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Politics

Bush: Iraq War Critics ‘Propagandize,’ Engage In ‘Illogical Behavior’

By Amanda Terkel on Oct 17, 2006 at 11:34 am

Yesterday Fox News host Bill O’Reilly asked President Bush whether the “anti-Bush press” is responsible for the American public turning against the war in Iraq. Bush agreed with O’Reilly, stating that he’s “disappointed that people would propagandize to that effect because the stakes are too high for that kind of illogical behavior.” Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2006/10/bushmediafox.320.240.flv]

Sixty-four percent of the American public now disapproves of Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq. These people are not “illogical” or victims of a propaganda campaign, but are responding to the facts.

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Yglesias

Broken Constitution

By Matthew Yglesias on Oct 17, 2006 at 11:31 am

Sanford Levinson makes the case that the celebrated US constitution is actually totally whack. I tend to agree. For a lengthier exposition of Levinson’s views, see Cass Sunstein’s review of his new book which lays out the argument in some detail. Sunstein is pretty dubious, but I find his counterarguments unpersuasive, except on the point that Levinson’s calls for a “do-over” just seem utterly unrealistic.

Let me try, however, to locate a more policy-relevant point here. The United States semi-frequently finds itself in the business of trying to assist other countries in making transitions to democracy. Thanks to our country’s habit of Founder-worship, there’s a tendency to push American-ish political institutions on other nations. Empirical research (see George Tsebelis’ Veto Players for a summary of much of it), however, indicates that US-style proliferation of veto points makes democratic consolidation much more difficult. In the American context, an extremely large number of veto points serves, in essence, to impede progressive social reform, which is unfortunate. In young democracies without entrenched norms, however, it tends to simply encourage people to break the frequent deadlocks through extra-legal means — coups or paralyzing street violence. This has been a particular problem in Latin America where the US influence has been at its highest.

Security

President Bush Fails to Put Iraq’s Leaders on Notice

By Guest Blogger on Oct 17, 2006 at 10:50 am

President Bush made a friendly phone call to Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki yesterday, “telling him to not believe ‘rumors’ (in spokesman Tony Snow’s words) that the U.S. had privately given him a two-month timetable to shape up.”

In fact, the “rumors” were comments on CNN by U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad two weeks ago. Bush’s contradictory statement sent the wrong message — that the United States will continue giving a blank check to the Iraqi leadership no matter what it does or doesn’t do. In assuring that the United States does not seek to impose a timeline, President Bush also undercut the message that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried to send to Iraq’s leaders in her trip there earlier this month: speed up the political process.

The timing of Bush’s call made its impact even worse. On the same day, Iraq’s leaders postponed a national reconciliation conference aimed at addressing the problems that are at the heart of Iraq’s violence, and USA Today published comments from Prime Minister Maliki saying he would not take steps to disarm militias anytime soon, even though these militias are a key part of Iraq’s security problem.

Bush’s message to Maliki also ignores the advice from U.S. leaders from across the ideological spectrum — including Rep. John Murtha, Sens. Jack Reed, John Warner, Chuck Hagel to former Secretaries of State James Baker and Colin Powell — that staying the course is not an option and Iraq’s leaders need to take responsibility.

The Bush administration clings to its open-ended commitment to Iraq, which is fostering a culture of dependency among Iraq’s leaders.

Instead, the United States needs to set a policy of Strategic Redeployment — including a peace conference to stop Iraq’s civil war and a phased redeployment of U.S. forces.

- Brian Katulis and Peter Juul

Politics

Another page scandal?

By ThinkProgress on Oct 17, 2006 at 10:33 am

The House Page Board “discussed allegations on Monday involving a second lawmaker,” board member Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI) said. “It’s only been allegations made,” Kildee told reporters of the House page board’s discussion about a second lawmaker, who he declined to identify.

Politics

Spider Holes

By Matthew Yglesias on Oct 17, 2006 at 9:46 am

One interesting trope I’m noticing is conservatives refusing to admit the obvious — the GOP’s ill political fortunes have something or other to do with Iraq being this huge mess. Mark Kleiman catches Glenn Reynolds doing an “election pre-mortem” that totally neglects Iraq. Fred Barnes meanwhile has some fun with parentheses:

The Foley scandal did two things, both harmful to Republicans. It stopped Republican momentum in its tracks. (Also contributing to this were the negative spin on Iraq from Bob Woodward’s book State of Denial and the faulty reporting on the National Intelligence Estimate.)

