Bush, Rove "inexplicably upbeat" on GOP's election chances, but they think we're making progress in Iraq, too

The delusion factor is alive and well at the White House:

The official White House line of supreme self-assurance comes from the top down. Bush has publicly and privately banished any talk of losing the GOP majorities, in part to squelch any loss of nerve among his legions. Come January, he said last week, "We'll have a Republican speaker and a Republican leader of the Senate."

The question is whether this is a case of justified confidence -- based on Bush's and Rove's electoral record and knowledge of the money, technology and other assets at their command -- or of self-delusion. Even many Republicans suspect the latter.

Sound familiar? This sounds eerily like Bush's talk about progress in Iraq. That delusion is killing people. Bush is too focused on politics to notice that we're facing one of the worst months yet in Iraq. So far, 53 soldiers have been killed in October.

Let's do everything we can between now and November 7th to prove Bush and Rove wrong, wrong, wrong. Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

Predictions for this week?

How's this for starters? According to Novak, a reliable GOP insider says Tom Reynolds is "on the list of incumbent Republicans who are ''gone'' -- that is, sure to lose their seats on Nov. 7." (Hat Tip Political Wire)

What else? Read the rest of this post...

Lieberman won't say Dems. should win the House and won't support Dem. for Governor in Connecticut

Why doesn't he just admit that he's a Republican? As reported on DailyKos by thirdparty via the Hartford Courant, Joe wouldn't say that the Democrats should win back the House. He also wouldn't say if he was supporting the Democratic candidate for Governor in Connecticut.

But, if Joe wins, we're supposed to believe that he'll vote for Harry Reid for Majority Leader? Joe has too many things in common with George Bush. Like Bush, Joe cannot be trusted. This is a major problem as the Democrats come closer to winning back the Senate. Ned Lamont is the only Democrat in the Connecticut Senate race. The only way to avoid the Lieberman drama in January is to defeat Lieberman in November. Read the rest of this post...

Cynically exploit, sure

...but betray? Gulp. This is going to be fun watching from the sidelines.

David Kuo, who wrote the book, "Tempting Faith: An Inside Account of the Rise of Christian Conservatives, and Their Betrayal by the Bush White House," will be on 60 Minutes tonight. Read the rest of this post...

6.6

Major earthquake in Hawaii....the cable news stations are doing live breaking coverage. CNN has been broadcasting Hawaiian stations. No injuries reported yet. No tsunami warning issued.

The US Geological Survey website has all the details...including maps. Read the rest of this post...

Big expose on GOP Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and it ain't pretty

This is the first article in a four-part series. Apparently Mcconnell is freaking out about the series, so that means it must be worth a read. Read the rest of this post...

AP: "Bush Keeps Revising War Justification"

About time they figured it out. This is one reason why people think Bush is a liar. And why they don't trust him. And why they oppose the war. Bush has no plan for Iraq. He has a slogan, that's it. Almost a year ago, John Murtha said, "The American public is way ahead of the members of Congress." The American people have been way ahead of most of the media, too. Bush just thought he could keep lying to the press. It's finally catching up with him. (HT Think Progress) Read the rest of this post...

Wolf kicked Mehlman around today

Anyone get a chance to watch Wolf get a spine today? First, Wolf interviewed Howard Dean about the elections. Dean did a fine job though he wasn't in the studio.

Then, Wolf interviewed Mehlman in the studio. In the beginning, Ken had that smarty pants smile he is usually sporting to cover up his anger. It faded fast.

Wolf pummeled Mehlman about the Foley scandal. Ken said the GOP "could not have been more aggressive" on Foley. He tried to spread the lie that Democrats knew. And, Ken kept saying Foley got "the political death penalty." But, Wolf kept pushing -- even interrupting Mehlman's spin.

Blitzer asked Ken about the e-mails Mark Foley sent to Jeb Bush whining that the President was dissing him during the 2004 campaing. Classic moment when Wolf said to Kenny that since it was widely assumed Foley was gay, is that why he was snubbed? Ken said "absolutely not." Ken didn't seem to love that question.

Never thought Wolf would ask Mehlman about his relationship with Abramoff despite the major coverage of their relationship in today's LA Times article. But, he did. Mehlman's answer was completely Nixonian. He kept saying, "I don't recall the specifics" and "I don't recall it specifically." It was great.

Even asked him about David Kuo's new book before he asked his first elections question.

By the end, Mehlman was angrier than usual.

Wolf actually pushed back. Wonders never cease.

I'll post a link to the transcript when it's posted on CNN's site. The transcript is posted on CNN's website -- the interview is towards the end. If I locate any video, I'll put that up, too. Read the rest of this post...

Warner says "things are going sideways" in Iraq as US death toll soars - What is Bush doing?

UPDATE: The US death toll for October reached 53 today.

Senator John Warner (R-VA) appeared on "Face the Nation" this morning reaffirming his earlier strong statement that Iraq is in trouble. Think Progress has the video and the details:

After visiting Iraq earlier this month, Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John Warner said the country is “drifting sideways” and several parts of Iraq have taken “steps backwards.” “In two or three months if this thing hasn’t come to fruition and this level of violence is not under control,” Warner said, “I think it’s a responsibility of our government to determine: Is there a change of course we should take?”

