Idiot Savant?

Representative Dennis Kucinich, (D) Cleveland, Ohio on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives Sunday, September 28, 2008 as it appeared in The Nation online:

"The $700 billion bailout for Wall Street, is driven by fear not fact. This is too much money in too a short a time going to too few people while too many questions remain unanswered. Why aren't we having hearings on the plan we have just received? Why aren't we questioning the underlying premise of the need for a bailout with taxpayers' money? Why have we not considered any alternatives other than to give $700 billion to Wall Street? Why aren't we asking Wall Street to clean up its own mess? Why aren't we passing new laws to stop the speculation, which triggered this? Why aren't we putting up new regulatory structures to protect investors? How do we even value the $700 billion in toxic assets?

Why aren't we helping homeowners directly with their debt burden? Why aren't we helping American families faced with bankruptcy. Why aren't we reducing debt for Main Street instead of Wall Street? Isn't it time for fundamental change in our debt based monetary system, so we can free ourselves from the manipulation of the Federal Reserve and the banks? Is this the United States Congress or the board of directors of Goldman Sachs? Wall Street is a place of bears and bulls. It is not smart to force taxpayers to dance with bears or to follow closely behind the bulls..."

Theatre of the Absurd: A Big Campaign About Small Things

The choice of Sarah Palin as John McCain's vice presidential running mate tells us a lot about the Republican Party that we already know: They don't care about governing, they only care about winning. Secondly, John McCain and his "handlers" have their own notions about the "right kind" of woman to be our first female Vice President. Someone who will be colorful and entertaining and baldly appeal to the fundamentalists' base.

The "Feisty Reformer" is just as illusory as "Maverick." While the Republicans are busy packaging their figureheads with the goal of closing the sale, the Democrats are busy looking for people who "understand the issues," or who have the necessary "credentials." They cite the Harvard Law Review, while John McCain cites a Miss Alaska runner - up. The complicit media breathlessly describe McCain's choice as a "game-changer." They're right. But not in the way they mean it.

Too many people have serious, urgent concerns about the economy. Many of them are even Republicans. Some have expressed concern about McCain's penchant, in this campaign, to do nothing but attack his opponent, while proposing little in the way of relief, callously ignoring what the people in this country, including loyal Republicans, many of them small business owners, are facing. Some Republicans expressed hope that once McCain picked a running mate, and the convention began, things would change. We would hear some concrete proposals. McCain's pick demonstrates to them that things are trending in a different, albeit more familiar direction.

John McCain just threw a "Hail Mary " pass. The only function Sarah Palin has is to shore up the right wing, religious extremists' support for McCain. McCain's strategists also cling to the thin hope that she will attract disgruntled Hillary supporters. But to suggest such a thing is insulting. So her usefulness is limited. Secondly, there are undecided, economically distressed Republicans, and some Democrats, who have been sitting on the fence. Many of them just jumped off that fence and onto the Obama bandwagon. Finally, there were serious, moderate, practical people on the Republican side, who were hoping for Romney, Ridge, Pawlenty, or Leiberman. Their disappointment is palpable. What McCain is saying to them and to the American voters is that he will bluster his way thru the presidency, the way he's crashed thru every other important passage in his public life. There has never been a Vice Presidential nominee so singularly unqualified for this position since Dan Quayle.

Instead of demonstrating leadership and sound judgement, a steady hand in perilous times, McCain is playing to the cheap seats. He is less a maverick, then he is just an erratic, egotistical narcissist. Some people are suggesting the Democrats have to "be careful "not to attack Governor Palin. Hopefully those people won't regard a robust discussion of the issues as "attacks." This is a woman who's slender record and public pronouncements has shown that she promotes her religious beliefs as public policy. The question is whether the corporate shills in the mainstream media will do the vetting the American people need and that John McCain's campaign clearly has not done.

Sarah Palin has been governor for less then two years.This candidate who aspires to be "one heartbeat away from the presidency" of a 72 year old cancer survivor, admitted recently she didn't keep up with or know much about the war in Iraq. This woman is now the running mate of the man who admitted a few weeks ago, he didn't know much about the economy. At a time when most Americans are concerned about larger issues, I'm afraid all the Republicans are serving up is "...a big campaign about small things."

Media Darling

By Jim Rutenberg for the New York Times

WASHINGTON - The number of times Senator John McCain’s new advertisement attacking Senator Barack Obama for canceling a visit with wounded troops in Germany last week has been shown fully or partly on local, national and cable newscasts: well into the hundreds.

The number of times that spot actually, truly ran as a paid commercial: roughly a dozen.
Result for Mr. McCain: a public relations coup that allowed him to show his toughest campaign advertisement of the year — one widely panned as misleading — to millions of people, largely free, through television news media hungry for political news with arresting visual imagery.

Definitions

Arrogance - an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions ;

Arrogant - 1. making claims or pretensions to superior importance or rights; overbearingly assuming; insolently proud; 2. characterized by, or proceeding from arrogance: arrogant claims.

The Speech

"... that wasn't a campaign speech. That was a presidential speech. It is headed not straight to cable news networks, but to high school classrooms, to rhetoric and composition syllabuses, and to the history books. It is the first successful attempt by a twenty-first century politician to define the inequalities that still fracture American society and to link racial injustice to the other forms of psychic and material oppression experienced by the vast majority of Americans--because of the consolidation of economic, political, and cultural power in the hands of 5% of the population, because of this morally insane and economically ruinous war, because of the spinelessness of lobbyist-owned politicians who think it's more important to keep the health care industry happy than to keep their constitutents healthy, because the manufacturing economy that sustained the working class has disappeared and because the middle class is severely threatened. It is the kind of thing that most presidential candidates either cannot do or will not do because they consider it too dangerous to ask Americans to listen to anything they haven't already heard, or--heaven forbid--to think about what they're hearing...."


This quote, from a blogger called The Plaid Adder, who posted in on the democraticunderground blog, is probably the best description of Senator Obama's speech to address Race. I wouldn't even try to improve on it.

