Day: May 27, 2008

Iran: Bush’s Nuclear Option for a McCain Victory

Trish

I have been harboring a fear this election cycle. I’ve been worried that Bush/Cheney would not sit idly by and allow Democrats to take the White House. There are too many bodies in shallow graves under the lawn and in the rose garden, too fresh and ready for discovery: almost anything to do with Karl Rove, what really happened in Cheney’s energy summit, what gay male prostitute “Jeff Gannon” was really doing with high-level clearance, how many times Jack Abramoff really had private visits with Bush, why we are really in Iraq, and so much more.

The Republicans and the Neocons can’t let Democrats shine lights on all these closely held secrets because it would literally be the destruction of their party and their ideology.

When Senate Republicans threatened to use the “nuclear option” to get around Democratic denials of Bush judicial appointments in 2005, the term meant using a strategy from which there was no turning back. For many months now, the Bush administration has been beating the drums of war with Iran in exactly the same rhythm as it did before invading Iraq but we have chosen to ignore the sound and turn our attention to who will replace Bush, the price of gas, and the ruined housing market. Now it looks like a plan to launch a pre-emptive strike is at hand.

My fear, which appears to be coming true, has been that they will commit us to another war before they go, thereby ensuring the shaken and timorous electorate chooses not to change horses.

The George W Bush administration plans to launch an air strike against Iran within the next two months, an informed source tells Asia Times Online, echoing other reports that have surfaced in the media in the United States recently.

…The source, a retired US career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community, speaking anonymously, said last week that that the US plans an air strike against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The air strike would target the headquarters of the IRGC’s elite Quds force.

…The source said the White House views the proposed air strike as a limited action to punish Iran for its involvement in Iraq. The source, an ambassador during the administration of president H W Bush, did not provide details on the types of weapons to be used in the attack, nor on the precise stage of planning at this time. It is not known whether the White House has already consulted with allies about the air strike, or if it plans to do so.

The Kyl-Lieberman Amendment passed last September, named for the other senator from Arizona and everyone’s favorite independent Democrat. The amendment declared the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, and was meant as a clear signal to Bush that he could proceed with any strategy he saw fit.

Sen. Hillary Clinton voted for the amendment, breaking ranks with many non-independent Democrats voting against it, including Joe Biden, Barbara Boxer, Robert Byrd, Christopher Dodd, Russ Feingold, Thomas Harkin, Daniel Inouye, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Patrick Leahy, Claire McCaskill, and Jim Webb, as well as Republicans Chuck Hagel and Richard Lugar. Neither John McCain nor Barack Obama was present for the vote, although McCain has made his intention to go to war with Iran clear numerous times.

Senators and the Bush administration denied the resolution and terrorist declaration were preludes to an attack on Iran. However, attacking Iran rarely seems far from some American leaders’ minds. Arizona senator and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain recast the classic Beach Boys tune Barbara Ann as “Bomb Iran”. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton promised “total obliteration” for Iran if it attacked Israel.

We found out in 2004 that the Bush administration was willing to scare us into voting for them by exploiting bogus elevated terror threat levels and serendipitously timed videos from Osama bin Laden. My fear, which appears to be coming true, has been that they will commit us to another war before they go, thereby ensuring the shaken and timorous electorate chooses not to change horses. Suddenly, being John McSame would be an advantage.

Clinton in ’92: Was Putative Winner in March But Not Presumptive Nominee Until June

Jon Ponder

We were discussing this around the Pensito Review virtual water cooler over the weekend. Here’s the AP’s take:
After nearly a month of intense campaigning and multiple debates between the two candidates, Clinton managed to defeat Brown in the June 1992 California primary by a margin of 48 percent to 41 percent.

Hillary Rodham Clinton often says her husband wrapped up the Democratic presidential nomination in June 1992 in defending her decision to press ahead until the last primary votes.

Sixteen years ago, six contests in June did give Bill Clinton the necessary delegates for the nomination, but he had essentially won the nomination in March 1992…

THE SPIN:

Responding to a question on Friday from the Sioux Falls Argus Leader editorial board about calls for her to drop out, Clinton said: “My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right?”

The former first lady has used the argument before.

In a March interview with Time magazine, she said: “Primary contests used to last a lot longer. We all remember the great tragedy of Bobby Kennedy being assassinated in June in L.A. My husband didn’t wrap up the nomination in 1992 until June, also in California. Having a primary contest go through June is nothing particularly unusual.”