The Bush Administration and leading Republicans like George Allen have no plan for Iraq -- besides the political slogan "stay the course." That's why every day now we see articles like this:

Three U.S. soldiers were killed Saturday when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb, the U.S. military said in a statement Sunday. Their deaths raised the toll to 49 U.S. troops killed so far for the month, putting October on track to be one of the deadliest months in the war for American soldiers.

We have to change the course. We have to change the Congress. Read the rest of this post...

Senate race in Virginia virtually tied

Folks, this race could decide control of the Senate. Anyone who can volunteer to help Jim Webb get out the vote in Virginia, please do. I'm sure they could use volunteers NOW to help phone potential voters. Here is Webb's volunteer page - sign up.

You know you'll be ticked if we have another Florida-type nailbiter, this time in Virginia, and the GOP retains control of the Senate as a result. Read the rest of this post...

LA Times: Head of Republican party, Ken Mehlman, alleged to have extensive Abramoff ties

And Mehlman was also a senior Bush White House official. This expose from the Los Angeles Times details extensive contacts between GOP Party head Ken Mehlman and convicted criminal Jack Abramoff, including a number of things Mehlman did for Abramoff and his allies as a senior White House staffer. This is not good. Read the rest of this post...

Frank Rick outs the hypocrisy of the "Gay Old Party"

Frank Rick dissects, exposes and skewers the GOP hypocrisy on gays in that way he does. It's great...he blasts the GOP for simultaneously embracing and bashing gays:

If anything good has come out of the Foley scandal, it is surely this: The revelation that the political party fond of demonizing homosexuals each election year is as well-stocked with trusted and accomplished gay leaders as virtually every other power center in America. “What you’re really seeing is the Republican Party on the Hill,” says Rich Tafel, the former leader of the gay Log Cabin Republicans whom George W. Bush refused to meet with during the 2000 campaign. “Across the board gay people are in leadership positions.” Yet it is this same party’s Congressional leadership that in 2006 did almost nothing about government spending, Iraq, immigration or ethics reform, but did drop everything to focus on a doomed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

The split between the Republicans’ outward homophobia and inner gayness isn’t just hypocrisy; it’s pathology. Take the bizarre case of Karl Rove. Every one of his Bush campaigns has been marked by a dirty dealing of the gay card, dating back to the lesbian whispers that pursued Ann Richards when Mr. Bush ousted her as Texas governor in 1994. Yet we now learn from “The Architect,” the recent book by the Texas journalists James Moore and Wayne Slater, that Mr. Rove’s own (and beloved) adoptive father, Louis Rove, was openly gay in the years before his death in 2004. This will be a future case study for psychiatric clinicians as well as historians.

This is a vintage column. He disabuses the right wing theocrats who think there is a secret gay cabal in the GOP:

There are two problems with this theory. First, gay people did not “infiltrate” the party apparatus — they are the party apparatus. Rare is the conservative Republican Congressional leader who does not have a gay staffer wielding clout in a major position. Second, any inference that gay Republicans on the Hill conspired to cover up Mr. Foley’s behavior is preposterous.

The Republicans have wanted it both ways on gays. The gay Republicans have enabled that. Those days are over. Read the rest of this post...

Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

Lots of politics on the Sunday shows -- and nasty John Bolton. Mehlman emerges on CNN. Perhaps he'll comment on the effort to purge gays from the GOP. Here's the lineup:

• "Meet the Press"... Guests: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton; Republican Rep. Mark Kennedy and Democrat Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota candidates for U.S. Senate....

• "This Week"...Guests: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton; Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr. and Republican Bob Corker, Tennessee candidates for U.S. Senate; actress and voting activist Marg Helgenberger....

• "Face the Nation"... Guests: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Sen. John Warner, R-Va.; former Sen. Sam Nunn, co-chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative....

• "CNN Late Edition"...Guests: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton; Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean and Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman; Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb....

• "Fox News Sunday" Cable, 3 p.m. Guests: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass....

Read the rest of this post...

US hangs UK out to dry in Afghanistan

Incredible. That's what friends are for and I'm sure the US is never going to need support so this sounds like a great way to pay back a country that stuck out its neck (wrongly, though) when asked. With all of the money being thrown around by DoD, I find it hard to believe that the US has nothing left to offer anywhere in the world.

Britain is so short of helicopters in Afghanistan that military chiefs are being forced to scour the world for civilian aircraft to support its troops after the US rejected a plea to help plug the shortfall.

An ageing fleet of just eight Chinooks is working around the clock to supply and reinforce soldiers in remote outposts facing waves of Taliban attacks. The only Chinook in the Falklands was taken away for use in the campaign.

Falkland War equipment?

The Independent on Sunday can also reveal that reconnaissance and intelligence missions in Afghanistan are being affected by the lack of smaller and more flexible helicopters. But senior military officials said that when UK commanders asked for temporary deployment of US helicopters in Afghanistan, they were told there were none to spare.

Instead, the MoD has been forced to seek out commercial operators for non-combat operations, to free more military craft for use at the front line. So urgent is the need that Britain is understood to be asking other nations that have ordered Merlin helicopters from Westland to allow the MoD to requisition them.

Just last weekend Tony Blair said: "If the commanders on the ground want more equipment, armoured vehicles for example, more helicopters, that will be provided. Whatever package they want we will do."

Blairs words sound sooooo familiar. Right out of the Bush play book. Read the rest of this post...