Sunday, January 28, 2007

Quote of the Day (3:55 pm)

Biden: ‘Failed Policy’ Emboldens Enemy

“It’s not the American people or the U.S. Congress who are emboldening the enemy,” said Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., and White House hopeful in 2008. “It’s the failed policy of this president going to war without a strategy, going to war prematurely.”

via David Kurtz at TPM

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As Unexpected As the Sun Rising Tomorrow (3:46 pm)

Wallace: … You’re saying you might vote Republican in 2008.

Lieberman: I am…

Crooks and Liars has the video.

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On the Thirteenth Day of Fitzmas (9:27 am)

Intrigued by the questions about immunity from prosecution, received by upcoming witness Ari Fleischer, Looseheadprop at firedoglake provides a detailed discussion of the different forms of immunity, and the different purposes they serve.

Fitz said he doesn’t have any discovery material to turn over to Team Libby with regard to Ari’s immunity agreement. Team Libby has voiced skepticism. Fitz responded by stating that he has “been at the game long enough to know defense attorneys will say some things so they can learn things they’re not entitled to learn.” In other words, Team Libby’s demand for Ari-related material is a demand for information not relevant to their case, and just because they’re nosy doesn’t mean they have any entitlement. The implication being that such material (if any exists) is relevant to some other as yet unspecified case, information about which Fitz doesn’t want anyone not entitled to know.

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Warner Sees Bush “Surge” As Repeat of Vietnam Failures and Futile Sacrifice of American Lives (12:45 am)

Michael Shear in WaPo reports:

Virginia Sen. John W. Warner’s words betray the guilt he still carries about the Vietnam War and help explain why this pillar of the Republican establishment is leading a bipartisan revolt against the war plans of a president in his own party.

“I regret that I was not more outspoken” during the Vietnam War, the former Navy secretary said in an interview in his Capitol Hill office. “The Army generals would come in, ‘Just send in another five or ten thousand.’ You know, month after month. Another ten or fifteen thousand. They thought they could win it. We kept surging in those years. It didn’t work.”
(…)
More than 30 years after Vietnam, Warner is once again watching as generals propose additional troops. But this time, he’s not staying silent. In a rebuke to President Bush, Warner is leading an effort to have the U.S. Senate declare a lack of confidence in the administration’s plans to send 21,500 additional soldiers into the Iraqi war zone.

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Saturday, January 27, 2007

“Fool Me Once, Shame On — Shame On You. Fool Me — You Can’t Get Fooled Again” (11:37 pm)

September 17, 2002: George Bush

January 28, 2007: David Sanger for the NY Times

As President Bush and his aides calibrate how directly to confront Iran, they are discovering that both their words and their strategy are haunted by the echoes of four years ago — when their warnings of terrorist activity and nuclear ambitions were clearly a prelude to war.
(…)
But as they present their evidence, some Bush administration officials concede they are confronting the bitter legacy of their prewar distortions of the intelligence in Iraq. When speaking under the condition of anonymity, they say the administration’s credibility has been deeply damaged, which would cast doubt on any attempt by Mr. Bush, for example, to back up his claim that Iran’s uranium enrichment program is intended for bomb production.

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Molly Ivins in Hospital (11:12 am)

Via Raw Story, KGBT Channel 4 TV News in Texas reports:

AUSTIN, Texas Liberal Texas newspaper columnist Molly Ivins has been hospitalized in her ongoing battle with breast cancer.
Ivins assistant Betsy Moon says her boss may be able to go home Monday. She adds that those close to Ivins are “not sure what’s going to happen, but she’s very sick.”
(…)
The California-born, Houston-raised journalist got her third cancer diagnosis more than a year ago and has undergone chemotherapy.

update:
E&P has more.

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Anti-War Protest (10:47 am)

Reports on the DC anti-war demonstration from Larry Margasak for AP and Michael E. Ruane for WaPo.

AP has posted a slideshow

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New York Times Editorial Asks “Who exactly is running this White House?” (12:35 am)

The Bait-and-Switch White House

We often wonder whether there is a limit to the Bush administration’s obsession with secrecy, its assault on the rule of law, its disdain for the powers of Congress, its willingness to con the public and its refusal to heed expert advice or recognize facts on the ground. Events of the past week suggest the answer is no.

In his State of the Union speech, Mr. Bush stuck to his ill-conceived plans for Iraq, but at least admitted the situation was dire. He said he wanted to work with Congress and announced a bipartisan council on national security.

That lasted a day. By Wednesday evening, Vice President Dick Cheney was on CNN contradicting most of what Mr. Bush had said. We were left asking, once again, Who exactly is running this White House?

While Mr. Bush has been a bit more forthright lately about how badly things have gone in Iraq, Mr. Cheney spoke of “enormous successes” there and refused to pay even curled-lip service to consulting Congress. Whatever votes Congress takes on Iraq, Mr. Cheney said, “it won’t stop us.”

Whenever the vice president does this sort of thing, and it’s pretty often, Americans are faced with an unpleasant choice: Are Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney running a bait-and-switch operation, or does the vice president simply feel free to cut the ground out from under Mr. Bush?