Rothenberg to Dems: There’s no need to fear casting Dem opposition to Iraq War as partisan.
“The reason our mission in Iraq has proven to be so disastrous and corrupt is very simple — the advocates and architects of that war are completely corrupt, inept, and deceitful.” The words are Glenn Greenwald’s. And though many others have said the same thing in slightly different words, it bears repeating again and again. The corruption and ineptitude aren’t unfortunate add-ons to the effort. They’re at the heart of it. It’s a stain like original sin. And the same goes for the democratizing element of the mission. Even among critics of the war, it’s often accepted as granted that a key aim of this effort was democratization — only that it was botched, like so much else, or that the aim of democracy, in a crunch, plays second fiddle to other priorities. Not true. The key architects of the policy don’t believe in democracy or the rule of law. The whole invasion was based on contrary principles. And the aim can’t be achieved because those anti-democratic principles are written into the DNA of the occupation, even as secondary figures have and continue to labor to build democracy in the country.
Jeff Faux, founder and senior fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, is joining us at TPMCafe this week to describe the emerging global economic overclass:
Call it the Party of Davos, after the annual elite bash in the Swiss Alps that resembles the big-donor receptions at a political convention âcorporate CEOs and world class investors, the people who carry their bags, and the politicians, pundits and policy intellectuals who carry their water.
The Party of Davos, Faux argues, knows no national loyalty. As it pushes to mold American and global economic policies in its own interest, what institutions can counteract its power? Share your thoughts and follow the debate all week.
Larry Johnson chronicles the Post‘s shilling for Scooter Libby.
Sharp-eyed TPM Reader DM …
With all the talk about Cheney in Pakistan and the good cop/bad cop aspect of this performance, I think there’s something critical and overlooked underlying this New York Times lead:
“Vice President Dick Cheney made an unannounced trip to Pakistan on Monday to deliver what officials in Washington described as an unusually tough message Gen. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, warning him that the newly Democratic Congress could cut aid to his country unless his forces become far more aggressive in hunting down operatives with Al Qaeda.”
This is Dick Cheney. The hardest of hardcore Republican terror scaremongers. Of all those who have tarred Democrats as weak on terror, nobody’s done it like Dick. Cheney wasn’t playing the good cop or bad cop role before. He simply wasn’t walking the beat. This is a tacit acknowledgement that the Democratic Congress is more serious about fighting Al Qaeda than the White House. He’s essentially saying, “look, we’ve let you slide on this, because, well, you know us…” Other things were more important.
Dick Cheney has acknowledged that the Democratic Congress is more intent than the White House on hunting down Al Qaeda operatives.
-DM
Same thing jumped out at me last night.
Late Update: Also see Paul Kiel’s analysis of Dick Cheney’s new secret weapons (the Democratic Congress) here.
For those of you who are or were big fans of Noah Shachtman’s Defensetech blog, Noah has … ‘hem relocated to a new blog at Wired.com. It’s called Danger Room. And apparently most of Noah’s regulars from Defensetech have relocated too. Check it out.
Also, check out these posts (one and two)from earlier today on those allegedly Iranian super-IEDs.
Who’s the biggest threat to U.S. interests? According to the Bush adminstration… Iran.
Tomorrow, the intelligence community has a chance to either support or dissent from this worldview with its annual Worldwide Threat briefing. Spencer Ackerman explains.
Rep. Jefferson’s (D-LA) accomplices head to the slammer while Jefferson chills on Capitol Hill.
Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R) has spent the last couple years mired in scandal over his administration’s rampant cronyism. You’d think that would at least guarantee something in the way of loyalty from his fellow Republicans, wouldn’t you? The man knows who his friends are.
But no, Fletcher’s running for re-election and his own lietenant governor has gone ahead and endorsed his rival in the primary. How it must burn.