How Geraldine Ferraro Got Important. Or: The "Other" Democratic Party.

In the Democratic Party's imaginary "big tent" there's lots of room for fractious constituencies who are permanently at odds with one another. Those who support civil rights, women's rights, organized labor, gay rights, anti-war activists, and a collection of ethnic groups and interest groups, are often portrayed as willing to overcoming differences to stand united as one party, imagining itself a very forward thinking organization. But during the 1984 primary campaign season, Rev. Jesse Jackson, a Democratic presidential candidate, was threatening this myth of party unity.

Walter Mondale, Jimmy Carter's vice president, won the nomination in 1984, while Jesse Jackson won 5 primaries, drawing 21% of the popular vote, but only 8% of the delegates. Most Democratic Party leaders felt that, while his showing might earn him a place at the table, it did not indicate he was a serious contender. Nevertheless, no one was prepared to ignore Jackson and risk alienating the Black vote, still viewed by many as a monolith, and rightly regarded as one of the most loyal constituencies in Democratic Party politics. Jesse was in no way prepared to quietly acknowledge defeat and fall in line behind the party leadership. He charged that the selection/nominating process was flawwed, he publicly criticized Walter Mondale, and he called attention to himself, insisting he be acknowledged as a formidable political leader, in as many ways as he could.

Mondale, who'd been a progressive senator from Minnesota before becoming Carter's vice president, was comfortable with both Democratic labor and civil rights leadership, and wanted to demonstrate thru his actions, that he was all about unifying the party. Mondale was determined to do everything possible to hold his fragile coalition of labor and civil rights leaders together, believing, as in the old days, that they could deliver their constituencies.

In reality, the so-called Reagan Democrats comprised largely of blue collar, non-college educated, "hard-working, white Americans" was not a phenomenon unique to the election of Ronald Reagan, but a wing of the Democratic Party that was largely ignored in public discourse. It visibly asserted itself by voting against it's own interests, due to a strong strain of what is politely referred to as "social conservatism." Both Goldwater and Nixon tapped into this "vast, silent majority of Americans" in 1964 and 1968, respectively. Reagan was just more effective in using it both in 1980, and in 1984.

Jesse Jackson was determined to use his popularity and political influence as leverage during the 1984 general election. But no one was quite sure what Jesse wanted in concrete terms, and to what purpose, besides his own personal advancement, he would use his leverage. There was genuine concern that Jesse would upend the "unity" applecart the Democratic Party had been busily constructing, and adversely affect the outcome of the general election.

When the United States Conference of Mayors gathered in Philadelphia, for it's annual meeting in June, 1984, a core group of African American leaders decided to convene a private gathering of their own. Among those present were Coretta Scott King, Julian Bond, Rev. Joseph Lowery, Charles Rangel, a few other members of Congress, and a number of Black mayors who were attending the USCM meeting. They sat at a u-shaped table in a conference room in a hotel in downtown Philadelphia, to discuss their role in the 1984 presidential campaign, and in particular, what they should do about Jesse Jackson. They wanted Jesse, who did not attend the meeting, to stand with them. Everyone believed 1984 would be one of the most important elections in their lives. It was critical that he be included, that they unite, get behind someone who could win, and go all out to support the ticket.

Black mayors of decaying urban centers were pragmatists, who wanted a president who recognized the challenges they faced: problems attracting and financing economic development, aging infrastructures, poverty, crime, unemployment, and unequal educational opportunities. They saw the progress they'd made when Jimmy Carter was in the White House, quickly evaporating during four years of Ronald Reagan. They wanted the Carter years back again. After they met, they were joined by top advisors to Walter Mondale, in order to forge a workable agreement. This coalition of African American leaders finally agreed to unite behind Mondale as the party's presidential nominee. It was not perfect, and it was far from smooth, but it was a workable coalition, and as much as he ever would, Jesse eventually cooperated in his own way.

Walter Mondale chose Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate. While women made up more then 51.3% of the population, she was the first woman chosen for the national ticket of a major party. Ferraro is Italian-American, as is her husband. By October, 1984, the vice presidential nominee was embroiled in scandal. Geraldine and her husband were battling rumors and allegations, gleefully reported by the media, portraying her husband as a corrupt, shady businessman.

Since they were Italian, in the popular imagination, it was pretty easy to promote the notion they were corrupt. I mean, weren't all Italians in the mafia? And they were from New York. By then, since so many people associated New York with The Godfather, the only mystery was which one of the "five families" did Geraldine Ferraro belong to?

These attempts to smear Ferraro resonated with ordinary, working class Americans who responded to fear of "others." The so-called quintessential "immigrant experience" so vitally important to many Americans on the Eastern seaboard, (including Michael Dukakis, four years later,) was not necessarily a shared experience across the American heartland, where "foreigners" were often viewed with suspicion.

Just days before the election, the Mondale/ Ferraro ticket held a national Get Out The Vote rally. They set up huge screens in convention centers and arenas in major cities across the country, to teleconference the events. I attended one such gathering, held downtown in a major city. A prominent Black leader was our main speaker that night. He talked about how important this election was, how important it was to get out the vote. But the thing I remembered most, is that he took that opportunity to defend Geraldine Ferraro. He drew a parallel between the bigotry directed at Ferraro, and the discrimination and racism African Americans often experienced. He felt she was being smeared because she was Italian.

I thought of it today, when I witnessed a rare, unscripted moment this morning on CNN. A young, soft-spoken African American man, an Obama supporter, was part of a panel discussing Geraldine Ferraro's recent racist remarks against Barack Obama. The young man said it had disappointed him particularly, because he remembered as a young child, passing out literature, and campaigning for the Mondale/Ferraro ticket.

