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March 31, 2008

Evening Open Thread

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Price of Gas Still Rising

The price of a gallon of gasoline increased to yet another "new high" of $3.29 -- that's 3.1 cents more in one week. Just looking not-so-far back, on January 17, 2005, when Bush began his second term, the average price was $1.84 a gallon.

Obviously, there are some implications here for what's expected to be in store for oil company executives as they testify before Congress tomorrow.

More:

[Rep.] Markey has pointed out that even though Exxon earned a record $40.6 billion in 2007, oil companies have opposed a push by congressional Democrats to strip about $18 billion in tax breaks from big oil companies and put them toward planet-friendly energy alternatives like wind and solar.

Afternoon Open Thread

• "Honorable."
• Tough times: food stamp use near record highs.
• Something else McCain "didn't anticipate."
• Looking for a job? The K Street Project is hiring!

Chat away...

Fiscal Conservatism

The best quote from this piece in Newsweek: "Reading McCain's economic agenda, and listening to his speech, it appears that the problem with the last eight years is that we haven't seen enough tax breaks for the wealthy..." It's a solid indictment of the (lack of) McCain economic policy, asking a key question: is his economic plan a joke or a fantasy?

But McCain wants to see Bush's tax relief and raise it some. McCain would slash the corporate-income-tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent (because corporate profits as a percentage of GDP didn't spike enough this decade?), and he'd abolish the Alternative Minimum Tax, which would be a welcome move for many upper-middle-class taxpayers. "In all, his tax-cutting proposals could cost about $400 billion a year, according to estimates of the impact of different tax cuts by CBO and the McCain campaign," the Wall Street Journal reported.

I wrote about the flip-flops, specifically on the Bush tax cuts, Friday. But while I suggested he had his finger in the wind, it's also possible he just has no idea what his economic platform is.

And don't forget to add in the cost of 100 years in Iraq.

They Say It's All About the Company You Keep

Top McCain advisors lobbied for an infamous lender in the Mortgage Crisis:

What McCain did not say - which some believe smacks of politics - is that two of his top advisers were recently lobbyists for a notorious lender in the mortgage meltdown.

John Green, the senator's chief liaison to Congress, and Wayne Berman, his national finance co-chairman, billed more than $720,000 in lobbying fees from 2005 through last year to Ameriquest Mortgage through their lobbying firm, disclosure forms reviewed by the Daily News show.

Ameriquest, which since has been bought out, was forced to settle suits with 49 states for $325 million. More than 13,680 New York homeowners got taken for a ride by the company, records show.

"They would be defined as the most blatant and aggressive predatory lenders out of everybody," said Bruce Marks, head of the nonprofit Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America.

HUD Secretary Reportedly Resigning

Nobody knows "exactly" why, but here's a clue:

Earlier this month, two Democratic senators, Patty Murray of Washington and Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, sent a letter to President Bush urging him to request Mr. Jackson's resignation, arguing that accusations of wrongdoing had made him ineffective.

The announcement was supposed to be at 10am, but nothing noted at their website -- or the White House's website -- yet.

UPDATE: It's official -- he cited family reasons.

So how could I possibly resist including this quote, from Jackson in 2006: "Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don't get the contract. That's the way I believe."

Morning Open Thread

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March 30, 2008

Sunday Open Thread

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March 29, 2008

From the Archives

Saturday Open Thread

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March 28, 2008

Evening Open Thread

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Bush Aide Resigns for Alleged Misuse of Grant Money

From the Associated Press:

Felipe Sixto was promoted on March 1 as a special assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs and stepped forward on March 20 to reveal his alleged wrongdoing and to resign, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said on Friday. He said Sixto took that step after learning that his former employer, the Center for a Free Cuba, was prepared to initiate legal action against him.

The alleged wrongdoing occurred when Sixto was chief of staff at the center, where he worked for more than three years before moving to the White House.

The matter has been turned over to the Justice Department for investigation, Stanzel said. He said Bush was briefed on the case and felt that the appropriate action was being taken.

Afternoon Open Thread

• Necessary?
• Or "Alice in Wonderland?"
• And the House is investigating how the Pentagon "gave an inexperienced 22-year-old a $300 million contract to provide ammunition to Afghanistan."

Chat away...

McCain's Finger in the Wind on Taxes

His latest position? "I will wait forever to increase Americans' taxes.."

