Mid-Day Update
by Steve
Denny Hastert and Bill Frist will be making Rahm Emanuel and Chuck Schumer’s jobs easy for them this fall, with actions like this that easily translate into attack ads against vulnerable GOP incumbents. If voting for more tax breaks for millionaires won’t convince independent and moderate Republicans to vote against GOP incumbents, perhaps voting for immunity for drug makers in the dead of night in a defense bill will do it. And even Kenny-boy Mehlman is scaring the RNC flock into thinking that there will be dozens of GOP incumbents at risk this fall.
The New York Sun said today that one of the reasons Hayden was selected for DCI was because he assured Negroponte and Rummy that he would support transferring turf to Rumsfeld, contrary to the 2004 intelligence overhaul that Congress approved. My prediction: a president with a 31% approval rating and members of his own party who are pissed about a uniform taking over the Agency will be lucky if Hayden’s name escapes the Intelligence Committee, no matter what Pat Roberts does to carry more dirty water.
Kyle “Dusty” Foggo will be retiring today as the Agency’s Number Three, to await legal troubles.
Bob Ney’s former Chief of Staff cut a deal with federal prosecutors today, which calls into question why Denny Hastert hasn’t stripped Ney of his committee chairmanship.
And yes, the talk will not die: Is Gore sounding people out about running in 2008?
Howard Dean is looking to draw blood before the midterm elections. After seeing that White House phone records indicated high level involvement in the New Hampshire phone jamming scandal that cost the Democrats a Senate seat in 2002 and led to the indictment of a Bush campaign operative, Dean had the DNC file a lawsuit today against the Secret Service seeking all White House records of visits to the White House by Grover Norquist, Ralph Reed, and others who are tied into Jack Abramoff’s criminal enterprise.
The Washington Post’s Jim VandeHei reported this morning, from sources close to Rove apparently, that a decision by Patrick Fitzgerald on what to do with Rove will be made soon. Sure, sure. The major piece of news in this story is really a reminder of what we already knew: Rove did what he did to undermine Wilson in order to keep the issue of Bush’s lies about WMDs from becoming a campaign vulnerability in the 2004 race.
The White House is so desperate to convince voters that Iraq is going well that it is directing all cabinet agencies to include good talking points about our progress over there wherever they can, even in the Department of Agriculture.