Ferraro is a member of Clinton's advisory team and one of her fundraisers. The worst thing Hillary Clinton can do, is continue to play the race card. And yes, she is entirely responsible for this. It comes to the fore with strategic regularity. Doesn't matter if it's a hired gun, or her husband, a supporter, like the governor of Pennsylvania, or a Finance Committee member, like Geraldine Ferraro. This is part of a deliberate, planned strategy. There are divisions in this country. Divisions between Black and White, between Latinos and Blacks, between gays and straights, between rich and poor. Hillary is an internationally recognized public figure, on a first name basis with the entire world. She is also a United States Senator, and a former First Lady. She has, in those respects, some weight and some authority.

To the degree Hillary feels like she must achieve her goals by being destructive and negative, by using divisive tactics, fear mongering and race-baiting, she is showing the worst part of who we are. I could not support her and feel very good about myself, because I would be sanctioning the behavior of someone who has the capacity, but lacks the will, to function at a higher level. As far as I'm concerned, Hillary Clinton has already lost a lot more then a mere election.

Copyright, 2008

Ironies II: Keep the Faith!

After Senators Clinton and Obama broke even in the Nevada Caucus, Obama headed to Atlanta, while Hillary spent some time campaigning in NYC. On the eve of the holiday commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday, Senator Clinton reminisced about seeing Dr. King in Chicago, when she attended a rally with her church's youth group. She described it as a "transforming moment" in her life.

The Abyssinian Baptist Church, where Senator Clinton was speaking, is one of the most historically important churches in Harlem. It was home to Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., who Doris Kearns Goodwin describes as "arguably the most powerful African American politician of the 20th Century..." Powell, who succeeded his father as pastor, was a member of the New York City Council and won his first election to the United States Congress in 1944. In order to do it, he had to outmaneuver the legendary forces of Tammany Hall.

Wil Haygood points out in his seminal biography, King of the Cats, "...Adam Clayton Powell... emerged ahead of the other Harlem figures - the ones with law degrees, the ones with political reputations, the ones who considered him too radical...Harlem, so celebrated for its cultural renaissance, was now on the cusp of a political renaissance..."

At that time, Harlem had no lack of Black leadership. The era when Adam Clayton Powell emerged as a political force, coincided with the the times of A. Philip Randolph and W.E.B. Dubois. Fred Morton, an African American, was the "go to" guy at Tammany Hall for Harlemites, and Roy Wilkins and Benjamin J. Davis were also growing in prominence. Herbert Bruce fancied himself a Black political kingmaker. In fact, Wil Haygood tells us, Bruce had forged a connection of sorts between many of the more progressive reformers in Harlem and the politicians at Tammany Hall. But when Tammany finally endorsed Powell for Congress, Bruce was so angry, he told the New York Times that he "...could not endorse Powell, because he feared that Powell would bring about "bloodshed" between the races."

Powell's true power base, his main leveraging tool, aside from his own brilliance and a stunning audacity, was the love and the support of the people of Harlem. He'd earned their trust and their loyalty with old fashioned, grassroots community organizing. He'd supported their rent strikes, and set up emergency food and shelter for them during the darkest days of the Great Depression. He energized and encouraged them. The basement of his church was a hub of activity in service to the community. In Washington, he continued his fight for racial equality and for fair employment practices. As Chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, he spearheaded the blizzard of legislation through Congress that would become LBJ's War On Poverty. School lunch programs and breakfast programs, but in particular, Project Head Start, owe their existence, largely, to Adam Clayton Powell.

In 1966, Powell's mostly self-inflicted legal problems exposed him to censure by his colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was stripped of his committee assignments, denied his seat, and expelled from Congress. In 1969, he was re-instated, but without his seniority. In 1970, an embittered Adam Clayton Powell lost his seat to Charles Rangel, who won the primary by 150 votes. Powell had appealed Congress's actions against him to the United States Supreme Court. The Court eventually ruled in his favor, it would be Chief Justice Earl Warren's last decision, saying that Congress had overreached and had no authority to deny Powell his seat or his seniority. Adam Clayton Powell died April 4, 1972. He was sixty-four.

He'd served as a member of Congress for nearly thirty years, and he left a very big footprint. One that Charles Rangel has never been able to fill. Through the years since Powell has been consigned to the judgements of history, a great many presumptive political leaders, wanting something from Harlem, have made the pilgrimage to the Abyssinian Baptist Church. So it is no surprise that, in her quest for support in the African American community, Senator Clinton chose this Civil Rights citadel for her Harlem appearance, along with Congressman Rangel, who has endorsed her.

Powell would have thundered in outrage at the convoluted logic that permitted the current pastor, Calvin Butts, to present his labored rationale for denying Obama his support, in favor of Hillary Clinton. A vote is a tangible, quantifiable means to measure a candidate's value to you. Support has to be earned. Usually, the candidate will have DONE SOMETHING to EARN your support.

Posing for a photo opportunity at an historic church while saying some polite things about Martin Luther King, Jr. isn't enough. Being on a first name basis with the world, and being a former First Lady isn't enough. (Even Betty Ford founded a clinic!) Having served as senator from New York for eight years, with an undistinguished record, is definitely not enough. Tell me what you stand for, Adam would thunder! Tell me why I should support you. Tell me what you have done on my behalf. Adam Clayton Powell, certainly understood stewardship, and he understood leadership, and he understood power. And at this point, he would have wrapped his arms around Barack Obama, and given the congregation his signature admonition: "Keep the faith, baby!"

(Copyright, January 20, 2008)

Ironies

On April 4, 2008, we will celebrate the 80th birthday of an extraordinary woman. Her childhood was spent shuttling back and forth from her grandma's dry goods store in Stamps, Arkansas, to her mother in St. Louis, Missouri.

Anyone who's read, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" will surely gain a deeper appreciation of the experiences which formed Maya Angelou as a woman, and as one of the Mothers in Struggle of the modern Civil Rights Movement in the United States. She has been a visiting lecturer at UCLA, an actor, a director, a Broadway producer, but most notably a writer. A writer of stories and songs and most of all, most sublimely, a writer of poetry. She taught at the University of Ghana at Accra in the 1960's and spent considerable time in that country, where, she once said, she felt more American, than she'd ever felt up until that point, in America.

