War Council

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If you haven’t already read Pat Lang on Bush’s surprise visit to Iraq today, do so now. For whatever PR value BushCo is trying to milk out of this visit (here’s C&L with coverage), Lang is persuasive that the chief reason for the visit is to bring his war cheerleaders together to develop a game plan for the next few weeks.

I note that the president’s travel party to AssadAir base in Anbar Province includes; Gates, Rice, Pace, Fallon, Lute,Hadley.  There, he will, of course, see Petraeus and Crocker as well. Anyone else of note? Any AEIers? Sounds like a council of war to me. Nice and isolated, minimal press interference and possibility ofoperational security planning breach.  Well thought out.  This will bea good place to get everyone "on board" and to coordinate tactics forthe Petraeus/Crocker show to come.

I’d love to know the answer to the questions Lang lays out. Learning who else attended this meeting would tell us a lot about ongoing strategy. Did they really have this meeting without anyone from OVP? For the record, I’m not entirely sure Hadley attended, though he could be considered an OVP mole if he did. And the WaPo quoted Ed Gillespie Read more →

Bush’s Cheney’s Legacy

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I couldn’t help but think of Dick when I read this story on Bush’s legacy. First, because there’s this story of Bush’s show of hands vote on whether Rummy should be ousted.

Mr. Draper said Mr. Bush took issue with him for unearthing details ofa meeting in April 2006 at which he took a show-of-hands vote on thefuture of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld,who was among his closest advisers. Mr. Bush told Mr. Draper he had norecollection of it, but he said he disagreed with the implication thathe regularly governed by staff vote. (According to Mr. Draper’s book,the vote was 7 to 4 for Mr. Rumsfeld’s ouster, with Mr. Bush being oneof the no votes. Mr. Rumsfeld stayed on months longer.)

Cheney was almost certainly another of the votes against canning Rummy. And voila, Bush kept Rummy, though he claims he doesn’t remember ignoring the public support for Rummy’s ouster seven months before the Republicans got creamed in midterm elections. (In fact, I suspect the story got liberated by one of those seven who is still pissed that Bush asked their opinion, then ignored it, when it could have saved control of the Senate.)

And then there’s the story of how Bush forgot Read more →

Ding Dong the Wicked Witch Is … Publishing at NRO?

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Reading Rove on his last day in the WH:

President Bush will be viewed as a far-sighted leader who confronted the key test of the 21st century by manipulating the scientific proof of that key test–global warming–so his donors could continue to profit off the dying petroleum age while they still had a chance.

Hewill be judged as a man of moral clarity who put America on wartimefooting in the dangerous struggle against radical Islamic terrorism–and he only did it ten months too late, after ignoring all the accurate warnings that Richard Clarke gave him.

Followingthe horrors of 9/11, this president changed American foreign policy bydeclaring terror sponsors responsible for the deeds of those theyshelter, train, and fund unless those terror sponsors were from either of the two countries with closest ties to those who attacked us: Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

And this president sawthe wisdom of removing terrorism’s cause by advocating the spread ofdemocracy, especially in the Muslim world, where authoritarianism andrepression have provided a potent growth medium for despair and angeraimed at the West and then, to save his failing war, he advocated bringing in Saddam light to fix his fuck-up.

Whilethe world dithered, America confronted HIV/AIDS in Africa with thePresident’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which has supportedtreatment for more than 1.1 million people worldwide, over one millionof them in Africa. By doing so, Bush ensured that 1.1 million people would lose their access to the condoms that had been slowing the spread of HIV/AIDS.

While most of the globe ignored Sudan and Darfur orrefused to act, this president labeled the violence there genocide —and pressed world leaders to take action while taking no action himself.

President Bush promotes economic growth and understands free markets provide the best path to a more hopeful tomorrow yet he ensures his cronies defy all market realities by giving them no-bid contracts that suck dry the government’s coffers.

In education, “No Child Left Behind” introducedaccountability into our public-education system by ensuring everychild’s progress is measured–the kind of accountability Bush refused for his own failing policies in Iraq–or anywhere else, for that matter.

He advanced a culture of life where every child is protected and welcomed yet our infant mortality rates continued to grow and ranked us near the bottom among all developed nations. Welcome to death, kiddo!

It’s not until we get down here near the end that Rove addresses the real issue that will sink Bush’s legacy.

Condi’s Jewels

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I appreciate the desire to make Condi look like a bitch. Or rather, to expose Condi’s imperious side. But does anyone suspect there’s some crucial context left out of this story?