Right, it was “negative spin” and “faulty reporting” that put people in a bad mood as opposed to, say, the large-scale refugee flows prompted by massive sectarian violence. I mean, I suppose one could argue that even though there were no WMDs in Iraq and even though the invasion’s made a hash of the country, you’re still glad we invaded. But even if you think this, should it be so hard to concede that the war at least looks like a bad idea to most of us who lack the deep historical insight to see why this bloodbath was worth it?

Media

O’Reilly: ‘You Cannot Be Confrontational With The President of the United States’

By Judd Legum on Oct 17, 2006 at 9:38 am

Fox’s Bill O’Reilly, who argues in a new book that Osama Bin Laden is “cheering” the progressive movement in America, was invited to the White House yesterday for an exclusive interview with President Bush. It was Bush’s third interview with O’Reilly.

Last night, just before he broadcast the first installment of the interview, O’Reilly explained to his viewers that, “You cannot be confrontational with the President of the United States.” Instead, according to O’Reilly, “President Bush will have his say.” O’Reilly added, “I think it is important to look ahead rather than to look back. What good does it do to rehash WMDs? Does that do you any good?” Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2006/10/oreillybush.320.240.flv]

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Yglesias

300 Million

By Matthew Yglesias on Oct 17, 2006 at 9:35 am

Good news for estimators everywhere, as the U.S. population has successfully shifted from “almost 300 million” to more-or-less exactly 300 million. Notwithstanding that large number, we remain a relatively sparsely populated land with about 31 people per square kilometer. Iraq, by contrast, has about 66 and there’s virtually no chance the appalling bloodpath there will push them below our level. Germany has 232, South Korea 480, the Palestinian Territories 615.

Politics

ThinkFast: October 17, 2006

By ThinkProgress on Oct 17, 2006 at 8:56 am

President Bush signs the “Military Commissions Act of 2006″ today in the Rose Garden, a bill that will not grant detainees legal counsel. “Also, it specifically bars detainees from filing habeas corpus petitions challenging their detentions in federal courts.” The new law sets the stage for what many analysts believe will be yet another historic showdown between the courts, the president, and Congress.

With the FBI investigating Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) over “familial influence peddling,” USA Today notes that lobbying groups employed 30 congressional family members last year, who lobbied for $750 million in earmarks. “There are no laws against this brand of nepotism.”

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) is blocking the confirmation of Bush-nominated Judge Janet Neff because she may have “once attended a commitment ceremony for a lesbian couple.”

The number of embedded journalists reporting in Iraq has dropped to its lowest level. “Some journalists blame the decline on Pentagon bureaucracy, the reporting restrictions journalists face, and pressure by some commanders to avoid ‘negative’ coverage.”

Scientists yesterday reported the first direct evidence linking the 2002 collapse of the Larsen B Antarctic ice shelf to human-induced global warming. Read more

Politics

Ballgazing

By Matthew Yglesias on Oct 17, 2006 at 12:24 am

All the polls seem to indicate substantial wins for the Democrats in a couple of weeks but, to be honest, I just can’t bring myself to believe it’ll happen. Republicans, for those few cycles when I’ve really been paying attention, have always won. What’s more, I feel like things have always looked good for the Democrats in October. Do I have any real basis for this pessimism? Well, no, on some level I don’t. But I do keep coming back to the money gap. The turnout models that are used for midterm elections — especially for House races — involve an awful lot of imprecision and guesswork. This years’ GOP ground game is, by all accounts, the superior of the two. And when you combine that with boatloads of cash that can be deployed during the final weeks, well, let’s just say it continues to make me unconfident.

Be all that as it may, there’s a clear psychological advantage to pessimism. If Democrats beat my expectations and do win, then I’ll be very happy with that. If they lose, however, that’s something I’ve already resigned myself to and at least I’ll be able to get some “I told ya so”s in.

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