You can interpret that as he won't favor raising taxes until the day he favors getting out of Iraq -- which is to say, never.

Problem is, it's another flip-flop from the man who lacks credibility on the issue, after changing his position so many times in favor of the politics of the moment. As Think Progress notes, only two weeks ago he declared, "I’m not making a 'read my lips' statement in that I will not raise taxes."

And then if that's not enough, what he said two weeks ago -- which he now flipped on -- was a flop itself. He said, almost word for word the 'read my lips' statement: "No new taxes, no matter what."

Oh, and did I mention that he was against the Bush tax cuts before he was for them?

Flip This Mortgage Plan!

John McCain takes a ride on the Pander Express! He delivers different messages to Ohio voters and TV cameras:

Despite his criticism this week of government intervention in the mortgage and foreclosure crisis, Republican presidential candidate John McCain sounded friendlier toward struggling homeowners last month when he campaigned in Ohio. [...] The presumptive Republican nominee, who described himself as a "Roosevelt Republican" during the interview, said he was willing to "provide more relief" to homeowners who can't afford increases in mortgages because of their adjustable interest rates.

That's a different tone from the rhetoric he used Tuesday during a speech in which he suggested homeowners facing foreclosure have only themselves to blame.

And McCain's Stick-A-Bandaid-On-It approach just isn’t going to cut it. Here's what the LA Times says about his plan simply applying pressure for lenders to help voluntarily: "The Bush administration is already applying that pressure, but even when lenders comply, they're hampered by the scale and complexity of the problem."

Friday Five

Here are five of the events in PartyBuilder for the coming week. You can add your own event or find one near you.

1. People and Politics (Pocatello, ID) - This is People and Politics. It is a meeting of local Dems and our local legislators to update us on what they are working on and hear feedback from the community about what they should look into. This event will have Elaine Smith and other local leaders to participate in discourse.
2. Maple Syrup Festival (Chicago, IL) - Nature Events Maple Syrup Festival North Park Village Nature Center free
3. OxGrove Democrats Longaberger Basket Bingo Fundraiser (Oxford, PA) - The members of the OxGrove Democratic Committee are proud to announce the 2008 date and location of their annual Basket Bingo.
4. Vietnam Veteran's Run for the Wall Breakfast (Eagle Nest, NM) - Breakfast for Veterans.
5. ISU College Dems Meeting (Pocatello, ID) - This is a regular meeting of the ISU College Dems. This week we will be talking about fund raising to get to the State and National Conventions this summer. Plan on helping out!

Morning Open Thread

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March 27, 2008

Evening Open Thread

Not quite a 50 State Open Thread, but:

• AL: Siegelman released on bond
• CO: Colorado Water: 2007 in Review (Part III)
• WV: Legislator watch -- asking for help

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McCain's Foreign Affairs Speech Plagiarized? UPDATED

UPDATE: Think Progress now says Ziemer's speech may have been the one that's plagiarized.

Think Progress has the scoop. No word from the McCain campaign on whether they Ziemer had permission to lift the text for the speech yesterday on foreign affairs (updated).

Ziemer	McCain
War is awful and when nations seek to resolve their differences by fighting, a million tragedies ensue. [Link]	When nations seek to resolve their differences by force of arms, a million tragedies ensue. [Link]
War is wretched beyond description. [Link]	It might not be the worst thing to befall human beings, but it is wretched beyond all description. [Link]
Nothing, not the valor with which it is fought, nor the cause with which it serves can glorify war. [Link]	Not the valor with which it is fought nor the nobility of the cause it serves, can glorify war. [Link]

Not Exactly 'The Feel-Good Movie of the Year'

Afternoon Open Thread

• How dare people take issue with McCain for something he actually said.
• Up next, criticizing him for something he's actually doing? DailyKos has more on Fire Dog Lake's FEC complaint.
• Romney and McCain: best friends?
• Odd logic.

Chat away...

Getting to the Bottom of It

There's more news related to the public corruption unit disbanded by US Attorney Thomas O'Brien.

Last we checked in, members of the disbanded group were allegedly threatened not to speak out, for fear that O'Brien would "tarnish their reputations if they challenged the official explanation for the unit's dismantling in conversations with reporters."