Coit Blacker, a Stanford professor who is one of thesecretary of state’s closest friends, recalls going into a shop whereRice asked to see earrings. The clerk showed her costume jewelry. Riceasked to see something nicer, prompting the clerk to whisper some sassunder her breath.

Blacker remembers Rice tearing the woman to shreds.

"Let’s get one thing straight," he recalls her saying. "You are behindthe counter because you have to work for minimum wage. I’m on this sideasking to see the good jewelry because I make considerably more."

A manager quickly brought Rice better baubles.

I’m just guessing, but "whispering some sass" seems like code for, "making a racial remark." And while, if the clerk assumed Condi shouldn’t see the real things because she’s black (I’m guessing, though it could also be a range of other issues, including that she’s single), it doesn’t excuse the comment about minimum wage, I have to confess I’ve resorted to some bitchiness when salespeople have assumed I wasn’t worthy of seeing the good stuff because I was a DFH, Read more →

The NIE: Iraq to Split in Three States

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Okay, that’s not precisely the conclusion the new NIE in Iraq draws. But it is the logical outcome of the key judgments its gives. Here are some key points, taken totally out of the context of the report, but which are otherwise direct quotes:

  • The IC assesses that the emergence of “bottom-up” security initiatives, principally among Sunni Arabs and focused on combating AQI, represent the best prospect for improved security over the next six to 12 months, but we judge these initiatives will only translate into widespread political accommodation and enduring stability if the Iraqi Government accepts and supports them. A multi-stage process involving the Iraqi Government providing support and legitimacy for such initiatives could foster over the longer term political reconciliation between the participating Sunni Arabs and the national government. We also assess that under some conditions “bottom-up initiatives” could pose risks to the Iraqi Government.
  • Such initiatives, if not fully exploited by the Iraqi Government, could over time also shift greater power to the regions, undermine efforts to impose central authority, and reinvigorate armed opposition to the Baghdad government.
  • The polarization of communities is most evident in Baghdad, where the Shia are a clear majority in more than half of all Read more →

Quinn Gillespie’s New Client

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Ever since Ed Gillespie became Bush’s replacement for Dan Bartlett (and after that, for Rove), I’ve been trying to track the clients of Quinn Gillespie–the firm that Gillespie co-founded. After all, Gillespie is a guy who, up until days before he took on one of the most powerful advisory roles at the White House, was a big-time lobbyist, with a broad clientele. And Gillespie has declined to recuse himself automatically from matters concerning his former clients.

Despite the potential for conflicts of interest, Gillespie won’t be forced inhis new role to recuse himself from all matters related to the companies he haslobbied for, said Ken Gross, a Washington-based attorney and former associategeneral counsel with the Federal Election Commission.

Instead, Gillespie will have to decide on a case-by-case basis if hisactivities could violate federal ethics standards.

So, when Bush pushes back S-CHIP eligibility to prevent S-CHIP from becoming a cornerstone to a universal, government-provided health care program, I think it relevant to consider that, until recently, Bush’s counselor was representing the interests of the Coalition to Advance Healthcare Reform–a corporate group pushing privately-funded healthcare. And as Bush prepares to veto a bill reforming the corrupt student loan process, I think it relevant to consider Read more →

Is Waxman Protecting Tom Davis in His Politicization Investigation?

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In this post I trace the tangled web in which Tom Davis is investigating Scott Bloch (head of the Office of Special Counsel) at the same time as Bloch may be investigating Tom Davis. The short logic goes like this:

  • Tom Davis is investigating Scott Bloch (and collecting all Bloch emails that refer to any legislator)
  • The WaPo story on Sunday looks like it was based primarily on leaks from OSC
  • It included details that extend back to the time Davis worked with Rove on these issues
  • This suggests Bloch may include Davis among his targets
  • But Waxman, when he sent out a fresh request for this information today, did not request documents that might incriminate Davis

The Leaks to WaPo Appear to Come from OSC

I said on Sunday that someone on the Government Reform Committee might be a source for the material in the WaPo’s story on Rove’s asset deployment teams. But today, Waxman cites that story as a preface to his request for more documents from the agencies that were part of the program.

On Sunday, The Washington Post reported that these politicalbriefings were part of a systematic and coordinated effort by WhiteHouse officials to leverage the resources of the federal government “toensure the maximum promotion of Bush’s reelection agenda and theRepublicans in Congress who supported him.” The Post reportedthat Karl Rove, the President’s political advisor, organized an “assetdeployment team” that enabled the White House “to coordinate the travelof Cabinet secretaries and senior agency officials, the announcement ofgrant money, and personnel and policy decisions” with the chief WhiteHouse liaison from each Cabinet agency. According to the Post, the meetings of the asset deployment team occurred sometimes as often as once a month.

