Monday’s Mini-Report

August 6, 2007

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* The White House censure resolutions were officially unveiled today: “U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) and U.S. Representative Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) have introduced two censure resolutions in their respective chambers condemning the president, vice president and the attorney general for misconduct regarding our military involvement in Iraq and for their repeated assaults on the rule of law at home. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) is a cosponsor of both Senate censure resolutions and Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is a cosponsor of the Senate censure resolution regarding Iraq. The House resolutions have 19 original cosponsors.”

* Here’s a good one from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington: “Today, CREW filed a complaint with the Department of Justice asking that the Counterespionage Section of the National Security Division initiate an investigation into whether House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-OH) violated the law by leaking classified information…. In a July 31, 2007 interview with Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto, Rep. Boehner disclosed an aspect of a Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court’s decision regarding warrantless wiretapping.”

* NYT: “One part of the Justice Department mess that requires more scrutiny is the growing evidence that the department may have singled out people for criminal prosecution to help Republicans win elections. The House Judiciary Committee has begun investigating several cases that raise serious questions. The panel should determine what role politics played in all of them.”

* Roll Call: “An investigative subcommittee of the House ethics committee unanimously agreed to suspend its two-month-long investigation into indicted Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) after the Justice Department expressed concerns that the panel’s inquiry would interfere with the FBI’s ongoing criminal investigation.”

* LA Times reporter admits that he obsesses over Drudge links: “Every day, journalists and media executives in newsrooms across the land hope they’ll have something that catches Drudge’s fancy — or, as he has put it, ‘raises my whiskers.’ Most keep their fingers crossed that he’ll discover their articles on his own and link to them. Others are more proactive, sending anonymous e-mails or placing calls to him or his behind-the-scenes assistant.”

* McClatchy’s Steven Thomma, explaining how and why the Democratic Party is more liberal now than at any point in a generation, said, “It’s more antiwar than at any time since 1972.” I don’t want to dwell on one nine-word sentence, but I’d quibble with the assertion. I don’t think Dems are anti-war; I think they’re opposed to dumb wars. It’s not a reflexive pacifism.

* The NYT ran an entire column today on the hassles involved with buying a cup of coffee. I don’t know why.

* MSNBC ran an on-air feature today asking, “How hot is too hot for a candidates spouse?” This, after painfully absurd coverage of Hillary Clinton’s cleavage last week.

* As of today, there are now 131 supporters in the House for a repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” That’s actually pretty good.

* Does the White House still have confidence in Maliki? Today, the State Department hedged. Hmm.

* The Huffington Post unveiled a new feature, Fundrace, that makes it easy to see who’s funding the 2008 presidential campaign. Cool.

* Congressional earmarks have dropped from 16,500 in 2005 to 6,500 now. That’s not bad, but apparently new disclosure rules are backfiring.

* White House spokesperson Dana Perino blasted Dems on Fox News for trying to politicize the Minneapolis bridge collapse. She explained, “You know, literally an hour after the bridge collapsed you had Democrats in Congress making such accusations while people are still underwater needing to be rescued. And I think it is reprehensible … And I have to also remind you, when you look at those highway bills and the billions upon billions that American taxpayers are spending, it’s congressional earmarks that take up a lot of that money, and believe me that money is not going to fund maintenance of bridges.” I don’t think she appreciated the irony.

* And finally, Slate stumbled onto what turned out to be the political story of the day: “There’s one vote that Rudy Giuliani definitely can’t count on in his 2008 presidential bid: his own daughter’s. According to the 17-year-old Caroline Giuliani’s Facebook profile, she’s supporting Barack Obama.”

Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.

Thank you Russ. But it’s too little and too late.

  • Boy, I’ll bet that Bush, Cheney and Gonzales are just quaking in their toe shoes over the possibility of a Democratic censure resolution. Eeek!

    Truman said “If you can’t the heat, get out of the kitchen.” By the same token, if you can’t talk impeachment, why bother with anything else? Impeachment, at least, is in the Constitution. Oh, I forgot, nobody cares about the Constitution anyway. It’s so pre-9/11.

  • * Congressional earmarks have dropped from 16,500 in 2005 to 6,500 now. That’s not bad, but apparently new disclosure rules are backfiring.

    I think this turns out to be ultimately a win though, because even if more earmarks are, er, earmarked, the quality of those earmarks are likely to more honest because of the transparency. So better earmarks will result, although they should just be outlawed.

    PS Ed had a little typo. Truman said “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”

  • Re: The censure resolutions,

    I think they;d do better to trade off their fame as Representatives to try to lead social movements against, to stir up political opposition against, misconduct of the war. Of course, passing a resolution is part of this, but it’s a part whose time has not come. They need to lay the groundwork.

  • LA Times reporter admits that he obsesses over Drudge links: “Every day, journalists and media executives in newsrooms across the land hope they’ll have something that catches Drudge’s fancy — or, as he has put it, ‘raises my whiskers.’

    And they wonder why their circ rates are dropping like stones. How depressing. Thanks for balancing that piece out with the snip about Guliani’s daughter.

    And is it just me, or is the thought of raising Drudge’s whiskers rather sick making?

    As of today, there are now 131 supporters in the House for a repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

    Slowly, slowly, the United States catches up with the rest of the damn world.

  • The Senate’d better be ready to answer two questions: What’s the point of censuring the White House for conducting an illegal war you contintue to fund, and an assault on the rule of law in which you are complicit?

  • I was walking through the park today and saw a black man — kind of stocky, broad shoulders — and next thing I know, I’m out $20 bucks.

