McCain Supporter Arlen Specter Requests Meeting With Castro And Chavez; Is He ‘Naive?’
McCain Supporter Arlen Specter Requests Meeting With Castro And Chavez; Is He ‘Naive?’
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has long criticized those who are willing to meet with adversaries of the U.S., slamming Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) for willing to engage Raul Castro of Cuba and Hugo Chavez of Venezuela:
– “These steps would send the worst possible signal to Cuba’s dictators: There is no need to undertake fundamental reforms; they can simply wait for a unilateral change in U.S. policy.”
– “I know that his naivete and lack of experience is on display when he talks about sitting down opposite Hugo Chavez or Raul Castro or Ahmadinejad.”
But today, McCain supporter Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) broke with McCain and told reporters that he is planning personal meetings with Chavez and Raul Castro. Specter said he has met with Fidel Castro three times and boasted of pictures with Chavez:
I met [Fidel] Castro on three occasions, as I detail in my book, and I’d like to see Raul Castro. There’s a real opportunity to get Cuban cooperation on drug interdiction, which I talked to Fidel Castro about. I’d like to follow up on that. I also would like to see trade and tourism develop. [… ]
Then I also hope to see Chavez — that fellow right there, there are three of us in that picture. … I’m a firm believer in dialogue and I think that there’s potential to salvage the relationship with Chavez which would be very helpful in Latin America.
In fact, Specter said he had recently written a letter to Raul Castro. “I think he’ll see me,” he said. Specter recounted that his August 2005 meeting with Chavez had tangible, positive results for the U.S.:
I had a chance to meet with him. There’s a serious drug problem, and I was able to arrange a meeting between the US ambassador and the Venezuelan Minister of the Interior. They worked out a protocol for some cooperation on drugs. … I believe that the conversation that I had with Chavez was a serious conversation.
Does McCain find Specter, the 16th-most senior member of the Senate, to be “dangerously naive?” Is Specter advocating policies that are “dangerous to American national security?” We await the condemnation.
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Michael Savage booted from Los Angeles station.
Michael Savage booted from Los Angeles station.
In the ongoing fallout from his screed against children with autism, right-wing radio host Michael Savage has been kicked off Los Angeles’ KGIL and will be replaced by conservative talker Lars Larson, according to a Larson press release. LA is the second largest radio market in the country. Already, radio stations in Ohio, Mississippi, and Virginia have dropped Savage, and a host of advertisers have done the same.
GOP congressman hints at support for sending Rove to jail.
GOP congressman hints at support for sending Rove to jail.
Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee voted to hold Karl Rove in contempt of Congress. On MSNBC yesterday, Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), breaking with his party, said he believes Rove should be forced to testify. “Let him explain his involvement, if any, in this Don Siegelman case.” When pressed on whether he was suggesting sending Rove to jail, Jones signaled that he supports this option:
Q: Knowing that he’s not coming, should Congress use its inherent contempt power and haul him in, possibly put him into jail?
JONES: Whatever authority Congress has, we need to uphold the institution.
Q: So it sounds like you’re saying that you too think that that should be a real option here.
JONES: I think that we should uphold the institution and the integrity of the House of Representatives.
Watch it:
Bachmann Lies: Claims Democrats Won’t ‘Pass The Tax Credit For Solar And Wind’ After GOP Blocked It
Bachmann Lies: Claims Democrats Won’t ‘Pass The Tax Credit For Solar And Wind’ After GOP Blocked It
During an interview with Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) today, right-wing radio host Laura Ingraham asserted that Congressional Democrats “are acting as the ultimate obstructionists” on energy policy. Bachmann agreed, saying that “this is mission accomplished for them” because they don’t want to “increase American energy resources.”
Declaring that the Congressional Democrats are “so strange,” Bachmann then claimed that they wouldn’t “pass the tax credit for solar and wind,” despite being “the big solar/wind people”:
BACHMANN: Oh, without a doubt, without a doubt. What we want to do is accomplish the people’s mission, which is open up every source of energy there is. They’re so strange Laura, they won’t even pass the tax credit for solar and wind right now. I mean, they claim to be the big solar/wind people, they won’t even pass that.