Sen. Feinstein has now sent a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey demanding some answers:

Please provide me with the Department of Justice’s rationale behind eliminating the public corruption unit in Los Angeles, including the specific facts, statistics, and circumstances that drove this decision. What initiated this decision? Who was consulted before making this decision? What was the role of Main Justice and the White House, if any? Did any of the DOJ’s prosecutors in the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section have any input into the decision-making process? How will this decision affect the public corruption cases that have been and are currently being investigated in Los Angeles?

Will Mukasey be able to take time away from giving -- ironically enough -- public corruption speeches in order to answer some basic questions about the conduct of the Justice Department?

We'll see.

Behind Closed Doors

The Associated Press reports that military leaders told Bush yesterday they're concerned about the strain that the Iraq war is having on the troops. The Joint Chiefs are also worried, the article states, about Afghanistan "and an increasingly active Taliban insurgency."

More, from the AP:

The Joint Chiefs of Staff did say senior commanders in Iraq should make more frequent assessments of security conditions, an idea that appeared aimed at increasing pressure for more rapid troop reductions.

The chiefs' concern is that U.S. forces are being worn thin, compromising the Pentagon's ability to handle crises elsewhere in the world.

Gates and other "top military officers" have previously said they wanted withdrawals to continue through the rest of the year, but it appears that Bush/McCain are going to push for us to "stay the course."

At Least McCain Is Right About One Thing

It's that he has a lot to learn when it comes to the economy.

From the NY Times:

Mr. McCain’s talk therapy will not ease, let alone end, the worst foreclosure crisis since the Depression or the financial crisis that has erupted in its wake. But worse yet is what it says about the presumptive Republican nominee’s view of the economy and the government’s responsibility to protect and help its citizens.

His suggestion that federal aid might wrongly reward “undeserving” homeowners sounded both mean-spirited and economically naïve. And then there is the double standard. He seemed less concerned about the government helping reckless bankers, endorsing its role in preventing the bankruptcy of Bear Stearns.

No one has ever proposed helping real estate speculators. And the senator’s language obscures the reality that most troubled homeowners did not get into trouble by themselves. Lenders, aided and abetted by bankers and do-nothing regulators, lured many borrowers into overly complex, ultimately unaffordable loans. Mr. McCain also failed to grasp that the foreclosure problem has gone far beyond the issue of the deserving and undeserving.

Morning Open Thread

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March 26, 2008

Evening Open Thread

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Rove-Style Politics

From Think Progress:

During a public conversation in Texas last night with former Bush pollster Matthew Dowd, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) media adviser, Mark Mckinnon, displayed “maps of the states broken down by electoral votes” that gamed McCain’s chances in November. According to Texas Monthly’s Evan Smith, “the printed header on both” maps “read ‘Karl Rove & Co.’”

If I were McCain, I'd watch out; Rove doesn't just use any math, he uses "the" math.

Afternoon Open Thread

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Moving the Goalposts

Just how do you define success in Iraq? It's one of the points that McCain's no-policy policy address today was expected to address, and it's now different than the definition he gave a couple months ago. It seems what's meant by "success" keeps changing, perhaps to allow us to stay there for another 100 years?

January 4, 2008 (AP): "He listed several elements of what he considers success, including the reduction of American causalities, the removal of U.S. troops from the front lines and having Iraqis take over more responsibility for their government. The hardest measure of success to achieve will be establishing the rule of law, he said."

Today: "Success in Iraq... is the establishment of peaceful, stable, prosperous, democratic states that pose no threat to neighbors and contribute to the defeat of terrorists."

A clear difference. But the next question is, "where did this new definition of success come from?" Thanks to Google, it's a question with an easy answer: the Bush/Cheney White House.

March 20, 2006 (Whitehouse.gov): "We seek to help the Iraqis build a stable, peaceful, prosperous country that poses no threat to its neighbor, is a close partner in the Global War on Terror, and a constructive member of the international community."

Another FEC Complaint Filed Against McCain

A while back we filed an FEC complaint against John McCain, asking them to investigate whether the McCain campaign was on the verge of violating the spending limit law he agreed to when he became eligible to receive matching funds.

At the time, however, it wasn't clear he had gone over the spending limit. But now that we know he has crossed that amount, Jane Hamsher at Fire Dog Lake has filed her own.

You can read the complaint here, which references ours.

Another No-Policy Policy Address?

This time, on Iraq. I'm wondering which John McCain is going to show up today. Will it be the one who was against replacing Rumsfeld, in favor of staying the course, and supporting Bush's strategy? Or will it be the one who recently claims, well, exactly the opposite?

