Wednesday’s Mini-Report

April 25, 2007

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* Henry Waxman’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was unusually busy today, approving subpoenas for Condoleezza Rice to answer questions about the president’s bogus Niger claims before the war, and for the RNC to provide testimony and documents about White House e-mails on RNC accounts that have apparently gone missing, in violation of the law.

* In case last week’s hearing wasn’t humiliating enough for Alberto Gonzales, Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) and ranking member Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) followed up today by asking the AG to “promptly supplement” his testimony by answering the questions he couldn’t answer last week because of his faulty memory. As they put it, “We believe the Committee and our investigation would benefit from you searching and refreshing your recollection and your supplementing your testimony by next Friday to provide the answers to the questions you could not recall last Thursday.”

* The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been FEMA-ized: “‘The people at OSHA have no interest in running a regulatory agency,” said Dr. David Michaels, an occupational health expert at George Washington University who has written extensively about workplace safety. “If they ever knew how to issue regulations, they’ve forgotten. The concern about protecting workers has gone out the window.'”

* Speaking of Gonzales, the AG struck out with Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), whom he had lied to directly about a U.S. Attorney firing in Arkansas. After a 40-minute meeting, Pryor told reporters, “I told him [Gonzales] point-blank that I think it’s in the best interest of the department and the administration that he resign.”

* The debate cosponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute and Fox News has not yet been cancelled, and CBC members are leaning on the Institute’s leadership to withdraw from the agreement. Rep. Diane Watson (D-Calif.), said: “Fox News brings the right-wing side of the news, and there’s no sense in participating in that kind of game-playing.”

* Speaking of Republican media, did you see what the New York Post did to an AP story about Harry Reid?

* If you didn’t see Jon Stewart kick John McCain’s ass last night, do yourself a favor and watch the clips. Part I and Part II. Believe me, you’ll want to see these.

* My friend Cathy has a fascinating piece interviewing three Iraq war veterans who came home and got involved with Iraq Veterans Against the War. They have an important perspective to share.

* Scott McClellan is writing a memoir. “The book will take readers behind-the-scenes of the Bush presidency, covering both strengths and weaknesses, successes and shortcomings with refreshing candor,” according to a statement issued Tuesday by PublicAffairs. Frankly, I’m not comfortable with any paragraph that includes McClellan’s name and the phrase “refreshing candor,” without some kind of negation clause.

* The president paid tribute to African Malaria Day at a White House event today where he proceeded to, well, dance. It didn’t go well.

* Mexico City officials overwhelmingly approved a measure to legalize abortion yesterday. They did so despite threats of excommunication by the Catholic Church.

* Far-right blogs are reacting to Rosie O’Donnell leaving “The View” as if they’d just won the lottery. It’s kind of sad, really.

* Did you see the list of decorated retired generals who endorsed the Democrats’ Iraq policy yesterday? It’d be tough to call any of these guys America-hating defeatists, though I suspect the right will give it a try.

* A National Strategy to Cut Poverty in Half.

* David Brock takes a moment to recap the right’s recent apoplexy over Media Matters’ work. “Given the bizarre anger that Media Matters inspires from the far right, it’s clear we’re being effective…. The likes of Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and Michael Savage sure sound like they’re afraid. They’re afraid of having their deceptions corrected, afraid of being exposed, and afraid of being held accountable. If they had their way, Media Matters would just disappear. That isn’t going to happen!” Good.

* And finally, I ordinarily wouldn’t link to right-wing YouTube clips, particularly from Malkin, but this one really has to be seen to be believed. It’s good to know liberals no longer have to try to make conservatives look silly — they’re fully capable of doing that all on their own.

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

I can’t wait to see Condi’s snarling face when she’s forced to answer questions about the Niger uranium forgeries that any fool could have figured out were fake.

There won’t be enough popcorn for that day.