Listen here:
Bachmann’s claim about who blocked “the tax credit for solar and wind” is flatly false. Just yesterday, the AP reported that “for the fourth time this summer” Senate conservatives blocked action on legislation that would provide “tax credits to an array of renewable energy entrepreneurs”:
For the fourth time this summer Republicans stopped the Senate from taking up wide-ranging legislation that extends tax breaks for teachers, businesses and parents and provides tax credits to an array of renewable energy entrepreneurs. [...]
The bill would extend some $18 billion worth of renewable energy tax credits, helping out investors in wind and solar power, clean coal, plug-in electric vehicles and a variety of others.
In fact, when the House passed the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008 in May, Bachmann voted against it, along with the majority of House Republicans. The bill was then filibustered by Senate Republicans in June.
What’s truly “so strange” is that Bachmann can act as an ex post facto advocate for legislation she actively opposed.
Transcript: More »
Pelosi suggests Rove contempt citation is possible.
Pelosi suggests Rove contempt citation is possible.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi applauded a federal judge’s ruling today that White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers are not immune from congressional subpoenas. It’s “victory for the Constitution,” Pelosi said, adding, “Of course, it has ramifications for other contempt resolutions we’re considering in the House.” She said the Judiciary Committee has “given us the road map we need to move forward” on contempt citations against numerous White House officials who have refused to testify before congressional committees.
Report: McCain Received $881,450 From Big Oil Since He Announced Support For Offshore Drilling
Report: McCain Received $881,450 From Big Oil Since He Announced Support For Offshore Drilling
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has made his complete reversal on offshore drilling a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, insisting that expanding offshore drilling into protected areas would lead to more oil supply on the market “within a matter of months” — regardless of the Energy Information Agency’s projection that oil would not reach the market for nearly a decade and “would not have a significant impact” on oil prices.
Though more drilling won’t help Americans save money at the gas pump, it has certainly helped McCain win massive campaign donations from Big Oil. A new report by Campaign Money Watch shows that contributions to McCain from Big Oil skyrocketed directly following his June speech in Houston, when he pledged his support of offshore drilling before an audience oil executives. The report notes:
In Texas alone, June oil and gas-connected donations to McCain’s Victory ’08 Fund, his hybrid fundraising venture with the RNC and state committees, reached $1,214,100.
Of that total, $881,450, or 73 percent, came after June 15. McCain announced his position in favor of offshore drilling on June 16.
The report notes that these enormous contributions represent a seven-fold increase in donations, compared to McCain’s 2000 campaign:
McCain has no plan to prevent oil companies from absorbing the profits off expanded drilling opportunities — just like they have reaped record profits on the back of unprecedented oil prices. Last Sunday, when George Stephanopoulos asked how he would make sure oil companies passed the savings to consumers, McCain suggested weakly he could “shame” them into helping consumers:
STEPHANOPOULOS: The oil companies, the gas companies are going to absorb any reduction.
MCCAIN: … they say that. But one, it didn’t happen before, and two, we wouldn’t let it happen. We wouldn’t let it — Americans wouldn’t let them absorb that.
STEPHANOPOULOS: How would you prevent that?
MCCAIN: We would make them shamed into it. We, of course, know how to — American public opinion. And we would penalize them, if necessary. But they wouldn’t. They would pass it on.
Glenn Beck: Slavery apology is an affront ‘to the principles of Christianity.’
Glenn Beck: Slavery apology is an affront ‘to the principles of Christianity.’
On Tuesday, the House passed a formal apology for slavery and racist segregation laws, recognizing that “African-Americans continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow.” Yesterday, Glenn Beck spent nearly 30 minutes on his radio show mocking the apology. He continued expressing his outrage on his CNN Headline News show last night, during a discussion with Ron Paul. Paul wondered why Congress should apologize, since “we personally weren’t responsible.” Beck claimed that the apology “was a front [sic] to the principles of Christianity“:
RON PAUL: But when it comes to these apologies, you know, why should you and I make the apologies? Why should I apologize for you through a vote in the Congress? At the same time, you know, we personally weren’t responsible, you know, for that. [...]
