Tim Goeglein, special assistant to President Bush, resigned this evening after being caught — and then admitting to — plagiarizing articles that he wrote for a local paper. After blogger Nancy Nall revealed that Goeglein had plagiarized a recent Fort Wayne News-Sentinel column, an investigation by the paper found 20 of his 38 columns had parts that were copied. Goeglein had worked for Bush since 2001 as a liaison to social and religious conservatives and is a familiar figure to many evangelical Christian leaders.
A new report issued recently by the Center for American Progress warned that, “as borrowing in the mortgage market slows, credit card borrowing is accelerating — a dangerous trend because borrowers still face weak income growth. That means the credit card market could eventually run into the same problems that now afflict the sub-prime mortgage market. ” Tonight, NBC News reported that credit card debt is nearing a record $1 trillion. The piece noted there is a “credit card binge across the nation as people use their plastic to stay financially afloat.” Watch it:
Today, Attorney General Michael Mukasey “rejected referring the House’s contempt citations against two of President Bush’s top aides to a federal grand jury. Mukasey says they committed no crime.” Mukasey claimed that White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former counsel Harriet Miers “were right” to ignore Congress’s subpoenas in the U.S. attorney scandal.
UPDATE: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) outlines the next steps:
Anticipating this response from the Administration, the House has already provided authority for the Judiciary Committee to file a civil enforcement action in federal district court and the House shall do so promptly.
Congress recently passed the Intelligence Authorization Act, which contained a provision creating a single interrogation standard for the U.S. government that bans the use of waterboarding. CQ reports that President Bush will veto the bill next week:
“The president’s expected to veto it next week,” said Emily Lawrimore, a spokeswoman for the White House. “We received it today.”
Although the exact date for the veto is unclear, the president likely will not act until after Tuesday’s primaries, since numerous lawmakers will not be on Capitol Hill then.
The Gavel has House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) statement urging Bush to sign the legislation.
Two weeks ago, the hastily-passed Protect America Act (PAA) expired after the Bush administration and its supporters refused to approve a 21-day extension of the law. Since then, President Bush and his allies in Congress have engaged in a fear campaign to pressure the House into passing a Senate-approved update of the PAA that includes retroactive immunity for telecoms.
President Bush continued the fear-mongering in his press conference yesterday, bellowing that “no renewal of…the Protect America Act is dangerous for the security of the country, just dangerous.”
Challenging Bush and the GOP to hold true to their rhetoric, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) introduced a bill today to extend the PAA for 30 days while negotiations between the House and Senate proceed:
As we move forward, there is no reason not to extend the Protect America Act to ensure that there are no gaps in our intelligence gathering capabilities. Even Admiral McConnell, the Director of national Intelligence, has testified that such an extension would be valuable. But the President threatens to veto an extension, and our Republican colleagues continue, inexplicably, to oppose it.
Predictably, Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) objected to Reid’s unanimous consent motion, effectively rejecting the extension. Watch it:
Despite their claims that “America is at risk” without the Protect America Act, the White House and congressional conservatives have been unwilling to take actions that would lead to its extension. As Reid noted today, the House and Senate have been working since the passage of the Senate bill to reconcile difference between the two chambers, but “Republicans have instructed their staff not to participate in these negotiations.”
If Bush and his congressional cronies truly believed that America is “open to attack” without the PAA, they’d support a temporary extension and engage in good faith negotiations. Since they haven’t, it’s clear they’re more interested in playing political games than working to protect Americans.
AFP reports that “oil prices charted fresh record territory” today, “rising to 103.05 dollars as the dollar fell to all time lows.” These high oil prices are linked to the weak U.S. dollar:
A weak US currency boosts demand for dollar-denominated raw materials such as crude oil because it makes them cheaper for buyers using stronger currencies. The increased demand, if it outstrips the fall in the currency, leads to higher prices.
In yesterday’s news conference, President Bush sharply attacked Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) argument that the president “should never fear to negotiate” with America’s enemies. Bush told reporters:
It will send a discouraging message to those who wonder whether America will continue to work for the freedom of prisoners. It will give great status to those who have suppressed human rights and human dignity. [...]
Sitting down at the table, having your picture taken with a tyrant such as Raul Castro, for example, lends the status of the office and the status of our country to him. He gains a lot from it by saying, look at me, I’m now recognized by the President of the United States.
Perhaps Bush forgot all the times that he sat down and had his picture taken with leaders of questionable human rights credentials:
(HT: Ezra Klein, The Body Politik, and Cogitamus)
The U.S. embassy in Baghdad remains plagued by”major deficiencies in the infrastructure,” according to a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from the House Oversight Committee. The finding raises “questions” about the State Department’s December decision to certify that the embassy compound was “substantially complete.” Waxman plans to subpoena Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte if the department does not provide documents related to the embassy’s construction.
