Tuesday’s Mini-Report

April 3, 2007

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* I wrote a piece for The American Prospect on John McCain and the media. Some of the content may be vaguely familiar to regular readers, but everyone should go take a look anyway.

* It’s hard not to enjoy the irony of Bush criticizing Congress for taking a week-long recess — right before he leaves for a vacation.

* Dems on the Senate Judiciary Committee want to know what the Department of Justice plans to do about Monica Goodling taking the 5th. Law professor Jonathan Turley explains Goodling’s predicament: “She would basically be saying that despite having a high-ranking position in the Justice Department, she will not cooperate with a coequal branch… Congress has oversight responsibility over the Justice Department, over Monica Goodling. It would be an obvious contradiction with her job description.”

* On a related note, Dems on the House Judiciary Committee are still anxious to chat with Goodling, as well. Late last week, her lawyer said she’s taking the 5th with them, too, but today, Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) and Subcommittee Chairwoman Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) questioned whether her claim to 5th Amendment privileges is based on valid reasons. (thanks to L.M. for the tip)

* And in still more purge-related news, did Alberto Gonzales lie to Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) about Tim Griffin’s appointment to be the U.S. Attorney in Little Rock? It sure looks like it.

* Alex Koppelman has a terrific piece in Salon today on “how the ‘Fair and Balanced’ network pits Democrats against their own party.” Ever wondered about some of the self-identified Dems who help enable Fox News? Koppelman explains who’s going on, why, and what the problem is.

* Eric Boehlert takes a solid look at The Note and asks, while it undergoes some kind of overhaul, whether it can still save itself. “The Note’s been cribbing off Karl Rove’s talking points for way too long,” Boehlert explains. “Let’s hope the new Note tosses those tattered notes, drops the phony Beltway-reporters-are-celebrities shtick, and gets back to its journalistic roots.” Good advice.

* Remember that still-unresolved 16 words from Bush’s 2003 State of the Union? The WaPo offers another background piece on the lie and the failures behind the lie.

* AP: “For just the second time since the war began, the Army is sending large units back to Iraq without giving them at least a year at home, defense officials said Monday. The move signaled how stretched the U.S. fighting force has become.”

* Raw Story: “Potrero, California boasts a broad swath of meadowland that currently houses derelict chicken coops. Surrounded by the Cleveland National Forest, the property boasts a former chicken ranch and includes an environmentally sensitive, protected agricultural preserve southeast of San Diego. But if private security contractor Blackwater USA gets its way, this 850-strong community will soon host an 824-acre military training base, replacing the erstwhile chicken ranch with fifteen firing ranges and an emergency vehicle operator’s course the length of ten football fields.” (thanks to Curmudgeon for the heads-up)

* Long-time readers may recall that I’ve written about Robert Cobb, a former White House ethics lawyer who was appointed inspector general of NASA in 2002, and some of his controversial on-the-job practices. Yesterday, Leaders of Senate and House subcommittees overseeing NASA called for Cobb’s ouster, “saying he had abused his authority and created a hostile workplace that interfered with his office’s doing its job.”

* Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) is pursuing a plan to restore voting rights to convicted felons. Good for him. He’s facing some serious resistance from state GOP lawmakers, though, and may have to swallow a weak compromise.

* And finally, Meghan L. O’Sullivan, Bush’s top day-to-day adviser on Iraq is leaving her White House job later this spring. McClatchy reported that her departure, which follows that of her deputy, “could leave the White House with a vacuum of long-term experience on Iraq policy.” McClatchy neglected to mention whether this was good news or bad.

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

RE McCanine and his relationship with the press, very nice piece, CB. But these days it might not just be the conservative base that likes a politician bashing the media. I think there are a lot on the left who appreciate that as well–well, by someone who is in step with reality, and usually calling the media on their whoreish and/or lazy nature and efforts. This won’t work for the Pursedog of the Deadenders, though.

  • I guess McCain has little hope if he doesn’t drink the “MSM=liberals” koolaid, so he’s chugging it down and hoping for a miracle. But in today’s bloggy environment, he’ll have a hard time slipping fast ones past most of us.

  • Regarding Boehlert’s piece on the Note, anyone else think that the timing of Halperin’s move would make a lot of sense if Halperin were, say, going to be Tony Snow’s “interim” replacement as WH PS?

