Open thread

Chris (in Paris) is in town with his wife Joelle, so we're all grabbing dinner tomorrow night with Joe (in DC) and some other friends, and hopefully Joelle and I are tooling around DC tomorrow. Will be fun catching up, then I plan to make Chris and Joelle do our next podcast with me :-) Read the rest of this post...

Chesapeake Bay "a model for failure under this administration"

The Bush administration is never interested in cooperating with anyone outside of richest special interests. Since the Chesapeake Bay can't offer any big money to candidates, it's ignored and left to rot. It's also the same treatment that they give to government departments that they don't like, such as the FDA and EPA.

"The Chesapeake Bay Program has been acclaimed as a model of federal-state partnership. Unfortunately, the federal participation has been a model for failure under this administration," Baker said. He said the federal government continues to allow power plants to emit large amounts of mercury and nitrogen into the atmosphere and has cut federal funds for sewage upgrades.

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C.I.A. Destroyed Tapes of Al Qaeda Interrogations

They were concerned that the interrogations might be illegal, so rather than stop the interrogations they simply destroyed the evidence. Ah yes, the beacon of democracy. Read the rest of this post...

Huckabee: God wants me to be president

Did God want you to let that convicted rapist go too? Actually, what Huckabee said about God being responsible for his success in the poll is even creepier than how I described it. Hat tip, Raising Kane.

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CNN: Bush lied during Tuesday press conference about Iran

Good for CNN.

President Bush was told in August that Iran's nuclear weapons program "may be suspended," the White House said Wednesday, which seemingly contradicts the account of the meeting given by Bush Tuesday.....

"Director McConnell said that the new information might cause the intelligence community to change its assessment of Iran's covert nuclear program, but the intelligence community was not prepared to draw any conclusions at that point in time, and it wouldn't be right to speculate until they had time to examine and analyze the new data," [White House press secretary Dana] Perino said in a statement issued by the White House.

The new account from Perino seems to contradict the president's version of his August conversation with McConnell and raised new questions about why Bush continued to warn the American public about a threat from Iran two months after being told a new assessment was in the works.

(Hat tip, CrooksAndLiars.com) Read the rest of this post...

Dems kill hate crimes bill

I'm not gonna defend 'em. Let our glorious leaders explain why, suddenly, their strategy of attaching the bill to the defense bill is a bad idea. Because earlier this year we were told it was a fabulous idea (and I think it is/was a good idea - but, it's only as good an idea as we're willing to defend it - more on that later). Just as we were told that adding the Ts on to ENDA was a fabulous idea. In both cases, our political leaders, months later, were suddenly shocked that the strategy looked like it wasn't going so well. Okay, then why did we go with those strategies to begin with? It's a lot like the debate over stopping the war. The Dems keep coming up with good ideas, implementing them by passing legislation telling Bush to do x, y, or z, and then when Bush says "they hate the troops" the Dems crumble as if no one could have ever imagined that Bush or the Rs would use that argument against us. Did no one really ever think that the Rs and the conservative Ds would complain about the hate crimes bill being on the defense bill? Did no one ever really think that members of congress of both political stripes might have some issues passing a transgender civil rights bill? And did no one ever think that the Rs would calls us unpatriotic troop-haters every chance they'd get? Every time someone complains, our side goes running screaming into the closet.

We really don't deserve to win. Read the rest of this post...

Bush, who can't fix anything, to propose mortgage crisis fix

The media is abuzz over the impending announcement from Bush about a plan on mortgages:

President George W. Bush is expected to unveil a plan on Thursday to prevent a wave of home loan foreclosures that has threatened to knock the U.S. economy into recession and rattled investors worldwide.

The plan hammered out by the U.S. Treasury Department in talks with mortgage industry leaders would bring relief to many of the 2 million homeowners who took out adjustable rate loans with low teaser rates due to move sharply higher in the next year or so.

For the past seven years, the Bush administration ignored the shenanigans in the financial services industry. Bush was too busy trying to get bankruptcy protection for the financial services industry. In the last GOP-controlled Congress, Bush got that new bankruptcy law -- with the help of too many Democrats, including Maryland's Rep. Al Wynn.

When it comes to sorting through whether this proposal will actually work, I turn to the smart people who know of such things. After reviewing the actual provisions, Atrios says "Not Gonna Do Anything":

I became increasingly skeptical that such a broad-based bailout would be workable for various reasons, but as is usually the case with anything the Bush administration gets involved in, they aren't even really trying.

