensure that this decision gets a more thorough review. Common sense warrants it; our national security requires it.”
  • House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who said, “We must not allow the possibility of compromising our national security due to lack of review or oversight by the federal government.”
  • Gov. George Pataki of New York
  • Gov. Robert Erlich of Maryland
  • Senators Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Richard Shelby of Alabama and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina
  • Members of the House including Homeland Security chairman Peter King of New York, Mark Foley of Florida and Vito Fosella of New York

It was not a Democrat but Sen. Graham who said,”It’s unbelievably tone deaf politically at this point in our history. Most Americans are scratching their heads, wondering why this company from this region now?”

Ports Controversy Coverage Trumps Ohio Terror Arrests

Jon Ponder

The political firestorm about the plan to sell U.S. ports to an Arab country shoved this story off the list of top headlines:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says an alleged plot uncovered in Ohio is “a reminder of the need for continued vigilance in the war on terrorism.”

A federal indictment charges three men who lived in Toledo in a plot to kill Americans and allies in Iraq.

One of the men, who carries joint U-S and Jordanian citizenship, has pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges. He also pleaded not guilty in a federal court in Cleveland Tuesday to charges of threatening President Bush.

The other two men are being arraigned in Toledo. The five-count indictment says the suspects recruited people as early as November 2004 to train to wage a holy war against the U-S and its allies in Iraq.

Bush Compares UAE to ‘Great British’

Jon Ponder

“I want those who are questioning [the president’s plan to allow the sale of major U.S. ports to the government of the United Arab Emerits] to step up and explain why all of a sudden a Middle Eastern company is held to a different standard than a Great British company. I’m trying to conduct foreign policy now by saying to people of the world, we’ll treat you fairly. And after careful scrutiny, we believe this deal is a legitimate deal that will not jeopardize the security of the country, and at the same time, send that signal that we’re willing to treat people fairly.”

— President George W. Bush

Cheney Could Have Been Charged with Criminal Negligence

Jon Ponder

Cover-up in plain sight: On MSNBC’s Countdown Friday night, Keith Olbermann interviewed Texas defense attorney Charles Parnham who finally said what everyone watching the coverage of Vice President Dick Cheney’s hunting accident has been thinking:

People who cause accidents because of their imprudent behavior are charged with criminal negligence every day. Even in Texas.

People whose imprudent behavior causes accidents are charged with criminal negligence every day, even in Texas, Parnham said, in so many words. (Transcript here.)

Viewed from the perspective that Cheney was indeed endeavoring to cover up a crime after he shot Harry Whittington last week, his actions — waiting a day to call local authorities in investigate, not notifying the press, etc. — cease to be confusing.

In fact, if you look at the sequence of events after the shooting, every action taken or avoided by the vice president, his hostess Katherine Armstrong and the hunting party appears to have been part of a deliberate effort to avoid future scrutiny:

[…]

Fox Does Soviet-Style Cleansing of Cheney’s Admission That He’d Been Drinking

Jon Ponder

Breshnevian: In the Fox News broadcast yesterday of lead anchor Brit Hume’s interview with Vice President Cheney about his hunting accident, Hume revealed that Cheney said he had “one beer” a few hours before he shot Harry Whittington.

But as Media Matters discovered, Fox did not include the actual video of Cheney making the admission in the broadcast.

What a big wet kiss to the vice president from this “news” channel. That sound bite would have been everywhere had they left it in — but now it has been scrubbed, Soviet-style.

Maybe Keith Olbermann can do a “Cheney Interview Puppet Theatre” re-enactment based on this transcript from the White House:

[…]

Cheney Admits to Having ‘a Beer’ Before Shooting Whittington

Jon Ponder

Just saw ultra rightwing newsreader Brit Hume on Fox previewing his interview with the vice president about the hunting accident in which Cheney shot fellow hunter Harry Whittington. Hume says Cheney said he had one beer with lunch.

For all we know, Cheney could have had a twelve pack of Bud tall boys in him when he pulled the trigger.

Supposedly, the shooting happened around 5:30 p.m. so he wasn’t feeling the effects of the alcohol.

Hume — who resembles Herman Munster more each day — also growled that only “Bush and Cheney haters” are saying the vice president was drunk when he shot Whittington.

