President Bush’s name gets no applause at South Carolina GOP convention.
President Bush’s name gets no applause at South Carolina GOP convention.
At the South Carolina state GOP convention today, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) “used his remarks to embrace President Bush, just hours before he was to meet Bush at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport.” But when Graham first mentioned Bush’s name, the GOP crowd stayed silent, refusing to applaud the President:
At his first mention of Bush’s visit, Graham paused, waiting for applause. When it didn’t come, it took a slight nod from Graham to prompt a round of applause.
“President Bush is my friend,” he continued, “and I’m not going to run away from the friend.”
Graham credited Bush with preventing additional attacks on the U.S. since 9/11, cutting taxes three times and successfully nominating Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“History is going to judge him a lot better than everybody thinks,” Graham predicted.
Graham, who is facing a primary challenge in the state, has tried hard to tie himself to Bush, even featuring the unpopular president in a TV ad. (HT: Jonathan Martin)
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Rockefeller: Hayden’s ‘Upbeat Assessment’ On Al Qaeda ‘Not Consistent’ With Intel Reports To Capitol Hill
Rockefeller: Hayden’s ‘Upbeat Assessment’ On Al Qaeda ‘Not Consistent’ With Intel Reports To Capitol Hill
During a recent interview with the Washington Post, CIA Director Michael Hayden said that al Qaeda is “essentially defeated in Iraq and Saudi Arabia and on the defensive throughout much of the rest of the world” including the areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. “On balance, we’re doing pretty well,” Hayden said. The Post even described Hayden’s view as a “strikingly upbeat assessment.”
But Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a letter to Hayden that he is “surprised and troubled” by his comments to the Post, adding that his assessment of al Qaeda’s worldwide strength is at odds with intelligence briefings to Captiol Hill:
The positions attributed to you are not consistent with assessments that have been provided to the Senate Intelligence Committee over the past year. If the Intelligence Community’s assessment of al-Qa’ida has changed, I would expect the Committee to be made aware of these changes immediately. If the assessment has not changed, then I ask that you explain why you would portray the terrorist movement as “on the defensive throughout much of the rest of the world, including in its presumed haven along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.” In fact, I have seen nothing, including classified intelligence reporting, that would lead me to this conclusion.
Moreover, in a speech delivered last Thursday, “posited as a presidential intelligence briefing delivered on Jan. 21, 2009,” Principal Director of National Intelligence Donald Kerr’s assessment of al-Qaeda “seemed at odds” with Hayden’s, the Post reports:
Pakistan’s “inward” political focus and failure to control the tribal territories where al-Qaeda maintains a haven, he said, is “the number one thing we worry about” … in response to a question, he said that “we don’t know enough” about what is happening in Pakistan.
“One of the concerns we have is that as Pakistan looks inward,” the western tribal areas “will be more hospitable to those who would strike us and less hospitable to us in trying to root out that problem,” Kerr said.
The Post added that Kerr’s speech “contrasted with more optimistic administration forecasts of rapprochement among Iraq’s political forces and a possible Middle East peace agreement in the next eight months.”
Rove: Bush told Bachmann to ‘take off those stupid pink gloves.’
Rove: Bush told Bachmann to ‘take off those stupid pink gloves.’
Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) affections for President Bush are infamous. At the 2007 State of the Union address, she gripped onto Bush’s shoulder until he gave her “a kiss and an embrace.” In September 2007, she also claimed that the President tried to “embrace” her at the scene of Minnesota’s 35W bridge collapse. But in a speech to Republicans in Rochester, MN, yesterday, Rove told of one incident where Bush insulted Bachmann:
The Texan delivered a few Minnesota comments, like…the time when he was with Bush and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn. The president told her to “take off those stupid pink gloves.”
Watch a portion of Rove’s speech here.