The State Department has stopped processing visa applications from Iraqi and Afghan translators who have risked their lives assisting U.S. military units because “the current legal quota of 500 visas for the program this year is about to be reached.” A bill sponsored by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and signed by President Bush last month raised the quota for Iraqi translators to 5,000, but it has yet to be implemented.
When Medicare was being created in 1964, Ronald Reagan said, “I think we are against forcing all citizens, regardless of need, into a compulsory government program.”
To this day, conservatives continue to resist universal programs. In his 2008 State of the Union address, President Bush once again mentioned private health savings accounts, despite the fact that they may increase the number of uninsured Americans. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) similarly touts private plans, saying he wants people to “go out and choose their insurer anywhere in America.”
A new poll from NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health, however, finds that most Americans reject conservatives’ approach to health care. In fact, the majority of the public supports mandates requiring Americans to purchase health insurance. NPR reports:
When asked whether they would support a broad proposal that would require everyone to get coverage, 59 percent said they would support it. Such a proposal would require employers to provide coverage or pay into a pool. The government would help low-income people get coverage, and insurance companies would be required to take anyone who applies. People who don’t get coverage through one of these channels or purchase it themselves would pay a fine.
As Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic notes, “In a system based on private insurance, a lot of people won’t obtain even affordable insurance without some sort of requirement.” This point is backed up by prominent health care experts such as Columbia’s Sherry Glied and former Clinton administration adviser on Medicare Bruce Vladeck, who have criticized the tactic of scaring Americans into thinking mandates will force them to buy unaffordable health coverage.
For a practical approach to guaranteeing an American right to affordable, quality health coverage, the Center for American Progress has more here.
Yesterday in a column for The News-Sentinel, Timothy S. Goeglein — a special assistant to President Bush — referenced Eugene Rosenstock-Hussey, a former professor at Dartmouth College. Curious about the obscure reference, blogger Nancy Nall googled the name, only to find that full sections of Goeglein’s 16-paragraph essay were copied nearly word-for-word from a 10-year old Dartmouth Review essay by Jeffrey Hart. Confronted about the plagiarism, Goeglein told The Journal Gazette that “it is true” he copied Hart and that he is “entirely at fault.”
In a segment that airs today, talk show host Ellen DeGeneras speaks about the murder of 15-year-old Lawrence King, who was killed by a classmate for being gay. Saying that “we must change our country,” Ellen urges her audience to “check on who you’re voting for” to see if they stand for gay rights:
A boy has been killed and a number of lives have been ruined. And, somewhere along the line the killer, Brandon, got the message that it’s so threatening, so awful, and so horrific that Larry would want to be his Valentine — that killing Larry seemed to be the right thing to do. And when the message out there is so horrible that to be gay, you can get killed for it, we need to change the message. Larry was not a second-class citizen. I am not a second-class citizen. It’s ok if you’re gay.
Watch it:
“I think one thing we should change is hate,” Ellen said. “Check on who you’re voting for. Does that person really truly believe that we are all equal under the law?”
Transcript: More »
Southern Methodist University in Dallas announced last week that the university will be home to President Bush’s $200 million presidential library. Bush’s library, however, will be shrouded in secrecy.
An executive order Bush signed in 2001 “gives presidents and their families more control over presidential papers” and “could result in material being censored” from the library. The order also gives Bush “the right to veto requests to open any presidential records.”
The secrecy efforts are already beginning. In a press conference yesterday, President Bush admitted that his library would likely take foreign donations but said he would consider keeping the donors’ names confidential:
BUSH: We’ll look at the disclosure requirements and make a decision. There’s some people who like to give and don’t particularly want their names disclosed. [...]
Q Any restrictions on who can give? Will you take foreign money for this?
BUSH: Yeah, probably take some foreign money, but don’t know yet, Ken. We just haven’t — we just announced the deal and I, frankly, have been focused elsewhere.
Watch it:
So, who are the likely candidates? In Nov. 2006, the New York Daily News reported that Bush hoped to get roughly $250 million in “megadonations” from some key allies:
Bush loyalists have already identified wealthy heiresses, Arab nations and captains of industry as potential “mega” donors.
Based on history, there may already be some specifics. Bush 41’s presidential library received donations from a sheik from the UAE, who contributed at least $1 million, the “state of Kuwait, the Bandar bin Sultan family, the Sultanate of Oman, King Hassan II of Morocco and the amir of Qatar. The former Korean prime minister and China also gave tens of thousands of dollars to the library.”
When asked if the public has “right to know,” Bush replied, “We’re weighing, taking a look, taking consideration, giving it a serious consideration. Nice try, though.”
