Open thread

About to watch the Rick Santorum v. Bob Casey debate on Meet the Press.

Okay, watching the broadcast now. Casey is kicking Santorum's butt, it's almost painful to watch. Santorum looks just awful. He's a bit flustered, and arguing rather bizarre points - not just bizarre because they're politically stupid (Bush is doing a "terrific" job), but bizarre because they're just plain wrong (we found the chemical weapons in Iraq?).

Casey is on point, hitting Santorum with all the right facts and soundbites (Rick is for staying the course, I'm for changing the course), and Casey is refusing to let Russert fluster him like he's flustering Santorum.

I'm impressed. These shows are not easy to do, especially something like Meet the Press. Casey showed today that he's "senatorial." That's a big win.

Oh my, this is getting fun now! Casey keeps turning to Santorum and asking him questions and then lecturing him. He's now telling Santorum that while he's still deciding whether to call Osama a terrorist or an Islamo-fascist the rest of us are worrying about what really counts, finding a way to change the course of the war with the tactics on the ground. Casey also called Santorum's idea that we found WMD in Iraq "crazy." LOL

Oh God, Russert just read off a chart of Santorum's voting record and how it correlated with George Bush's views - Santorum has averaged 98% agreement with Bush over the past six years. Casey then said this:

I think Tim when you have two politicians in Washington that agree 98% of the time, one of them's really not necessary. We could have a machine have that kind of votes.

Ka-CHING!

Look, Casey is more conservative than I'd like, but he's destroying Santorum in his own calm, pointed and persistent way. And that works for me. Read the rest of this post...

Wonder who they'll be voting for

From AP

About 30 Ku Klux Klan members proclaimed hatred for blacks, Jews, gays and Latinos as they stood behind barricades at the Civil War battlefield where Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.

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Early consensus, Bob Casey beat Rick Santorum in debate

Ouch. Santorum is considered one of the top debaters in the entire US Senate, and Casey - whom Santorum is trying to paint as some kind of empty shell - whooped him good. Which begs the question: If Casey is supposedly devoid of substance, then what does that make Santorum if he can't even win a debate against the guy?

From one of the local PA papers:

The early consensus is that, if there was a winner of this morning's debate, it was Casey.

....The Cliff Notes debate guide:

Santorum: George Bush is a 'terrific president' and Donald Rumsfeld is doing a great job. Neither should be fired. There are still WMD in Iraq even if the Bush administration says there aren't. Casey doesn't provide specifics on, well, anything and is a tax and spend liberal, who could not explain how he would cut the federal deficit or pay for new programs he backs.

Casey: Santorum is a George Bush clone/rubber stamp who won't change directions or ask tough questions on Iraq. He doesn't even live in Pennsyltucky, won't take a position on the state legislative pay hike and votes himself raises but won't raise the minimum wage. Oh, and he voted against anything and everything that would benefit Pennsyltucky.

Read the rest of this post...

That #2 Al Qaeda leader in Iraq who was just captured? Apparently he doesn't quite rank #2

Oh, gee, what a surprise. You mean the Bush administration orchestrated another bigger-than-life lie about Iraq and the war on terror? (And you know they orchestrated this entire thing - Iraq didn't capture the guy, we must have handed him to them to make it look like the Iraqi government is now all grown up.) And this bit of puffery only took a few hours to show through as much ado about perhaps-not-nothing, but not nearly as much as claimed. Just add it to the list of propaganda being fed to the American people by the Republicans instead of a coherent plan for victory. Though at this point, I'd just settle for the truth.

Now from the NYT:

But an American military official was more cautious in describing Mr. Saeedi’s place in the Al Qaeda pecking order. While Mr. Saeedi was certainly a "top-tier guy" who supervised the insurgents who carried out the Samarra mosque bombing, "I’m not sure we are ready to put a number on him," the American official said. "It’s a very decentralized operation."

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Iran is causing us so much trouble because Bush lost the war in Iraq

I really believe that Iran is acting up over the nuclear issue because they know that George Bush has made America a lame duck.

In an ironic twist on Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld's warnings about what will happen if we lose Iraq, the three horsemen of the apocalypse were basically right. If we lose Iraq, we're screwed. America's influence will go down in the world and all sorts of other evil powers in the Middle East and beyond will be emboldened.

Well, they were right. We lost Iraq - rather, they lost Iraq - and now Iran is going to town on the nuclear option because, among other reasons, they know they face a weakened America. An America that can't-do. An America that has very few options left for telling Iran what to do, since we're already involved in two other wars that aren't going so well, we've bankrupted ourselves, and over-stretched our military.

So, yes, we have George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld to thank for how screwed up things are with Iran right now. The Bush administration, and their Republican enablers in Congress, created the very world they told us they were supposedly trying to avoid. Read the rest of this post...

GOP hoping for an "outside event" to boost electoral chances

(Note from John: What is terrorism, Alex?)

Today's Washington Post has an article by Dan Balz and David Broder on how the GOP is facing major challenges to keeping control of the House this fall:

Over the summer, the political battlefield has expanded well beyond the roughly 20 GOP House seats originally thought to be vulnerable. Now some Republicans concede there may be almost twice as many districts from which Democrats could wrest the 15 additional seats they need to take control.