Cheney Urges Conservatives Not To Run From Bush Administration’s Policies
Cheney Urges Conservatives Not To Run From Bush Administration’s Policies
With his approval rating hovering around 30 percent, Vice President Cheney nevertheless went to Virginia yesterday to rally conservatives around the Bush administration. The Virginian-Pilot reports that he urged state Republican activists “to promote the Bush administration’s policies during campaigns for this fall’s presidential and congressional elections.” Some highlights from his speech:
On the economy: “Republicans believe that when Americans are facing tough times, the first thing we should do is let them keep more of their own money. That is why the President proposed and signed a stimulus package with immediate, direct relief to the American taxpayer.”
On energy: “Our administration has worked with the Congress and the private sector to try to increase the efficiency of cars and trucks, to promote alternative fuels.”
On Iraq: “The work goes on — and our strategy in Iraq, with a surge of operations that began more than a year ago, is succeeding. The only way to lose this fight is to quit.”
Cheney is grasping at his last straws. Although he said, “President Bush and I look forward to helping our candidates, up and down the ticket, throughout this very important election year,” it’s not clear that conservatives really want their help. Both Cheney and Bush have been raising less money and attracting smaller crowds than they used to.
There’s good reason for conservatives to reject Bush and Cheney’s advice. After all, 75 percent of the American public disapproves of how Bush is handling the economy. Twenty-three percent of the public blames Bush for high gas prices — putting him just behind the top culprit — oil companies, at 35 percent. And on Iraq, which Cheney also touted, 67 percent disapprove of the way the Bush administration is handling the war.
‘World’s largest’ Confederate flag to be flown in Tampa.
‘World’s largest’ Confederate flag to be flown in Tampa.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans, an all-male organization dedicated to preserving the “true history” of the Civil War period, is currently constructing what they say will be the “world’s largest” display of the Confederate flag in Tampa, Florida — a 30-foot high and 50-foot long flag atop a 139-foot pole. John W. Adams, a co-chair of the Confederate Veterans’ Flags Across Florida project, insists the flag isn’t about racism or slavery. “It’s about honoring our ancestors and about celebrating our heritage,” he said. “It’s a historical thing to us“:
[Douglas] Dawson, the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ Florida commander, said he knows a giant Confederate flag flying 24 hours a day over two of the Tampa area’s busiest roads will cause controversy.
“We can’t do anything but explain to people what the truth is,” said Dawson, of Pensacola. “If they don’t want to accept that, they’re closed-minded, and Jesus Christ couldn’t change it.”
Judge critical of Gitmo trials is dismissed.
Judge critical of Gitmo trials is dismissed.
Army Col. Peter Brownback III, a judge who was hearing a war crimes case at Guantanamo Bay and “publicly expressed frustration with military prosecutors’ refusal to give evidence to the defense,” has been dismissed. Brownback had threatened to suspend the proceedings against Omar Khadr “unless prosecutors handed over Khadr’s medical and interrogation records since his July 2002 capture in Afghanistan.” Pentagon prosecutors have also rushed to schedule high-profile detainee trials during the height of the presidential campaign season.
McClellan apologizes to Richard Clarke for smearing him as press secretary.
McClellan apologizes to Richard Clarke for smearing him as press secretary.
Scott McClellan is currently the subject of a White House smear campaign because of his new book. But as press secretary, McClellan helped smear Richard Clarke after Clarke revealed that the White House “ignored terrorism for months” and sought to tie 9/11 to Iraq immediately. According to Clarke, McClellan apologized to him last night, stating, “I should have known how personal it would get when they went after me, well, I mean, after what I said about you.” On MSNBC today, Clarke said the apology was “genuine.” Watch it:
Richard Clarke is someone I criticized from the podium. I actually saw him last night in New York and expressed my regret for the way I handled that situation.
Does McCain have ‘a lack of appreciation’ for Gulf Coast reconstruction?
Does McCain have ‘a lack of appreciation’ for Gulf Coast reconstruction?
John McCain has asserted that, because Barack Obama has not visited Iraq since 2006, it demonstrates a “lack of appreciation of the importance of this issue.” The Huffington Post notes that, by analogy, McCain must have a lack of appreciation for the importance of post-Katrina reconstruction. “Up until traveling there one month ago, [McCain] had made just one public tour of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina touched down in August 2005.” Obama has visited five times over the same period.