After a speech in Los Angeles this week, former Bush aide Karl Rove was asked if he knew how to get Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton elected president. Rove, who is currently employed by Fox News, replied: “Yes, and I ain’t telling ya. I only work for Republicans — and Joe Lieberman.” In 2006, Rove also offered President Bush’s assistance to help Lieberman get re-elected to the Senate.
Ken Silverstein of Harper’s takes a look at Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) charitable contributions, noting that the senator is essentially the sole donor to the John and Cindy McCain Foundation, and his wife is its chairman and president”:
Between 2001 and 2006, McCain contributed roughly $950,000 to the foundation. That accounted for all of its listed income other than for $100 that came from an anonymous donor. During that same period, the McCain foundation made contributions of roughly $1.6 million. More than $500,000 went to his kids’ private schools, most of which was donated when his children were attending those institutions. So McCain apparently received major tax deductions for supporting elite schools attended by his children.
In a memo to agency employees, CIA Director Michael Hayden said that he opposed legislation in Congress that would place the agency’s interrogation program under the dictates of the U.S. Army Field Manual, but would follow the law. “If the Intelligence Authorization Bill becomes law, these procedures will be taken off the board for American interrogators,” wrote Hayden. The law, according to Hayden, “will have a direct impact on our ability to gather intelligence and to detect and prevent future attacks.”
After months of a consensual international media blackout, Matt Drudge revealed that Prince Harry has been “in Afghanistan for more than two months” — “to the fury of the Ministry of Defence and condemnation from the head of the British Army.” Harry is now being sent back to Britain.
Senate Republicans “blocked consideration of a bill designed to prop up the struggling housing industry” yesterday. The bill would have provided billions of dollars to local communities and changed bankruptcy laws to help low-income homeowners — against which the “mortgage industry has waged a stiff lobbying campaign.”
President Bush said Thursday the economy is not headed for recession. “I don’t think we’re headed to a recession, but no question we’re in a slowdown,” he said.
“For the first time in the nation’s history, more than one in 100 American adults are behind bars,” according to a new report. This statistic includes one in 15 adult black men and one in 36 adult Hispanic men.
The EPA has dismissed toxicologist Deborah Rice from her post on a federal panel examining “the dangers of a flame retardant” in August” after the American Chemistry Council “complained to a top-ranking EPA official.” “In a May letter to an assistant administrator at the EPA,” a vice president of the American Chemistry Council called Rice “a fervent advocate.” More »
Last April, the Supreme Court ruled that the EPA had acted unlawfully in “its refusal to decide whether greenhouse gases cause or contribute to climate change,” and now must regulate carbon dioxide. Yet nearly a year later, the EPA has failed to act, as agency official Robert Meyers reported in a letter to environmental groups yesterday:
As a result, at this time, the agency does not have a specific timeline for responding to the remand. However, let me assure you that developing an overall strategy for addressing the serious challenge of global climate change is a priority for the agency, and we are taking very seriously our responsibility to develop an effective, comprehensive strategy.
Sierra Club attorney David Bookbinder said, “Unless EPA owns up to its obligations immediately, we will be forced to take the administration back to court.”
Bush told Bob Geldof in a new Time interview. Geldof noted that if the President happened to apply this thought to Iraq, it “would have profound implications on the man’s understanding of how the world functions.” During the interview, Bush also insisted, “I think history will prove me right,” regarding his efforts to rid the world of “tyranny.”
Last week, the White House weighed into the New York Times’s story on Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) ethics troubles and firmly sided with the senator. White House deputy press secretary Scott Stanzel told reporters:
[S]eemingly on maybe a monthly basis leading up to the convention and maybe a weekly basis after that, the New York Times does try to drop a bombshell on the Republican nominee.
And that is something that the Republican nominee has faced in the past and probably will face in this campaign. … And sometimes they make incredible leaps to try to drop those bombshells on the Republican nominee.
The New York Times’s revelations that McCain lobbied the FCC on behalf of a contributor shouldn’t have been that much of a “bombshell” to Bush. During the 2000 elections, McCain also faced scrutiny on this issue. In fact, at that time, Bush was sharply critical of McCain’s conflict of interest:
“I think it’s really important for people who advocate reforms to live to the spirit of the reforms they advocate.” [Washington Post, 1/6/00]
“I think somebody who makes campaign finance an issue has got to be consistent, and walk the walk.” [New York Times, 1/6/00]
“It’s important on campaign funding reform that we have campaign funding reform. But it’s also important for people to know that my friend is raising money from people who have business in front of his committee. Nothing illegal about that, but I just want to make sure the facts are laid bare.” [CNN, 2/4/00]
“The reality is he is the person who has been the Washington insider.” [ABC News, 2/4/00]
“What I need to do is make it clear and not let Senator McCain get away with this Washington double-talk.” [ABC News, 2/4/00]
Watch a video on Bush’s change of heart here.