Always A Bridesmaid...Never The Bride

It seems like Karl Rove is always under investigation, but no one ever quite catches him doing anything! It's a wonder the poor guy doesn't develop some kind of persecution complex. The most recent dust up is connected to Karl's role in attorneygate related e-mails. It seems some of them are missing...lost. Many of them Karl Rove's.

Apparently, some White House staffers, in order to bypass regular channels, set up alternative e-mail accounts at non-governmental sites...like the Republican National Committee...so they could discuss stuff that's not suitable or proper to discuss at work. Or stuff they didn't want to show up in the White House's computer system. If you have a job that requires you to use your computer, you probably have a separate e-mail account with Yahoo, so your boss doesn't catch you using the company's system to e-mail friends about last night's date from hell, from your work computer.

In this particular case, Karl and some others used their RNC e-mail accounts to talk about things they didn't want as part of the public record. There are still some among us, a few misguided fools, who like to think that the business of government is infused with high purpose. That important mattters of state are always being discussed, and that our survival, our security as a nation, depends on the confidentiality of Karl Rove's e-mails. Those people don't want to know that the guys in the White House were pulling together a "hit list" of U.S. Attorneys they wanted to fire, and the lawyers they were proposing to replace them, weeks before anyone ever thought anything was going on in the first place.

They certainly wouldn't want to believe that a man as brilliant as Karl Rove would ever be part of an effort, say, to "go after" Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. Attorney from Illinois, who was investigating the CIA leak case...while he was investigating it. In fact, Fitzgerald investigated Rove's role in the CIA leak case, and went through all his e-mail accounts at that time...at least people assumed he did. If you recall, rumors were flying for a while that Karl had come within a hair (no pun intended) of being indicted for his role in orchestrating the outing of Valerie Plame, an undercover agent of the CIA.

Then there was the Jack Abramoff scandal. You remember the Republican lobbyist who was indicted and convicted of crimes, influence peddling, bribery, etc.? The one who Bush said he never met? The one who has pictures (probably photoshopped!) of himself at the White House with the President? The guy who's former staffer worked for Rove? Or was it Rove's former staffer who worked for Jack Abramoff? It does get confusing! Rumors were flying fast and furious during that time as well, that Rove would be indicted any second! Except of course he wasn't. Close, but no cigar! (Sorry about the cigar pun!) Karl has come so close so often, and yet he always lands on his feet.

In any event, Senator Leahy, the Democratic chairman of the committee investigating the firing of the U.S. attorneys, compared the "lost" e-mails to the 18 minute gap in Rose Mary Woods' dictation tapes when she worked for Nixon. Those 18 minutes, 'accidentally' erased by Miss Woods, then personal secretary to President Nixon, contained crucial evidence, the proverbial smoking gun, of the Watergate investigation.


But unlike the 18 minute tape gap, circa 1974, these e-mails are recoverable and Leahy seems determined to find them. It's not yet clear whether any laws were broken in attorneygate, except for lying. When you lie under oath, it's called perjury. Even if it's only Congress you're lying to. And hiding evidence or making things difficult is called obstruction of justice. That's a crime, too. Who knows. We may finally see Karl Rove walking down the aisle...the perp walk.


Copyright, 2007

Whatta Guy!

Paul Wolfowitz once served as Deputy Secretary of Defense under Donald Rumsfeld, and was part of the very exclusive brain trust,

( I jest), which developed the "rationale" for invading Iraq. He left the Bush administration jn 2005, to take over as president of The World Bank.

Since then, in less than two years, he's had clashes with his board of directors, alienating the very guys who hired him (I guess he keeps forgetting these guys aren't Congress).He has populated his staff with an impressive number of Republican cronies, (he's had some trouble transitioning from his old government job, I'd say...) and now, he is undergoing a serious ethics investigation.

Just to refresh your memory a bit, Wolfowitz was the guy who helped develop, and then popularized the Administration's foreign policy thinking, their theories about Iraq, and their efforts to bring stability to the Middle East once and for all!

