Dick Cheney and others complain the US Attorney hearings are a witch-hunt insearch of a criminal wrongdoing. Letter of the Law = highest standard by which the Administration will act.
Does that bother you? It clearly does not bother them.
Posted by gtash at August 2, 2007 05:23 AMWelcome, Jeff and John, I look forward to your posts!
Mary, have a safe trip to YKos, can't wait to see your reports. Say hi to John Edwards for me - and don't forget the pics!!
Posted by iamcoyote at August 2, 2007 05:38 AMMr. Patric, tell me how Edwards hopes to win the nomintation, being way way behind The Hillary in every national poll. Is there a secret plan? He says good things, produces intelligent policy, gives a great speech and is getting badly beaten. Where does he go? Or more to the point...how long does he go? Would he accept a VP nod from Hillary....or actually, will anyone?
Posted by T2 at August 2, 2007 06:01 AMGood point, T2.
John Edwards has no chance of becoming the frontrunner -- I'm sorry to say. He's stuck in third place and barring some unanticipated meltdown by Hillary Inc., she's going to be the nominee. It's a shame, really. Already, she's saber-rattling: screeching about sending the U.S. military into Pakistan. Anyone who thinks Hillary will reverse Bush's course in Iraq is either naive or braindead.
Posted by Christopher at August 2, 2007 06:33 AMNor should she.
Posted by jj at August 2, 2007 06:41 AMChristopher, BOTH Hillary and Obama are talking about sending troops to Pakistan, and Edwards will join them in that. Actually, we probably should have invaded Pakistan years ago....they are the Muslim nation with Nukes and Bin Laden....not Iraq or Iran or Afghan.
Posted by T2 at August 2, 2007 06:55 AM....just wondering how many Interstate bridges could be rebuilt for one trillion dollars?
Posted by Goyo at August 2, 2007 07:16 AMAnd I'm unofficially phoning in the campaign from Iowa.
It's official - Mitt Romney is throwing everything he can to not only win the Ames Straw Poll, August 11th, but he's spending effort and money in a feverish degree to win by more than 20 points over the 2nd & 3rd tier candidates hoping the poll will give them a boost.
Most Iowa communities with LDS members/churches will have tour coaches picking up and dropping off Romney supporters on the day of the poll. The meeting places aren't LDS chrushes though; the buses are almost all going to shopping mall parking lots or other public locations within a 1/2 mile of the LDS congregations.
Most independents and Republicans are receiving robo-calls every 48 hours encouraging their support and doing rapid-response to other campaigns' attacks.
The Register ran a positive article for Romney Tuesday citing evangelical malaise towards the entire GOP field; Romney outreach coordinator Joe Earle, an evangelical himself, spun the best quote in the article, citing that the more evangelicals hear about Romney, the more comfortable they are with him. The article didn't even mention Romney's rightward shift in position for the Presidential campaign nor the conservative Christian dislike for Romney's Mormon faith.
Overall - the overall mood of the conservative electors is not whether or not the candidate is conservative enough, but whether or not they think the candidate can be rightwards enough and be able to win. The base badly wants to back a winner after 8 years of GWB.
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Another Iowa poll came out Monday - Clinton leads with 30%, Edwards follows at 21%, Obama is at 15%, and Richardson is a surprising 13%. This contradicts the previous week's polling which had Edwards leading by 5 points over Clinton, both in the 20's.
The GOP results were had some interesting conclusions; Giuliani led with 22% after finishing 3rd last week with 13%. Romney polled the lead with 25% last week and followed second this week with 21%. McCain closely follows in the high-to-mid teens in both polls.
This week's poll was of 600 likely caucus goers for both parties and had a 4% margin of error. The gross statistics were not released by the Register to indicate polling assumptions and the composition of sample.
- - -
Jim Nussle, the former Iowa GOP Rep that failed in his campaign for governor last year, has cleared 1/2 of the Senate committees with jurisdiction on the OMB Director's position. The Senate Budget committee will vote today in confirmation. While Iowa liberals and Democrats dislike Nussle, he shouldn't make too much of a mess in his position in the 16 months left of the Bush administration.
- - -
On other news - an Interstate Minneapolis bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed during rush hour last night. Blogcritics has a wrap up and commentary related to a 2005 American Society of Civil Engineers study declaring that the Eisenhower-era Interstate network was degrading and that poor infrastructure maintenance was partially to blame. Expect this failure to be played loud and hard in the media, much like the Hyatt Regency collapse in 1981. The loss of life could have been MUCH higher. In an ideal world, the federal and state governments will reform and begin a serious infrastructure renewal (rather than the continuing build-out in most urban areas) of the interstate roads and bridges; but I'm more cynical - I don't expect jack to improve until the money in new roads finally is cut because of hundreds of deaths in other structural failures.
