Signs of intelligent life at the Post OpEd page? Glenn Greenwald plays astrobiologist.
AP: GOP says there’s no evidence of wrongdoing in the US Attorney Purge. So that’s what we’re going to go with.
Editor & Publisher’s Greg Mitchell on one of the journalistic heroes of the US Attorney Purge story.
TPM Reader JP wrote in, so on the mark, saying this article in the Post reads like a joke piece …
The White House wants to appoint a high-powered czar to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with authority to issue directions to the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies, but it has had trouble finding anyone able and willing to take the job, according to people close to the situation.
At least three retired four-star generals approached by the White House in recent weeks have declined to be considered for the position, the sources said, underscoring the administration’s difficulty in enlisting its top recruits to join the team after five years of warfare that have taxed the United States and its military.
The article’s not the problem, mind you, but the subject matter. This is truly DC-czarism, ‘we can’t figure out what the hell we’re doing so let’s appoint a new bubble on the flowchart’ run amok. Instead of ‘czar’ maybe we can just call the person ‘training wheels’? Someone to oversee wars, the Pentagon, the State Department and everything else? Don’t we elect that person every four years?
JP says it reminds him of this November 2005 piece from The Onion …
In response to increasing criticism of his handling of the war in Iraq and the disaster in the Gulf Coast, as well as other issues, such as Social Security reform, the national deficit, and rising gas prices, President Bush is expected to appoint someone to run the U.S. as soon as Friday.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a better sign — though wrapped in a humorous package — of why this president really can’t be trusted to be in charge of anything and why the Republic is genuinely in peril as long as this pitiful goof remains in office. Bush wants to find a general to do his job for him. But he can’t get anyone to agree to do it.
Check out this new poll: It finds that more Americans want Congress to withhold funding for the war if Bush vetoes the Dems’ withdrawal bill.
This one’s priceless. Remember Shirlington Limo, the slapdash outfit reportedly involved in ferrying Duke Cunningham, assorted bribers and sundry ladies of the night to poker parties over at the Watergate? They’re suing DHS for “caving” to “political pressures” and canceling the company’s contract to run its shuttle services. Stuff’s tough all over.
Pelosi’s office shoots down the latest winger “scandal” surrounding the Speaker, confirming that she has no intention of going to Iran.
Behold TPM HQ and how you can help us add to the news coverage we bring you …
(ed.note: Today’s episode’s soundtrack is from ‘Laura Bush’s Eyes’, from music.podshow.com.)
Wisconsin’s U.S. attorney Steve Biskupic has been a frequent topic here at TPM.
That’s mostly been because of a case Biskupic brought against a state bureaucrat named Georgia Thompson last year. The prosecution, which broadly implicated the Democratic governor Jim Doyle, was frequent grist for Republicans in political ads against Doyle. But though Biskupic somehow scored a conviction, the case was forcefully overturned on appeal last week. The evidence, one of the circuit judges said, was “beyond thin.”
Because of this, we thought, here might be a prime example of a “loyal Bushie.”
But take a look at this. There’s strong evidence that, as a result of complaints from Karl Rove and President Bush himself, Biskupic was inches away from being purged last year.
The real question becomes — what saved him? The Thompson prosecution?