Day: September 30, 2005

Rightwingers Threaten Civil War over DeLay’s Indictment

Jon Ponder

Threat from the Right

[With the indictment of Republican former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, we] have now left entirely the field of normal political conflict and entered a twilight world where fantasy is presented as fact and the only standard of conduct is “will it work?” This is not the actions [sic] of a political Party engaged in seeking a majority – it is the action of a Party determined to destroy its opponents entirely and sieze all power for itself…it is, in short, the stuff from which civil wars are made…

I really do urge our Democrats to step back from the edge – you are sitting in a lake of gasoline and you are playing with fire. We on our side will only put up with so much before we start to pay back with usury what we have received. If you can’t defeat Tom Delay in the electoral field, then you will simply have to accept him as Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives – and you’d better start accepting political reality before things get really bad.

— Mark Noonan at Blogs for Bush

Answer from the Left

Welcome to the world of the politics of personal destruction, you tubthumping, chin-jutting, Bush humping gits. Welcome to the nasty and partisan world that Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Hugh Hewitt, Grover Norquist, Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, and a legion of insignificant lowest-rung toadies like yourselves nurtured into fruition daily with eager, grubby hands, and now look upon with dull-faced faux horror.

I know you hate me, and anyone else who dares disturb the thin strands of alternate reality in which George W. Bush is an intellectual giant, Saddam really was responsible for 9/11, the economy is getting better by the minute, and we capture the most very important members of al Qaeda on a weekly basis.

But here’s some advice. You’d better start hating me more. This is the world you forged and, unfortunately for you, I’m beginning to take a fancy for it. Welcome to the politics of your own party, finally sprouting from the ground on which you planted the seeds and shat upon them.

Step back from the edge? You poor boy, asleep in the back of the car the whole trip, finally waking up and wondering where you’re at.

Swift boats. Aluminum tubes. Niger uranium. “Mushroom clouds”. Whitewater.

Vince Fucking Foster.

You can’t even see the edge from here. You left it behind a hundred miles back.

So don’t give me chest-thumping crap about civil wars, if your politicians are indicted. Don’t give me visions of a lake of fire, if all those who find you loathsome refuse to suck at your teats of scientific ignorance in the name of religion, racism in the name of freedom, and corruption in the name of the New World Order.

Get used to the world you have created, and the stench your worshipped heroes have unleashed.

— Hunter at DailyKos

DeLay Accuses Dems of Conspiring with Texas D.A.

Jon Ponder

Smear ‘N Spin: Indicted Republican Congressman TomDeLay accused top Democrats in Washington of conspiring with Travis County, Texas, District Attorney Ronnie Earle to snare him using what he indicates are trumped up charges that he consipred to launder campaign donations.

By accusing Pelosi of consipiring against him, DeLay is tossing red meat to Rush, Hannity, O’Reilly and their armies of Dittoheads.

The conspiracy charges from the former Majority Leader may come off as wild-eyed and paranoic but are in reality a clever ploy to distract attention from himself by smearing his opponents – who, of course, had nothing whatever to do with his own malfeasance. Essentially what DeLay is attempting to do is to throw red meat out to Rush, Hannity and O’Reilly to give the Dittoheads an alternate storyline to run with.

Think Progress has the video clip – here is the transcript:

[…]

Libby’s Lawyer Denies Giving Judy Jail Pass

Jon Ponder

It is unclear this morning what led up to New York Times reporter Judith Miller’s release from prison yesterday. Most observers assumed that she had finally gotten a release from the confidential source she went to jail to protect – and early word had it that the release came from Vice President Cheney’s consigliere, Scooter Libby.

But in today’s Washington Post, Libby’s lawyer gave a different response – “Who? Us?”

Joseph Tate, an attorney for Libby, said yesterday that he told Miller attorney Floyd Abrams a year ago that Libby’s waiver was voluntary and that Miller was free to testify. He said last night that he was contacted by [Miller’s attorney Bob] Bennett several weeks ago, and was surprised to learn that Miller had not accepted that representation as authorization to speak with prosecutors.

“We told her lawyers it was not coerced,” Tate said. “We are surprised to learn we had anything to do with her incarceration.”

Tate said that he and Bennett then asked Fitzgerald whether their clients could talk without fear of being accused of obstructing the investigation, and were assured that Fitzgerald would not oppose them doing so. After the phone call from Libby on Sept. 19 or 20, Tate said, the lawyers wrote a letter to Fitzgerald indicating Miller accepted Libby’s representation that the waiver was voluntary.

Maybe Judy just got tired of jail. She’s scheduled to testify before the Grand Jury looking into the Bush CIA Leak today.