She once wrote a beautiful poem, called "On the Pulse of Morning." And because of her Arkansas roots, she was invited to recite it in 1993, at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton. Her participation brought her to national prominence and to a whole new audience. There was a demand for copies of the poem which was rushed to print in a slim, attractive, hard-cover volume. Today, when many people think of Maya Angelou, they often think of Bill Clinton, and that wonderful moment in January, 1993, when she recited a poem at his inaugural.
So right now, with my mind at the boiling point with too many things to say, and a righteous sense of anger welling up in me, I realized I needed help to say what I felt needed saying.


I thought of Langston, and his Dream Deferred...I thought of Sterling Brown and his "Strong men just keep coming..." but then I remembered Maya. And another poem she'd written.
And I thought it suited the occasion very well:

And Still I Rise

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?'
Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,

Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard

'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise

Up from a past that's rooted in pain

I rise

I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear,

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

A Guest Column: The History of Iowa as Told By My Great Aunt Fanny

Once upon a time long ago in another century, not too many states even had primaries. And they were non-binding anyway. Just popularity contests, because the party bosses got together and picked the delegates to go to the convention. They could assure the delegates stayed "bound" to a particular candidate, because they still had to come home and face the music if they didn't.


It was a time of smoke-filled rooms and deal-making. Politics was fun and corrupt and juicy! Then party reform reared it's ugly head. More primaries were added in various states and they were binding. Binding means that's how the delegates were picked. To make it palatable to the state chairs and party bosses, they made a category of "super-delegates" that could be selected by the bosses, and also included elected officials.


Primaries grew into an industry. They created jobs for "organizers" and out of work advertising executives. They gave people opportunities to raise money and plan events for things outside their monthly block club meetings and church suppers. They created opportunities for a lot of people in each state to get close to a candidate. If the candidate wins, they now have a new BFF who is President of the United States, POTUS, to insiders. They also get to be BFF with people right there in their state who would never give them the time of day were it not for these political events. It spread the notion that people were important. Even if it was only in their own minds. Local media loved it, bcz it generated lots of advertising dollars for radio and TV.



Some states held on to their closed caucuses, but many began opting for primary elections at which delegates would be selected. A closed primary meant you had to declare your party affiliation before you could vote. An open primary meant you could say anything or nothing and vote. Much mischief occurs in these scenarios. But, oh well.


Back to Iowa. So there was this guy who decided he wanted to run for president. He'd been governor of a southern state for a while, he was a proud, born-again Christian who taught Sunday School, and he ran a farm. And he had big teeth and strange looking children. His eccentric mother joined the Peace Corps, his sister was an evangelist who drove a motorcycle and his brother was...well... he was a "good ol' boy."




Anyway, when other candidates started getting excited about New Hampshire, which was STILL the first primary election, scheduled in early February, this guy, because he had no money to speak of, and because he was scared of New Hampshire and they were scared of him, (neither liked someone who "talked funny.") this guy heard about the state party caucuses in Iowa. He knew Iowa had lots of farms.


He thought of himself as a farmer, so he went to Iowa. And he brought a few faithful staff people along, and they organized the hell out of Iowa. He spent a lot of time visiting with the farmers, sipping coffee with them in their living rooms, and attending their church services. Sometimes, he even spent the night at their houses, because motels cost money he didn't have, and everywhere he went, he said, "Hi. I'm Jimmy Carter and I'm running for president." And he won the Iowa Caucus. And that's how Iowa got important.

copyright, 2008

Impossible!

The White House announced today that Karl Rove is resigning and going back to Texas to spend more time with his family and probably write a book. Seriously. This is comparable to President Bush saying that he made a huge mistake in going into Iraq, and announcing an immediate pullout that would have all our troops home for Christmas. And now, as the pundits weigh in, we are hearing that the Rove resignation is a signal that the dreams of a permanent Republican majority are shattered, all is lost, Bush's agenda is a failure, etc., etc., etc.

Look. That's just crap, OK? Karl may formally resign his post in the White House, but he is definitely not going back to Texas to spend time with his family and write a book. He will be up to his creased, greasy little neck in political skullduggery on a grand scale. Working for his still unrealized dream, his "permanent Republican majority," as defined by Karl Rove.

My guess is he may write off the 2008 presidential campaign except for some light consulting and some paid speaking engagements to fire up the RNC's fundraising abilities. But no heavy lifting. There's a lot of money still to be made out here in the land of international consulting, and Karl is on the "cutting edge" so to speak, nicely positioned to do very well!

After all, he's already performed the impossible: At the very same time he trivialized the Presidency, he greatly expanded the powers of the Executive Branch. (He also thoroughly gutted and debased his own political party, but that's another column.) At some point in the not too distant future, I can see him sequestered with his charts, and his numbers, and his good old precinct by precinct analyses of the relevant states. Maybe he'll spend his time developing a strategy, and tinkering with his tactics (Karl's ALL about tactics.), and rebuilding, so the Republicans, as he has redefined them, can take Congress back in 2010.

You really don't need to be a genius to figure Karl Rove out. He isn't masterful. He's base. At heart, he is just a vicious, mean-spirited, nasty little man. He doesn't think big. He is a consummate cynic. He thinks small. His entire toxic strategy is based on distorting information to deliberately keep people in the dark, which, in a democracy should be a capital crime, and playing to people's fears. The reason he's been so amazingly effective, is because too many people abdicated their own responsibility, and surrendered their autonomy to him. He did what he did, because we let him.

Karl Rove callously redefined the concept of corruption in a democratic system of government in scope and on a scale we never dreamed possible. It would be easy to write that all off as part of some huge conspiracy. The collusion by the corporate conglomerates that run our news media. Wall Street. Halliburton. Enron. The oil guys. The drug companies. Lobbyists. But the fact is, both parties in Congress were supposed to be our firewall. Instead, the concept of checks and balances was alien to them.They should have been there for us, but they hung us out to dry. They just caved in. And so did too many of us.

