Friday, July 15, 2005

After Rove

There are people who are hoping that the Plame leak investigation will lead to an indictment in the Bush administration, and are also hoping that the indictment will be addressed to Karl Rove.

I am one of those people.

But I am also hoping for more than that. I am hoping that a Rove indictment leads to more questions of this administration. Questions like, why was it so important to blow Plame's cover?

Why was it so important to attack Wilson and what he was saying?

The answer to that one is politics. Wilson was criticizing the President, and any effort to knock Wilson down and cloud the issue would have been seen as necessary and acceptable.

In addition, Wilson claimed that one of the reasons that Bush cited for waging war on Iraq was bogus. Challenging one reason could lead to more challenges, which could have hurt the desired strategy of Bush running for a second term as a confident, successful war president.

So, in the event of a Rove indictment, can the next question be, what were those reasons for using the military in Iraq again?

Why has no one been held to account for the public claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction?

Why were there no other options than attack and invade?

How do we improve the situation in Iraq, now that we have forcefully and tragically established that there was no threat from that country?

Get Rove out of the way, and let Bush face those other questions on his own.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Something is stinky

Howard Kurtz helps to spread some Hinderaker dogshit around.

"In all of the liberal huffing and puffing over the supposed 'outing' of
Valerie Plame--as though she might be in danger as she drove to and from her desk job in Langley, and as though she hadn't posed for a photo shoot in Vanity Fair, dressed up as a spy--
[snip]

"Dressed up as a spy," OK, I remember something about the Vanity Fair pictures. BUT THEY DID THAT AFTER ROVE AND NOVAK OUTED HER. Taking a true event and using it out of context, nice work, doggy, you get a junior-Rove snack! Woof woof!

Torture, American style

Link:

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) called the Guantanamo abuse relatively "minor incidents" that should not be a matter of national interest.


Senator Pat Roberts, torture apologist. Pray for your soul, Senator.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Credibility

At today's White House press briefing, spokesweasel McClellan was asked about the WH's credibility.

Q Does the White House have a credibility problem?

MR. McCLELLAN: Ed, these are all questions that you're bringing up in the context of an investigation that is ongoing --

Q I'm not asking about that.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, it's clear that this is coming up in the context of news --

Q We could talk about WMDs, a whole range of issues.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- in the context of news reports. And I appreciate those questions. And I think you're trying to get at the specific news reports and wanting me to comment on those specific news reports and --


and more nonsense in lieu of an answer. But, reading down the transcript, I thought this question and response would be more helpful regarding the WH's credibility.

Q Scott, the President has said that invading Iraq has made the world safer. But the government's own terrorism statistics show a dramatic increase in the number of international terrorist attacks since the invasion. And the London bombings have demonstrated that the flypaper theory was just a theory. Can you explain the disconnect between the administration's rhetoric on this issue and the reality on the ground?

MR. McCLELLAN: First of all, the terrorism incidents that you bring up -- last week there was a report released by the National Counterterrorism Center, and they explained how they have developed a new methodology to better track terrorist attacks across the world. So your characterization leaves the wrong impression for people who might be watching this briefing, and I would dispute that pretty strongly.


Here is how someone might have gotten the wrong impression about that terror report. And it should be helpful as to judging their credibility.

link