For example: When General Shinseki testified before Congress, in 2003, that we might need several hundred thousand troops to win the peace in Iraq, after the invasion, Wolfowitz called bullshit! Shinseki had been in charge in Bosnia. Iraq wasn't Bosnia. There'd be no ethnic strife, no civil war! Wolfowitz assured Congress once again, that the Iraqis would welcome a liberation force led by America!

And then, because he was on a roll, Wolfowitz teased out his fantasies even further, telling Congress that even the countries who opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq would sign up to help rebuild it! Even France! And the cost of rebuilding Iraq would be offset because everyone knew Iraq had oil exports worth $15 to $20 billion annually. "To assume we're going to pay for it all is just all wrong." said Paul.

The testimony I will never forget was offered before the House Appropriations subcommittee on Foreign Operations in 2004. He, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, was asked how many servicemen and women had been killed in Iraq? A pretty elementary question. There was a long moment of awkward silence, then a fumble. He couldn't tell them how many U.S. service men had lost their lives. He understated it by 30%. In fact, for a banker, Wolfowitz doesn't seem to be very good with numbers, not even willing to tell the Armed Services Committee a week earlier how much of an $87 billion supplemental package Congress had given DOD for the war in Iraq, the previous fiscal year, had been spent.

But getting back to the present controversy: Why, you might ask, is Paul Wolfowitz, a thoroughly vetted, certified paragon of sobriety, being challenged about his ethics??? How dare anyone question this man, who has no equal, not even Kissinger, when it comes to being really smart! No one is held in higher esteem in the circles in which he travels.

Well, apparently Mr. Wolfowitz has a girlfriend. Yeah. She worked in the communications department at the World Bank. The guys who agreed to hire him (and shame on them!) thought it wouldn't look right, so for appearances' sake, Wolfowitz sent her off to...the U.S. State Department, with a compensation package in excess of $200,000. Seriously. They weren't using the State Department all that much so it seemed like it would work out.

Now, with the Spring Meeting of the World Bank getting ready to convene, its staff is calling for Wolfowitz to resign and the board is conducting an ethics investigation. In the world of realpolitik, Mr. Wolfowitz is enjoying a lesson in physics: the ripple effects of being too close to a lame duck.

Copyright, 2007

Brief Update

In the past two days, Don Imus had his morning TV talk show cancelled by MSNBC, and has been fired from his radio show aired on CBS, after major sponsors pulled out. Imus indicated he didn't intend to "parade himself on the talk show circuit with Larry King, Barbara Walters or anyone
else." He does want to meet privately with the women's basketball team at Rutgers. Maybe now Rev. Sharpton and all the people who expressed outrage for Imus' behavior, and it was despicable, can turn their attention to the rappers who've made millions popularizing references to women as bitches and 'hos in their lyrics.


Copyright,2007

Maybe He'll Check Himself Into Rehab!

This happens with such frequency I am almost innured to it. Keyword here is "almost." Most members of any minority group have probably experienced it at one time or another: that certain kind of over- familiarity of speech that makes them feel their personal space has been violated, albeit psychologically. A certain presumption:"You know I'm just messin' with ya...we're cool..."

There is something pathetic and puerile about a Mel Gibson meltdown or Michael Richards' spewing all over a nightclub stage. Don Imus is a bit different. He has his own radio/ talk show in the morning and he attracts about 300,000 listeners/viewers on average, most days.

Don Imus thinks he's funny. A crotchety, unpredictable old eccentric. He flatters himself that his quirky sense of humor permits him license to call Colin Powell "..a sniffling weasel..." or New Mexico governor, Bill Richardson "a fat sissy..." I certainly would not quarrel with the depiction of Powell's weaseling around if it is in the context of him attempting to distance himself from the Bush Administration.

But back to Imus.The Rutgers Women's Basketball team lost the NCAA Women's championship to Tennessee. On his morning show, Imus and his trusty sidekick McGuirk had this exchange:

McGuirk: (describing the Rutgers team): "hardcore 'hos..."

Imus:"That's some nappyheaded 'hos there, I'm going to tell you that!"

Maybe he was straining for a kind of 'racial intimacy' with the 'nappyheaded" comment, that level of overfamiliarity that can be so offensive. Maybe he and McGuirk used the word 'hos' to demonstrate their "street cred", you know, being "down with it..." so to speak. Maybe they listened to too much rap where African American males often refer to women as "'hos." But that's a whole other discussion, and one that's long overdue. I Don't know the working of Don Imus' mind, and I don't much care.