It is both absolutely correct, and a gross over simplification to hang this eight year disaster solely around the necks of Rove, Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney. We all own a piece of it. One thing is sure. We've had eight hellish years to really experience Karl's political vision of America. If he stages a comeback, we have only ourselves to blame. The pundits can speculate about what this so called announced resignation means for days. But one thing we should all be able to agree on, is that this so-called resignation doesn't mean anything at all.

Copyright, 2007

A Musing I

An audit released last week from the General Accounting Office, reports that the Defense Department lost 110,000 AK 47 rifles, 80,000 pistols, and 135,000 pieces of body armor, that were given to Iraqi soldiers to help them defend themselves against insurgents. General Petraeus has admitted that no records were kept of who got them. He speculated that it could be a clerical error. Yeah. It could be. Except that they are physically missing...not missing "on paper..." Ever the optimist, the general observed that, "Just because we don't know where they are, doesn't mean the enemy has them." Right. Add this loss to 300,000 barrels a day of Iraqi crude oil missing over the last four years, according to news reports. ..and 12 billion American tax dollars...also missing in Iraq...oh. And 380 tons of explosives.

(This information was originally presented in a neat package by Jon Stewart in a segment of The Daily Show on August 8th. I felt it bore repeating. I'd also seen coverage of the missing weapons on various news broadcasts, among, but not limited to, CNN and ABC News. TDS puts it in context...)

Copyright, 2007

Theatre of the Absurd III: Heads of State

President Bush recently entertained his staunchest ally at Camp David, President Karzai, of Afghanistan, or, as he is popularly known, the Mayor of Kabul. (Kudos to Jon Stewart). With public opinion polls consistently showing his approval ratings in the 23% - 28% range, and criticism of the President's policies mounting, I bet Mr. Bush felt reassured to know Mr. Karzai really appreciates everything the Bush Administration has done in Afghanistan.

Over the past three years, the Afghan opium trade is flourishing again, warlords now control much more of the country, and the Taliban, after four years of being in "remission," is now resurgent. In fact, with the recent phenomenon of suicide bombings added to their repertoire, Afghanistan is beginning to look a little bit more like Iraq every day. And conversely, with less than one third of Iraqis now having access to clean water and electricity, Iraq is beginning to look more and more like Afghanistan. If Iraq's situation gets anymore desperate, they may even decide to accept workers from Iran to help them rebuild their villages, as Mr. Karzai has done recently in Afghanistan!

According to BBC news, Oxfam, a respected international charity, is claiming that:
"... currently, 70% of all Iraqis don't have access to adequate water supplies, and less than 20% have access to effective sanitation." This, after more than five years of direct, hands on, American support for both countries. (We recently learned that Iraq's main power grid is on the verge of total collapse. A spokesman for the Electricity Ministry said Iraq is only meeting half of the demand for electricity as it is, and there have been four nationwide blackouts in a one week period in the last month.)

Usually, when heads of state visit President Bush, our guy likes to show off a little bit. It's the Texan in him. So there was the usual news conference, which President Bush often dominates, while his guests sit with a bemused grin plastered on their faces. It's usually at this moment, that Mr Bush offers profound observations on the state of things, in an attempt to demonstrate that he always reads all of his daily briefings, and knows who's who and what's what. Karzai's visit was no exception. You see, with our Presidential Campaign heating up, Senator Barack Obama drew major international attention in the past week or so, by saying he'd go into Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan, using military force to bring our Al Qaeda enemies to their knees. Barack to Pakistan: " If you won't do it, we will." This caused quite a mess in diplomatic circles in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. There is a mountainous border region they share, where our enemies come and go at will. Neither governments' forces are willing to root out these terrorist camps. Pakistan claims the region is totally ungovernable.

The average American can understand Barack Obama's frustration. After all, these are the same terrorists who killed 3,000 people in New York City. By flying planes into buildings. And their ring leader and mastermind, the heart and soul of this terrorist movement, is still alive and functioning more than six years after he orchestrated the bloodiest attack we've ever suffered on our own soil.

In fact, the reason why brave young men like Pat Tillman enlisted in the military, was to fight in Afghanistan, against the people who attacked us. In an attempt to put Senator Obama and a growing chorus of critics in their place, and to remind his dear friend, President Karzai, just who is in charge of US foreign policy, Mr. Bush finally explained to the the Afghan head of state, the American people, and the rest of the world, the reason why Osama and his minions have been immune to all efforts to capture him. He said, "We could catch him tomorrow...if we knew where he was. We'd catch him, if we had good, actionable intelligence...better intelligence." His words, not mine. How tragically simple.

Well, of course we would, Mr. President. Except, didn't we have him pinned down somewhere outside Kandahar in the late fall of 2001? And he just evaporated like a puff of smoke and escaped? Well, today, Mr. Bush explained that, too. You see, there was no kill order six years ago! The military had to sort of call a time out to try to find someone in Washington who was up high enough to give permission to take Osama out. But today, all that was straightened out once and for all. Today, the military was told, you no longer have to ask. Just do it. If the situation is such that you need to take the shot, take the shot. Which is, basically, what a very frustrated Barack Obama intends to do.

Copyright, August, 2007

The Shark vs. The Tuna III or Them's Parsing Words!

Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee,has been issuing a virtual blizzard of subpoenas for The White House to appear and testify before his committee about the amount of influence and direction the Department of Justice had from various White House staffers, to operate illegal wiretaps on U.S. citizens. Of course, The White House thumbed its nose at Leahy ..and us, incidently, by claiming Executive Privilege and directing both former and present staff NOT to testify. Which brings us to Karl Rove. Karl Rove is one of the guys who used the Republican National Committee's e-mail (which gets purged about every 30 days,) as a bypass to conduct White House business he didn't want as part of the public record... In doing this, he was probably violating the law regarding the maintaining of documents and records for the administration throughout a president's term of office...for posterity's sake, and now, more and more likely, to conduct criminal investigations. Karl was not alone in this. In fact, it now appears that it was a widespread, accepted practice to break the law, so much so that few people (we may now call them Rovians, which makes them seem part of a cult...which they may well be) ever questioned the appropriateness of using the RNC e-mail system. It just seemed easier. In the past few weeks, we've learned that there may be thousands upon thousands of e-mails to review.