Conservatives Try To Smear McClellan By Calling Him A ‘Left-Wing Hater’ Reciting ‘Blogworld Talking Points’
Conservatives Try To Smear McClellan By Calling Him A ‘Left-Wing Hater’ Reciting ‘Blogworld Talking Points’
The White House and its allies have gone out and attacked former press secretary Scott McClellan as “disgruntled,” a “traitor,” and even “Judas.” But one of the insults increasingly popping up is probably, to the Bush administration, the most insulting: comparing McClellan to a left-wing blogger.
Today, for example, the Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes went on The Diane Rehm Show and tried to undermine McClellan’s allegations by saying that he was simply reciting “left-wing blogworld talking points” in order to get attention:
HOST: Steve, do you think this deserves all the attention it’s getting?
HAYES: I don’t know that it deserves all the attention it’s getting, and I think, as Eamon points out, Scott’s not necessarily saying much that’s new, he’s just saying a lot that’s new for him. And you know, to see Scott go from White House talking points to these new, almost left-wing blogworld talking points, is enough to make our colleagues in the Washington press corps pay close attention to it.
Listen here:
Some more examples of this right-wing meme:
Former White House aide Karl Rove: “First of all, this doesn’t sound like Scott. It really doesn’t. Not the Scott McClellan I’ve known for a long time. Second of all, it sounds like somebody else. It sounds like a left-wing blogger.”
Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer: “We were wrong about whether Saddam had a WMD but that didn’t mean the president manipulated anything. And Scott uses the very same words that the far-left uses and I find that troubling because I find it inaccurate.”
Former counselor to the President Dan Bartlett: “But he uses these very infammatory and explosive words like, ‘shading the truth,’ ‘propaganda,’ all these touchstones of the liberal left, which really makes me pause to think, ‘are these Scott’s words or are they the words of a liberal publisher who’s the guy behind this book.” [The Mike Gallagher Show, 5/30/08]
The Politico’s Mike Allen also said that Scott has adopted the “vocabulary, rhetoric of the left-wing haters.”
The right wing needs to get over its conviction the “liberal left” is responsible for any criticisms of the Bush administration. According to the latest Quinnipiac poll, 67 percent of the American public disapproves of the job Bush is doing. Sixty-seven percent also disapproves of the way he is handling the Iraq war. It’s highly doubtful that all these people are left-wing bloggers.
Bartlett agrees with right-wing radio host: McClellan’s book hurts military families.
Bartlett agrees with right-wing radio host: McClellan’s book hurts military families.
Writing at Townhall.com, right-wing radio host Mike Gallagher argues today that former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s new book will cause “pain and grief” for “the families of the brave men and women who are serving their country overseas.” Later, on his radio show, Gallagher asked McClellan’s former colleague, Dan Bartlett, if “a guy like Scott ever stopped to think how he would hurt families in this way?” Bartlett agreed with Gallagher:
BARTLETT: He knew better than most that all this would be doing is pouring gas on a political fire in which, you’re right, some of the victims of all this political uproar are the very people out here in America who are supporting our troops, those who have loved ones in harms way.
Listen here:
Transcript: More »
MSNBC: White House Has Had A Copy Of McClellan’s Memoir For ‘At Least A Month’
MSNBC: White House Has Had A Copy Of McClellan’s Memoir For ‘At Least A Month’
MSNBC correspondent Jeannie Ohm reported breaking news this afternoon that former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan had provided the White House with an advance copy of his recent memoir “at least a month before excerpts became public this week.”
Current Press Secretary Dana Perino argued that the White House had taken “the high road” by waiting to attack McClellan until his book was reported in the press:
OHM: I happen to speak briefly with Dana Perino and she says she thinks this speaks volumes about the type of route that the White House chose to take, they took the high road in terms of not preemptively attacking Scott McClellan.
Watch it:
On Wednesday, Perino told reporters that Bush first read an excerpt of this book back in November at Camp David, and at that time, the President believed it “would not essentially be that harsh.” Did Bush not read the copy McClellan gave the White House a month ago?
