Day: April 20, 2007

Reid Got in Bush’s Face on Iraq

Jon Ponder

Harry Reid spoke truth to the boy king, and his royal highness didn’t like it:

[According] to multiple reports Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid compared Iraq to Vietnam at one point in a closed door meeting with Bush. Specifically, Reid suggested that Bush was pursuing a lost cause at the cost of American troops in order to protect his legacy.

Bush’s reaction: He was “visibly angered” says the New York Times; he “bristled” according to the Associated Press. And he “denied this forcefully, after which Mr. Reid touched his arm in a gesture of friendliness,” write the Wall Street Journal.

Could this have been the first time Bush has come face to face with someone willing to confront him so bluntly on the signature issue of his presidency?

Here’s how Reid characterized the contretemps today:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday said the war in Iraq is lost militarily and “can only be won diplomatically, politically and economically” after more than four years of fighting.

“Now I believe, myself, that the secretary of state, the secretary of defense and you have to make your own decision as to what the president knows: that this war is lost, that the surge is not accomplishing anything,” Reid, D-Nev., told reporters.

Repeating remarks he made to President Bush during a meeting of congressional leaders at the White House, Reid said the president is hearing only from people who are backing up his view of the war.

“I know I was the odd guy out yesterday at the White House, but I at least told him what he needs to hear. … I told George Bush what he needs to hear, not what he wants to hear, I did that and my conscience is great,” said Reid, who was one of several lawmakers who met with the president on Wednesday at the White House. Reid added that more people need to tell Bush the same.

Give him hell, Harry.

Bush Did Not Watch Gonzo’s Testimony

Jon Ponder

Why would Pres. Bush bother with watching his attorney general’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee? He doesn’t care what the Senate thinks, including GOP apostates like Arlen Specter, the McCainite Lindsey Graham and now Tom Coburn, the most rightwing member of the body, who challeged Gonzales:

[REPORTER]: Dana, does Attorney General Gonzales’s testimony on Capitol Hill have any bearing whatsoever on his job status?

[WHITE HOUSE SPOKESPERSON DANA PERINO]: As I’ve said many times, the President has full confidence in the Attorney General. The Attorney General looked forward to the hearing that is taking place right now. Of course, the President has not seen any of that testimony. As I told you, he’s had a busy morning, and now we’re on our way to Tipp City, Ohio. And I haven’t seen any of the testimony, either. But clearly, we would hope that there were no preconceived notions, or canned talking points that the senators had in mind before they had this hearing. They said they wanted to get to the facts, and I’m sure that the Attorney General will be fully responsive to their request.

[REPORTER]: So is it fair to say that no matter what the testimony, no matter what the back-and-forth, that the President plans to stick with Attorney General Gonzales?

MS. PERINO: I think — yes. I think the President has full confidence in the Attorney General and whenever that changes for any public servant, we’ll let you know, and I see no indication of that.

There you have it. Even if they had caught Gonzales in a lie, Bush would still support him.

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

I am quite sure that I have no race prejudices, and I think I have no color prejudices or caste prejudices or creed prejudices. Indeed I know it. I can stand any society. All that I care to know is that a man is a human being — that is enough for me; he can’t be any worse.

— Mark Twain

E! Online Reports Bush Drinking and Marriage Troubles Rumors

Jon Ponder

Ted Casablanca, the former gossip columnist for Premiere Magazine who now writes for E! online, is reporting rumors that circulated on supermarket tabloids, at BuzzFlash and here at Pensito Review months ago — Pres. Bush is drinking again and Laura has moved out:

Is there trouble at the White House between Dubya and first lady Laura Bush? I hear someone’s headed for a hotel, could she already be there? Hmmm…

“She’s staying at the Hay-Adams. I don’t know how many people know…but it’s probably not many.”

That’s my Desk DeeCee, hard at busybody work, informing me further of what this column has more than hinted at before: that the U.S. Chief of Grief, George W. Bush, has a wife (by the name of Laura, ‘course) who’s so damn put out by the teetotaling Texan’s return to drinking that she had to get outta the White House. Woo-hoo! That be first-class First Lady dish there, my darlin’ goss[ip] lovers!

“She just couldn’t take it anymore,” whispered a former White House staffer who remains superclose to Miz Bush. “She’s had it.”

…Oh, for the official record, neither the president’s press office nor the president’s wife’s press office would comment. Which I find damn insulting, as I help pay those persnickety peep’s salaries!

I’m still a bit wombly from the Gonzales testimony drinking game yesterday and the cutesiness of the writing is quasi sick-making. So Ted Casablanca ain’t Liz Smith, but E! Entertainment is owned by cableco Comcast, which gives the rumor a little more legitmacy than the tabs do.

Update: (4-25-07) Laura Bush appeared on the Today Show this morning but Ann Curry did not ask about these rumors. It is impossible to imagine that had Curry been interviewing First Lady Hillary Clinton 10 years ago, she would have failed to ask about stories in the tabloids. Laura did misspeak egregiously, however, when she said about Iraq, “no one suffers more than [the] president and I.” The media has one standard for Republicans and another, much lower standard for Democrats.