Monday, April 9,2007 we learned that after some deliberation, Imus had been suspended for two weeks from his show, until his minders at CBS and MSNBC can decide what to do with him. The National Organization of Women wants him out, Jesse Jackson was leading a group of pickets outside CBS, Al Sharpton thinks he should be fired, and the governor of New Jersey thinks he's vile. If the protests broaden and it affects advertising revenues, Imus is toast. So this is the time of watchful waiting.

Meanwhile, Imus has been doing the Contrition Dance. In fact, he cannot stop apologizing. He says this is "humiliating." Actually, I find this tiresome. Don Imus is not worth the time and the energy it takes to get exercised about this mess. If it weren't for the fact that he is an insidious presence on our airwaves every weekday, I wouldn't give it a passing glance. He's has been an accident waiting to happen for a long time. But he has a public forum and this is by no means an aberration for him, and so it has to be addressed.

I'll let Julian Bond, chairman of the board of directors of the NAACP, have the last word on this one for me because Julian Bond has an established, well documented history with which I am very familiar; "street cred" if you will:

" it is past time his employers took him off the air...As long as an audience is attracted to his bigotry and politicians and pundits tolerate this racism and chauvinism to promote themselves, Don Imus will continue to be a serial apologist for prejudice."

Copyright, 2007

This Is Why I'm Hot!...or Dialing for Dollars Redux

"I'm hot 'cause I'm fly!
You ain't 'cause you not!
This is why,
This is why,
This is why I'm hot!"
(lyrics by Mims)

I guess somewhere out there some people drew a collective gasp when Barak Obama announced that he'd raised $25M in the first quarter of 2007 for the presidential campaign.

Hillary Clinton was First Lady for eight years and a United States Senator from New York for six years, and she is so instantly recognizable, she is simply Hillary all over the world. But at the end of the day, a comparative newcomer, the Senator from Illinois, has virtually tied Hillary in fundraising ability. It was a foregone conclusion among many of the party regulars and the pundits that the nomination was hers. The aspirations of her challengers on the Democratic side were quixotic at best. What Barak Obama has done is upended those assertions and changed the equation considerably. This is not going to be an annointing.

The rules of the game prescribe a limit on individual contributions of $2,300, for the primaries and another $2,300, for the general election. A candidate can get $4,600 up front. This inflates the total contributions. But if they don't make it to the general election, they'll have to give the money back. Obama has received mostly smaller contributions, eschewing those from lobbyists and PACs.He raised nearly $7M from the internet. While Senator Clinton has the very formidable resource of her husband to help her, and he does, and while she has a much larger pool of contributors from which to draw, the best she could do in this first quarter was stay a little better than even with $26 M. In fact, right now, Senator Obama has about $23M to spend on the primaries, compared to $20M for Senator Clinton. (She does have access to $10M from her Senate campaign.)

From this point on, things will get rougher and meaner. Not just the public maneuverings. Behind the scenes, the pressure on lesser known candidates to drop out will increase. Political leaders and party regulars in all the 50 states are jockying for positions, especially those with early primaries. Hillary, Rudy, and John McCain are leading in some polls, but it's mostly based on name recognition. The game plan for all the candidates now, is to get your opponent to spend more money than he planned on spending, to spend it unwisely, and certainly to spend more money then you! Keep the other guys off balance and off message, distracted by phony issues, and always on the defensive.

An important challenge for the presidential candidates will be to nail down state organizations and prepare for the primary season. There will be a critical, internal struggle going on in all the key primary states for control over the state party machinery, because those are the people who run the primary elections in their respective states. That is why, for example, endorsements from key state officials are important. The Clinton campaign is definitely in a "take no prisoners" mode. They are girded for battle.

There's very little Barak Obama can do about world events upstaging him, as the recent release of the British hostages from Iran might have done. We'll have to see whether or not he can maintain momentum in the face of the awesome, relentless determination of both Bill and Hillary. I cannot help but believe that at least part of Obama's attraction to many voters is because there is something about Barak Obama that is more thoughtful than calculating. And conversely, there is something about Hillary that seems more calculating than thoughtful. The proverbial battle for the White House is about to get a lot more interesting and a lot rougher.