In today’s letter, Waxman cites one letter that may be one of the ones cited in the WaPo. Here’s Waxman:

According to the documents, the White House invited 18 federal agencies, including yours, to asset deployment meetings in 2003.

And here’s the WaPo:

Stephen Hayes Tells the Truthiness: CIA Trip Report

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I laid out earlier all the details that Stephen Hayes suppressed for his hagiography of Dick Cheney. There are two areas in which his propaganda tract is useful, the second of which I’ll deal with in a later post.

Declassifying the Trip Report

The first is a consistent theme Hayes uses for his tale about OVP’s involvement in the Plame leak. He says that, from day one, OVP wanted to leak the trip report to rebut Wilson’s claims. In June, Hayes tells, they wanted to leak the details of the trip:

But they could give reporters few concrete reasons to be skeptical about Wilson’s allegations; the details of the trip were still classified.

Then, in response to Wilson’s op-ed, the White House wanted to declassify the details (watch this language closely, because Hayes completely obscures when the White House got the report):

White House officials were stunned. They had obtained from the CIA the Agency’s one-and-a-half-page report on Wilson’s trip.

"We were given the contents of what the report had said," says one White House official. "The guy goes over there and comes back and says Iraq was looking for uranium. We though, ‘Shit, we should declassify that and put it out.’"

After telling the Mayaki story, Hayes notes:

But journalists covering the story had no way to know this. So the White House considered declassifying the report and releasing it.

And then Hayes blames Hadley for not pressuring Tenet to declassify it.

Several of Bush’s advisers–a group that included such normally cautious officials as the White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett and Anna Perez of the National Security Council–wanted to declassify and release Wilson’s report. But there were risks. Confronting Wilson on his fabrications might further antagonize the CIA.

[snip]

The deputy national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, was on the phone several times a day with George Tenet, handling the sensitive diplomacy between the White House and the CIA. Hadley did not want to do anything to further antagonize the CIA leadership. So despite the fact that Joe Wilson was free to discuss and mischaracterize his report–the CIA never made him sign a nondisclosure agreement–Wilson’s report would remain classified.

House GOP Mutiny

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We’ve been hearing inklings of a BushCo plan for a veerrrrryyy slooowwww draw-down of troops. Scott Horton explains the reasoning more clearly than "serious" journalists would.

A major point driving the move has been the Congressional G.O.P. Bushwas told that if he pushed a straight continuation of the Surgestrategy after this fall, he would lose most of the CongressionalG.O.P. One senior Republican Congressional figure is said to have toldhim that the G.O.P. would be “committing suicide” if it went into the2008 elections with the Iraq War as the lead issue and no draw-down insight. Bush has been assured that he can hold the G.O.P. in Congresstogether with an extended, slow paced draw-down.

Now, I’m not surprised, nor will I be surprised when Duncan boasts of telling me so when this proposed draw-down turns into a mirage that gets vetoed by Dick.

But I do find it curious that Rove leaves–all the while promising glorious success in Iraq. Republicans–even Fox News–is surprisingly and publicly gleeful at his departure. And all of a sudden news of a draw-down is floated.

It would be logical for the Republican House to start demanding some changes, after their big losses last year. I guess the GOP Senate has already Read more →

Stephen Hayes on Keller on Dick

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Warning: I’ve just started to read Stephen Hayes’ book on Cheney (thanks to the short line for the book at Ann Arbor’s Public Library, I didn’t have to pay Hayes a cent), so this blog will be a little propaganda-busting focused in the next few days. I haven’t even gotten beyond the intro without a post!

When I sat down to start this book, I was grumbling to myself that the traditional media had pretty much accepted Hayes was a shameless propagandist–and started treating him as such. I remember how, after I called into Diane Rehm’s show and pointed out that Hayes’ shameless pimping of Cheney’s Iraq and Al Qaeda myths made him a worse propagandist than even Judy Miller, Rehm stopped having him on anymore, until just the other day, so he could pimp his Cheney book. It disturbs me that the media will accept a book about the Vice President by an unabashed propagandist and treat it seriously, only because Cheney (who picked said propagandist to write the book) was the subject.

Well, the intro is basically Hayes’ attempt to get people to treat his book seriously (which says something about his credibility). And wouldn’t you know it–his defense of his shilliness relies on the NYT’s Bill Keller.