Office of the Independent Blogger

You know what? This piece really bothers me. It’s about Matthew Dowd, former chief strategerist of the Bush campaign for President, who is now talking about his misplaced faith in the President, how he was wrong to switch parties for him, how John Kerry “was right” — and I say to myself, This is a man who became a Republican specifically for George W. Bush. He became a Republican to help him run, he was drawn in by Bush’s pledge to be a cooperative President with Democrats, and I say, If you could be drawn in by something that was so clearly bullshit, by a man so undeniably dumb, then you deserve the fate you’ve got.

It’s only a shame that it’s a fate he gave to the rest of the country, too, for eight years. The curse of George Walker.

Fidel Castro says, the world’s poor will starve because of America’s new interest in green energies.

Guess that’s what happened to his people. That ought to explain it.

A couple of small notes. Governor Romney says, Jeb Bush + Newt Gingrich = potential running mates. Good for a laugh. He might want to think about potential exit strategies before that, or he could at least try to get above third place in the polls.

And, this guy seems like a good actor. He’s got Dick down pat.

The Saudi King said today that our occupation of Iraq is illegitimate, and I think to myself, there’s a retort in there about the Bush Presidency as illegitimate, the Saudi Government as illegitimate, the Islamic religion as illegitimate — and I think, Why is Bush’s boyfriend attacking Bush’s War? Why should the American public care? In an ideal world, the entire Saudi nation would be overthrown.

Bob Novak’s latest column is simply about George W. Bush being alone. I don’t buy it. By all means, he’s isolated himself, he doesn’t trust many, and people don’t like him on the Capitol, but let’s be curt: he isn’t alone until people stop shilling for him.

You want to see lonely in DC? See Alberto Gonzalez, whose only friendship won’t testify in front of Congress, something she learned at Pat Robertson’s University, where she attended Law School.

Man, that seems like a sweet deal. You go to Robertson’s for Law School and mis-learn Law and religion and politics. Hooray!

A Bush Bureaucrat asked an Attorney an inappropriate question before firing him. That question? Do you know why Republicans might be angry with you? and then, boom. He was out of a job.

And Republicans wonder why the American public is cross with them.

Senator Mitch McConnell is an asshole. He won’t allow Al Gore to party on the Capitol!

He’d better watch himself. Gore might not invite him to State Dinners while he’s President!

Some British soldiers are being held by the Iranians, as you might already be aware. They either were on an attack mission in Iran that was supposed to be covert and got caught or the Iranians grabbed them in Iraqi waters, like the British claim. I don’t know which to believe, really, as the Iranians are the Iranians but the British are the British and have reason, like the Americans and the Israelis, to be striking covertly.

Iran is using strong rhetoric, though, about sovereignty and some such nonsense, and one’s got to wonder if a War is to come of it. If it does, it wouldn’t be the first time that the West attacked Iran for a small while until the Iranians gave: see 1996, late 1980s, for the other times, but Mahmoud Ahmaniac! wasn’t The Man back then, so who knows what’d happen.

I haven’t touched on it yet, but perhaps I should’ve. There’s a big advertisement on YouTube that attacks Hillary and has made major waves in the news. It’s nothing special — actually, it’s a piece of crap — but people pay attention to it because it’s really the first attack ad built on Cyberspace. Or rather, it’s the first to gain nationwide attention.

The infamous anti-Clinton video is north of 2 million views on YouTube.com and climbing. In case you’ve been unable to take a break from the search for little Danni Lynn’s father long enough to sneak a peek at the video, it spoofs the famous 1984 commercial in which Apple Computer introduced its Macintosh personal computer by attacking larger rival IBM as a bleak, Orwellian authoritarian. In place of the original image, Hillary Clinton’s face is inserted into the floating video screen. She is shown repeating one of her stock “voter conversations” as grimy, hollowed-eyed men in shapeless tunics march in lock step into an auditorium. Clinton’s voice drones on as the men take their seats.

Suddenly, a woman dressed in running gear sprints down the aisle toward the screen that features Clinton’s disembodied head. The runner, the only person shown in full color in the video, spins around and around and launches a sledgehammer into the screen, causing it to explode. The video ends with type scrolling up on the screen that says, “On Jan. 14, the Democratic primary will begin. And you’ll see why 2008 won’t be like 1984.” The final screen shows the Apple logo reshaped into an “O” (for “Obama,” get it?) under which the words BarackObama.com materialize.

It’s somewhat sad that something so unimportant and uninspiring is gaining national attention.

Rest well — vampires do not exist.

So what explains Dick Cheney?

You remember Jose Padilla? He’s on trial, and a CIA agent wants to testify with modified appearance. I think he should be allowed.

That is all on that.

Al Gore returned to Congress earlier this week, when I was sick, so I didn’t get to post about it. It was a great, triumphant return, and I hope it signifies a more serious look at a Presidential run, whatever he may have said.

The White House and Congress are about to battle over subpoenas and the Congress’ ability to request information and testimony. Here.

Q If it’s behind closed doors, what’s the problem?
MR. SNOW: The thing that we have said all along is, we think that you ought to have the ability for members of Congress to get information in a way that also does not create precedence, and is going to have a chilling effect for presidential advisors to be able to give their full and fair advice to the President of the United States. We think that the compromise we shaped enables us to fulfill that obligation to the President, and to the public in terms of first-rate advice from the White House and the people working in the White House, and at the same time, allows Congress to do what it has to do, which is conduct oversight. There is nothing that says Congress has to have television; it says that Congress does have oversight responsibilities and needs to get at the facts.