Posted by idiosynchronic at August 2, 2007 07:24 AMThank you muchly, idio, for the update. So Romney's going to push really hard, and the christianists are turning a blind eye to his Mormanism. Excellent. Romney has too much flipflopping in his past, I think - he'll be fairly easy to run against. I don't think Edwards is out of it at all, either; with a long way to go to the primaries and the MOE on that poll, anything can happen.
On the radio this morning I heard that Bush is planning to go to MN - for a fundraiser for Norm Coleman. No word yet from him on the disaster. Prolly had a concert to go to or sumpin' right?
Posted by iamcoyote at August 2, 2007 08:03 AMMy Prayers go out to the people of Minneapolis. I was on that bridge just 2 and a half weeks ago!
Posted by goose1 at August 2, 2007 08:18 AMWelcome, welcome!!
Posted by paradox at August 2, 2007 08:20 AM"...I don't think Edwards is out of it at all, either; with a long way to go to the primaries and the MOE on that poll, anything can happen."
Posted by iamcoyote at August 2, 2007 08:03 AM
Agreed Coyote, this Rolling Stone article, among others, puts Edwards at the top of the speech giving heap....way too early to count him out....and I doubt he'll invade Pakistan. Man is that a bad idea!!!
Posted by Goyo at August 2, 2007 08:23 AMGoyo, why is invading Pakistan a bad idea? They have a military dictatorship, they openly harbor Bin Laden and his wing of Al Qaeda, they continueally threaten war with India (our ally of importance), and they have a nuke arsenal and means of delivery. In short, everything that we wouldn't want them to have. Its easy to see the world would be safer without Pakistan.
Posted by T2 at August 2, 2007 08:32 AMThe propaganda is running thick these days about the surge working and that deaths were down in July 2007. Yes, the lowest for any month this year. But a little reminder, we lost more American soldiers for any July, since the war started! That's how you spin progress in a neo-con world!
Posted by Seven of Six at August 2, 2007 09:27 AMWelcome John and Jeff!
Posted by Seven of Six at August 2, 2007 09:28 AMBush admin seems to be responding quickly to the bridge collapse. GOP convention is there in 2008--I'm sure they want that bridge to be repaired or well underway by then.
Posted by CG at August 2, 2007 09:42 AMBush admin seems to be responding quickly to the bridge collapse.
Man, is Manyanapolis screwed. Look at what the Mad King's -idiot son of George- quick response did to the Gulf Coast region. First, he'll make sure the Black neighborhoods are unlivable. Then there will be a no bid contract to repair the bridge which will be completed using superglue and toothpicks by a press gang of unpaid laborers from Myanmar. I'm thinking it will cost around $85 billion and 12 years to complete.
I'm hoping Hillary tells us we need to make war on St. Paul for harboring the motorists who used the bridge. Seems she has several choices to make: Healthcare and infrastructure or war. Dollar to a doughnut she picks war. Oops! With her comments about Pakistan it seems like she decided. All bets are off!
I certainly hope we see some real analysis from these two writers. I see no real purpose to having people from the campaign writing about the mah-velous stuff their candidates will be promising to get elected. We had that last time around with that kid from Pelosi's campaign, and it was only so much bullshit. So, are these campaign staffers or thoughtfully analytic and impartial reporters?
Posted by phidipides at August 2, 2007 10:07 AM".....Goyo, why is invading Pakistan a bad idea?"....where does one start with that question? ....The Soviet Union broke down fighting in Afghanistan....Pakistan has 5 times the population of Afghanistan...do the math...how do we win that fight?
With Musharaff trying to cozy up to Ms. Bhutto, there is a chance for overall moderation....a US invasion would likely cause Musharaff to fall and Islamists would take over the country...just what we need is a country of nutbars that actually have WMD....in general this is a very stupid idea. JMHO
Posted by Goyo at August 2, 2007 10:24 AMphidipides,
Be assured I am not affiliated with the Clinton campaign whatsoever. I simply took up Steve's offer to volunteer to follow a campaign. I am actually far to the left of Hillary in most areas, but have been fascinated by her career since the early '90's.
I will not be endorsing Hillary but simply updating readers as to the latest news by analysis and/or links to significant articles I find on the web. If you have any Hillary-related questions feel free to email me and I'll try to find some info for you.
peace,
Jeff
Posted by Jeff Dinelli at August 2, 2007 11:29 AMWe had that last time around with that kid from Pelosi's campaign, and it was only so much bullshit.
phidipides,
Speaking of Madam Botox, did you see today where she totally backed off from earlier promises to get legislation passed to force Detroit to increase the MPG standards for U.S. cars?
She's far too busy working on "children's healthcare." She's a total lemon.
Posted by Christopher at August 2, 2007 01:41 PMShe's a total lemon.
Holy hell, Christopher! You just described 80% of the Democrat Congress, Inc.
Thanks for your response, Jeff. I look forward to your reading your analyses and reporting.
I would like to see someone connect the dots between Hillary and the first healthcare proposal (which was a massive program written to award American healthcare to a few major corporate players), the funding she receives from PhRma and corporate healthcare and her current proposals, which seem a bit like Rudy's plan.