Will McCain address whether we'll truly be in Iraq for 100 years? Will there be any sort of exit strategy? How's he going to pay for it? How does he explain the lack of political progress? And what about Iran? Will he try to explain away not knowing basic facts as a simple gaffe?

His "policy" speech yesterday was panned as being short on policy. If he doesn't answer these questions, he risks the same negative reaction.

Virtual Vietnam Veterans Memorial

This is best thing I've seen online in a while. You can now search the memorial, see an image of the name on the wall, and view other information about the person. If that's not enough, you can then leave a comment or picture of the person, making the website a place where family and friends, who might not have known one another, can share stories.

Check it out.

(Via Techcrunch)

Morning Open Thread

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March 25, 2008

Evening Open Thread

No confidence? Really? I think we might have to add another Iraq round in the McCain vs. McCain debate.

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Paid For By...

That was actually the backdrop as John McCain gave his speech on the housing crisis.

And as Think Progress notes, "the firms of Charlie Black, Richard Hohlt, and Juleanna Glover Weiss have made over $2 million in contracts from JP Morgan, and Black and Hohlt’s firms have received $1.9 million from Washington Mutual, the in-house lobbyist for Citigroup."

Win a Chance to Watch Charlie Black Lobby from the McCain Bus

John McCain sent an e-mail message to supporters offering a chance to ride the "Straight Talk Express" with the Arizona senator -- a spot typically reserved for lobbyists.

My campaign has come up with an opportunity for a supporter to join me on the Straight Talk Express for a day of conversation and campaigning. As a token of my appreciation for your financial support, you will be entered to win this seat aboard the Straight Talk Express if you make a contribution before midnight on March 31st. I hope you'll consider joining me by making a donation today. If you can give $50 or more, not only will you be entered to win a ride on the Straight Talk Express, but you'll receive a commemorative Straight Talk Express ticket.

Ride along with John McCain and watch as top adviser and lobbyist Charlie Black lobbies for foreign governments and corporate interests on the road!

A quick observation: I guess the "No Surrender Express" was good enough to woo Republican faithful but not cheery enough for the general election that they gave up on it.

Afternoon Open Thread

• Iraq like the decision to pardon Nixon!
• Nico Pitney has an interview with one of the authors of Free Ride: John McCain and the Media.
• Bush and the Easter Bunny, together at last.

Chat away...

Thanks, RNC

I really love that they keep posting the video of McCain calling for us to be in Iraq for 100 years ("Make it 100!").

I'll help them spread the word:

The important fact to remember here, which I've mentioned, is that he didn't just say it once -- he previously kept saying it over and over when asked about it. He even called for us to be there a million years. Then ten million.

At the time, he didn't backtrack, but instead turned it into a key plank on his platform when he ran to the right of all the other Republicans in the primary. Unlike Romney, he said, he didn't even want secret timetables for moving our troops out because he wanted us to be there for the next century.

He only objected when the primary was over and he had to run in the general election. That's not straight-talk. That's a change of position, and he deserves to be held accountable for what he said and meant at the time.

So please, RNC, keep posting that video.

Troop Levels to Remain

Not a surprise:

The briefing [by Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker] took place on the day when the 4,000th American military death of the war was reported and just after the invasion’s fifth anniversary.

But it now appears likely that any decision on major reductions in American troops from Iraq will be left to the next president.

And we know what McCain will decide...

In other news, the article also notes that the administration is dropping the term "pause" to describe keeping troop levels as high as they're at. Isn't it great when the vocabulary changes, but the policy remains exactly the same?

Morning Open Thread

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March 24, 2008

Evening Open Thread

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GOP State Parties Struggling

We've talked a lot about the importance of the 50 state strategy, but not about what the Republicans still haven't learned, as far as why it's so important to build infrastructure across the country if you want to be a truly national party.

In the Politico today, it's reported that their state parties are "suffering from internal strife, poor fundraising, onerous debt, scandal or voting trends that are conspiring to relegate the local branches of the party to near-irrelevance." In Republican-heavy states and Democratic ones, there's a lack of enthusiasm and organizing happening on their side.

The strengthening of our state parties an important reason why we're winning in areas of the country nobody would have expected us to even compete, most recently in Hastert's old seat. It's going to be crucial to our chances to take back the White House in 2008, and the local organizing that's required has already begun.

