Day: November 28, 2005

Bush: ‘God Put Me Here’

Jon Ponder

Delusional: The president’s religiosity is over the top:

“He doesn’t feel any pain. Bush is a believer in the adage ‘People may suffer and die, but the Church advances.’ ”

Bush’s closest advisers have long been aware of the religious nature of his policy commitments. In recent interviews, one former senior official, who served in Bush’s first term, spoke extensively about the connection between the President’s religious faith and his view of the war in Iraq. After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the former official said, he was told that Bush felt that “God put me here” to deal with the war on terror. The President’s belief was fortified by the Republican sweep in the 2002 congressional elections; Bush saw the victory as a purposeful message from God that “he’s the man,” the former official said. Publicly, Bush depicted his reëlection as a referendum on the war; privately, he spoke of it as another manifestation of divine purpose.

The deaths of American soldiers and innocent Iraqi children mean nothing to Mr. Bush, who sees these losses as part of God’s plan:

“The President is more determined than ever to stay the course,” the former defense official said. “He doesn’t feel any pain. Bush is a believer in the adage ‘People may suffer and die, but the Church advances.’ ” He said that the President had become more detached, leaving more issues to Karl Rove and Vice-President Cheney. “They keep him in the gray world of religious idealism, where he wants to be anyway,” the former defense official said.

Don’t worry. Jesus is in his head, talking to him, telling him what to do:

Current and former military and intelligence officials have told me that the President remains convinced that it is his personal mission to bring democracy to Iraq, and that he is impervious to political pressure, even from fellow Republicans. They also say that he disparages any information that conflicts with his view of how the war is proceeding.

Japanese Virologist: China Is Lying About Bird Flu Deaths

Buck Banks

Dr. Masato Tashiro, a Japanese World Health Organization consultant, believes that China has had 300 human deaths from avian influenza and is hiding the true extent of the disease from the rest of the world. Masato, Director of the WHO Collaborating Center on Influenza at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, and head of the Department of Virology of the National Institute of Infectious Disease (Japan), astonished colleagues with this information during a speech at a recent retirement dinner for a fellow virologist, Hans-Dieter Klenk.

Having just returned from the Hunan province of China on behalf of WHO, Masato claimed that a reliable source had provided him with details of the true nature of the H5N1 virus in China. “We are systematically deceived,” he is reported to have said.

Masato visited China on behalf of WHO in Hunan province. His laboratory, at the National Institute for Infection Research in Tokyo is one of the Asian points of contact for the United Nations and had been particularly entrusted with investigations into avian influenza in Asia and China. Masato gave his lecture in the University of Marburg Clinic before some the leading virologists in the world and shocked the meeting with his unauthorized [and unsubstantiated] report from inside China.

The Japanese virologist said he believes in the reliability of the source and its data. The secrecy of the Peking government is causing concern — as it was at the beginning of the SARS epidemic disease — noted Masato. At least five medical co-workers who should be reporting on the situation in the provinces were arrested, and other researchers were threatened with punishment if they released the information, Masato said.

Duke Goes Down — Another Corrupt Repug Bites the Dust

Buck Banks

Dirty dealings: Decorated Vietnam vet and U.S. Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham, took a plea deal and resigned his seat at his trial on corruption charges today, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. In return for bribes to the tune of $2.4 million, Cunningham, an eight-term Republican representative from Southern California, steered Pentagon contracts toward a defense contractor.

Oh yeah, he also cheated on his taxes. But at least he cried at the press conference:

“I misled my friends, family and myself. The truth is, I broke the law and disgraced my office and myself,” Cunningham said after his plea, breaking into tears at a news conference.

“I know I will have to forfeit my freedom…. In my life I have great joy and great sorrow, and now I know great shame,” said Cunningham, a Vietnam War flying ace who won the Navy Cross.

Cunningham pledged to make amends. He said he admitted his fault, apologized and asked for “God’s grace” as he moves forward.

Move on forward, Duke, but please save a place for Tom, Scooter and Bill.

CDC Seeks Stronger Quarantine, Tracking Powers

Buck Banks

Watch out for the cough police: If you thought the Patriot Act put the kibosh on your personal liberties, wait till you see what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are asking the gubmint for. According to Medical News Today, the CDC is asking for the first major changes to its quarantine protocols in more than a quarter century, looking to capture and retain personal information on travelers and beef up its ability to detain those with a runny nose or obvious fever.