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Romney wishes his faith were more like Islam

Just said it during his "Don't hate me because I'm a Mormon" speech.

"In every faith I've come to know, there are features I wish were in my own."

He then went on to include Islam as a religion he covets just a little bit. Wonder what the far-right fundamentalist Christians he's wooing have to say about this?

(And judging by the polls, I'm betting Romney wishes his faith were more like a lot of mainstream religions.) Read the rest of this post...

They're not the "Ten Suggestions," Mr. Huckabee

All politicians lie. But it takes a special kind of politician to be a liar and a preacher. That puts his lie in a special category of deception. As Joe noted below, GOP presidential candidate, and preacher, Mike Huckabee is continuing to lie about his role in freeing a convicted rapist who then went on to molest and murder two more women. In the face of testimony from numerous witnesses, including his own former top aide, contradicting Huckabee's claims, Huckabee is sticking by his lie. That's a problem for a Christian, bearing false witness. It's especially a problem for Mr. Huckabee, considering what he had to say about Mr. Romney this morning:

I think it's a matter of what his views are — whether they are consistent, whether they are authentic, just like mine are," Huckabee told NBC's "Today." "If I had actions that were completely opposite of my Christian faith, then I would think people would have reason to doubt if this part of my life, which is supposed to be so important, doesn't influence me. Then they would have to question whether or not there are other areas of my life that lack that authenticity as well.

Ah, you're saying it's fair game to examine whether a candidate's actions are consistent with his religious views, if he's portraying himself publicly as a religious man. Okay. Well, lying about a double murder, yeah, I'd call that fodder for doubt. When is Huckabee going to come clean and stop acting like a typical corrupt politician?

PS Mr. Giuliani could use a little refresher course on #21 as well. Read the rest of this post...

Bush's puppet Specter says Harry Reid is mean for calling the GOP Senators Bush's Puppets

How many times have we heard that some GOP Senator was going to take a brave stand, then see them cave after they get the slightest pressure from Bush? Many, many, many times. One of the worst offenders is Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter. That's probably why he's so upset that Harry Reid spoke the truth about the Bush puppets in the Senate:

Taking offense at being described as a “puppet” of President Bush, Sen. Arlen Specter fired back at Majority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday, suggesting the Nevada Democrat isn’t up to running the Senate.

Reid on Dec. 4 had blamed what he called Republican obstructionism in the Senate on allegiance to Bush.

“He is the man who is pulling the strings on the 49 puppets he has here in the Senate,” Reid said, referring to the chamber’s GOP members.

Specter, R-Pa., cried foul and declared that Reid had not only violated Senate Rule XIX, which prohibits the questioning of a senator’s integrity, but was just flat wrong.

Specter protests too much. Read the rest of this post...

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

On the Today Show, Huckabee just attacked the Huffington Post -- a "very liberal, left-wing blog" for breaking this news:

Directly contradicting Mike Huckabee's claims, his former senior aide tells the Huffington Post that, as governor of Arkansas, Huckabee indeed told the state's parole board that he supported the release of a convicted rapist.

Huckabee said "politics is trumping truth." Huh. Almost every version of the facts trump what Huckabee is saying. Someone is lying. And, Huckabee, as a former preacher, should know about the Commandment about bearing false witness. This is one time when Huckabee really needs to practice what he preaches.

Also, tonight is Romney's big religions speech.

Should be an interesting day. Read the rest of this post...

Huckabee unfamilar with Iran NIE story

Geez, it was one of the biggest stories in a long time and Mr. Huckabee hadn't even heard about it by yesterday evening. My God, who does this guy have working for him? From Hotline On Call:

During an on-the-record dinner here at the conclusion of Mike Huckabee's two-day swing through the state, the governor hoped to impress national and local reporters with all that he knew about about governance, education, and Iowa know-how.

But journalists came away amazed by what he didn't know - almost anything about today's National Intelligence Estimate report on nuclear weapons in Iran, reports NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann.

Asked about the report, Huckabee shook his head slightly to indicate he wasn't familiar with its content.

The Politico's David Paul Kuhn incredulously asked if he had seen the report or had been briefed on it. "No," replied the governor. Greene proceeded to explain the NIE's findings.

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