Former Attorney General John Ashcroft signs a letter endorsing Samuel Alito’s nomination. Let the eagle soar in Alito’s America.
Sen. Russ Feingold has assembled a bipartisan coalition
that appears to be large enough to block an extension of the PATRIOT Act in the Senate, the AP reports.
Congress did not see the same intelligence
as Bush in the lead up to the Iraq war. That is the conclusion of the non-partisan Congressional Research Service. (Bush has repeatedly claimed Congress had the same intelligence as him, including yesterday.)
Don’t call it a comeback:
Bush’s job approval at 42% in new Fox News poll, unchanged from two weeks ago. 51% of Americans disapprove.
Lynne Cheney ‘Marshals Support’ For Iraq War at Elementary School
Lynne Cheney “was the latest Bush administration figure sent to marshal support for the United States’ Iraq policy,” the AP reported today.
Her audience? Fourth- and fifth-graders at Washington-area two elementary schools.
For her part, Cheney did allow some questions, a practice President Bush frequently resists:
When a student asked how the Iraqi constitution would benefit the country’s children, she said the change would be significant. It gives them the chance to grow up in…”a different society from the brutal one they used to live in.”
Unfortunately, that’s not the case. It may be a different society, but for many Iraqi children, it’s still brutal (more here):
Acute malnutrition among young children in Iraq has nearly doubled since the United States led an invasion of the country 20 months ago, according to surveys by the United Nations, aid agencies and the interim Iraqi government. [...]
The new figure translates to roughly 400,000 Iraqi children [under five] suffering from “wasting,” a condition characterized by chronic diarrhea and dangerous deficiencies of protein.
The surveys suggest the silent human cost being paid across a country convulsed by instability and mismanagement. While attacks by insurgents have grown more violent and more frequent, deteriorating basic services take lives that many Iraqis said they had expected to improve under American stewardship.
Iraq’s child malnutrition rate now roughly equals that of Burundi, a central African nation torn by more than a decade of war. It is far higher than rates in Uganda and Haiti.
Lynne Cheney should have given the kids a lesson in the consequences of failing to plan.
Strategy Memo: White House Efforts to Undercut Torture Amendment Continue
Yesterday the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly for a motion urging that the McCain Anti-Torture Amendment be included in the Defense Authorization Bill now being negotiated between members of the House and Senate. The motion was offered by Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), and passed 308-122.
The motion is not binding on the House conferees appointed to negotiate with the Senate, but the fact that each house has now gone on record in strong support of the Anti-Torture Amendment sends a powerful message, and creates even more momentum behind it.
Reports today suggest that the White House may finally have recognized that its efforts to weaken or derail the McCain amendment will not succeed. If so, that is very good news indeed.
However, the administration has not relented in its efforts to undercut the amendment by other means. It is continuing to press for changes to a related provision sponsored by Senators Graham and Levin which was inserted into the Senate bill with no hearings and virtually no debate. Read more
Bush Refuses to Influence DeLay Trial, Then Declares DeLay’s Innocence
In an interview last night with Brit Hume, President Bush refused to comment on prosecutor Ronnie Earle to make sure the DeLay trial is “conducted as fairly as possible“:
HUME: You know a thing or two about Texas politics. What is your judgment of the prosecutor in the case, Ronnie Earle?
BUSH: I’m not going to go there, simply because I want “” I want this trial to be conducted as fairly as possible. And the more politics that are in it, the less likely it’s going to be fair.
But under Hume’s grueling interrogation (one second later), Bush passed judgement on the trial:
HUME: Do you just “” do you believe [Delay's] innocent?
BUSH: Do I? Yes, I do.
So much for keeping politics out of the trial.
Cheney caves?
“After months of resistance, the White House has agreed to accept Sen. John McCain’s call for a law specifically banning cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of foreign suspects in the war on terror, several congressional officials said Thursday.”
UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan: “I’m told a White House statement is imminent on the McCain Amendent. I’m told the White House has embraced the amendment, with no changes.”
Caught on Tape: Bush Admits WMD Were Irrelevant
On day that the United States invaded Iraq, President Bush said that we were doing so “reluctantly” but that “our purpose was clear” — to get rid of Saddam’s “weapons of mass murder.” (Note: Bush did not say “purposes.” According to Bush, there was only one purpose.)
Yesterday on Brit Hume, he said he would have invaded even if he knew there were no weapons of mass destruction. Would have been nice if he’d mentioned this earlier.
We’ve got the video evidence:
Full Transcript: Read more
Unlikely ‘War on Christmas’ skeptic:
Right-wing columnist and Fox contributor Cal Thomas: “The effort by some cable TV hosts and ministers to force commercial establishments into wishing everyone a ‘Merry Christmas’ might be more objectionable to the One who is the reason for the season than the ‘Happy Holidays’ mantra required by some store managers.” (Via Carpetbagger)