BECK: Yes, I think it — honestly, it is a front — I’m a Christian. It’s a front [sic] to the principles of Christianity. Forgiveness. Forgiveness. This country, half of this country fought the other half and died to free and to say, enough. This is wrong. We were washed in blood. I know — I mean, good heavens. There’s nothing worse than slavery. Why are we doing this and concentrating on this now?
Watch it:
Lieberman To Introduce Resolution Praising Success Of Surge ‘Against Enemies Who Attacked America On 9/11′
Lieberman To Introduce Resolution Praising Success Of Surge ‘Against Enemies Who Attacked America On 9/11′
This morning, Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) held a press conference to express their “pleasure” about President Bush’s statement this morning regarding what he described as “encouraging news from Iraq” and “the success of the surge.”
Lieberman then announced that he and Graham would do their part in celebrating the surge by introducing a resolution in the Senate “recognizing” its “strategic success” in “the central front in the war on terror.” Then, Lieberman went slightly off course, not seeming to recognize just who attacked the United States on 9/11 and from where:
LIEBERMAN: That’s why Senator Graham and I are introducing a resolution recognizing the strategic success that the surge has achieved in a central front — the central front of the war on terror against the enemies who attacked America on 9/11/01, and expressing our thanks to our troops who’ve made that success possible.
It might insult someone’s intelligence to point out the obvious fact that the terrorists who carried out the September 11, 2001 terror attacks operated out of Afghanistan, not Iraq. And despite the right wing’s insistence, even the Pentagon has confirmed that “no direct link” ever existed “between late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and the Al-Qaeda network.”
But Lieberman’s claim indicates that he does not understand the wider problem — namely that the surge prevented the U.S. from sending more troops where they are needed, in Afghanistan. In January 2007, just one week after Bush announced his surge policy, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that “U.S. commanders in Afghanistan have recommended an increase in U.S. force levels, in part to deal with an expected upsurge in Taliban violence.”
But the troops went to Iraq at the expense of Afghanistan and since then, the security situation there has become worse than its ever been since 2001. U.S. commanders and even Joint Chiefs Chairman Michael Mullen have recently acknowledged that they do not have the troops or resources necessary to combat the Taliban and Al-Qaida threat in Afghanistan because of Iraq. Moreover, a new report directly links the troop shortages there to the Taliban’s comeback.
Instead of crafting resolutions declaring victory in “the central front in the ‘war on terror,’” perhaps Lieberman and Graham should spend more time figuring out where that “central front” is.
Study: Thomas is the most ‘partisan’ Supreme Court justice, Scalia is the most ‘activist.’
Study: Thomas is the most ‘partisan’ Supreme Court justice, Scalia is the most ‘activist.’
Conservatives commonly complain about “activist judges” pushing the court to the left when they disagree with the outcome of a court decision. But in a new study that examines “well over 20,000” judicial decisions, University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein concludes that the most activist judge on the Supreme Court is a conservative, Justice Antonin Scalia. The second most activist Justice was also a conservative, Justice Clarence Thomas, who was also found to be the most partisan Justice on the bench. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito were not included in the study because they have only been on the court for a short time.
EXCLUSIVE: To Provoke War, Cheney Considered Proposal To Dress Up Navy Seals As Iranians And Shoot At Them
EXCLUSIVE: To Provoke War, Cheney Considered Proposal To Dress Up Navy Seals As Iranians And Shoot At Them
Speaking at the Campus Progress journalism conference earlier this month, Seymour Hersh — a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist for The New Yorker — revealed that Bush administration officials held a meeting recently in the Vice President’s office to discuss ways to provoke a war with Iran.
In Hersh’s most recent article, he reports that this meeting occurred in the wake of the overblown incident in the Strait of Hormuz, when a U.S. carrier almost shot at a few small Iranian speedboats. The “meeting took place in the Vice-President’s office. ‘The subject was how to create a casus belli between Tehran and Washington,’” according to one of Hersh’s sources.