But if Karl is "a part of" the White House, there is another, separate problem. To really cover all the bases, Mr. Leahy also subpoenaed the office of the Vice President, Dick Cheney, who is specifically named in the subpoena. Senator Leahy was compelled to this level of specificity with the Vice President since the Vice President's announcement that he is not a part of the Executive Branch of government. He is also not a part of the Legislative Branch. Nor the Judicial Branch. He is a uniquely placed power unto himself, separate and apart from everything else. Or, as psychiatrists like to say, "...a "special" circumstance."

Of course, a major area of continuing concern for Mr. Leahy as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committe and for his colleague, Congressman John Conyers, who chairs the House Judiciary committee, is Alberto Gonzales. Alberto, who allowed the White House to run the Justice Department's illegal wiretaps program as well as permitting other excesses by the Executive Branch which, incidently, Mr. Cheney is not a part of. Usually, the Attorney General is in charge of the Justice Department. Separate and apart from the White House. Except, at one point in time, Mr. Gonzales was a part of the White House as General Counsel to the President. It can be very confusing to a mere private citizen. But I can also understand Mr. Gonzales' confusion insofar as his role or lack thereof is concerned. Alberto continued to see himself as "a part of" rather than "apart from." His belief system in this regard, was re-enforced by his former colleagues (specifically, the Rovians) at the White House. But I must applaud Mr. Gonzales' determination to sift through his confusion and get it right! He recently testified before Congress yet again, and insisted he would never ever resign, but that he would stay, and fix the problems at the Justice Department, (which he created), and get to the bottom of things and make them be better...and he also wants to spend his life in helping little children...and being kinder to small animals. Seriously.

Theatre of the Absurd: II

Remember a few years ago, when the buzz word was "yellow cake?" The stuff they get from uranium to make bombs? The stuff that African country, Niger, was supposed to be sending to Saddam Hussein so he could nuke us? When George Bush was talking about it in his State of the Union message five years ago, it sounded very sinister.

OK. Well something even more sinister has reared it's ugly head. And you know the Internet. Rumors spread with the speed of light, only faster.
The new buzzword is "gum arabic. " And this time it's the Sudan that is threatening us with something even bigger than nuclear weapons. Something that will cut into the very fiber of our nation, and destroy our way of life. It will affect our homes, our kids, our relationships with friends and neighbors, and our relationship with our dentists!!! The emulsifier gum arabic, is the key ingredient in soda pop. And the Sudan provides 80% of the world supply of gum arabic.

Apparently, the Sudanese Ambassador to the United States is furious. His country has been totally misrepresented by some opportunistic movie stars who are determined to generate publicity for themselves at the expense of innocent public officials. What's even worse, following the pack mentality that Hollywood stars have, so many of them have gotten so much attention about the small matter of Darfur, which is a region of the Sudan, that the President of the United States recently announced sanctions in an attempt to end the violence in the region. Of course, this isn't the first time elected officials have been misinformed and acted on the public pressure created by publicity seeking celebrities.

The Sudanese ambassador, John Ukec Lueth Ukec, was deeply insulted at the way people like George Clooney and Don Cheadle have portrayed his country, effectively shaping public opinion. At a recent news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., he portrayed his beleaguered democracy as engaged in an uphill struggle to change the public perception of the Sudan, and of the problems that are being totally misrepresented in Darfur. He thinks it's

high time another point of view was heard. Because all we know of the Darfur region of the Sudan, we learned from people like George. And according to George, (Clooney. You wouldn't expect George Bush to know this stuff!) the government of the Sudan is supporting a terrorist militia called the Janjaweed, who are engaged in genocide in the Darfur region. The quantifiable human costs so far are nearly one million people dead. Murdered. Many of them hacked to death, including starving children in the relative safety of camps.

There are no safe places in Darfur, or anywhere else, when the government itself is the enemy. In fact, the total breakdown in anything resembling social order, has made it impossible to get supplies of food, water, and humanitarian aid to the people of the Darfur region. For the nearly 2 million who have been fortunate enough to get out, a refugee crisis has been created, that has overburdened neighboring countries totally unprepared to absorb the sudden influx of so many in such desperate need of help.

At least that's what that cunning manipulator, George Clooney and his cohorts would have you believe. According to Ambassador Ukec, there is no genocide, there are no refugees, and there have been no massacres. The Sudanese government he represents are, "...agents of peace." In spite of the millions currently starving in the Darfur region, he described the Sudan, itself, as "...the breadbasket of the world!"

In any event, his country is so incensed at all these misrepresentations, and especially at the new sanctions announced by President Bush, that he more than implied that such acts by the United States could have dire consequences. As one insider put it, "This is hardball! Everything is on the table"... including the consideration of the suspension of shipments of gum arabic. This could not come at a worse time for the U.S. economy. The dollar is falling steadily. The prospect of higher home heating costs loom large for the coming winter. The fact that our chicken, our beef, and our pet foods may be poisonous is upsetting. And now, they want to mess with our Coca Cola. How much more can we take?

Wake Me When It's Over: I

Sometimes we forget that part of Congress's job is to look over the President's shoulder. W hasn't had anyone looking over his shoulder for so long, that no one in the Bush administration feels like they have to answer to anyone. So If it appears as if things are unravelling with these Congressional hearings sprouting up, it's because they are.