At least on our side.

97 Percent

As the number of American soldiers killed in the Iraq War crossed the 4,000 mark this past weekend, VetVoice's Brandon Friedman noted another sobering statistic:

AFP has noted that 97 percent of U.S. deaths in Iraq have occurred after George W. Bush declared an end to "major combat."

Pat Buchanan Blogs?

Well, not quite.

All of his posts are posted by somebody else. The problem? Well, if the design of the blog is any clue, he's blogging by typewriter.

Somebody should tell him it doesn't work that way.

Afternoon Open Thread

• What happened to those huge corporate tax cuts? No more 'straight talk?'
• Health care costs continue to rise.
• Note to McCain: voters are not looking for more of the same.
• The New York Times fleshes out two "McCain moments."

Chat away...

Straight Talk!

McCain's numerous lobbyist connections raise some eyebrows:

Of the 66 current or former lobbyists working for the Arizona senator or raising money for his presidential campaign, 23 have lobbied for telecommunications companies in the past decade, Senate lobbying disclosures show.

McCain has netted about $765,000 in political donations from those telecom lobbyists, their spouses, colleagues at their firms and their telecom clients during the past decade, a USA TODAY analysis of campaign-finance records shows.

McCain is a senior member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees the telecom industry and the Federal Communications Commission. He has repeatedly pushed industry-backed legislation since 2000, particularly during a second stint as committee chairman from 2003 through 2005. His efforts to eliminate taxes and regulations on telecommunications services won him praise from industry executives.

McCain Debates McCain

We've got a great new website, with the first debate of the general election. You can watch the first of those debates happening right now.

In this debate, the topics are Saddam Hussein, the ease of success in Iraq, true feelings about Don Rumsfeld and the strategy on the ground.

Morning Open Thread

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March 23, 2008

Evening Open Thread

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Morning Open Thread

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March 22, 2008

Evening Open Thread

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From the Archives

Morning Open Thread

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March 21, 2008

Evening Open Thread

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Speaker Pelosi Addresses Iraq

Somehow I missed this the other day, so here it is. Recognizing five years of a war in Iraq, Pelosi warns against Bush's plan for a $3 trillion dollar war in Iraq.

Afternoon Open Thread

• Heh...
• Karl Rove hates you.
• Iran confusion remind you of anyone?

Chat away...

McCain Sought Hagee Endorsement

It's slated to be reported in Sunday's New York Times Magazine, via Think Progress: controversial McCain supporter John Hagee says "it's true that [John] McCain's campaign sought my endorsement."

And then there's this: "Hagee refused to discuss his statement that Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for a gay rights parade in New Orleans, calling it 'so far off-base.'"

Friday Five

Here are five of the events in PartyBuilder for the coming week. You can add your own event or find one near you.

1. Jones County Voter Leauge Candidate Forum (Pollocksville, NC) - The Jones County Voter Leauge will be hosting a candidate's forum, Saturday, March 22, 2008 at the Jones County Civic Center on Hyw 58 between Pollocksville and Trenton. A free BBQ lunch will be served.
2. Take Back the Park (Arlington, VA) - Arlington Young Democrats is partnering with Community Role Models to help with an invasive plant removal at Potomac Overlook Regional Park.
3. Oyster Roast (Savannah, GA) - Oyster roast by Charlie Teeple. Hot dogs and beer. Come and meet Chatham County Democrats and enjoy spring in Savannah.
4. Gays and Allies for a Blue White House (West Hollywood, CA) - Please join us for half priced drinks…and help us ensure the White House turns Blue! No boring speeches. Just good drinks, even better company and creating a better future for our country.
5. Serve Lunch to Denver's Hungry (Denver, CO) - or our next Ready, Set, CO! event, Democrats Work will assist Capitol Hill Community Services by serving lunch to Denver's hungry.

McCain in France, I Hear They're Hiring

John McCain is in France today, appropriate since he's been sending them potential American jobs.

McCain steered a $35 billion contract away from 44,000 manufacturing workers in America and to a European company, Airbus, that lobbyists on his campaign staff lobbied for. France is one of the countries that's going to benefit from our nation's loss of these jobs, since it's where their main factory is located.

Way to "protect the American worker!"

Morning Open Thread

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March 20, 2008

Evening Open Thread

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Threatening Corruption Prosecutors

It's never a good idea.