During the journalism conference event, I asked Hersh specifically about this meeting and if he could elaborate on what occurred. Hersh explained that, during the meeting in Cheney’s office, an idea was considered to dress up Navy Seals as Iranians, put them on fake Iranian speedboats, and shoot at them. This idea, intended to provoke an Iran war, was ultimately rejected:
HERSH: There was a dozen ideas proffered about how to trigger a war. The one that interested me the most was why don’t we build — we in our shipyard — build four or five boats that look like Iranian PT boats. Put Navy seals on them with a lot of arms. And next time one of our boats goes to the Straits of Hormuz, start a shoot-up.
Might cost some lives. And it was rejected because you can’t have Americans killing Americans. That’s the kind of — that’s the level of stuff we’re talking about. Provocation. But that was rejected.
Watch it:
Hersh argued that one of the things the Bush administration learned during the encounter in the Strait of Hormuz was that, “if you get the right incident, the American public will support” it.
“Look, is it high school? Yeah,” Hersh said. “Are we playing high school with you know 5,000 nuclear warheads in our arsenal? Yeah we are. We’re playing, you know, who’s the first guy to run off the highway with us and Iran.”
Transcript: More »
If this story sounds familiar, that's because it is. In one of David Manning's famous memos describing a prewar meeting between George Bush and Tony Blair, he says that Bush admitted that WMD was unlikely to be found in Iraq and then mused on some possible options for justifying a war anyway:"The U.S. was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in U.N. colours," the memo says, attributing the idea to Mr. Bush. "If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach."In the end, of course, we didn't do this. We just didn't bother with any pretext at all.
ABC: Exxon spends 1 percent of profits on alternative energy.
ABC: Exxon spends 1 percent of profits on alternative energy.
Exxon Mobil today broke its own record for the highest-ever profit by a U.S. company, with net income this quarter rising to $11.68 billion. While Exxon officials regularly tout the company’s investment in alternative energy, ABC reported today that Exxon spends only 1 percent of profits on alternative energy sources. Watch it:
“They’re probably spending more on the advertising than they are on the research,” noted an oil analyst contacted by ABC. BP invested the most out of the big five oil companies, at 2.9 percent.
Bush Administration Embraces Counterterrorism Strategy It Once Smeared As ‘Naive and Dangerous’
Bush Administration Embraces Counterterrorism Strategy It Once Smeared As ‘Naive and Dangerous’
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has approved a new National Defense Strategy arguing that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan should not be allowed to distract from the “implications of fighting a long-term, episodic, multi-front, and multi-dimensional conflict” against terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda. Gates’ new strategy “encourages current and future U.S. leaders to work with other countries to eliminate the conditions that foster extremism.”
The strategy concludes, “the most important military component of the struggle against violent extremists is not the fighting we do ourselves, but how well we help prepare our partners to defend and govern themselves.”
The Bush administration’s recognition that “even winning the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan will not end the ‘Long War’ against violent extremism” is surprising. In 2004, when Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) expressed the same view, Bush smeared Kerry in two ads, posing the question “How can Kerry protect us if he doesn’t even understand the threat?” Watch it:
Kerry said in 2004, “I think we can do a better job of cutting off financing, of exposing groups, of working cooperatively across the globe, of improving our intelligence capabilities nationally and internationally, of training our military and deploying them differently, of specializing in special forces and special ops, of working with allies.”
Bush mistakenly believed that using military force to bring about regime change and then occupy Iraq would disrupt terrorism throughout the region. In contrast, Kerry argued the U.S. should focus on countering “nonstate actors” whose “goal wasn’t to govern states but to destabilize them.”
Bush and Vice President Cheney smeared Kerry as “naive and dangerous.” Now, four years later, as they embrace Kerry’s approach to counterterrorism, the threats that they promised to protect the country against have only grown more dangerous.
Federal judge: White House aides can be subpoenaed
Federal judge: White House aides can be subpoenaed
In June, after White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers refused to comply with congressional investigations into the U.S. Attorneys scandal, the Justice Department claimed “that senior presidential advisers are absolutely immune from congressional subpoenas.” But today, a federal judge has ruled that “there’s no legal support for that stance” and “aides can be subpoenaed.” Federal Judge John Bates stated that Bolten and Miers must comply with Congress:
U.S. District Judge John Bates disagreed. He said there’s no legal basis for that argument. He said that Miers must appear before Congress and, if she wants to refuse to testify, she must do so in person.
