Friday’s Mini-Report

March 30, 2007

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told the AP today that he may have been involved in purge discussions but he doesn’t “recall being involved in deliberations” over which prosecutors were to be ousted. He added that he’s “fighting for the truth.” Of course he is.

* Fascinating profile in the WaPo today on Gonzales counsel Monica Goodling, currently on indefinite leave, who recently took the 5th. Goodling, a graduate of Pat Robertson’s law school, apparently didn’t impress everyone. “She forced many very talented, career people out of main Justice so she could replace them with junior people that were either loyal to the administration or would score her some points,” said a former career Justice official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. No wonder the Bush gang promoted her.

* A great line from my friend Sarabeth at 1115.org: “Speaking of clumsy attempts, Republicans seem to be watching (Alberto Gonzales) with all the fascinated horror of a china shop owner watching an extremely drunk ballerina elephant in tutus who has just lurched into the shop, and is determined to execute the ballet equivalent of a triple axel toe loop before she leaves.” Nice.

* According to a new poll from Time, a plurality of Americans (48%) believes the purged U.S. Attorneys were fired because they “refused to be pressured by politics.” Moreover, 55% believe the White House is trying to “cover up the reasons for the firings” by refusing to let Rove and Miers testify under oath.

* Contraception opponent Eric Keroack was always a ridiculous choice to lead the Bush administration’s family planning programs, and fortunately, he resigned yesterday. Apparently, state Medicaid officials have taken action against his private medical practice in Massachusetts, forcing his ouster. In an added twist, his private practice might actually be a crisis-pregnancy center.

* When we last checked in with Nevada Gov. (and former GOP House member) Jim Gibbons (R), he was facing a federal investigation into some unreported gifts he received from a military contractor. Now, he has a new problem: the WSJ has found that Gibbons’ business as a legislator was intertwined with a different defense contractor, who hired his wife as a consultant. The Culture of Corruption lives….

* My friend Odom makes the case that Karl Rove isn’t a genius and we should stop insisting otherwise. Sounds like a good idea.

* Condoleezza Rice has been blowing off Henry Waxman for years. Today, Waxman reminded the Secretary of State that it isn’t an option anymore. Good for him.

* David Broder has promised to “revisit and revise” his infamous “Bush Bounce” column. I’m looking forward to it.

* Happy Blogoversary wishes to The Reaction’s Michael J.W. Stickings. Congrats, my friend.

* Reader C.B. emailed me a very funny typo that appeared on MSNBC this morning: “Bush sautes Tuskegee Airmen.” Oops.

* Speaking of which, the Tuskegee airmen received the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress’ highest honor, yesterday. At the ceremony, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), much to the audience’s dismay, repeatedly mispronounced “Tuskegee.” (Just as an aside, if Speaker Pelosi had annoyed the airmen and their families by mispronouncing “Tuskegee,” wouldn’t Drudge/Fox News turn it into a huge story?)

* Today is the anniversary of the assassination attempt on Reagan, which Sarah Brady recognizes with a solid post at the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence’s blog.

* And finally, a trio of retired generals concerned that the President “might use his scheduled appearance this afternoon at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center to try and score political points against Democrats, urged the president, via a teleconference with reporters, to focus strictly on the problems with military medical care.” Alas, Bush didn’t take their advice.

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

Since Al apparently can’t recall, are we justified in applying the Cheney 1% doctrine? If there’s a 1% chance that Gonzo WAS involved in the discussions, we should act as if he was, and he should resign before we impeach him. Sure, it’s a big price to pay, but it’s the only way to protect our country from the threat of an AG who can’t tell us what he’s been doing all this time. Perhaps he’s been working for the terrorists, and just doesn’t recall.

It would certainly explain a lot.

  • “Speaking of clumsy attempts, Republicans seem to be watching (Alberto Gonzales) with all the fascinated horror of a china shop owner watching an extremely drunk ballerina elephant in tutus who has just lurched into the shop, and is determined to execute the ballet equivalent of a triple axel toe loop before he leaves.”

    Nah…
    This putz couldn’t even do a lutz.

  • Bush will stop trying to score cheap political points the day he dies. Til then, we get to enjoy the politcal equivalent of a drunken chimp flinging his own poop.

    And it’s good to see Jim “the helper” Gibbons back in the limelight. I wish someone would ask him why he wanted to help a drunk woman find her pickup truck so she could drive home.

  • My wife and I happened to be in DC the day of the attempt to assassinate Reagan. We were visiting a friend who worked at the National Press Club, just steps away from the shooting site. I learned a lot about how the DC gossip mill works when, just a few hours later, at a party, someone from the world bank showed me a xerox copy of Reagan’s hospital admission form. He told me to take as a memento of my stay in DC.

