“The generals’ revolt has spread inside the Pentagon, and the point of the spear is one of Donald Rumsfeld’s most favored officers, Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff.” Slate‘s Fred Kaplan examines the newest military complaints against Dubya and Rummy: They’ve wrecked the US Army. “This new phase of rebellion isn’t aimed at the war in Iraq directly, as was the protest by six retired generals that made headlines last spring. But in some ways, it’s more potent, and not just because Schoomaker is very much on active duty. His challenge is dramatic because he’s questioning one of the war’s consequences — its threat to the Army’s ability to keep functioning.“
Category: GOP
Dubya’s Revolving Door.
Missed this last week: Recently released visitor logs show Abramoff allies held court at the White House over 100 times. The most frequent visitors were disgraced strategists Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed, but Neil Volz and Tony Rudy, both of whom have pled guilty in the Casino Jack case, also racked up more than a dozen visits each.
Tribunes v. Tribunals.
“Purely from a strategic point of view, this is another mess…Every time Republicans think they have an issue to unite them and divide the Democrats, the Republicans end up spending most of the time fighting among themselves.” As fear-mongering and falling oil prices perhaps help the GOP get back in the race this November, the WP surveys the political implications of the recent stand of principle by Senators Warner, McCain, Graham, and Snowe against Dubya’s grotesque tribunal plan. Politics or no, Dubya’s proposed gutting of the Geneva Conventions must be stopped: “‘What is being billed as “clarifying” our treaty obligations will be seen as “withdrawing” from the treaty obligations,’ Graham said. ‘It will set precedent which could come back to haunt us.'”
Ney Guilty? Aye.
“Sen. Conrad Burns gazed at a debate audience and asked if anyone could guess who was blocking efforts in Washington to control health-care costs. ‘Abramoff?’ shouted a heckler.” Taking a look at the Montana Senate Race, the Post argues that the Casino Jack scandals still aren’t making much of a dent in the midterm elections. Nevertheless, the case continues to play out in official Washington: After agreeing to plead guilty last Friday to corruption charges stemming from the Abramoff investigation, the GOP’s Bob Ney — recently the recipient of a Republican standing O for his flouting of the law — is forced to give up his House chairmanships. Ney hasn’t given up his seat yet, but either way, he’s out in November.
Chafee Safe?
In somewhat unhappy news for prospects of a Senate takeover in November, GOP moderate Lincoln Chafee withstands a primary challenge from his right, in the form of Cranston mayor Steve Laffey, 54-46%. Still, Democrat (and son of Chafee’s father’s roommate at Yale) Sheldon Whitehouse is effectively tied with Chafee in recent polls, so the damage from a bruising primary race may still pay dividends for the Dems.
Fear Factor.
“The power of his rhetoric is in marked decline…We are losing a war right now, and there is no way to get around that.” Five years after the 9/11 attacks, Dubya and the GOP are once again in full “terror, terror, terror, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11” mode. But, really, what can you expect? Other than going virulently negative, it’s the only trick these jokers have left. If we let them pull it again this November, shame on us.
Evildoers in Utah?
“Blind faith in bad leaders is not patriotism. A patriot does not tell people who are intensely concerned about their country to just sit down and be quiet; to refrain from speaking out in the name of politeness or for the sake of being a good host; to show slavish, blind obedience and deference to a dishonest, war-mongering, human-rights-violating president.” By way of Looka, even the reddest state in the nation is turning blue: Check out this fiery speech given last week by Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson.
Al Liars.
“‘Saddam only expressed negative sentiments about bin Laden,’ the former Iraqi foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, told the Federal Bureau of Investigation when he was asked about Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda’s leader…’He specified that if he wanted to cooperate with the enemies of the U.S., he would have allied with North Korea or China,’ says a passage in the nearly 400-page report.” A new Senate intelligence report confirms what has become patently obvious: There was no link between Iraq and Al Qaeda before the war. “Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., a member of the committee, said the long-awaited report was ‘a devastating indictment of the Bush-Cheney administration’s unrelenting, misleading and deceptive attempts’ to link Saddam to al-Qaida.”
Armitage Wide Open.
“‘I feel terrible,’ Armitage said. ‘Every day, I think, I let down the president. I let down the secretary of state. I let down my department, my family, and I also let down Mr. and Mrs. Wilson.‘” Speaking of coming clean, Dick Armitage admits he was the Plame leaker (after having been outed by Mike Isikoff and David Corn last week.)
RIP GOP?
“‘The environment for the majority party is extremely bad,’ says political scientist David Rohde of Duke University. ‘There’s certainly plenty of time for things to be shaken up … (but) it would take something really huge” to turn around GOP fortunes.'” Don’t count your chickens, but, with nine weeks to go before Election 2006, the Republicans are still floundering, as more and more GOP seats enter into play and a House takeover by the Dems looks increasingly likely. Thanks, Dubya!