Members of the public corruption unit disbanded by US Attorney Thomas O'Brien have allegedly been threatened not to speak out, according to a story in the LA Times. Specifically, the former unit members say that O'Brien threatened to (quoting the LAT) "tarnish their reputations if they challenged the official explanation for the unit's dismantling in conversations with reporters."

Why would they challenge that explanation? Because it doesn't appear to hold up to scrutiny, those looking into it are starting to say. More on this aspect from TPM Muckraker:

Lawyers from that office also say that O'Brien's move might lead to an increase in the number of prosecutions, but they will be more in the mold of "filings against postal employees stealing mail and other relatively minor cases but 'don't look for any long, drawn-out City Hall corruption cases.'"

Afternoon Open Thread

• What a hero!
• A "speedy ruling" for the House Judiciary in contempt cases?
• Disagreements between Democrats and Bush on how to handle housing relief.
• Jobless claims rise over the last week.

Chat away...

Breaking: Libby Disbarred in DC

From CNN, via Cliff Schecter's blog:

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was disbarred from practicing law in the nation's capital on Thursday.

The former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney was convicted last year of lying to a grand jury and federal agents probing the leak of the identity of a CIA agent, Valerie Plame Wilson.

"When a member of the Bar is convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude, disbarment is mandatory," the District of Columbia Court of Appeals wrote in its opinion, which is posted on its Web site.

According to a diarist at DailyKos, he's still a member of the PA bar, but that's also in question. And his prison sentence, of course, was commuted by Bush.

McCain Made Same Mistake in February, Too

At the Baker Institute for Public Policy in February, McCain made the same mistake he's made three different times in the last three days when he said: "But Al Qaeda is there, they are functioning, they are supported in many times, in many ways by the Iranians."

You can watch the video over at Think Progress. And hopefully this puts an end to the bogus McCain claim that he corrected himself immediately, which was never true to begin with.

He's 0-4 on this, now. And with every passing day, his story keeps changing. What's it going to be today? Maybe I should draw him a diagram...

Another Republican Retires

But this time it's Tom Reynolds, the former chair of the NRCC who oversaw big losses and an accounting disaster. Republican members of Congress are leaving in big numbers; as Kos notes, he's the 27th to retire so far (I'm told he's actually the 30th).

Hard to know, but it's likely that this has something to do with his resignation:

Under Virginia Rep. Tom Davis and New York Rep. Thomas Reynolds, who chaired the committee from 1999 until the end of 2006, the NRCC waived rules requiring the executive committee — made up of elected leaders and rank-and-file Republican lawmakers — to sign off on expenditures exceeding $10,000, merged the various department budgets into a single account and rolled back a prohibition on committee staff earning an income from outside companies. [...] But the actions also may have contributed to a perceived lack of oversight within the NRCC, especially over financial records, a failure that outside observers blame for an accounting scandal that could go much deeper than the allegedly forged audit a former treasurer sent to the committee’s principal lender in January.

Morning Open Thread

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March 19, 2008

Evening Open Thread

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McCain in '91: Not Sure We Could Tell a Shiite from a Sunni, even from a Kurd

Our research director just dug this one up, particularly relevant given McCain's trouble understanding the basics in Iraq. This is from Larry King Live, 4/23/1991, when he was arguing deposing Saddam:

MCCAIN: "Third of all, I'm not sure that if we did go in on the ground we could tell a Shiite from a Sunni, even from a Kurd. And who is it that we'd be fighting and battling against on the streets of Baghdad?"

Oddly, it's the trouble McCain is having now...

Oh, but there's more. Much more. Take the jump and read the rest of the transcript.

Keep reading "McCain in '91: Not Sure We Could Tell a Shiite from a Sunni, even from a Kurd"

Dept. Of Education Shuns Dems?

First, the necessary backstory, via TPM Muckraker:

Remember that one of the key revelations last summer of Karl Rove's machinations in the White House Office of Political Affairs was his use of cabinet members to create free publicity for endangered Republicans. Agency heads or officials who traveled only a handful of times on off years suddenly found themselves whipped into service in an election year. Republicans facing tough challenges could count on a constant stream of photo-ops with administration officials announcing good things for his or her constituents. Rove called the operation his "asset deployment" team.

So how have things changed? Here's the latest out of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings was in Minnesota on Tuesday to announce a proposed pilot project for the federal No Child Left Behind law that would give 10 states more flexibility in addressing struggling schools' specific needs....

