FBI: We’re not looking for Iranian ties to JFK plotter whackjobs.
TPM Reader SL on Schlozman …
Monica Goodling told the truth as she saw it, which is different from the truth but is all you can hope to get from someone. Sampson and Gonzales told neither lies nor the truth; they didn’t say much of anything, sort of a pregnant silence. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Schlozman lied. Specifically, I think he lied about contact with the White House over the Acorn indictments. His whole tone and demeanor changed when he gave those particular answers. He became monosyllabic, his delivery was flat (prior to that it had been passively aggressive), and a hard look of despair took over his demeanor.
I had a slightly different breakdown of Schlozman’s testimony yesterday. But on balance I agree with SL. Sampson and Gonzales, for better or worse, played the faulty memory card on pretty much every significant question. But Schlozman gave a number of pretty unequivocal answers that I think were almost certainly false. A number of readers have commented on his often telling affect. But in addition to being a first class weasel who appears to have dedicated much of his professional career to cutting down on minority voting I think it’s pretty clear that a number of Schlozman’s claims will be easily contradicted in subsequent testimony.
We’re going to have a video compilation of Schlozman’s testimony up later this morning.
Mitt Romney offers first taste of his long-awaited “J.F.K. speech” on his Mormonism. That and other news about last night’s debate in today’s Election Central Debate Roundup.
John Edwards’ bumbling campaign advisers, caught on video making fools of themselves!
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AP: Turkish troops cross into northern Iraq in cross-border incursion.
If you’re a regular TPM Reader you know about Bradley Schlozman, voter suppression kingpin at the Bush Department of Justice. Yesterday, he went before the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer why he timed a series of dubious ‘vote fraud’ indictments for just days before the November 2006 election. It was one of the most acrimonious, combustible and frankly mutually-contemptuous testimony I’ve ever seen. We bring you a montage of Schlozman’s testimonial weaseldom in today’s episode of TPMtv …
Late Update: Here’s the TPMmuckraker piece we reference toward the end of the episode, and for a summary of today’s episode click here.
Fox’s Roger Ailes says: “The candidates that can’t face Fox, can’t face Al Qaeda. And that’s what’s coming.”
I guess we at least agree about the nature of the organization?
Late Update: From TPM Reader RT: “I guess he validates the theory you shouldn’t negotiate with terrorists.”
Latest News from the Turkish/Iraqi (Kurdistan) Border: We got a statement from the DC rep of the Kurdistan Regional Government. He says there are no Turkish forces in Kurdistan “as of today.”
And we’ve got more background on what may have triggered the crisis: a little discussed turnover of security control in Iraqi Kurdistan from US control to that of the Kurdistan Regional Government.
Late Update: State Department spokeswoman tells us that the report of a Turkish military incursion into Iraqi Kurdistan “is not a true story.” More soon. — SA