Tuesday Night Shorts - GOP Starts Breaking Ranks Over NSA Mess
by Steve
A long day at work today, and I was unable to post several things. Yet Paradox did a great job with his piece, and while our trolls go nuts because I dared mention their treatment of African Americans, (thanks guys for the bump in traffic) there was other news today as well.
First, despite Karl Rove’s efforts to scare GOP senators on the Judiciary Committee, it's clear that some senators are not ready to stay in lockstep with the White House on this, especially after watching Abu Gonzales make an ass of himself and the president. Tonight’s bombshell is that House GOP member Heather Wilson, who will be facing a tough reelection this year for her seat in New Mexico, was the first House Republican to come out and break with the White House by calling for a full-blown congressional inquiry into the NSA spying mess. Of course, the GOP will just stonewall this again and bury it once the inquiry starts, but it is fun to see the solid wall of rubber-stamping break every now and then.
Can someone tell Arlen Specter to get counseling? We all know he will cave in the end and do whatever Bush tells him to, but he didn’t have to show his hand so early by doing something stupid with Harry Reid today. I mean, the man blasted Reid for pointing out his ethical problems, after he got bought by the asbestos lobby in plain sight.
First John McCain took a shot at Barack Obama for supposedly backing away from a commitment to support McCain’s latest "look at me; I’m the reformer in a white hat" attempt. Now not to be outdone in the kneepad department for the GOP, Joe Lieberman may side with McCain against Obama. Joe, make it simple you miserable cretin and switch parties now so that we can bury your pathetic ass this November.
Read a good piece in tomorrow’s New York Times about how many national Democrats are now uneasy that they haven’t taken advantage of the opportunities to present voters with a choice on the issues, and specifically to challenge Bush on national security. Gee, really? Have they been reading our blog and other center-left blogs? Finally?
Media Matters For America and FireDogLake show us that three different Time Magazine reporters and editors participated in the White House’s efforts to out Valerie Plame. Even though they knew Scotty McClellan and Rove were lying about Rove’s role in the caper, they stayed quiet about the fact that it was Rove who had talked to them. I’m sure Patrick Fitzgerald is quite aware of this as well. What liberal media?
When Richard Mellon-Scaife, bankroller of the Arkansas Project to get Bill Clinton, switches course and now supports John Murtha’s call for a drawdown in Iraq, you know it will get very wobbly amongst the bedwetters inside the Beltway.
Charlie Cook now says the Democrats have a "real shot" at not only pulling even in the House this fall, but grabbing it outright.
George Deutsch, the young 24 year-old snotnose Bush appointee at NASA who was telling scientists what to say and adding the word “theory” after any mention of the Big Bang, resigned today after it was revealed that he didn’t he know anything about science; was only "qualified" because he worked on the Bush/Cheney 2004 campaign as a go-fer; and never graduated from Texas A&M as he had claimed. You were doing a heckuva job Deutschie!
OK, that’s enough for tonight. Remember to scroll past the trolls….