She also made the claim at a campaign stop in Houston on March 4, the same day as the Texas and Ohio primaries. “My husband didn’t get the nomination wrapped up until June (in 1992). That has been the tradition,” she said.

THE FACTS

While Bill Clinton did not effectively clinch the nomination until the June 2 primaries in 1992, he had held a commanding lead over his Democratic challenger Jerry Brown since his March 17 wins in Illinois and Michigan.

Clinton’s closest rival, Paul Tsongas, left the race two days after Clinton’s Midwest victories. Brown stayed in despite trailing Clinton by more than 800 delegates.

Shortly after, Democratic leaders had all but declared Bill Clinton their contender for the fall election. Clinton was so far ahead, that Paul Tully, the Democratic Party political director at the time, told The Associated Press in a March 19, 1992 article: “The fat lady is doing a sound check.”

Clinton was just 86 delegates short of the majority coming into the six-state primary finale in June that included California. He surpassed that amount to wrap up a nominating process that started with the Iowa caucus on Feb. 10.

This year’s contests began much earlier than previous election years.

What has changed is that the California primary has been moved from June to February. So while there was a time when sticking it out until June could have reversed a campaign’s fortunes by winning a big chunk of the state’s humongous delegate count, that day is over.

It’s spin to cover the real reason she is keeping her campaign going, which may be to rack up impressive metrics for a 2012 run if Obama falters in November.

The Wikipedia entry for former California Gov. Jerry Brown offers background on why Bill Clinton had to wait until June 1992 to be declared the presumptive nominee:

[…]

Video: A Compilation of Sexist Comments about Hillary Clinton in the MSM

Jon Ponder

Imagine the conniptions we’d all be having if the Fox Newsers and Chris Matthews were making the same snide remarks about Barack Obama’s ethnicity.

But it is not true that all criticism of Hillary Clinton comes from sexism. Unlike the producers of the video, I haven’t found Keith Olbermann’s scathing critiques of Clinton to be over the line. He and others have found plenty to disparage about the campaign that has nothing to do with the fact that she is a woman.

Similarly, Obama has made missteps — the “bitter” remark and purportedly saying he would negotiate with terror states without preconditions (he didn’t say it that way, but GOP 527s will say he did) — that will likely cause big problems for the campaign this fall. It is fair to point out these missteps because they have nothing to do with Obama’s genetic heritage.

Charlie Crist Sex Tape Surfaces at Magical Time

Trish
A ladies’ man?

If you’re like most Floridians, when you hear the words, “Charlie Crist” and “sex tape,” you immediately expect to see a little hombre en hombre action. You’d be wrong, at least for now.

As Politics1 points out, however, the timing of the supposed PG (as opposed to the racier PG-13) rated video is highly suspect. Charlie just wrapped up a weekend with John McCain and his other vice presidential contestants at Cindy’s ranch in Arizona.

I can picture the conversation:

McCain: I’d really like to pick you, Charlie, since you’ve raised a buttload of dinero for me, and there’s a teeny, tiny chance you could deliver me Florida, but I’m worried because you’re so gay.

Charlie: I’ve stayed in the closet this long, John. I sure ain’t coming out now.

McCain: But people talk…

Charlie: Hmmmm. Let me call Roger Stone and my current beard, Carole Rome.

McCain: O.K., get back to me on it.

Here’s the Politics1 version:

Politics1 Exclusive. How interested is Florida Governor Charlie Crist in being John McCain’s VP running mate? So much so that veteran GOP dirty trickster Roger Stone — who coordinated a few dirty stunts in support of Crist during the 2006 gubernatorial campaign — is quietly peddling a so-called “Charlie Crist sex tape.” That’s what Stone called it during a telephone conversation.

Stone claims the tape, which he is saving for the national shows, “shows Charlie fooling around in a hotel elevator with his girlfriend. They’re making out.”

…The video was seemingly staged to kill the rumors that Crist is gay. Stone claims the tape — which he discussed recently with Politics1, but didn’t show to us (“I’m saving it for the national shows”) — “shows Charlie fooling around in a hotel elevator with his girlfriend…They’re making out.” Adds Stone: “It was captured on a security camera in the elevator” last month. And Stone just conveniently happens to have a copy of the hotel’s elevator surveillance tape, just when Crist’s name is in play for the VP spot. Hmm. As for Crist’s purported girlfriend — presuming it is the same one he took as his date to the White House Correspondents Dinner in DC a few weeks ago — she’s still married (and not to Crist). Disclaimer: Always be skeptical of anything from Stone.