Apparently, the White House thinks that as long as it didn’t attack McClellan before the book was published, that is taking the “high road.” But now that the cat is out of the bag, it seems McClellan is fair game. Fox News’ Brett Baier reported today that a “senior White House official” compared McClellan to Judas selling out Jesus:
BAIER: A senior white house official reacting to the AP saying that McClellan got $75,000 in advance for this book said and a quote here, “ironically in today’s dollars that amount is worth exactly 30 pieces of silver.” that of course is a biblical reference to the 30 pieces of silver Judas got for selling out Jesus.
Referring to McClellan’s book, one reporter said that when talking to White House officials he “heard the word ‘traitor’ and ‘Benedict.’” Perino called McClellan “disgruntled” while former Bush aide Karl Rove said that McClellan “sounds like a left-wing blogger.” Some high road.
Perino Says White House Can Block McClellan From Testifying To Congress, But Won’t Say Whether It Will
Perino Says White House Can Block McClellan From Testifying To Congress, But Won’t Say Whether It Will
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) today announced that he and his staff were going to begin discussions with former press secretary Scott McClellan about testifying before Congress regarding revelations in his new memoir. In particular, Conyers pointed to attempts by the White House to cover-up Scooter Libby’s involvement in the Valerie Plame leak:
I believe this issue may require closer examination, so I have instructed my counsels to begin discussions with Mr. McClellan to determine whether a hearing is necessary and to secure his possible cooperation.
In today’s White House press briefing, spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters that the White House, hypothetically, could stop McClellan from testifying:
QUESTION: Could the White House block him from testifying, if he wanted to testify? Or how does that work?
PERINO: Conceivably?
QUESTION: Yes.
PERINO: Hypothetically, which I’m not supposed to answer a hypothetical, yes, I think so. The law would allow for that. But by saying that, I’m not suggesting that that’s what would happen or not happen.
Watch it:
It’s not clear on what grounds the White House would be able to block McClellan. He has already blanketed the media talking about his time in the administration. Additionally, in a Washington Post chat today, McClellan confirmed that White House officials reviewed his “final manuscript for classification and privilege issues,” and they found “no issues relating to classified information.” They did, however, “bring up some issues” relating to executive privilege.
McCain admits it was inappropriate to fundraise using Petraeus picture.
McCain admits it was inappropriate to fundraise using Petraeus picture.
On Memorial Day, Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen published a letter to uniformed soldiers warning that “the U.S. military must remain apolitical at all times.” Just three days later, however, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) presidential campaign sent out a fundraising appeal featuring a picture of McCain with Gen. David Petraeus. McCain spokesman Brian Rogers told ABC News’s Jake Tapper that “the image of Petraeus is not at all contrary to the spirit of Mullen’s directive.” But in a press conference today, McCain himself admitted that it was inappropriate, saying “it won’t happen again.” Watch it:
Steve Benen has more on McCain’s “uninvited exploitation” of Petraeus here and here.
McCain Campaign Responds To Senator’s Inaccurate Iraq Statements: ‘So What?’
McCain Campaign Responds To Senator’s Inaccurate Iraq Statements: ‘So What?’
Yesterday at a townhall meeting in Wisconsin, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) claimed that troops in Iraq are already down to “pre-surge levels”:
So I can tell you that it is succeeding. I can look you in the eye and tell you it’s succeeding. We have drawn down to pre-surge levels. Basra, Mosul and now Sadr city are quiet and it’s long and it’s hard and it’s tough and there will be setbacks.
Watch it:
This assertion is wrong. There are now 155,000 troops in Iraq — far above the 130,000 before the surge.
But today on a conference call with reporters, the McCain campaign tried to dismiss this factually inaccurate statement. “So what?” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), a strong McCain supporter. “What does that amount to?” He added that McCain just “misspoke.” According to adviser Randy Scheunemann, McCain meant to say that troops will be eventually drawn down to pre-surge levels. From his response to the AP’s Liz Sidoti:
SIDOTI: Randy, I’m a little confused here. If the question is over the tense of the statement, why is he not wrong?