Hume added that there was no evidence Cheney was drunk — ignoring the fact that there is no evidence because the vice president waited until the next morning to allow himself to be interviewed by a local sheriff, at which point there was no point in administering a blood alcohol test. So for all we know, Cheney could have had a twelve pack of Bud tall boys in him when he pulled the trigger.

Generally it is illegal to use firearms while drinking, althoughTexas may be different.

New Orleans — And Even Brown? — Tell the Truth About Katrina

Trish

Gotta love the people of New Orleans as they put on Mardis Gras.

Brown: “Had there been a report coming out . . . that said, ‘Yes, we’ve confirmed that a terrorist has blown up the 17th Street Canal levee,’ then everybody would have jumped all over that

This year’s parade theme was C’est Levee, a pun on the French expression c’est la vie , or that’s life.

Floats and props built for the Saturday evening parade in the French Quarter included hand-pulled carts elaborately decorated with blue tarps, fake broken levees, cardboard travel trailers and effigies of Mayor C. Ray Nagin (D) and Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D).

One display asked France to buy Louisiana back, suggesting that the state might get better treatment from the French than it has from the U.S. government.

Indeed. As PR editor Jon notes, Bush Etc. didn’t give a crap about the people of New Orleans or the Gulf Coast, except for losing one day of vacation.

And even I had to hand it to Brownie the other day. He did a heckuva job at nailing the feeling at the White House and the Department of Homeland Security.

“Had there been a report coming out . . . that said, ‘Yes, we’ve confirmed that a terrorist has blown up the 17th Street Canal levee,’ then everybody would have jumped all over that and been trying to do everything they could,” Brown said.

But how do you exploit the weather for political gain? True, Bush did use it as a convenient exit strategy to get away from a summer of press coverage of Cindy Sheehan’s fruitless attempts to get him to acknowledge her. But let’s face it, a hurricane doesn’t offer the “talkin’ tough” and fanning-the-flames-of-fear opportunities of a terror attack.

Meanwhile, New Orleans makes the best of it.

The Mid-City parade, scheduled for Feb. 26, will have floats called “New Orleans Culture” — that’s culture as in mold — and “I drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was gone,” a bitter twist on the line from Don McLean’s “American Pie.”

List of Scooter Libby’s “Superiors” is Pretty Short

Trish

Columnist Cragg Hines notes the list of people who might have instructed Scooter Libby to tell members of the press that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent is pretty small.

Libby didn’t have that many “superiors.” Bush, Cheney and, at least organizationally, White House chief of staff Andrew Card.

As emerged in news reports, Libby told a grand jury that “superiors” told him to leak to reporters in June and July 2003 information about Iraq’s weapons capability. Let’s examine this megawatt info…

Libby didn’t have that many “superiors.” Bush, Cheney and, at least organizationally, White House chief of staff Andrew Card.

Or could there be some higher, metaphysical “superiors” being suggested, which would be interesting jurisprudentially if not strategically (unless there’s to be a sudden shift to an insanity plea)?

Hines adds that Bush keeps waffling on his response to the wrongdoing. My own personal theory is that Bush talked tough early on about firing people because he never thought he, Rove, and Cheney would be found out.

In the wake of his indictment, Libby resigned. But Bush’s deputy chief of staff, Karl Rove, who remains under investigation by Fitzgerald, has been shown to have leaked. He’s still firmly ensconced in the White House.

That, in part at least, is because Bush last summer moved the goal posts for what it takes to get the heave-ho.

“If someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration,” Bush said.

As I’ve noted before, that’s a lousy benchmark for someone who, as Bush did repeatedly in the 2000 campaign, swore he would uphold the “honor and dignity” of the White House.

Under Bush’s sliding standard of leaking as a firing offense, as long as Rove remains unindicted, he apparently can hang around.

Now we have Libby reaching for Cheney’s throat — at least as a pretrial tactic.

My problem is that I don’t believe that even if Bush fired Rove publicly that he would quit taking orders from him privately. Bush, who isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, needs Rove behind the scenes to think of…stuff. He’ll find a way to keep him on a payroll somewhere, and keep pulling the strings in the White House.

‘Outrage Fatigue’ Pandemic Strikes Non-Republicans

Trish

Big ups to Pensito Review reader Stephen K. for a phrase that perfectly sums up our reaction to the overwhelming, stupefying, dazing amount of corruption and naked power plays put forth by Republicans:

“Outrage fatigue.”

Thanks, Stephen, you said it so well. Now I’m just going to lie down and rest with a cold compress for a little while.