(Copyright, 2007)

Theatre of the Absurd: Part I

Once upon a time, long ago, a man disappeared. Poof! He'd met up with some old friends for a late lunch, and was never seen or heard from again. His name was Jimmy Hoffa. He was an ex-con with ties to organized crime and he was the former president of one of the most powerful labor organizations in the U.S., the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. It happened in July, 1975. He was 62.

He'd started out as a labor organizer during the bleak days of the Great Depression, and earned a reputation for being tough and scrappy and street smart. He was popular with the rank and file, and was eventually elected President of the IBT in 1957. (His mentor, IBT president, Dave Beck, had been convicted of bribery and was on his way to prison.) Hoffa perfected some pretty rough tactics during his time as president and was scary powerful. By 1964, most freight haulers and truckers in North America were Teamsters, and, it is said, he was eyeing air transport.

During that same period, some of the Teamster locals had become little more than cash cows for organized crime, and the Teamster Pension Fund had bankrolled a number of mob -run operations in Las Vegas, The U.S Justice Department spent a lot of time and money trying to nail Hoffa, and in1964, he was finally convicted of bribing a grand juror, and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

In '71, President Nixon commuted his sentence with the stipulation that he stay away from the Teamsters for 10 years. But by '75, Hoffa had decided to challenge that stipulation and regain control of his union. And so he was invited to lunch at a restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, on July 30, 1975, by some old friends to discuss his future.

Ever since his disappearance, more than 30 years ago, there have been uncountable theories proposed about what might have happened,( most agreeing that Jimmy is dead), and many a crazy wild goose chase to find his remains. His body has been assumed, variously, to be part of the foundation of so many construction sites it's taken on the dimensions of a holy relic, with pieces everywhere. Then there's the usual New Jersey landfill theory, or the fact that Hoffa is now part of a car bumper.

Which brings us to Hidden Dreams. Seriously. I am not making this up. May, 2006, the FBI, who we all assumed was really busy with the War On Terror, got a tip about a horse farm. So on a beautiful spring day, they deployed between 40 and 50 agents. Yes. Between 40 and 50 agents, to a horse farm somewhere in Michigan for about two weeks, to look for the remains of a guy who disappeared 30 years ago.

Now, the Detroit News has finally ferreted out the cost of this enterprise from the U.S. Justice Department: $160,000 to replace a barn the FBI had to demolish while searching for remains; $24,741 for excavation; $18,270 for portable horse stalls; $5,418 in anthropological services; $680 for portable toilets, etc. You get the picture. The total bill was over $200,000. But that doesn't include the travel costs or the salaries of the 40 -50 agents involved in the dig. And FBI Director Mueller said he'd do it all again.

(Copyright, 2007)

Dialing For Dollars

The common wisdom holds that we are so fatigued, disenchanted, disillusioned, fed up or repelled by the current White House occupants, that we are looking to the future in ways we never have before. I cite the first marker of this postulate by pointing to what Bill Clinton has described as the first primary, or " Show Me the Money." It seems that now, as the quarterly reports are being filed, the announced presidential candidates have collectively raised more money faster than ever before.

This is when the hype and the posturing hit the wall and reality rears its ugly head. So all the hopes and dreams of a John McCain, who has been searching diligently for his 30 pieces of silver, and all the hype and bravado of Rudy Giuliani, America's Mayor, are crushed in the wake of the Dashing Mormon from Massachusetts. That's right. Darth Romney, amassing $20 M, has out fundraised Rudy and John McCain.

McCain was busy, wandering the streets of Baghdad in time for April Fool's Day, like the sad clown he's become. Rudy's been pre-occupied with personal concerns. Like hitting out at the press for messing with his wife, who had two husbands before him, and whose professional career included killing small animals for a living, when he wasn't dodging questions about his about to be indicted former police chief/bodyguard, and business partner, Bernie Kerik.