Here are some specifics of what the CDC wants:

  • Require airlines and cruise lines to keep electronic records of passengers’ personal information — including detailed contact information and seat location — for at least 60 days.
  • Require airlines and cruise lines to provide that passenger information to CDC within 12 hours of a request.
  • Allow passengers to refuse to give their personal contact information and still be allowed to travel.
  • Require ship and airline captains to report to CDC any deaths or signs of serious illness on board, ideally before arriving at their destination. Existing requirements state only that captains report illnesses and deaths to local health departments.
  • Expand the definition of illness to include respiratory ailments like influenza. Passengers would be considered ill if they had a temperature of 100.4 degrees or greater in addition to rash, swollen lymph nodes, headache with neck stiffness, and changes in levels of consciousness or cognitive function. Diarrhea, a fever that has lasted more than 48 hours, severe bleeding, jaundice, severe persistent cough or respiratory distress also would indicate illness.
  • Allow CDC to detain a sick individual for three business days without a hearing, with an option to extend the quarantine if medical tests confirm the need to do so.
  • Prohibit CDC from forcibly isolating individuals for longer than the amount of time it takes for the suspected illness to no longer be communicable — generally less than a month for most diseases.
  • Clarify the appeals process for individuals who are quarantined to allow for “administrative due process.”
  • Give health officials explicit authority to offer vaccination, drugs and other appropriate means of prevention on a voluntary basis to those in quarantine.

The proposed changes are expected to cost an estimated $185 million to $865 million annually to implement. The cost to the airline and cruise industries could be as much as $395 million annually.

Katherine Harris Staffers Can’t Get Out Fast Enough

Trish

The average member of Congress holds on to high-level folks for four to five years, but nine months is about all anyone can stand with Florida U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris. Great job by the Sarasota Herald Tribune, which uncovered the red flag in the Harris office.

Her turnover rate is so rare it prompted a longtime GOP consultant to describe it as “chewing through staff like an industrial wood chipper.”

In just under three years, U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris has had four chiefs of staff, four district directors and four press secretaries…

Turnover isn’t limited to Harris’ congressional office, either. As she prepares to run against Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, Harris has been hampered by turnover on her campaign staff. Her campaign manager quit last week, after just a few months on the job and not long after she lost a pollster and a campaign finance director earlier this year.

Harris can explain each and every departure, and why each former staffer is unwilling to talk to the media about the experience of working for her.

…Harris said most of the employees have left because they’ve gone on to better jobs. If anything, the turnover shows her staff members are in high demand after gaining experience in a “high-profile” office.

“They always get stolen away,” Harris said.

She also said the Capitol Hill lifestyle — long, unpredictable hours and bad pay — make it hard for her to keep staff.

But her turnover rate is so rare it prompted longtime GOP consultant Rick Wilson to describe it as “chewing through staff like an industrial wood chipper.”

Poor communication and micromanagement seem to be big factors in making Harris the Boss from Hell.

Harris failed to tell her congressional staff that she planned to run for U.S. Senate before she announced it to the media. Some staffers, including her now-former district director Kim Hutchens, called the newspaper to hear about her decision.

She’s also not averse to making her employees redo their work, even after it has been sent out. In October, after a press spokesman released a statement answering questions about her fund-raising totals, Harris required him to send out a revised statement with minor wording changes.

Inside the GOP’s Circular Firing Squad

Jon Ponder

Lott’s spite: A New York Times article yesterday covered former Senate Majority Leade Trent Lott’s mouthing off against his enemies inside the GOP as if they had significance beyond a petty need to exact revenge:

The senator has also thrown darts in the direction of Karl Rove, President Bush’s chief political adviser. With Mr. Bush’s poll ratings dropping, Mr. Lott has said the White House might consider “bringing in some new people” – a jab at Mr. Rove, who helped engineer Mr. Lott’s departure as Republican leader.

The current majority leader, Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, also seems to be in Mr. Lott’s sights. In his book, “Herding Cats: A Life in Politics,” published in August, Mr. Lott wrote that he considered Mr. Frist’s leadership bid in 2002 “a personal betrayal.”