“Harriet Miers is not immune from compelled congressional process; she is legally required to testify pursuant to a duly issued congressional subpoena,” Bates wrote.
He said that both Bolten and Miers must give Congress all non-privileged documents related to the firings.
Rove calls contempt vote ‘ludicrous,’ admits to exerting no ‘personal privilege.’
Rove calls contempt vote ‘ludicrous,’ admits to exerting no ‘personal privilege.’
While he has refused to appear before Congress, Karl Rove did make time to show up last night on Fox News. Sean Hannity asked Rove about the House Judiciary Committee’s vote yesterday to hold him in contempt of Congress for ignoring subpoenas. Rove called the vote “ludicrous,” but admitted that he has “not exerted any personal privilege on this”:
ROVE: I have not exerted any personal privilege on this. The White House has said we want to stand up for the doctrine of separation of powers and for the right of the president to not have his aides and former aides called up at the convenience of the Congress for no good reason at all.
Watch it:
Rove’s answer makes clear that he has no legal basis for refusing to appear before Congress. He also claimed in the interview that he has already answered questions pertaining to his alleged involvement in the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman (D), but as Marcy Wheeler points out “Rove didn’t deny the central allegations against him” in the case.
ThinkFast: July 31, 2008
ThinkFast: July 31, 2008
Exxon Mobil broke its own record for “the highest-ever profit by a U.S. company,” as second-quarter profits rose 14 percent. “Net income in the quarter rose to $11.68 billion, or $2.22 a share, from $10.26 billion, or $1.83 a share, last year.”
Citing reductions in violence in Iraq, President Bush said this morning that “combat tour lengths for U.S. troops will be reduced to 12 months from 15 months.” While 147,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, Bush said troop reductions might be possible because the “terrorists are ‘are on the run.’”
Senate conservatives debated yesterday whether to threaten a government shutdown as a way to force a vote on offshore drilling. Congress would have to pass a continuing resolution in September to keep the government functioning, and conservatives are mulling a filibuster.
The Department of Health and Human Services is “reviewing a draft regulation that would deny federal funding to any hospital, clinic, health plan or other entity” that does not allow employees to opt out of providing birth-control pills, IUDs, and the Plan B contraceptive. The draft considers certain contraceptives as destroying “the life of a human being.”
On the trail today: Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) will be in Cedar Rapids, IA visiting with flood victims, and then will host a town hall meeting on the economy. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will host a town hall meeting today in Racine, WI. More »
Lott accused of encouraging witnesses to give false information.
Lott accused of encouraging witnesses to give false information.
Former Mississippi senator Trent Lott, who left Congress last year to become a lobbyist, is alleged to have “urged witnesses to give false information in a Hurricane Katrina lawsuit.” In a sworn deposition last week, an attorney for State Farm Fire & Casualty Cos. asked Lott’s nephew, Zach Scruggs, who had represented the former senator after his house was destroyed by Katrina, if it had been his “custom and habit in prosecuting litigation to have Senator Lott contact and encourage witnesses to give false information?” “I invoke my Fifth Amendment rights in response to that question,” replied Scruggs.
Pentagon Attempted To Cover-Up KBR’s Negligence In Electrocution Of U.S. Soldier
Pentagon Attempted To Cover-Up KBR’s Negligence In Electrocution Of U.S. Soldier
On January 2, 2008, Army Staff Sergeant Ryan Maseth was electrocuted while taking a shower at the Legion Security Forces Building in Baghdad. Press reports have indicated that contractor KBR ignored repeated warnings about the unsafe wiring.
In memo to House Oversight Committee this week, Pentagon Inspector General Gordon Heddell claimed there was “no credible evidence” that either KBR or the DOD knew about the hazards beforehand. Information uncovered by the Committee, however, contradicts Heddell.
In a Committee hearing today, Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) released a work order from July 8, 2007 –- months before Maseth’s death — in which Sergeant Justin Hummer, the previous occupant of the room, reported to KBR:
Pipes have voltage. Get shocked in shower.