Furthermore, the people who are first and foremost in the decision loop here, the folks at the Department of Justice, they aren’t going to be out. I mean, they’re going to be out, they’re going to be testifying, they’re offering all their documentation, as well.

Q They get to be in public, but you want your guys behind closed doors.

MR. SNOW: There are — in this particular case, the Department of Justice — the Congress does have legitimate oversight responsibility for the Department of Justice. It created the Department of Justice. It does not have constitutional oversight responsibility over the White House, which is why by our reaching out, we’re doing something that we’re not compelled to do by the Constitution, but we think common sense suggests that we ought to get the whole story out, which is what we’re doing.

The site I got this transcript from, Talking Points Memo: Muckraker, links after this excerpt to a man who had the same thought I did when I first read it (although I was going to use PCP as the drug): “…based on Snow’s comments today, this isn’t the executive privilege argument, this is the executive privilege argument on crack.”

I’ve said, before, that George W. Bush is Richard Nixon on dumb. I’ve told people before that Hillary Clinton is Richard Nixon with ovaries. I wonder why people are so desperate for her Presidency, but I say, Give me Gore, or I’ll write him in!

I’m really sick. Bad case of Bronchitis.

I shall return in a few days. Maybe even tomorrow, if I’m feeling all right, but there was a bureaucratic mixup at Walgreens and so I haven’t got my fever medication, so I’m not feeling well.

The Al Gore for President saga is very interesting. I don’t think he’s running but if he is, he’s fooled us all and that very well might be the best strategy as it helps set him up as an apolitical candidate with all the political authority in the world. Newsweek is taking its search for Bigfoot to new heights, though, and so is the political elite as they say: Gore’s waistline will indicate if he’s running or not.

Heh.

You know, I don’t understand how anyone can do this. It’s absolutely terrible.

It’s official! George W. Bush is the Worst President in American History: the man with the worst television shows in America confirms!

In an appearance on CNN’s Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, real estate executive and reality television personality Donald Trump called U.S. President George W. Bush “probably the worst president in the history of the United States.” A transcript of the exchange follows:

DOUR RUMP: Well, I think Bush is probably the worst president in the history of the United States, and I just don’t understand how they could have lost that election.
BLITZER: Let’s get back to that in a moment. Let’s talk about Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York.
DOUR RUMP: Very, very talented, smart, tough, very formidable in every way. And I think, if it’s him and Hillary, it’s going to be a hell of a tough race.

You know what strikes me about this, besides the fact that Donald Trump thinks Rudy has a chance and I don’t think he has a prayer?

Nobody ever says George W. Bush is “talented,” let alone very very, and only Harriet Miers calls him “smart.”

Sad day.

Walter Reed Hospital — which, you’ll recall, is the nation’s largest military hospital, as well as a dump — has been scrutinized of late for its poor conditions and that has put severe pressure on the Republicans (I’m stunned that they haven’t blamed Clinton yet, but I guess I don’t watch Fox News).

Today, there’s more scrutiny: they’ve got a VIP ward, now under investigation. And I ask, “What kind of hospital has a VIP ward?” Is that where soldiers who happen to be political donors go? That’s nonsense. No hospital, anywhere, should have “VIP rooms,” much less a military hospital run by the American government for its military.

In bigger news, the Attorney General and the White House have been shown to have known and plotted, politically, to rid the nation of ninety three US Prosecutors. Ouch. That reeks of the Soviet Politburo to me but it’s no surprise when the President attempts to circumvent democracy anymore.

I’m just frustrated by the fact that the media treats it all with kid’s gloves. Here, Bush turned to Fred Fielding of Nixon and Reagan to help Gonzalez “negotiate” some sort of peace with the Democrats in Congress who are rightly indignant at the Republican behavior.

It was hardly a social call when Fred F. Fielding, the new White House counsel, turned up Wednesday afternoon on Capitol Hill. He had come to negotiate with Democrats, who are investigating whether politics played a role in the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors and demanding testimony from Karl Rove and other top aides to President Bush. But Mr. Fielding’s real task is even bigger and more delicate: to serve as the point man for the White House as it decides the future of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, a longtime Texas friend and confidant of Mr. Bush.

In bringing Mr. Fielding back to the West Wing this year, Mr. Bush turned to the kind of consummate Washington insider he disdained when he first came to town, a Republican who remained prominent in the capital as presidents of both parties have come and gone. Now, occupying a job he held under Ronald Reagan more than 20 years ago, Mr. Fielding, 67, is the White House front man in a high-stakes showdown with the new Democratic majority on Capitol Hill even as he scrambles behind the scenes to determine what his new colleagues knew and when.

Soft-spoken and slightly rumpled, he was polite but did not reveal much on Wednesday, lawmakers said. He stayed 20 minutes, just long enough to hear Democrats make their case that Mr. Bush should not assert executive privilege to keep his aides from talking. He left without a hint of what he might do, and said he would report back to them on Friday.

The bold is bullshit. It’s such a load of bullshit, it’s unbelievable bullshit — Bush disdained insiders? Oh honeybabe. Just because he said once or twice, “I’m an outsider!” doesn’t make it true in the least, so let’s not parrot that bullshit around. The second reason this whole thing bothers me is, Bush is turning to the people who covered up Iran-Contra and tried to with Watergate; he is turning to people who were his father’s keeper.

It’s just not the way a President should act. At all.