Take a look at Attorneygate. And you know that spins off into other matters beyond simply firing 8 U.S. attorneys. There's the issue of way too much influence exerted by White House staff. There's the issue of deliberately attempting to suppress the vote in the 2006 elections, there's the issue of the constitutionality of domestic spying and wiretaps, the apparent suspension of habeas corpus, the issue of torturing prisoners, and there's the issue of extra-ordinary rendition, where the U.S. outsources the torturing of prisoners, or terrorist "suspects." (And when you think about Americans missing in Iraq, or anywhere else for that matter, the torture issue becomes pretty important. )

No wonder poor John Ashcroft resigned his post as Attorney General and went home to re-launch a career with his Barbershop Quartet. Imagine for a moment this guy being really sick in the hospital with a fever, and IVs, doped up with painkillers, fresh out of surgery, barely conscious in a darkened room, and suddenly, you, the guy he appointed to handle things while he was gone, come racing into his hospital room, squawling like a scalded cat.

Because you've just informed the White House that what they wanted to do with wiretaps is unconstitutional. Illegal. No legal standing. They cannot do it. You will not cover up such actions under the shredded cloak of legality. You will not provide them any cover on it. And you were just forewarned that the President of the United States, himself, was sending some goons, ( his Chief of Staff, Andrew Card. Think Tom Hagen here, and his General Counsel, Alberto "Torture is Good!" Gonzales. Think Lucca Brazzi) to the hospital with documents they will insist the real AG to sign off on.

They aren't going to deal with some low life surrogate toad! They want the REAL Attorney General, the legally recognized, Constitutionally- mandated Officer in Charge, to follow legal procedures, and sign off on allowing them to violate the law. And when they arrive, only moments after you, they ask him, John Ashcroft, to sign off. They tell him they need the AG's signature. And in a pain-clogged voice, he raises his trembling hand, points to you and says, "He's the AG right now. Deal with it!"

Of course you can tell Congress this chilling tale now, since you don't work there anymore. Tell them about that rare moment when you stood up to the thuggery in this White House, that respects no law. It makes you wonder. How many other horror stories like this are out there. Like kids who suppress memories of abuse by their parents, will the flashes of memory, these nightmares of post traumatic stress, cause more Congressional confessionals?? One can hope!

(Copyright,2007)

When a Shark Becomes a Tuna I

The Board of Directors of the World Bank announced that President Paul Wolfowitz will resign effective June 30, 2007. It was not known at the time we went to press (LOL!) what would become of Shaha Riza. There are rumors she's starting her own girl group.
(Copyright, 2007)

sharks vs. tuna II

When we last looked in on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, he was preparing for his testimony before Congress on the matter of the firings of 8 U.S. attorneys. He has since testified and some one claims he used the phrase, "I don't remember," at least 200 times. I think that number is inflated, but I understand. It seemed like 200 times.

Around that same time, Alberto's former Justice Department liaison to the White House, Monica Goodling, who might easily be mistaken for a more tactful version of Ann Coulter, compared Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and his committee hearings on the U.S. Attorney firings, to a witchhunt, and said Leahy was just exactly like Senator Joe McCarthy. In fact, the whole enterprise smacked of McCarthyism to Monica. She said these things in a prepared statement, as though it were sufficient rationale for taking the 5th against self incrimination, as she fully intended to do, before any committee of Congress investigating her for any reason at all, including parking tickets she might have incurred in Georgetown.

Enter, stage left, Judge Thomas Hogan, who has finally ruled that "Monica Goodling may not refuse to testify and may not refuse to provide other information when compelled to do so..." So Monica has been granted limited Immunity in order to testify, like, right now, before the House Judiciary Committee chaired by Congressman John Conyers. Conyers described her testimony as "critical" to the hearings.

And because we relish continuity and cohesion in our presentations, this all leads back to the White House and our proverbial bridesmaid, Karl Rove.

It seems that in the fall of 2006, Karl was suddenly vitally interested in instances of voter fraud in the 2006 elections. We're talking about October, 2006. Never mind that the elections hadn't yet occurred. Karl deals in perception. He works offense, not defense.

Karl was worried about New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, specifically, and probably others would be added to his short list as the need arose. Those three states were described as "battleground" states needed to retain control of Congress. The issue, in Karl's mind, if no where else, was voter fraud being perpetrated against Republicans. (I know.) So, Alberto Gonzales' chief of staff at that time, (He's not there anymore.) Kyle Sampson, allegedly supplied another Gonzales aide, Matt Friedrich, with a 30 page "report" provided by Republican party "activists" making these voter fraud claims.

U.S. attorneys from those states as well as from others, who did not initiate investigations and lawsuits on voter fraud, and incidently create a big public furor about it, made the White House hit list. Of course, there were also indictments sought by political enemies of various GOP operatives as well.

You see, as more and more testimony is heard, and as this investigation progresses, it is becoming increasingly clear that the attorneygate firings are directly connected with too much White House influence, too much political influence, and entirely too much Rovian intervention, aimed directly at suppression of the vote in the 2006 mid-term elections among other things.
On a broader scale, this special form of cannibalism was aimed at completely politicizing the functioning of the entire federal government in ways even Nixon couldn't have imagined.

This goes way beyond political chicanery and dirty tricks. It is part of a much larger strategy that has Karl's fingerprints all over it.

Someone recently did a comparison on how various cabinet level departments, including the Justice Department, related to the White House and how much day to day contact and influence was exerted by the White House on the various functions of government at the cabinet and agency level. After all, each President has his own management style.

But this isn't about style. It's about control. So in the Clinton White House, for example, maybe there were a dozen direct contacts between Justice department staff and White House staff. ..in a four year period. But in this Bush White House there were perhaps three or four hundred contacts between the White House staff and DOJ staff. A very tight ship indeed. Politics is policy! Placed in this context, clearly, all roads lead to Rove.

(Copyright, 2007)

Oh! What A Tangled Web We Weave...