Furthermore, in sworn testimony on June 6, 2008, Hummer said he was shocked at least four times in the shower between June and October 2007. In each case, KBR personnel tried to fix the hazard. Today, the Pentagon IG admitted he was wrong to claim KBR was not aware of the electrical danger:
WAXMAN: This seems to be credible evidence that KBR was aware of this hazard last July.
HEDDELL: I do agree with you, Mr. Chairman.
Watch it:
Waxman showed Heddell another document of “task orders” from the Pentagon “warning that Sgt. Hummer gets shocked in the shower.” Heddell quickly admitted that he was also wrong to exonerate the DOD:
WAXMAN: This document seems to be credible evidence that the Defense Department was aware of the problem as well. Do you agree?
HEDDELL: It would appear so, sir.
The majority staff report also notes that KBR official Thomas Bruni may have lied under oath. In prepared testimony, he claimed, “Though we cannot be certain who installed the water pump [that killed Maseth] we do know that KBR did not do so.” But a KBR work order from July 9, 2007 stated, “Replace pressure switch & water pump.”
“We have absolved no one,” Heddell said. “We never have, and not at this moment.”
Bush threatens to veto equal pay for women.
Bush threatens to veto equal pay for women.
This week, the House is expected to bring the Paycheck Fairness Act to the floor for a vote, legislation that would help close the wage gap between working men and women and “close loopholes that have allowed employers to avoid responsibility” for discriminatory pay. In an official statement, the White House said it would veto the bill:
The bill would unjustifiably amend the Equal Pay Act (EPA) to allow for, among other things, unlimited compensatory and punitive damages, even when a disparity in pay was unintentional. It also would encourage discrimination claims to be made based on factors unrelated to actual pay discrimination by allowing pay comparisons between potentially different labor markets. In addition, it would require the Department of Labor (DOL) to replace its successful approach to detecting pay discrimination with a failed methodology that was abandoned because it had a 93 percent false positive rate. Thus, if H.R. 1338 were presented to the President, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.
Toby Keith: ‘Black Society’ Thinks Obama ‘Talks, Acts and Carries Himself As A Caucasian’
Toby Keith: ‘Black Society’ Thinks Obama ‘Talks, Acts and Carries Himself As A Caucasian’
Country singer Toby Keith, who is on a media blitz promoting his pro-lynching movie, Beer For My Horses, said during a radio interview with Glenn Beck today that he believes “black society” will pull for Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), even though “they think in the back of their mind that…he talks, acts and carries himself as a Caucasian”:
KEITH: I think that the black people would say he don’t talk, act, or carry himself as a black person.
BECK: What does that even mean?
KEITH: I don’t know what that means, but I’m saying that’s what I think that they would say. Even though the black society would pull for him, I still think that they think in the back of their mind that the only reason that he is in is because he talks, acts and carries himself as a Caucasian.
Listen here:
Beck responded by simply saying “Oh.” But it’s an attack line Beck himself has used in the past, claiming that Obama is “colorless” and “might as well be white.”
Other conservative media hosts have joined Beck in employing this rhetoric. The day after Beck’s “colorless” remark, Rush Limbaugh said that Obama should “renounce” his race and just “become white.” Extreme conservative talker Melanie Morgan has called Obama a “halfrican” who “is not allowed to wear the African-American badge because his family are not the descendants of slaves.” Tucker Carlson wondered about Obama, “Is he black enough?”
2005 White House hiring directive: ‘Place as many of our Bush loyalists as possible.’
2005 White House hiring directive: ‘Place as many of our Bush loyalists as possible.’
The New York Times’ Charlie Savage highlights a “little-noticed” email revealed in the new Justice Department report about the department’s politicized and illegal hiring practices. A May 17, 2005 directive from the White House political affairs office said: “We simply want to place as many of our Bush loyalists as possible.” The email urged agency officials to find jobs for 108 people on a list of “priority candidates” who had “loyally served the president.” Savage explains that, while presidents of both parties have engaged in political patronage, “the Bush administration had gone further than any predecessor.”
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