  • Even the normally wingnutty Wapo Editorial page smells the dead tuna on the GSA issue:

    REMEMBER the PowerPoint campaign briefing that White House deputy political director Scott Jennings gave to political appointees at the General Services Administration — the briefing that helpfully identified the GOP’s top 20 House targets for 2008, the most vulnerable Democratic senators and the like? The one that inspired the GSA administrator, Lurita Alexis Doan, to ask her troops to think about what could be done to help “our candidates,” according to six people present? (Ms. Doan doesn’t recall.) It turns out the GSA presentation wasn’t the only one of its kind. But we can’t give you much more in the way of details, because the White House isn’t providing them…

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/24/AR2007042402024.html

  • I just love this so much I can’t help repeating it (from reader malcontent at TPM) :

    How about put some teeth into that letter [today from Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) and ranking member Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) to Alberto Gonzales]?

    I think if they’d concluded it with something like this, it may have helped:

    If you are unable to furnish the committee with answers to these questions, we will remand you to the custody of a compliant, third-party state which will seek to refresh your memory through the use of the so-called “extraordinary interrogation techniques” you so conveniently claim are legal.

  • If you didn’t see Jon Stewart kick John McCain’s ass last night, do yourself a favor and watch the clips. Part I and Part II. Believe me, you’ll want to see these.

    I don’t know, I felt this was still very painful to watch because instead of participating in an interview, McCain preferred to respond to everything Stewart asked by TALKING OVER HIM THE ENTIRE TIME. It was very annoying, all the dissembling and lying while Stewart was questioning him. It was a very annoying interview, McCain was on the defensive the entire time, it goes to show there’s no point in him coming on the show any more.

  • Rian–I concur. McCain simply filibustered to avoid answering any uncomfortable questions.

  • I must object on behalf of Scott McClellan to your impuning his integrity.

    Of all the Bush flunkies, McClellan repeatedly refused to parrot back every line of bull he was fed. He always (to my recollection) couched terms, hedged on absolutes, and rephrased to make each phrase contain a grain of truth. McClellan CLEARLY was uncomfortable lying. It cost him his job.

    The memoir may be a dud. I will not be surprised if “refreshing candor” is EXACTLY what we get. I dare say STARTLING candor is not out of teh question.

    Look for careful wording where none of it SOUNDS harsh, but for those used to the subtleties of Washington criticism, it’ll be brutal.

  • Jon Stewart, like many of us, used to seem in awe of John McCain. In comparison with W, McCain did actually seem good. In comparison with the current Democratic field, he doesn’t. It must be hard for him to be ridiculed instead of respected. He deserves the ridicule but that’s a bitter way to end a career. To go from hero to clown.

  • dude, malkin may be wingnut, but she looked pretty hot in the video

    Comment by Bruce

    People still say “dude”? Malkin would tear your eyes out and anything else exposed if she knew you frequented a website such as this.

  • The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been FEMA-ized: “‘The people at OSHA have no interest in running a regulatory agency,” said Dr. David Michaels, an occupational health expert at George Washington University who has written extensively about workplace safety. “If they ever knew how to issue regulations, they’ve forgotten. The concern about protecting workers has gone out the window.’”

    I’m still amazed by the Republicans’ emperor-has-no-clothes approach to running the country. It’s like having a bunch of friends who won’t tell you about any bad things that are happening to you because they feel it’s more beneficial for your feelings not to be hurt than for you to be able to actually face and address your problems. Completely idiotic.

  • scottie mc lying is writing his memoirs? actually, i’m waiting for abu gonzo’s memoirs of his years in service to the boy king. should take, what… 5 seconds to read?

  • I thought Bush dancing was funny – that rare “real” side of him. He seemed to be having fun and got into it. Laura looked more uncomfortable. “Didn’t go well”? C’mon – its a middle-aged white man dancing, how much can you really hope for?

  • “Far-right blogs are reacting to Rosie O’Donnell leaving “The View” as if they’d just won the lottery.”

    When times are lean, you gotta get your kicks where you can.

    (Really, who the F cares?)

  • arg — the ku klux kukoo troll is back. It makes the Malkin video seem sane in comparison.

