Republicans

New Favorite Blog Title and Pithing on rove

This entry was posted in bush Republicans on by

Don’t ask me what my old favorite was.
The new favorite is pith in the wind. Today they bring this fine bit of pithing in the wind to our attention:

Q: Does the President stand by his pledge to fire anyone involved in the leak of a name of a CIA operative?
MR. McCLELLAN: Terry, I appreciate your question. I think your question is being asked relating to some reports that are in reference to an ongoing criminal investigation. The criminal investigation that you reference is something that continues at this point. And as I’ve previously stated, while that investigation is ongoing, the White House is not going to comment on it. The President directed the White House to cooperate fully with the investigation, and as part of cooperating fully with the investigation, we made a decision that we weren’t going to comment on it while it is ongoing.
Q: Excuse me, but I wasn’t actually talking about any investigation. But in June of 2004, the President said that he would fire anybody who was involved in this leak, to press of information. And I just want to know, is that still his position?
MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, but this question is coming up in the context of this ongoing investigation, and that’s why I said that our policy continues to be that we’re not going to get into commenting on an ongoing criminal investigation from this podium. The prosecutors overseeing the investigation had expressed a preference to us that one way to help the investigation is not to be commenting on it from this podium. And so that’s why we are not going to get into commenting on it while it is an ongoing investigation, or questions related to it.

This goes on and on. Be sure to bring a towel before reading the rest. It is hard to imagine how much mcclellan had to have imbibed to be able to leave it hanging out for so long and this is only a part of today’s press conference.
Josh Marshall and Arthur Silber were also thrilled by this display. And via Atrios here are some of mccellan’s past statements on the subject.

Buying Access

This entry was posted in Business US Campaign Finance Democrats Economics Federal Government Republicans on by

Both dems and repubs participate in corporate shakedowns, you know, something that was once called extortion. But that doesn’t make it right.
I suspect that the bushies actions related to Inter-American Telecommunications Commission meeting are not unique:

At least four of the two dozen or so U.S. delegates selected for the meeting, sources tell TIME, have been bumped by the White House because they supported John Kerry’s 2004 campaign.
The State Department has traditionally put together a list of industry representatives for these meetings, and anyone in the U.S. telecom industry who had the requisite expertise and wanted to go was generally given a slot, say past participants. Only after the start of Bush’s second term did a political litmus test emerge, industry sources say.

The Left Coaster notes:

Remember, to the Bush White House, unquestioning loyalty to George W. Bush always trumps what’s good for American business.

And I wouldn’t conflate what’s good for American business with what’s good for the American people.
An excellent way to eliminate this kind of administration behavior would be to eliminate all corporate contributions from the election process. The US government is, after all, supposed to be a government of the people, by the people, for the people.
Update (4/26): Mark Kleiman puts a related post in his Corruption in Washington category.

Social Security Shell Game

This entry was posted in bush Economics Federal Government Republicans on by

No surprise, it is the bushter himself moving the shells around. While he pretends that younger workers will benefit from his proposals the truth is, well, different. Read this from the Minnesota Star Tribune for pointers to just a few misdirections.
There are a lot of changes I’d like to see made to Social Security starting with separating its accounting entirely from the general fund and ending with, yes, privatization some time in the future.
Based on their current presentations I have zero confidence that the bush administration can or even wants to implement a viable process to accomplish this. But, then, these are the folks that brought us that fine prescription drug plan a while back.
Via Talkleft.

A New Civil Right

This entry was posted in Education Election 2004 Republicans on by

Jessa Crispin apparently has been reading the Republican platform (94 pages). To be honest I haven’t read a party platform in years and, while I suspect that there is a tremendous amount of bloggable material in each parties platform, I don’t plan to start now. In a nutshell, they are laundry lists of things the federal government shouldn’t be involved in at all.
However, I agree with both Jessa and Jaquandor that this item from page 56 is strangely put:

Our Party believes, as does the President, that reading is the new civil right.
The new civil right? Puzzling to say the least.
Now the goal they set in the next sentence seems reasonable on the surface:
Every child must be able to read by the end of the third grade.
But I am sure that there are some children who, though capable of reading, just will not progress that fast.