    It’s a legal-size sheet from the George Washington Medical Center showing Reagan, Ronald at 1600 Penn Ave NW, Wife Nancy, home and work phones shown only as (999) 999-9999. It lists “Occupation: President” and “Primary Payment Source: Self”. Under “Physician’s Report” it says “Shot in assasination [sic] attempt / Taken to OR by trauma team / GSW chest”. There’s also a bunch of medical gobbledygook which I can’t translate.

  • Odom’s got a point. Having no scruples, morals or conscience does not a genius make.

  • Condoleezza Rice has been blowing off Henry Waxman for years.

    Hey Condi, now your are going to have to “put out.” 🙂

  • this from AP:

    Just seven days after Pat Tillman’s death, a top general warned there were strong indications that it was friendly fire and President Bush might embarrass himself if he said the NFL star-turned-soldier died in an ambush, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press.

    It was not until a month afterward that the Pentagon told the public and grieving family members the truth — that Tillman was mistakenly killed in Afghanistan by his comrades.

  • * Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told the AP today that he may have been involved in purge discussions but he doesn’t “recall being involved in deliberations” over which prosecutors were to be ousted. He added that he’s “fighting for the truth.” Of course he is.

    I thought he was fighting for our kids just the other day? As for his (and other Repubs’) poor memory… I suggest that, every time one of them says “I don’t recall”, we do it for them — and recall every one, for the faulty products they are.

    * Speaking of which, the Tuskegee airmen received the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress’ highest honor, yesterday. At the ceremony, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), much to the audience’s dismay, repeatedly mispronounced “Tuskegee.”

    OK. When Think Progress reported on it, they said how he pronounced it. Sorry to say, that’s how I’d have pronounced it too.So, how *is* “Tuskegee” pronounced?

    As an excuse, I can say that I do know how to pronounce “Rzeszow” and “Chelmno” and even “Szczebrzeszyn” — all those peculiar Polish names that have Anglo-Saxons rolling their eyes in fear (my husband says he married me so he wouldn’t have to deal with my maiden surname, which was Przybyl)

  • I remember hearing the news about Ronnie the Ray-Gun and my response was, “so, is he dead yet?” Of course, the news wasn’t that good.

  • I think Digby’s been making the case that Rove was just a cheap thug and not a genius for quite a while. I should know as I stole it from him. I do think there’s more to Rove than just smashing people all the time. There is a particular gimmick to his attacks beyond simple name-calling. And his ability to cast all of Bush’s weaknesses as being Bush’s opponent’s weaknesses really was a smart idea. But it all comes down to cheap attacks, strong-armed thuggery, and election fraud; and that really doesn’t take too much genius. A complete lack of morals will do.

    The main thing I learned from Rove is that you should always attack your opponent’s strengths while emphasizing your own weaknesses. Politics isn’t war and you’re attacking perception, not reality. So if your opponent is a boring boyscout, you attack him for being a liar. And if your candidate is an anti-intellectual boob, you put a cowboy hat on him and buy him a ranch. Your strengths and your opponent’s weaknesses speak for themselves. So it’s best to spend your energy attacking the strenghs and rubbing people’s noses in your weaknesses, to make them look like strengths. That way, you knock the legs out from under your opponent and deny him easy attacks on you. It really does work and I think Democrats need to internalize that. But he can keep the cheap attacks, strong-armed thuggery, and election fraud. Especially as it’s clearly all coming back to haunt him and really never worked that well to begin with.

  • ***He added that he’s “fighting for the truth.” Of course he is.***

    Clearly, Abu was taken out of context. He meant to say that he was “for fighting the truth.”

    And speaking of Abu, one can only wonder if “his Monica” is still in the country, or has fled to that shiny new uber-compound being built in Dubai….

  • I posted details about some of the low-level criminal cases Monica Goodling supposedly prosecuted out of the USA-EDVA’s office in the fall of 2004 at the the TPM Cafe.

  • Re: Rove isn’t an evil genius meme:

    So then… can someone please explain to me where his “biting off the heads of little animals” statement came from?

    Think about it…

    Rove’s psyche didn’t just pull that crap out of “right” field…
    It was a stream of consciousness moment.
    It HAD to be a stream of consciousness moment.

    Which is all to say:

    He doesn’t REALLY geekl the heads off of critters but he is keen enough to know that his persona has that ambiance.

    In other words:

    Rove cultivates his evilness.
    He cultivates it with a passion that allows his stream of consciousness to exhibit it on the nonce in blazing neon.

    Think about that before you dismiss him as a fool….

  • The skating reference is cute, but sorry, there is no such jump as a “triple axel toe loop”. There’s an axel (an edge jump, no toe assist to get into the air) and there’s a toe loop (toe pick assist into the air). Both can be of varying number of revolutions (single, double, triple, quad (toe loop only, no one has done a quad axel)). Or you could say triple axel-toe loop combination, which would be a triple axel, landed, then immediately going into a toe loop.

    Hannah, the skating fan

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