  • That Stewart/McCaca clip is downright scary. A presidential contender can go on national television and threaten someone with an IED?

    And is it just me—or did John McCain—also known as “the spitting image of Nikita Khrushchev” (and I’m old enough to know who Khrushchev is) look almost ready to start banging his shoe on Jon’s desk?

    By the way—nice troll-trick, Naptime. Changing your screen-name so that someone has to delete your sorry mold-infested carcass more than once. C’mon, CB—give us this clown’s IP….

  • “Given the bizarre anger that Media Matters inspires from the far right, it’s clear we’re being effective….”

    Good point there. I’ve often compared Media Matters to the Media Research Center — both have now been accused of “working the refs” — except left-leaning media never, to my knowledge, direclty addressed the MRC’s criticisms. They either absorbed them quietly or ignored them for the comical nonsense they were.

    Media Matters takes things more seriously, and the blowhards know it.

  • Henry Waxman’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was unusually busy today

    Wax Esctatic.

    I’d like to think ReThuglicans have nightmares about Henry cutting them down with a double-edged subpoena, but that’s just me.

    I also think BushBaby may have discovered a way to prevent malaria. Can you imagine a mosquito coming within five miles of someone spazzing out like that?

  • Just curious, did we lose Vietnam? How could we tell then? How could we tell now so we might recognize the signs sooner and save a few lives.

    What are the unmistakable signs of losing so that Misters Reid, Kennedy, et al won’t have to be mistaken any longer?
    We’d all benefit from the wisdom that Bush and DeLay are keeping so close to their chests. Alas, we are left ignorant and Harry and Ted quail just before victory is snatched from the jaws of what merely APPEARS to be defeat.

  • Today Wolf Blitzer asked a question of a general (who avoided it as he is ordered to do). He asked if Americans have a greater desire for peace and democracy in Iraq than the Iraqis do, why do we stay there? The general made some unenthusiastic answer that things are getting better.

  • Steve:

    A presidential contender can go on national television and threaten someone with an IED?

    And rue the fact that he hadn’t kicked the backstage dog too….

    Obviously John was a little upset with previous Daily show comments. So he came out all gassed up and determined to catapult his propaganda at all costs.

    He ended up looking like a Bush clone:
    All talk, no listen.
    All certainty, no nuance.
    All rudeness, no courtesy.

    Pathetic.
    Someone needs to tell him he hasn’t a snowball’s chance in Baghdad at being President.

    By the way… he also needs to spit out that plug of tobacco he had stashed in his left jaw.
    That just didn’t look right.

  • “classical music”?

    You mean, like Creedence and Three Dog Night?

    I hear them all the time.

  • America is not a melting pot. It is a chamber pot where the predominant colors are brown, black and yellow. — Nappy Headed Ho\\’s, #20

    With — white — pinworms squirming on top?

    Do take your nappy off your head, fallenwoman, and your view of the world might become somewhat less shitty.

  • Ironically, the kind of people who embrace the same racist ideology as this person here would call those who listen to classical music “goddarmn liberal fags”.

  • First of all, looks like someone crawled out from under his bridge. CB really needs to remove those posts, and then send me the IP address (having worked in IT, I can do some fun things with it). C’mon … 🙂

    As far as the Malkin clip goes …

    Catholic School girl uniform, instead of an actual cheerleading outfit: $40
    Pom-Poms: $10
    Video Camera: $400
    Acting lessons: $0
    Looking like an incompetent, irrelevant, idiotic, moronic ass while attempting to mock someone: Priceless.

    For video, there’s YouTube. For mind blowing stupidity, there’s Michelle Malkin.

  • The best ad on Osama bin Forgotten that nobody viewed…

    Before the 2004 election the Dems had a chance to pour that onto teevees across America.
    They didn’t.

    Moral of the story:

    HIT BACK HARD.
    AND DON’T STOP HITTING.
    ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU HAVE TRUTH ON YOUR SIDE.

    • Comments are closed.