The GOP is getting desperate. They don't want to lose power. Bush and Rove don't want them to lose control of the House. They've been running the government unchallenged for six years now. Last night, John wrote that we can expect to hear more from Al Qaeda over the next couple months. The GOP are counting on something like that to help them:

As the campaign season begins, Democrats are trying to guard against premature celebration, even as their prospects are brighter than most ever imagined. Republicans are hoping for some outside event that would show the president and their party in a better light -- a spate of good news from Iraq, a foiled terrorist plot or an unlikely break in the deadlock over immigration on Capitol Hill.

If the GOP needs an "outside event," count on the ruthless tactics of Karl Rove to provide it. Read the rest of this post...

Video highlights of Santorum v. Casey debate in Pennsylvania

From the DSCC:

The first Senate debate between Bob Casey and Rick Santorum wasn't even close - Casey won. Santorum, looking unhinged, offered more of the same while Bob Casey outlined a new direction and made the case for change. Casey went head to head on Santorum's hometurf and got the better of him.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, HERE'S THE QUICK & DIRTY: Santorum called George Bush a "terrific president," admitted to sleeping in Pennsylvania just one month a year, reiterated his support for privatizing Social Security, praised Bush's handling of Iraq and insisted there were WMD in Iraq even though the White House has acknowledged there weren't. Casey laid out a new direction, calling for the Iraqis to take the lead on their own security and detailing specific ways for enhancing the U.S. military. He outlined a plan to balance the budget and spoke about the need for Pennsylvania to have a Senator who will hold George Bush accountable for advancing an ineffective agenda.

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS: Here are video highlights you'll be talking about when you go back to work next week:

Video 1) When asked how much time he spends in his Pennsylvania home since he lives full-time in Virginia, Santorum said: "I probably spend maybe a month a year." When he ran for Congress the first time, he pummeled his opponent for living outside Pennsylvania but now he is guilty of the same offense.

Video 2) When asked whether he thinks George Bush has been a great president, Santorum said: "I think he's been a terrific President. Absolutely." Santorum has voted the way the White House wants 98% of the time that Bush has been president.

Video 3) In response to Santorum insisting that there WMD in Iraq, a claim that even the White House discredits, Casey said: "When you point to the 9/11 question on Saddam Hussein, and you point to this crazy theory that there's still weapons of mass destruction, Tim, I think you've unearthed something. You've unearthed the 2% of the time that Rick Santorum disagrees with President Bush."

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And another GOP candidate calls for dumping Rummy

That "let's attack the Democrats on the war" thing just hasn't panned out the way Bush, Cheney and Rummy were hoping to see. Now GOP candidate Thomas Kean, Jr is calling for the resignation of Rummy. So is the Churchill-ism about eventually doing the right thing going to prove correct this election season?

But what compelled him to advocate publicly for a "fresh face" leading the troops, Mr. Kean said, were Mr. Rumsfeld's recent remarks chiding critics of the war for moral and intellectual confusion, and comparing them to those who advocated appeasing Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

"By engaging in that kind of rhetoric, this secretary has stepped over the line," Mr. Kean said.

Mr. Kean stopped short of criticizing President Bush, other than saying he had not been "well served" by Mr. Rumsfeld.

I suppose Kean can't quite get the grasp of who sits in the Oval Office, so that's a pretty sad excuse but it's still early in the election cycle. Read the rest of this post...

Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

They're kicking off the political season on the talk shows. Little Ricky's doing a debate:

FOX NEWS SUNDAY...: Sens. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.); Washington Redskins head coach Joe Gibbs .

THIS WEEK (ABC...: Sens. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) and Lincoln D. Chafee (R-R.I.); Rhode Island Senate candidate and Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey (R); actress Bo Derek .

FACE THE NATION (CBS...: Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.); Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean .

MEET THE PRESS (NBC...: Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.); Pennsylvania Senate candidate and State Treasurer Bob Casey Jr. (D).

LATE EDITION (CNN), 11 a.m.: Reps. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) and Martin T. Meehan (D-Mass.); Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao ; Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih ; Ali Asghar Soltanieh , Iranian representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency; Teamsters President James Hoffa ; former White House special counsel Lanny Davis ; former Bush-Cheney campaign strategist Matthew Dowd .

Commentary please...on the Sunday shows or anything else. Read the rest of this post...

Blair called "deluded" and "self indulgent" by members of his own cabinet

His own party can see what is clearly obvious to everyone, that Blair is going to take down the entire party just for his own benefit. We are seeing some similar hints of revolt by a small (but growing?) number of GOP loyalists towards Bush as the election nears but nothing quite as extraordinary as actual administration insiders as is the case in the UK.

"This pantomime has to end or we are going to lose the next election," said one last night.

Another was brutally dismissive of the Prime Minister's attempt to "spray around policy initiatives" ahead of the party's annual conference in Manchester. "Tony is deluding himself if he thinks that anyone is listening to all this stuff."

Senior ministers were speaking last night of "near-panic" among MPs in marginal seats as Labour's poll ratings plunge because of the in-fighting.

One said that Mr Blair was being "self-indulgent" in seeking to bind the hands of his successor to ever-more radical reforms of the public services.

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