The new Gallup poll surveys the damage the Bush presidency has had on the Republican party. With the exception of frequent churchgoers and retired people, the GOP has lost support with every demographic group.
Jacob Heilbrunn says the GOP needs its own ‘Secret Speech’ repudiating the Cheney Era.
Definitely read Jacob’s very amusing and insightful piece.
One thing he mentions is this meeting and vote the RNC is holding on Wednesday to vote and decide whether to officially designate the Democratic party as “socialist.” I’m glad they’re focusing on the things that are going to bring their party back to power. I haven’t seen a nugget that so perfectly typifies the current GOP’s mix of ideological obscurantism and dingbat sloganeering as this. I mean, they’re not even in the bubble. They’re like in a bubble within the bubble. They can’t even emerge into the bubble proper.
Actually, several.
Yglesias …
You know, Newt Gingrich knows a lot about saying stupid things and being forced out of the job as Speaker. … But one way or the other — I mean, I wasn’t in the room, you weren’t in the room, Newt Gingrich wasn’t in the room. None of us know exactly what happened there. But whatever it is Nancy Pelosi knew about, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, John Yoo, Jay Bybee, they knew more. And ultimately, when we have a thorough investigation of what happened, the bulk of the blame has to lie with the architects of the policy, not with a member of the opposition party.
From deep in The Politico beast, we find that Josh Gerstein’s close reading acumen has not at all been impaired. Here’s Gerstein looking closely this afternoon at that Leon Panetta statement from last Friday …
Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta didn’t reject or deny House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s allegations that she was falsely briefed by the CIA about interrogations.
Look carefully at Panetta’s statement from Friday, especially the verb tense used. “Let me be clear: It is not our policy or practice to mislead Congress.” First, “let me be clear” always precedes an ambiguous statement. Without fail. Panetta isn’t opining on past acts. He’s referring to the current policy. He’s also not saying it never happens or happened that someone lied to or misled Congress. He’s saying the agency as a whole doesn’t intend to.
Panetta was at his Monterey, Calif. think tank when this all happened in 2002 and 2003. He doesn’t know if Pelosi was lied to. He also doesn’t say he talked to the briefers and is convinced they’re telling the truth. He just says the paper records say she was briefed about the techniques. We knew that already from agency statements. So he’s adding his voice to the mix and sending a signal that he’ll stand by his agency, but to say he sided with the briefers on the specifics is just wrong.
Again, I’m not saying Pelosi was lied to or even misled. It would seem rather brazen to do that. But Panetta’s statement says less than people are claiming.
This is just right. This was certainly Panetta standing up for his Agency after Pelosi, the second person in line to the presidency, had taken a swipe. But to get the full significance of a document, even a simple memo, you need to look past the toplines to what the text actually says. And if you read Panetta closely he didn’t take any position at all on the key question of whether Pelosi was right or not. It was a point lost on virtually everyone in town.
Senior Obama Administration official tells the New York Times: “[T]he hearsay rule is not one of those things that is rooted in American values.”
The context for the remark, which I’m not sure really matters, is the proposed reform of the military commissions system for detainees. It won’t surprise you, after reading that remark, to learn that even after the proposed reform, much more hearsay will be admissible in commission proceedings than in federal court.
And Michael Steele has felt enough pain. In a speech today, he will declare: “The era of apologizing for Republican mistakes of the past is now officially over. It is done.” That and the day’s other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.
Since Michael Steele is declaring an end to the “era of apologizing for Republican mistakes of the past,” I got to wondering which Republicans had been saying apologies and about what. But as Eric Kleefeld reminds me, Steele himself has been offering such heartfelt mea culpas as: “Tonight, we tell America: we know the past, we know we did wrong. My bad.”
Eighteen months out from the next election, the majority leader’s office brushes off a new poll out of Nevada showing Harry Reid’s favorable-unfavorables at 38-50.