If Carole is not technically divorced from Todd Rome, the CEO of Bluestar Jets, she soon will be. The couple separated last summer and he is already engaged himself. The Romes were reported to have split because of Carole’s profligate spending, until as the New York Post put it, Todd “realized ‘he could no longer afford his wife’s spending habits…and put a cap on her bank account.'”

Why does thinking about Charlie and Carole make me flash on a picture of Karen and Jack from Will and Grace?

Libertarians Nominate Bob Barr, Thrice-Married Author of Defense of Marriage Act

Jon Ponder

At their convention on Sunday, Libertarians nominated former Georgia Rep. Bob Barr as their presidential nominee for 2008. Today, Rep. Ron Paul may be the most famous former Libertarian Party candidate, but Barr — who rose to national notoriety as one of the loudest-mouths of the Clinton impeachment prosecutors in the House — is hands down the best known candidate ever nominated by the party.
“As a Republican candidate for the House in 1994, he rose to national attention when reports alleged that he had licked whipped cream off the breasts of two women at a charity event.”
— Milbank
And this appears to be the point. Buoyed by the relative success of the Ron Paul campaign, the LP has nominated Barr to draw attention to its cause: minimal government and personal liberty. From Barr’s candidacy, they may well get the publicity they seek, but at what cost?

Barr’s record before his conversion in the Bush era is anything but libertarian. In particular, he has been a relentless advocate of using the government to enforce a fundamentalist rightwing morals agenda, even though his own personal behavior has been anything but upright. as WaPo’s Dana Milbank pointed out earlier this month:

As a Republican candidate for the House in 1994, he rose to national attention when reports alleged that he had licked whipped cream off the breasts of two women at a charity event.

As a congressman from Georgia, the thrice-married Barr returned attention to the whipped-cream episode when, speaking in support of the Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA], he argued that “the flames of self-centered morality are licking at the very foundations of our society.”

As one of the managers of Bill Clinton’s impeachment, Barr gained enough prominence to attempt a run for the Senate in 2002. But that effort fell apart at about the time Barr accidentally fired a .38-caliber pistol through a glass door at a fundraising reception.

As an elder statesmen, Barr returned to the public eye when, appearing in the film “Borat,” he made a pinched expression after being told that the cheese he had just sampled came from a woman’s breast milk.

Milbank soft-pedals Barr’s involvement in DOMA. He didn’t just speak out in favor of it, he was one of the authors of the egregious law that Republicans successfully floated as an effort to create a wedge between Pres. Clinton and his legions of gay supporters in the 1996 presidential campaign.

The passage of DOMA was one of the sorriest episodes of the Clinton years. It was marshaled through the House by then-Speaker Newt Gingrich — who was engaged in an extra-marital affair at the time, and championed in the Senate by then-Majority Leader Bob Dole, who left his first wife for a stewardess — and finally signed into law by Pres. Clinton, who was also concurrently boinking “that woman,” Monica Lewinsky.

In general, no one outside the gay community was bothered over-much by all his mendacity and sexual hypocrisy. But what should raise everyone’s hackles is the fact that Barr says he is running for president, in part, to right the wrongs of the Bush administration.

In 1997, two years before the actual impeachment of Pres. Clinton, Barr introduced HR304, a resolution calling for an Inquiry of Impeachment — a move prompted, he said, after an appearance on Oct. 15, 1997, before the House Judiciary Committee by Attorney General Janet Reno, when “[it] became patently obvious that the Department of Justice was not going to move on any of these allegations [against the Clinton administration] in any serious way.”

For this early effort, Barr was given a leading spot in the real impeachment in 1998, which led to the weakening of the Democratic Party — which was the true purpose of the impeachment — which, in turn, paved the way for the election of George Bush, whose attorneys general have persistently turned a blind eye toward Bush’s malfeasance and that the widespread criminality within his administration.

Liberals can only hope that Ron Paul’s supporters and others will vote for Barr in November in sufficient numbers to take the election away from John McCain in a close race, the way Ralph Nader handed the election to Bush in Florida in the 2000 campaign.