Year: 2007

GOP Floating Ted Olson, Head of 1990s Anti-Clinton ‘Arkansas Project,’ for AG

Jon Ponder

If Attorney Gen. Alberto Gonzales resigns, we have proposed special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald or former Sen. Fred. Thompson as his replacement. Of course, we weren’t serious.

With all this baggage and a likely confrontation in the Senate, would Pres. Bush nominate Ted Olson for attorney general? The answer is sadly yes.

Now there is word that Republican officials in D.C. are seriously proposing Ted Olson to replace Gonzo. Digby asks, “Is this some kind of a joke?”

Knowing Ted Olson’s history, the answer is sadly no.

During the 1990s, the GOP ran a stealth disinformation campaign against the Clintons, the prototype for Swiftboating, out of the offices of the American Spectator, a rightwing magazine. Internally, the operation was called the Arkansas Project, but Hillary famously referred to it as a “vast rightwing conspiracy.” It was funded by Richard Mellon Scaife and its CEO was Ted Olson.

At the same time, Olson’s wife, Barbara, was one of a cadre of wingnut blondes — the others were Ann Coulter, Kellyann Fitzpatrick and Laura Ingraham — who were given untold hours of face time on cable news to bash the Clintons with rumors and innuendos, much of which was processed through the Arkansas Project. Barbara, the author of a bizarrely nasty screed titled “Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton,” died on the plane that hit the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

[…]

Kucinich to File Articles of Impeachment against Cheney on April 25

Jon Ponder

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio and 2008 presidential candidate, reportedly will introduce articles of impeachment against Vice Pres. Dick Cheney on Wednesday:

Mary Ann Akers reported at her blog, The Sleuth, on Monday that the Congressman had sent a “dear colleague” letter to fellow Members of Congress informing them of his plan to introduce the articles of impeachment against the Vice President. However, he had postponed the plan in the wake of the killing of 32 students, faculty, and staff at Virginia Tech on Monday.

Multiple congressional offices confirmed to RAW STORY that they had received the letter, but none had been apprised of the impeachable offenses with which the Ohio Democrat would charge the Vice President.

Additionally, a spokesman for the House Judiciary Committee, which would receive and consider Kucinich’s charges against the Vice President once they are filed, was not yet aware of them.

Vice President Cheney’s office would not comment to the Cleveland Plain Dealer on the reports about the charges because they had not yet seen the articles.

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.

NRA Lobbyist: “Lock and Load; We’ll Be Back”

Trish

Florida Republicans got sideways yesterday with an old friend, and she’s mad as hell.

Forced to make a virtual Sophie’s choice between the gun and business lobbies — and no doubt influenced by events at Virginia Tech — they defeated the so-called, “Take Your Gun to Work” bill. The law was expected to serve as a model for the rest of the country.

The NRA put the blame for the defeat on “Republican turncoats”

In a rare setback for the powerful gun lobby, a House council on Wednesday soundly defeated a bill that would have allowed employees to bring their guns to work as long as they locked them in their cars or trucks…

Mark Wilson of the Florida Chamber of Commerce said the committee voted to protect “the private property rights” of businesses and residents. He applauded the council members “for voting their consciences under such tremendous pressure.”

…Some lawmakers clearly wanted to avoid the showdown. Rep. Baxter Troutman, R-Winter Haven, asked that the vote be postponed, saying it was “highly inappropriate” following the massacre at Virginia Tech.

Actually, it couldn’t have been more appropriate. But that’s not how past NRA president and chief lobbyist, Marion Hammer, sees it. Floridians recognize Hammer for her place in the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame, where she was installed by none other than former governor Jeb Bush.

In an e-mail to supporters, the NRA put the blame for the defeat on “Republican turncoats.”

“We will not forget these anti-gun, anti-freedom, anti-constitution representatives,” said the message from Hammer, a former NRA president. “Most particularly we will not forget the Republican betrayers — some of whom have to run for re-election in 2008 and some are term-limited out but are planning to run for other offices.”

Actually it was large Florida employers, like Disney, who are more to thank. I can see why a parking lot full of loaded weapons would be unwelcome among the Mickey Mouse ears and strollers. But by all means, Marion, hammer away at those Republicans you don’t see as rabid enough.

She already is.

After the vote, Wilson, of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, tried to shake Hammer’s hand.

“Lock and load,” Hammer said. “We’ll be back.”