Today, Al Kamen reported that the Federal Emergency Management Association held a Tuesday press conference filled with softball questions that were actually asked by FEMA employees posing as journalists. In today’s press briefing, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino condemned FEMA’s actions:

QUESTION: And from what we understand, the questions were posed not by reporters but by staffers. And that distinction was not made known. Is that appropriate?

PERINO: It is not. It is not a practice that we would employ here at the White House or that we — we certainly don’t condone it. We didn’t know about it beforehand. … It’s not something I would have condoned. … FEMA is responsible.

Watch it:

Transcript: Read more

The San Diego Union Tribune writes that Bush’s visit yesterday annoyed some firefighters because it caused massive traffic jams, preventing them from getting much-needed food and rest:

Residents finally returning to their homes in Rancho Bernardo were stuck in traffic for hours while the presidential motorcade passed through, and delays left firefighters longing for food and showers. [...]

Still covered in ashes, firefighters Danny Chandler and Chris Cortright from Mount Laguna waited in the back of a pickup. They could see the showers and the food tent, but the president’s visit kept them and dozens of other firefighters from moving. Chandler had been fighting the fire in Ramona for 24 hours. Cortright had been at it for 48 hours. “I appreciate him being here,” Chandler said, drinking Gatorade as he waited in the sun. “But they could have organized this better. I’d just as soon eat.”

When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wore a headscarf while visiting the Umayyad mosque in Damascus in April, the right wing pounced on her, attacking her as “subservient” and calling the act “disgust[ing].” Ironically, the right wing failed to note that First Lady Laura Bush had also worn a headscarf while previously visiting the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

During a tour of the Middle East this week, Laura Bush again donned a traditional hijab given to her as a gift by a Saudi Arabian doctor. Subsequently, several progressive bloggers questioned whether similar “opprobium” would follow from the right wing this time. Now we have our answer.

The conservative blogosphere has released its seething intolerance, collectively rising up to denounce Laura Bush as “Ms. Pander Clause” for wearing the head cover:

“I find the image from Saudi Arabia so disturbing. … That she would oblige her hosts by wearing a shmata on her head is a tacit endorsement of Islam’s subjugation of women.” — Weekly Standard

“Bad craziness in Saudi Arabia … [W]e get this, from one of the most misogynistic societies on the planet: a photo of Laura Bush wearing an abaya and a veil. — Little Green Footballs

“This is Sheikha Laura, yesterday, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia … Laura Bush [is] butt-kissing Saudi King Abdullah.” — Debbie Schlussel

Showing tolerance and respect for other cultures is interpreted as “butt-kissing” by far right conservatives.

UPDATE: Jeffrey Feldman boils down the White House perspective:

Islamofascism – Bad! (nuclear war, invasion, death)

Islamofashion – Good! (smiles, happy, love)

UPDATE II: Carpetbagger notes that Atlas Shrugs called the picture the “Nightmare Pic of the Day,” stating, “We are the king of the world. We are the best and the brightest. We are America goddammit. … This is submission.”

This morning, ThinkProgress reported that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) strongly denounced the torture technique of waterboarding, and implicitly criticized those — such as Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey and Rudy Giuliani — who have hedged on their own views of the practice. We questioned whether McCain would hold up Mukasey’s confirmation — as many Senate Judiciary Committee members are threatening to do — until Mukasey clarifies his views. The Huffington Post posed that question to a McCain aide, who responded with a dodge:

“The Judiciary Committee process is ongoing and Sen. McCain believes that Judge Mukasey deserves an up-or-down vote based on his qualifications for the office of Attorney General,” a McCain aide said in a Friday e-mail.

A decidedly un-”maverick” reply.

Via GFR, the HuffPo does us an excellent service and gives us a gender breakdown for presidential campaign staff. Hillary Clinton leads the pack in terms of women in senior positions, and is essentially tied with Mike Huckabee in terms of mid-level positions. Rudy Giuliani, who’s entire political persona is machismo, comes in dead last — he has as many child molester priests at his consulting firm than women in senior campaign positions.

As Garance says, these figures can probably “be viewed as proxies for what their administrations would look like” at least as far as White House staff. Indeed, my bet is that one of the most important legacies of a Hillary Clinton administration would be bequeathing to the Democratic Party a network of powerful plugged-in insiders that winds up containing substantially more women in senior roles than we have right now, along with perhaps a higher number of men comfortable working with power female colleagues and superiors. iven that the party’s voting base is composed mostly of women, this is a transformation that’s going to have to be made sooner or later, and the progressive coalition will definitely be stronger once it’s done.