  • Meghan L. O’Sullivan’s departure is experience well worth losing. Can anyone document a situation where her wise counsel led to doing anything right? I also doubt her departure“could leave the White House with a vacuum of long-term experience on Iraq policy.” Isn’t this Dick’s baby to begin with and besides, where the hell is Condi and the rest of the State Department’s expertise on our number one foreign policy problem of the last five years?

    And on the statement, “For just the second time since the war began, the Army is sending large units back to Iraq without giving them at least a year at home.” I cannot figure out for the life of me why the AP discounts this situation by saying “For JUST the second time.” Doing it twice in four year means the canary in the coal mine is pushing up the daisies. Something’s really wrong here. I wish the AP could appreciate that.

  • It’s hard not to enjoy the irony of Bush criticizing Congress for taking a week-long recess — right before he leaves for a vacation.

    Wow. This on top of his complaints about the funding bill from earlier today. Hypocracy is so common we have come to expect it, but can’t you just smell the petulence?

  • Re: American Prospect‘s “…Chris Matthews, traditionally one of the media’s more enthusiastic McCain cheerleaders….”

    Great choice of words. Far too many in the MSM today are merely that … cheerleaders. Not jouranalists. Not news analysts. Not even argument-based advocates. Too much of the time, especially on TeeVee, their message is little more than “Hooray for my side and screw yours”. Crows or seagulls mobbing eagles or owls give more thought to what they’re doing than many of our so-called pundits.

  • On a related note, Dems on the House Judiciary Committee are still anxious to chat with Goodling, as well. Late last week, her lawyer said she’s taking the 5th with them, too, but today, Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) and Subcommittee Chairwoman Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) questioned whether her claim to 5th Amendment privileges is based on valid reasons. (thanks to L.M. for the tip)

    Worst case scenario, they could grant her immunity from prosecution and compel her to testify. She’ll likely be able to incriminate her superiors, and in any criminal enterprise that she can reveal I think we all know she isn’t the top of the chain. The only issue is whether she may attempt to lie to Congress and shield her superiors.

  • Karl Rove was spotted in Chattanooga on February 21, accompanying Bush on a visit touting health vouchers. (See this CorrenteWire post by lambert.)

    Thing is, he was photographed with a brochure under his arm of one of the two Chattanooga companies providing mail servers for gwb43.com — the cut-out e-mail account the White House may have used to confer with others about AttorneyGate firings.

    I checked local reports about the visit and learned the Chattanooga visit was on pretty short notice — a couple of weeks or so, according to police and the governor. The trip may have been a ruse so Rove could visit gwb43.com’s operators and… who knows.

  • Late last week, her lawyer said she’s taking the 5th with them, too, but today, Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) and Subcommittee Chairwoman Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) questioned whether her claim to 5th Amendment privileges is based on valid reasons. (thanks to L.M. for the tip)

    I told you so- 🙂

    You might recall I mentioned what problems with her 5th Amdt. claim might be, I think after you (CB) referred to another write who suggested problems. I just like to point them out when I get them right for the sake of my cred. I wish I would do it all the time I get one right.

  • Re: being right-

    Remember when Arianna Huffington reported that Gen. Clark told her he thought we were going to war with Iran, and I suggested that we probably wouldn’t, and now it’s however long later and we still haven’t attacked?

  • Money quoute from the NY Times article about Charlie Christ trying to restore the right to vote for convicted felons:

    Former Gov. Jeb Bush was adamantly against ending the ban, even though it contributed to problems in the 2000 presidential election.

    emphasis mine…

  • “* It’s hard not to enjoy the irony of Bush criticizing Congress for taking a week-long recess — right before he leaves for a vacation.”

    Maybe it’s just a matter of personal taste, but even though what Bush does and says fits the third defintion of irony, not being reasonably expectable or appropriate, given the first definition, conscious humor or sarcasm, it seems to be ironic(3rd def) to use the term when speaking of Bush, a person having only a passing acquaintance with reality and consciousness.

  • Eric Boehler at Media Matters crucifies Mark Halperin of the Note–and decidedly so! Yeahhhhh!

  • OK, I need to update this thread: the photo I mention above (#8) turns out to have been doctored with the company’s logo — but by people at that company. It appears to remain true that Rove was in Chattanooga with Bush on 2/21/07, and that the presidential trip (Air Force One, the works) was arranged relatively hastily (2 weeks notice).

    I’ve updated my post accordingly. Shades of Rathergate in how this is unfolding, although it could also be sheer juvenile geekery by the web design company (“Coptix”) people involved.

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