Will Rummy face war crimes charges? That and other news of the day in today’s Daily Muck.
Meet the new boss…
The Washington Times is reporting that Michael Steele has been asked to be the next Chair of the RNC. Yeah, this guy.
Update: Another reminder about Steele’s fitness – the “scarlet letter” incident.
I’m wondering how President Bush is digging all these ‘Bush Turns to Pop’s Advisors’ headlines. We were just chatting here at TPM about what we think of the Gates’ nomination. And there are definitely real questions about his record in the 1980s as well as whether his nomination represents a genuine policy change or a time-buying personnel reshuffle. Speaking for myself, it seems like an undeniable step forward simply to be dealing with someone whose past performance and current policy views suggests they are operating in the reality-based universe — a clear departure from the last six years. It takes a moment of stepping back to take stock of just how clinical our foreign policy has been — both in concept and execution — for the first years of this young century.
As Atrios points out here, Jon Tester is ‘conservative’ only if you a) judge political philosophy by indicators as profound as haircuts or b) if your mindset is ruled by cartoonish GOP strawmen. But both apply to most of the chatmeisters, so I guess he’s a conservative.
After the Democrats campaigned to end corruption in Washington, you’d think they would try to promote only squeaky-clean members to fill powerful posts, wouldn’t you? Think again.
For those readers who’ve written in asking us not to forget about the Republicans’ vast robo calling operation in the lead up to the election — don’t worry, we haven’t.
Take a look at this, for instance. On Election Day, there were seven very near misses for Democratic candidates in districts that had been bombarded by the harrassing calls. Were the calls the difference?
A helpful reminder from TPM Reader MR:
Nice post . . . regarding Rove’s . . . last minute PR maneuvering in Michigan, MD, & NJ (ie, your reminder about his near-disaster victory lap in the last days of election 2000). As it turned out you were right on the button, and one has to laugh out loud at the thought that the boy genius threw $$ down the toilet in those three states that could’ve been very helpful to repubs elsewhere.
Here’s the post Josh did last week about Rove sending Bush to California instead of Florida on the last day of the 2000 campaign, a cocky move designed to project confidence that nearly cost Bush the presidency.
You do have to wonder whether Sens. Burns and Allen might have made up their narrow margins of defeat if some of the millions of dollars spent by the national GOP to “enlarge” the playing field for control of the Senate had instead been spent in Montana and Virginia, respectively.
Just goes to show that it’s easy to be dubbed a genius so long as you win.
Meanwhile, back in Pakistan:
Two months ago, Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, triumphantly announced a peace pact with Islamic extremists in the North Waziristan tribal district near the Afghan border, saying he hoped it would become a model for curbing domestic Islamic militancy and cross-border insurgent attacks in Afghanistan.
Today that model lies in shreds. Northwestern Pakistan’s fragile political peace has been shattered by two devastating attacks: a government missile strike that killed 82 people at an Islamic school in the Bajaur tribal district on Oct. 30, and a retaliatory suicide bombing Wednesday that killed 42 army recruits at a training camp in the Malakand tribal district.
. . .
“This is a disaster. We all recognize the gravity of the situation,” said a senior military official in this northwestern provincial capital, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It’s a nightmare to have an army being attacked on its own soil and by its own people.” After the two incidents, he added, “the doors to peaceful negotiated settlements are closed. I am afraid we are on a war course in the tribal areas.”
If you didn’t see the Frontline documentary last month on the tribal areas and the internal tensions in Pakistan, you can watch it online.