RANDY: If the question is, are we drawing down to pre-surge levels? The answer is, yes. If the question is, have we drawn down? The answer is, yes. Liz, I don’t know how to make it any clearer than that. [...]
SIDOTI: He said, “We have drawn down to pre-surge levels.” And what you’re saying is, we will have drawn down to pre-surge levels by June — or, I’m sorry, by July. He was speaking in the present tense: “We have drawn down to pre-surge levels.”
RANDY: And if we want to talk about verb tenses, we can talk about verb tenses. Everybody knows — it’s been publicly announced since before April — Gen. Petraeus and Amb. Crocker testified about it extensively. It is very well-known where we are in the surge force levels and that we are drawing down to pre-surge levels. That has not been fully completed yet, but will be completed within no more than 60 days.
Listen to the full call here:
“Verb tenses” aside, this claim still seems to be wrong and may be a problem for McCain, who likes to tout his expertise on Iraq. Michael Shear of the Washington Post points to testimony by Joint Staff director for operations Lt. Gen. Carter Ham at the end of February, where he said that the Bush administration’s goal is to reduce troop levels to only 140,000:
Q: General, coming back to Iraq and the troop numbers, so what you’re saying is by the time we get to the end of July, we’re going to be at 140,000, which looks to me like we’re still talking about significantly higher than pre-surge levels in Iraq. Am I reading that correctly?
GEN. HAM: Yes.
The Politico’s Ben Smith has more from the call, including the campaign’s cries of “nitpicking.”
UPDATE: In a press conference shortly after the call, a reporter asked McCain, “Did you misspeak yesterday?” McCain replied, “Of course not.” Watch it:
Five years ago today, Thomas Friedman said the Iraq War was about telling the Middle East to ‘suck on this.’
Five years ago today, Thomas Friedman said the Iraq War was about telling the Middle East to ‘suck on this.’
Atrios notes that five years ago today, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman told Charlie Rose what he believed the war in Iraq was essentially about telling people in the Middle East to “suck on this” after 9/11:
FRIEDMAN: You don’t think, you know, we care about our open society. You think this bubble fantasy, we’re just going to let it grow? Well, suck on this, ok. That Charlie, is what this war was about. We could have hit Saudi Arabia, it was part of that bubble. Could have hit Pakistan. We hit Iraq because we could. That’s the real truth.
Watch it:
McClellan: Take The Bush Administration’s Claims On Iran ‘Very Seriously And Be Skeptical’
McClellan: Take The Bush Administration’s Claims On Iran ‘Very Seriously And Be Skeptical’
In his explosive new book criticizing the Bush administration’s Iraq “propaganda” campaign and its handling of Hurricane Katrina and the CIA leak investigation, former press secretary Scott McClellan also disparages what he calls the “permanent campaign” culture within the administration that seeks to manipulate “sources of public opinion to the president’s advantage.”
During an interview on MSNBC yesterday, when asked if the Bush administration is using the same tactics with regards to Iran, McClellan said, “I don’t know,” but cautioned that the White House is still operating in “permanent campaign mode”:
OLBERMANN: Scott, are they doing that now about Iran?
MCCLELLAN: I certainly hope that that is not the case. But we don’t know; I don’t know. I should say it that way. But they are still in this permanent campaign mode. They haven’t backed away from that. … I think that you would need to take [the administration's] comments [on Iran] very seriously and be skeptical.
Watch it:
Bush administration officials have been ratcheting up harsh rhetoric on Iran signifying that, like McClellan said, they are still in “campaign mode.” In fact, the Jerusalem Post recently reported that Bush will attack Iran before the end of his term. But while White House press secretary Dana Perino told reporters that the article “is not worth the paper its printed on,” others like Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) agreed with the Post’s report.
But it seems Bush is taking his own rhetoric seriously because just two weeks ago, he claimed that holding talks with countries like Iran would be akin to appeasing Adolf Hitler. Indeed, as McClellan wrote in his book, Bush “convinces himself to believe what suits his needs at the moment.”