    I hate it when that happens.

  • Come on Publicus. Feingold is one you can always expect to be on the right side of the issues. Not his fault that his fellow dems are too busy being “sensible” to protect our Constitution.

  • Huffington Post’s “Fundrace” feature (linked above) really is cool, as CB said. I googled some zip codes that I know a bit about, and the results were surprising. Some folks that I would expect to be supporting Republican candidates are actually supporting Democrats, principally Obama.

    What’s going on in your neighborhood?

  • I just think that with an adverse media, toothless censure resolutions and censure resolutions that won’t pass are dork-moves.

    They should be out there in front of the TV cameras and in newpapers op-eds saying again and again how they want to pass something to rein this war in, or make sure the war’s run better, but they can’t because of the Republican opposition. And they should encourage people to get out there and vote and call up their local politics radio show or write their local paper and say something about it. And they should say, that if you want to have an event about the war at your school, such as a teach-in, or an event with your local union or in your workplace or municipality, they’ll bring a contingent of Reps. and Senators and show up, and they’ll have their people call up your local gvt. people and ask them to show up.

  • Any chance that Feingold will bring a censure resolution against the spineless Democratic leadership for rolling over on the FISA vote and giving up our civil rights?

  • Excellent piece from McClatchy today: A veteran general hears echoes from Vietnam in Iraq (http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20070806/wl_mcclatchy/20070806bcusiraqgeneral_attn_national_oped_editors_ytop_1)

    Speaking of Vietnam, if you haven’t yet checked it out yet, I highly recommend the documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon on DVD. It is a powerful film chronicling John Lennon’s involvement in the Peace Movement in the U.S. to end the Vietnam Undeclared War. It is at the same time uplifting and saddening. The parallels to what we are experiencing today are profound. It would seem that we truly are doomed to repeat history.

    WAR IS OVER!

  • […]evidence that the department may have singled out people for criminal prosecution to help Republicans win elections. The House Judiciary Committee has begun investigating […]

    Investigations, investigations… Fine. And, once they find wrongdoing (which they’re bound to, if they investigate properly), then what? Will we see any consequences applied to the evildoers? Will they lose their jobs or end up in jail? No. Someone (Specter) will shake his head, someone else (Leahy) will say “tsk, tsk”, Feinstein will say “it wasn’t really as bad as all that”… What’s the point?

    It reminds me of the running argument I’ve had with my husband for 34 yrs, over the respective merits of the US and Polish university education. In Poland, no matter what major you chose, some practical courses were compulsory — in my case it was child psychology, pedagogy and various aspects of translation (simultaneous, literary, business). That was so that you could apply your education to a job, if a need arose. I think that was a good safety net. My husband, OTOH, feels that college is the time and place to improve oneself intellectually, in all directions, but nothing else. Having to think of practical matters, like making a living afterwards, would debase that ideal somehow. Post-college education is for practical matters. Which is fine, for those who can afford to spend that many years in school, without becoming productive and drawing on your parents for support, but not so good for the rest.

    Thus are the Congressional investigations — a purely intellectual enrichment, no practical application of what you’ve learnt. But I wonder whether the country can afford this sort of idealistic approach of learning for learning’s sake…

  • clintonreport said: Do any of you guys leave the house? For more than groceries?

    Like, for instance, on dates?

    The better class of bordello now has wi-fi….

  • clintonreport said: Do any of you guys leave the house? For more than groceries?

    Like, for instance, on dates?

    Huh. I just cut a date short so that I could get home and catch up on the day’s political happenings.

  • If the Dems could get the whole country really to watch this censure resolution, if they could get 66% of the country to really expect the Republicans in the House to do the right thing and go along with it, then that would be something. But that’s not what’s going on. They don’t have it set up. They’ve brought all their boys, but they don’t know whether or not the cavalry is going to show up to the fight. It’s totally a wash.

  • I wrote:

    if they could get 66% of the country to really expect the Republicans in the House to do the right thing and go along with [the censure resolution]…

    That is, get the 66% to expect the Republicans to go along with it, by making those 66% really believe that the Republicans would be once-and-for-all showing themselves up as a bunch of deceptive, classless, good-for-nothings if they didn’t go along with it.

  • There seems to be some confusion on the number of earmarks. The NYT article linked above says 6,500 but “earmarks” was the topic of the Bill Moyer’s Journal two weeks ago and the number stated there was 34,000, not a decrease.

  • Sorry for the multiple posts on the same subject but here is the video of Bill Moyer’s Journal on earmarks. If you aren’t already convinced that a Dem controlled House isn’t any better than the Republicancer controlled House, this will convince you. Pelosi bragging about “legislating” on the PBS Newshour instead of impeaching the criminals subverting our government for the last 6 1/2 years is just so much hot air considering $hrub will veto any meaningful legislation anyway.

  • Re: tko @ #23
    …$hrub will veto any meaningful legislation anyway.

    (except for Enabling Act V & King George’s Iraq/n Ransom)

  • ‘…how and why the Democratic Party is more liberal now than at any point in a generation, said, “It’s more antiwar than at any time since 1972.”… ‘

    There really wasn’t time to schedule a rally against Grenada or Panama.

    Bosnia! Had a couple congressmen pretty cheesed about Bosnia!
    Oh. Right. You said anti-war DEMOCRATS. Those were lily-livered, defeatist, cut-n’-run Republicans.

    Gee… Why is it, do you suppose, we can’t get a good anti-war fervor going except when there’s a war on?

    Can someone hand this guy his sign?

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