Day: April 16, 2006

Maybe Rummy Doesn’t Matter

Jon Ponder

If President Bush were to retire Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld, would Rummy’s replacement be any better? Whoever is there is going to have to deal with Vice President Cheney.

Still, the Ostroy Report lays out a convincing bill of particulars against the two-time Secretary of Defense:

Rumsfeld is an arrogant, bullying micromanager who grossly miscalculated strategy in Iraq while ignoring and/or discounting the advice of the military commanders on the ground. Even one of his staunchest supporters, retired Marine Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong, in a NY Times op-ed Sunday, admitted Rumsfeld is a micromanager who wanted to be involved in all decisions. As such, several of his strategic decisions have come under intense scrutiny from the generals. First, Rummy’s “modern war” premise grossly underestimated the level of troops needed despite strong opposition from Gen. Eric Shinseki, who was later booted from his post for stating that hundreds of thousands of soldiers were needed to maintain order post-invasion. Furthermore, it was Rumsfeld who decided to cancel the deployment of the First Cavalry Division, which would’ve bolstered the initial invasion force and helped stave off the mounting insurgency. And perhaps the biggest blunder was Rumsfeld’s unilateral decision to dissolve the Iraqi military without consulting the Joint Chiefs.

Schwarzenegger Supporters Funneled Millions for Ad Through National Group

Jon Ponder

What’s the only thing more annoying than a Christmas ad in July? How about political ads in heavy rotation six months before regular campaigning gets underway.

If you think the barrage of campaign ads that usually starts after Labor Day and escalates until election day is unbearable, then please feel our pain in California. We’ve been assaulted with a feel-good campaign about Gov. Schwarzenegger — whose approval ratings have been down at Bush levels — that ran for months, seemingly on the quarter hour, until last week when they abruptly went dark.

The last of these, titled “Remember?” was designed to soften public sentiment about the governor by comparing him to his predecessor, the inartful Gray Davis. Message: “Arnold may be bad, but at least he’s not as bad as the last guy.”

Because Schwarzenegger’s accomplishments are so few, the ad is short on specifics and long on Reaganesque “Morning in America” symbology. In a key shot, we see him taking the oath of office, projecting pride and reverence for duty. And tellingly, Arnold is seen but not heard throughout.

Sponsored by the U.S. Chamber in Washington, D.C., nominally at least, the ad is categorized as part of an “independent issue advocacy program,” a status which allows the chamber to skirt California election laws that would otherwise require disclosing funding sources and adhering to donation limits.

However, the Los Angeles Times reports today that the funding for the ad allegedly comes from the governor’s closest supporters in California who routed the money through the chamber:

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With Blair Fatigue Sweeping Britain, Tony Ditches Bush on Iran

Jon Ponder

“We will support the diplomatic moves, at best… But we cannot commit our own resources to a military strike.”
— British official

Poodle no more: Like President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has seen his poll numbers drop as the Iraq War and its pretexts have unraveled. In fact, Blair’s approval rating is even lower than the president’s. Just over 30 percent approve of Blair’s job performance, while Bush’s popularity hovers around 37 percent. In one poll, 57 percent agreed that “Blair had run out of steam and is unlikely to achieve anything else as prime minister.” Nearly half said they wanted Blair to resign this year.

Now Blair, whose slavishness as a helpmate to President Bush during the Iraq war earned him the sobriquet “Bush’s poodle,” is deserting the president over his new scheme to rally popularity for himself and his party in the mid-terms by a-bombing some sense into the Iranian mullahs:

Tony Blair has told George Bush that Britain cannot offer military support to any strike on Iran, regardless of whether the move wins the backing of the international community, government sources claimed yesterday…

[In] the midst of international opposition to a pre-emptive strike on Tehran, and Britain’s military commitments around the world, the government maintains it cannot contribute to a military assault. “We will support the diplomatic moves, at best,” a Foreign Office source told Scotland on Sunday. “But we cannot commit our own resources to a military strike.”

Meanwhile, a new report on the Iran crisis has warned that neo-conservatives in the Bush administration are on “collision course” with Tehran.