Like Bush, Cheney’s unpopularity results in less 2008 campaign cash.
Like Bush, Cheney’s unpopularity results in less 2008 campaign cash.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal noted that with his approval ratings so low, President Bush’s impact on raising money for Republican candidates has reduced significantly over the last few years. Vice President Cheney’s impact appears to be headed in the same direction, as the Dallas Morning News reports:
Vice President Dick Cheney’s political forays have gotten less frequent. But he gave a pep talk to New York Republicans and helped refill their coffers Thursday. [...]
The Iraq strategy is working “brilliantly,” Mr. Cheney told 800 or so donors in a midtown Manhattan hotel ballroom – a crowd far smaller than 1,200 Rudy Giuliani drew to the same event a year ago. [...]
Thursday’s was Mr. Cheney’s 36th political event since the start of 2007, raising $8.6 million, according to party officials.
In the previous two-year cycle, he did five times as many events, raising more than $40 million.
Cheney’s seems to be getting used to small crowds turning out to his fundraisers. Like Bush, Cheney’s approval ratings are at dismal levels, “which could help explain why he’s stumping less these days.”
Pentagon Pushing 9/11 Trial For 10 Days After McCain Receives GOP Nomination
Pentagon Pushing 9/11 Trial For 10 Days After McCain Receives GOP Nomination
Despite the fact that defense attorneys for five suspected al Qaeda members being held at Guantanamo Bay have not yet received security clearances from the Pentagon that would allow them to participate in hearings, the Bush administration is aggressively pushing ahead with the prosecutions. The lawyers also claim that so far, they have had only a few hours to meet with their clients and have not had time to sufficiently “prepare a defense” in the death penalty cases.
A newly released e-mail, dated May 27, shows a civilian member of the prosecution team suggesting a trial date of Sept. 15:
As the attorneys write in their brief asking the military judge to dismiss the charges against the detainees, “Not coincidentally, the Prosecution has now proposed a trial schedule that would force the trial of this case in mid-September, some seven weeks before the general election.” The Miami Herald notes the additional political significance of Sept. 15:
The date, in fact, is 10 days after Sen. John McCain, an architect of Military Commissions law, is expected to be officially nominated as the Republican presidential candidate at the GOP national convention in St. Paul, Minn.
In October, Air Force Col. Morris Davis, formerly the lead prosecutor for terrorism trials at Guantanamo Bay, also revealed that he was pressured to pursue “sexy” cases, instead of ones that were the most solid. “There was a big concern that the election of 2008 is coming up,” Davis said. “People wanted to get the cases going.”
Bush doesn’t plan to read McClellan’s book.
Bush doesn’t plan to read McClellan’s book.
At a closed-door fundraiser for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Wednesday, President Bush “told an intimate audience that he hasn’t read his former spokesman Scott McClellan’s book, and doesn’t plan to, but he is disappointed with the criticisms made by the former White House confidant.” Bush, according to attendees, said that “he will work to forgive McClellan for what he wrote,” but that “McClellan is ‘not the same guy’ who he knew going back to his first presidential run.”
CNN’s Ware dissmisses McCain’s challenge that Obama visit Iraq.
CNN’s Ware dissmisses McCain’s challenge that Obama visit Iraq.
Yesterday, CNN’s Michael Ware dismissed Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) recent assertion that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) travel to Iraq in order to get a better sense of the war. Ware said that U.S. officials’ trips to Iraq are usually “divorced from reality” adding that its “impossible” to “get much of a real picture.” Ware then noted that McCain’s own trips to Iraq have not helped him get a sense of the realities in Iraq:
WARE: I’ll issue a word of caution, too. I mean Senator McCain has been here, what, more than half a dozen times. And we’ve seen him get assessments of Iraq terribly wrong. So I wouldn’t be hanging my hat on the fact that your opponent has only been here once.
While McCain said that he’d “be glad to go” with Obama to Iraq, a Washington Post reporter noted yesterday that there is “no way” the Secret Service would agree to McCain’s plan.
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