We’ll know tomorrow whether Sen. John Warner (R-VA) will run for re-election next year. Warner is 80 years old. The race for his seat, if empty, would be a major flashpoint in 2008.
It’s been more than four years since the invasion of Iraq. And countless wingers have lost their sanity and dignity over the failed hunt from Iraqi stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. But vials of Iraqi WMD have now been found … in the inspectors’ file cabinets at the UN in New York.
When my wife was in school in Louisiana, she had a teacher who began a sentence one day with, “When you leave Louisiana and go to America . . .”
Now, Louisiana has long been different from the rest of the country, its French and Spanish colonial roots long pre-dating Anglo influence. In south Louisiana in particular, where the geographic isolation of bayou country was not penetrated until the commercialization of oil and gas deposits well into the 20th century, the Anglo influence not only came late but often came as unwelcome.
So there is precedent for Louisiana to consider itself a land apart, but I’m not sure there is any precedent for a President of the United States to refer to contiguous U.S. territory as if it were a foreign land in quite the same way President Bush did yesterday while visiting New Orleans on the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall there:
“[T]he taxpayers and people from all around the country have got to understand the people of this part of the world really do appreciate the fact that the American citizens are supportive of the recovery effort.”
“I come telling the folks in this part of the world that we still understand there’s problems and we’re still engaged.”
“We care deeply about the folks in this part of the world.”
He might as well have been talking to tsunami survivors in Indonesia.
Late Update: As a couple of readers have pointed out, there is a precedent for a U.S. President to refer to U.S. territory in this way: President Bush himself has done it consistently since shortly after the storm. On September 2, 2005, speaking in Mobile, Ala., the President said, “[N]ow we’re going to go try to comfort people in that part of the world.” And the pattern of oddly distancing the devastated Gulf Coast from the rest of the country has continued ever since, as ably documented by the blog “Right Hand Thief.”
We’re going through the airport police audio tape of their interview with Sen. Larry Craig following his arrest. Among the highlights:
Officer: Well, you’re not being truthful with me. You’re not being truthful with me, Senator. I’m real disappointed in you right now. . . .
Then a little later:
Officer: Okay, sir. We deal with people who lie to us every day.
Craig: I’m sure you do.
Officer: I’m sure you do to [sic] sir.
Craig: And gentleman so do I.
By the end, it’s hard to tell whether the officer’s “disappointment” is the stuff of interrogation room tactics or genuine:
Officer: Okay. Then it was your left hand. I saw it with my own eyes.
Craig: All right, you saw something that didn’t happen.
Officer: Embarrassing, embarrassing. No wonder why we’re going down the tubes. Anything to add?
Craig: Uh, no.
Shortly thereafter, the interview concludes.
Sen. Craig was familiar with this particular Minneapolis airport restroom:
Officer: You, you travel through here frequently correct?
Craig: I do.
Officer: Um,
Craig: Almost weekly.
Officer: Have you been successful in these bathrooms here before?
Craig: I go to that bathroom regularly.
Officer: I mean for any type of other activities?
Craig: No. Absolutely not. I don’t seek activity in bathrooms.
Sigh.
Wyoming GOP official makes a candid admission: His state party is trying to wreck the primary calendar. That and other political news of the day in today’s Happy Hour Roundup.
According to an article in today’s Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, more avid web readership might have saved Sen. Larry Craig’s (R-ID) career.
As a number of TPM Reader/Google sleuths have been telling us, there are sites out there that rate different public sex bathrooms around the country. One of them sounds sort of like it’s the Zagat’s of gay public restroom sex. And that bathroom at the Minneapolis airport is like the Spago of sex bathrooms.
In any case, this from the Strib reporters …
Another Web site lists Twin Cities-area malls, parks, health clubs and even a “cruisy toilet” at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. Many postings list the best times to go and give graphic reviews of the venues.
An airport bathroom, specifically one near a shoeshine stand behind the ticket counter, generated the most comments until Web-site users posted warnings in June that men were getting arrested there. Craig was arrested shortly after noon on June 11 in the main men’s public restroom of the North Star Crossing in the Lindbergh Terminal.
It’s not clear from the article exactly which review web site they’re referring to or whether the warnings about the sting showed up in advance of Craig’s June 11th arrest. But it seems that closer scrutiny of the web and available ratings sites could have kept Craig from his rendezvous with destiny.
Okay, it’s the unreported political story of the year: the GOP’s ability to dominate scandal news even while in the minority. Usually, the majority party, with more power and money, takes the scandal cake. It’s almost an iron law of politics. But whether it’s lobby shop or the restroom, the GOP has so far been able to reverse the historical tide, maintaining a decisive muck advantage even in the political wilderness.
In fact, the Muck Gap remains so great that we even caught CNN (see today’s episode) yesterday trying to fudge the numbers to make muck seem more bipartisan than it is.
We run the numbers in today’s episode of TPMtv …