When Mr. Frist pushed for a Congressional inquiry to determine the source of a Washington Post article about secret prisons run by the C.I.A., Mr. Lott complicated matters by suggesting the leak might have come from a Republican.

Some wonder if Mr. Lott’s recent barbs are a preretirement parting shot. Others say he remains deeply bruised from his fall in 2002 and is exacting payback. His close friends, who expect Mr. Lott to make a decision about his future by year’s end, try to dismiss the notion of revenge.

“I wouldn’t say it’s revenge,” said Robert L. Livingston, a Republican from Louisiana who was due to become House speaker in 1998 but left Congress amid revelations of an extramarital affair. “But he has a long memory.”

We suppose it depends on what the definition of “revenge” is.

Abramoff Scandal Could Net a Dozen Members of Congress

Jon Ponder

The sleaze lobby: The investigations into various scandals around GOP former lobbyist Jack Abramoff is entering a new phase:

U.S. News has learned that the conduct of at least a dozen representatives and senators is now being scrutinized by a small army of federal prosecutors and FBI agents. According to sources familiar with the inquiry, a federal task force, which includes investigators from the Interior Department–which has authority to regulate Indian reservations–is examining the relationships between lawmakers and [Abramoff’s former partner Michael] Scanlon and Abramoff. A key question is whether the lawmakers took official actions after receiving campaign contributions, free trips, or other gifts from the lobbyists, the sources say.

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Fitzgerald Calls Another Time Reporter to Testify about Rove

Jon Ponder

Washington Post:

A second Time magazine reporter has agreed to cooperate in the CIA leak case and will testify about her discussions with Karl Rove’s attorney, a sign that prosecutors are still exploring charges against the White House aide.

Viveca Novak, a reporter in Time’s Washington bureau, is cooperating with Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who is investigating the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity in 2003, the magazine reported in its Dec. 5 issue.

Novak specifically has been asked to testify under oath about conversations she had with Rove attorney Robert Luskin starting in May 2004, the magazine reported.

Novak, part of a team tracking the CIA case for Time, has written or contributed to articles in which Luskin characterized the nature of what was said between Rove and Matthew Cooper, the first Time reporter who testified in the case.

For Bush, Iraq War Has Always Been About GOP Politics

Jon Ponder

Bush’s war: From the outset of the Bush team’s “marketing campaign” (their words) promoting the war in Iraq in 2002, cynical types such as yours truly have suspected that going to war in Iraq on the timetable they rammed through the Congress and the Pentagon had everything to do with electing Republicans – including themselves in 2004 – and nothing whatsoever to do with WMD, democracy in the Middle East, fighting terrorism “over there” and the dozens of other reasons they have tested on us for sending American youths to die in Iraq.

I said: ‘Mr. President, I know this is urgent, but why the rush? Why do we have to do this now?’ He looked at Cheney and he looked at me, and there was a half-smile on his face. And he said: ‘We just have to do this now.’ “

Now – at long last, and way too late – the former Democratic Majority Leader of the Senate confirms this suspicion:

Tom Daschle, the former Democratic senator from South Dakota, remembers the exchange vividly.

The time was September 2002. The place was the White House, at a meeting in which President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney pressed congressional leaders for a quick vote on a resolution authorizing military action against Iraq.

But Daschle, who as Senate majority leader controlled the chamber’s schedule, recalled recently that he asked Bush to delay the vote until after the impending midterm election.

“I asked directly if we could delay this so we could depoliticize it. I said: ‘Mr. President, I know this is urgent, but why the rush? Why do we have to do this now?’ He looked at Cheney and he looked at me, and there was a half-smile on his face. And he said: ‘We just have to do this now.'”

Daschle’s account, which White House officials said they could not confirm or deny, highlights a crucial factor that has drawn little attention amid rising controversy over the congressional vote that authorized the war in Iraq. The recent partisan dispute has focused almost entirely on the intelligence information legislators had as they cast their votes. But the debate may have been shaped as much by when Congress voted as by what it knew.

It was obvious in 2002, and it is crystal clear now, that the Bush team – led by their political director, Karl Rove – carefully scheduled the war so that the timetable would work with the schedule of the next two election cycles.

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