White House spokeswoman Dana Perino on the vice president’s “unique” role: it’s “an interesting constitutional question that legal scholars can debate.”
The Bush administration is just full of interesting constitutional questions, isn’t it?
TPM Reader SM writes in …
It’s a curious thing that, over the past 10 – 12 days, the news from Iraq refers to the combatants there as “al-Qaida” fighters. When did that happen?
Until a few days ago, the combatants in Iraq were “insurgents” or they were referred to as “Sunni” or “Shia’a” fighters in the Iraq Civil War. Suddenly, without evidence, without proof, without any semblance of fact, the US military command is referring to these combatants as “al-Qaida”.
Welcome to the latest in Iraq propaganda.
I don’t know if SM‘s claim is accurate in the particular. But it’s very true as a general matter.
I’ve long been amazed at how freely reporters accept it when this or that Arab or Muslim with a gun is labelled as “al Qaida.” And the issue is complicated by the fact that a new group — a post-invasion group with a very uncertain connection to the actual al Qaeda — has taken the name of al Qaeda in Iraq.
But is the standard bamboozle getting ramped up a notch? As Andrew Sullivan noted yesterday, even David Patraeus acts like the whole issue in Iraq now is just al Qaeda and Iranian arming of, I guess, al Qaeda. Otherwise things would be great.
This is the sort of thing that requires a close watching of the news and how things are being reported. Is ‘insurgent’ now being replaced across the board by al Qaeda. Keep an eye out and let us know what you see. We’ll do the same.
Today’s New York Times has an enormous front page story today suggesting that John Edwards’ antipoverty programs were set up merely to provide a “bridge” to his 2008 Presidential campaign.
But guess what — the Edwards campaign tells us that The Times refused the chance to speak to people who actually benefitted from his programs.
Your Justice Department resignation o’ the week: Acting Associate Attorney General William Mercer.
This is fun.
Senator James Inhofe made a lot of noise today by claiming he overheard Senators Hillary Clinton and Barbara Boxer saying that they want a “legislative fix” for talk radio.
One problem: He’s now told two versions of the story, and let’s just say that they’re strikingly, even comically, at odds with one another.
Fred Thompson heading to early primary states. That and other political news of the day in today’s Election Central Happy Hour Roundup.
Fred Thompson to announce on Tuesday.
Add joke as needed.
So how does Sen. Ted Stevens 
(R-AK) slice off a few slabs of bacon from all that pork he sends up to Alaska? At TPMmuckraker.com we’re closely following the federal investigation into Sen. Stevens and his son, former Alaska state senate President Ben Stevens.
It turns out that it’s not just about the oil services business.
Stevens and son also have a little angle with the state fishing industry that’s got the feds attention. Ted put his son Ben in charge of a board that distributed $12 million in federal money in grants to state fisheries companies. Ben in turn pulled down at least three-quarters of a million dollars in ‘consulting fees’ from the same fisheries companies for services the nature of which has never been disclosed.
Laura McGann has the story.
Army intel officer outlines flaws in ‘enemy combatant’ review program in court filing.
I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.
William Mercer, the Acting Associate Attorney General, resigned on June 22, 2007.
Michael Elston, chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, resigned on June 15, 2007.
Monica Goodling, Alberto Gonzales’ White House liaison, resigned on April 6, 2007.
And what do all of these dates have in common? They’re all Fridays. (And, in each instance, the resignations were announced in the late afternoon.)
The Late-Friday-Media Trick has been around since before Bush took office — release embarrassing news when it’s least likely to get noticed — but no White House has ever been this shameless.