I thought it might be nice to look in on Poor Paul Wolfowitz. Poor Paul was under fire for arranging for the World Bank to pay his girl friend Shaha Riza ,$200,000 to work at the U.S. State Department, on loan from her job in the Communications section at the World Bank. Well. Things have gotten worse. Kevin Kellems, one of the two top aides Wolfowitz brought over with him from the Pentagon, has resigned. The other, Robin Cleveland, it appears, was up to no good. She, of course, has not resigned.

Marwan Muasher was the former Deputy Prime Minister of Jordan. He had only been on his new job at the World Bank for about two weeks. New guy. In charge of External Affairs. Back in early April, Robin drafted a statement for him, so he in turn could conduct a background briefing with senior bank officials around Mr. Wolfowitz's "Shaha problem."

According to the Financial Times, the statement claimed in part that, "...after consultation with the General Counsel, the Ethics Committee of the Board of Directors approved an external assignment agreement with the staff member." Except that now the chairman of the Ethics committee has also issued a statement in rebuttal: disputing the claim that any agreement was ever approved by the Ethics committee and there was no consulting the General Counsel.
It gets worse. In a classified document obtained by the Financial Times, Wolfowitz told Pentagon investigators he "enlisted the help of a World Bank employee with whom he had a personal relationship, in activities supporting the Iraq war" when he was Deputy Secretary of Defense.

Apparently, in 2003, Shaha Riza entered into a contract with a company that provides "logistics, intelligence, and advice(!) to the Pentagon." E-mails indicate this was done at Wolfowitz's request. At the time, Shaha Riza was an employee of the World Bank and Paul Wolfowitz was Deputy Secretary of Defense. Of course, there were others who recommended that Ms. Riza get that contract. One of them, Elizabeth Cheney, the daughter of the Vice President...worked at the State Department at the time. (This is the other daughter.) There are those who believe that this, too, was a definite conflict of interest and a huge violation of the World Bank's rules.

The embattled Wolfowitz, graceless and arrogant to the end, is calling this entire mess an attempt to smear him. He was given additional time, until the close of business, Friday, May 11th, to defend himself and submit "final comments" in writing to the World Bank panel investigating this tawdry mess. On Monday, his comments along with the findings of the investigating panel, will go before the Board of Directors. Wolfowitz can also meet with them in person on Tuesday. It is fervently hoped the matter will be decided then.

Of course, we all know what's really going on this weekend. Votes are being counted on the 24 member board to see which countries will support the United States, and which countries will not.
According to various reports by the Financial Times and the wire services like AP and Reuters, the European nations, led by Germany, are generally against keeping Wolfowitz as president. Canada and Japan are expected to support the United States.

India, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and South Korea want him out and no one knows where Mexico and China will come down. If Wolfowitz has the votes, he stays and the controversy continues, tarnishing the bank's reputation and making it more difficult to maintain the financial support of member nations.



If he loses, there is speculation that World Bank leaders have already assured the U.S. that this White House could pick the next World Bank president...meanwhile.... Condoleeza Rice has expressed her "personal high regard" for Paul Wolfowitz, as she makes phone calls to European ministers. But, she claims, she is also aware of, and deeply respects the fact that a "World Bank administrative process is underway..." Hmmmm. Has the World Bank ever had a woman president?

Copyright, 2007

Playing Catch-Up

Where to begin! Guess we could talk about the great work Natalie Portman is doing with Queen Rania of Jordan and FINCA. Nat's been working with women in developing nations through FINCA's community banking initiative, to extend loans to women so they can start their own small businesses and lift themselves and their families out of poverty. Natalie is also working on a documentary about the project, hoping to generate more interest and more support.



We're really excited about Leonardo DeCaprio's new documentary on global warming, The 11th Hour, that features an adorable, non-animated polar bear cub called Knut, who was born in the Berlin Zoo, and photographed by Annie Leibowitz. The 11th Hour will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival which runs from May 17th thru May 27th.







Drew Barrymore, a UN Ambassador, is busy planning her trip to Darfur on behalf of the World Food Program. Apparently she's been very busy the past few weeks, lobbying members of Congress for a $100 M appropriation. According to Drew, the WFP spends about $21 per child, per year, and this funding will help them keep the WFP International School Lunch Program alive.

WFP provides a cup of food per day, and most of the children share with their families. The food is distributed at school, and in fact, in some developing nations, girls are suddenly being encouraged to attend school because they are given bags of food for their families. Drew said if we could raise enough funding to keep the program alive for the next five years, it would bring stability to a region of the world desperate for it. Drew has been travelling extensively in Africa to see first hand how things are working.

We know about George Clooney and Don Cheadle's work in Darfur. We've heard about the literacy programs and the advocacy of people like Danny Glover, Jennifer Garner and others, of Sharon Stone's fight for AIDS funding, which was first pioneered by Dame Elizabeth Taylor, (AMFAR), and Angelina Jolie's continuing advocacy on behalf of refugees throughout the world.


But not too many people are aware of the fact that Brad Pitt has been busy down in New Orleans for more than a year, meeting with local residents and community groups and architects, working with Global Green U.S.A., establishing a green housing development. One that will be low cost and environmentally friendly, demonstrating that we can build affordable housing and be environmentally responsible and save a ton of money (up to 40%) on our utility bills...something the utility companies aren't real happy about. The 18 units in this first phase are being built, and the day isn't too far off when the first families will be able to move in. People who lost everything to Hurricane Katrina.


Weeks before the scandal broke about Walter Reed Army Hospital's abhorrent treatment of veterans injured in the Iraq war, Susan Sarandon was meeting with members of Congress in January, trying to get them to address the problems these vets faced. Of course, Republicans wouldn't give her the time of day. So she reached across the proverbial aisle, figuratively speaking, and called Republican Bruce Willis, who'd just returned from Iraq, and since he supported the troops, he agreed to join with her to advocate for better medical treatment for veterans.




There was something else I keep forgetting. So much Hollywood gossip to report! I just can't seem to remember...something about someone going to jail for driving on a suspended license with a DUI conviction....guess it wasn't very important...

Copright,2007

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