Tag: rove

politics

“You Spin Me Right Round Baby Right Round…

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…like a record baby right round right round” by Dead or Alive should be the Bush White House’s anthem. Here’s a bit of history (courtesy of the NY Times) which says why:

  • In September 2003, White House Spokesman Scott McClellan said flatly that Karl Rove had not been involved in disclosing [at the time covert CIA agent and diplomat’s wife] Valerie Plame’s name [which is a federal offense].
  • Asked about the issue on Sept. 29, 2003, Mr. McClellan said he had “spoken with Karl Rove,” and that it was “simply not true” that Mr. Rove had a role in the disclosure of her identity. Two weeks earlier, he had called suggestions that Mr. Rove had been involved “totally ridiculous.”
  • On Oct. 10, 2003, after the Justice Department opened its formal investigation, Mr. McClellan told reporters that Mr. Rove, Mr. Abrams and Mr. Libby had nothing to do with the leak.
  • Mr. McClellan and Mr. Bush have both made clear that leaking Ms. Plame’s identity would be considered a firing offense by the White House. Mr. Bush was asked about that position most recently a little over a year ago, when he was asked whether he stood by his pledge to fire anyone found to have leaked the officer’s name. “Yes,” he replied, on June 10, 2004.
  • Yesterday, July 11, 2005, the White House refused to answer any questions about new evidence of Mr. Rove’s role in the matter. Terry Moran of ABC News prefaced his question by saying White House Spokesman Scott McClellan was “in a bad spot here” because he had spoken from the same podium in the White House briefing room on Oct. 10, 2003, after the Justice Department began its formal investigation into the leak, and specifically said that neither Mr. Rove nor two other officials – Elliot Abrams, a national security aide, and I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff – were involved. Mr. McClellan disputed the characterization of the question but did not directly address why the White House had appeared now to have adopted a new policy of not commenting on the matter.

I would believe this administration as far as I could throw a piano left handed.

politics

Karl Rove Shits Brick

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I don’t have much time to blog right now but I must say…

Go Kerry! It’s your birthday! You gonna party like it’s your birthday!

I like Kerry, Clark, and Edwards, and I couldn’t ask for a better outcome out of Iowa. I’ve seen Kerry speak (college in Boston) and he is always thorough and intelligent in his answers; he has strong policy beliefs in line with my own, and articulates them in a thorough and not-just-promises way – this is a problem because he cannot speak in sound bytes, and it has always handicapped him. Maybe he won because he lost his voice on Sunday and so couldn’t really speak towards the end (he did).

I’d love to be home right now to see how the “liberal” media is covering this. News items like “How can such a loser as Kerry win Iowa? Democrats must really be screwed” on MSNBC and “A fair and balanced view on why we shouldn’t even bother to have the Democratic primaries” on Fox News. In Europe the coverage of the US primaries it’s so even-handed and thorough it’s almost sickening, because I wonder why can’t we be that way?

I think the way it may pan out is that Dean energizes the “war-Bush-lier-hate-Bush-kill-Bush” crowd enough to get out and vote for someone who in the end isn’t him. If he can get in the administration’s face loud enough and hard enough and then get out of the way for someone who wouldn’t be as easy as target for Karl Rove as himself, that would be perfect. Almost like a decoy. Let’s just hope that if he continues to show weakly once it comes to the voting booth that Dean has the good sense to pony up his money and support for Kerry, Edwards, or Clark, whomever the case is.