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney has been making his robotic presence felt, barely uttering a word about foreign policy! Suddenly he's become viable. Hell! He ran the Olympic Games, why not the country! And so, in the proverbial smoke-filled backrooms all over America, the GOP's power brokers are in panic mode.

Both Thompsons, Tommy and Fred, are on offer. Tommy, the former governor of Illinois and former Bush cabinet secretary, has announced his intention to run for president, while Fred Thompson, lawyer, senator and yes, movie star, was proposed by others. The alacrity with which the possibility of a Fred Thompson candidacy was embraced is almost embarrassing. Now, Fred usually doesn't commit to a role until he's read the script. But let's just say he's mulling this one over.

Problem is, the window is closing. The money scramble is on and there's a finite amount of loose change still rattling around out here. So while the players are all looking for that prize bull (or heifer), the one who can suck all that green oxygen out of the room, the dollars are being parsed and spread thin among the desperate hoards elbowing each other for primacy.

Meanwhile the pas de deux of Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama continues. Hillary filed her report early, and got maximum media mileage out of her $26M war chest. But there are already those thin, stress fractures beginning to emerge. The level of expectations for her is probably higher than for any other candidate in this race. She was First Lady for eight years and has already served one full term in the U.S. Senate. The entire world is on a first name basis with her and she has Bill Clinton. There is no one out here as formidable as the former President when it comes to campaigning or to fundraising. Clinton will only become a liability when the Republican Right choses to make him one during the general election. And they will be much less effective in this regard in 2008 then they ever were.

Obama's people are doing strategic leaking to the New York Times among other news organizations, with estimates of $20M. He is expected to announce his results any minute. If he'd had bad news, the conventional wisdom surmises, he'd have announced it sooner than later. But by waiting, he allows Hillary her day, lets the news cycle digest the information, and when he announces his results, he'll be center stage and looking very viable, indeed. I believe that if his people are, in fact, leaking the $20M figure, it's a baseline. The actual dollar amount will be higher. By waiting, Obama has seized a strategic advantage that may redefine the entire campaign.

The so-called frontrunners have one or possibly two more quarters at best, to solidify their hold. If a Rudy Giuliani or a John Edwards cannot develop enough momentum through public showings to generate a respectable amount of money, the media will spin it as failure, rejection, a vote of no confidence. And with more and more primaries stacking up regionally, it will be awfully hard to "keep hope alive!"

(Copyright, 2007)

sharks vs. tuna:

CNN journalist, Michael Ware spent several years covering the Iraq war at great personal risk. So I understood his astonishment when presidential hopeful John McCain said, recently, that things had improved sufficiently so that there were neighborhoods in Baghdad where Westerners could safely walk the streets.

McCain then showed just what kind of president he'd make by going to Baghdad a few days ago, and walking down the street! The fact that he was accompanied by a troop escort, helicopters, and humvees and wore a bulletproof vest and combat helmet, notwithstanding. I'm reminded of an old Pete Seger song from the Vietnam era anti war movement: "We're waist deep in the Big Muddy, and the old fool says push on!" McCain's public meltdown is painful to watch. I'm almost embarrassed for him. Attorneygate: .

It's not so much that I really care about those eight U.S. Attorneys, or even that they got fired at mid-term. (In fact, less than a dozen U.S. Attorneys have been fired in the past 25 years for reasons of misconduct, according to the Congressional Research Service; one for biting a stripper!) All U. S. Attorneys are presidential appointments, serving at the President's pleasure. So all eight were Republicans who'd demonstrated their loyalty to this president in some fashion. Actually, the firings represent a type of political cannibalism. What all this means to me is that finally, we get rid of Alberto Gonzales, the man who defended NSA wiretaps, who said the Geneva Conventions were obsolete. In fact, during his watch, the U.S. redefined illegal torture and the application (or its lack!) of habeas corpus.

Just keep in mind, while Alberto Gonzales' interpretations of the law and of Executive powers have had far-reaching consequences, like Scooter Libby, he's really small fish. In the panoply of wrong doers spawned by the unchecked power of this administration, he's very nearly a bit player. A tool. As this scenario plays out, it reminds me of a scene from The Godfather Part II :" The family's got a lot of buffers!"

(Copyright, 2007)