However, Minnesota doesn't yet have enough of those schools to participate in the pilot project, prompting some to question why Spellings made the announcement here and whether it was an effort to help Sen. Norm Coleman in his reelection campaign.

Spellings appeared at the state Department of Revenue and the State Capitol alongside Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Coleman.

"It certainly smells that no Democrats were invited to this event, when we already know that this administration has politicized Cabinet agencies," said Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "It looks like a stunt to help Norm Coleman's campaign."

Afternoon Open Thread

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McCain Still Has No Idea What He's Talking About

This is his third position in three days.

Day 1: The night before last, on Hugh Hewitt's radio show, McCain claimed without evidence that Iranian operatives are "taking al-Qaeda into Iran, training them, and sending them back."

Day 2: Yesterday, after repeating the claim, and after Joe Lieberman corrected him, he admitted that his earlier claim wasn't true. His campaign said that while he was wrong, he "corrected" himself -- although they didn't note that he made the comment repeatedly, and the first time it wasn't corrected.

Day 3: That brings us to today. In his statement about the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, he's claiming that "Al Qaeda and Shia extremists — with support from external powers such as Iran — are on the run but not defeated." As Think Progress notes, "to the critics of his gaffe, he can say the aside about Iran is referring to 'Shia extermists,' but he can also tell his right-wing critics that it refers to 'al Qaeda.'"

But more important that the false nature of any particular claim, the fact that McCain's camp keeps changing their story every day just underscores that they have absolutely no idea what's going on over there.

And again, not knowing the basics about this war isn't stopping him from calling for it to last 100 years.

This Won't Help GOP Party Unity

McCain advisor contradicts the Senator on the religious right:

McCain has spent two years making nice with the likes of Jerry Falwell and John Hagee, repenting for referring to Falwell and Pat Robertson as "agents of intolerance" back in 2000. Yet Eagleburger seemed to suggest that we shouldn't take McCain's embrace of the religious right too seriously.

"On the Christian hard right, I live in Charlottesville now and I can't tell you I'm surrounded by it," Eagleburger said. "I must tell you we fought it there, fought hard against it. There's no question that in the Republican Party it is a serious problem...Among the hard-right conservatives in the Republican Party John McCain was, shall we say, less than enthusiastically received...What you see is what you get. You are not going to see him moving to assuage the concerns of these conservatives."

So who's telling the truth?

Poll: 71 Percent Say Iraq Spending Hurting the Economy

CNN reports:

More than 7 out of 10 Americans think government spending on the war in Iraq is partly responsible for the economic troubles in the United States, according to results of a recent poll.

In the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll conducted last weekend, 71 percent said they think U.S. spending in Iraq is a reason for the nation's poor economy. Twenty-eight percent said they didn't think so.

Five years into the war, the rosy estimates of the conflict's cost proved wrong. Through oil revenues, the war would pay for itself, argued Paul Wolfowitz. The administration claimed before the war that it would cost $60 billion.

In October 2002, Congressional budget experts estimated that war with Iraq could reach $9 billion a month. Five years into the war, the U.S. is spending more than $10 billion a month.

The Pentagon claims spending on the war has reached $600 billion, but the Congressional Budget Office says $1 trillion to $2 trillion is more realistic, reports the New York Times.

The poll also found that more than 2 to 1 oppose the war in Iraq, with 66 percent in opposition and only 32 percent in support.

A separate poll released this week shows that a majority of Americans believe that the war was not worth it.

Five Years of Iraq War

It was five years ago today that we invaded Iraq, and there's a lot more to go if John McCain has his way. So it's worth taking a second to reflect on what has happened in that time, with a look at the evolving rhetoric.

"Greeted as liberators."
"Mission accomplished."
"Six days, six weeks. I doubt six months."
"Stuff happens."
"Dead-enders."
"Last throes."
"Bring 'em on."
"Stay the course."
"We've never been stay the course."
"Fair game."
"Small price."
"Surge."
"Pause."

And that brings us to today, although I'm sure that I have left out quite a bit. So what's it going to be, another 95 years?

Morning Open Thread

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March 18, 2008

Evening Open Thread

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McCain Responds?

Well, not really.

His campaign says it's okay that McCain didn't know basic facts about Iraq because Lieberman corrected him quickly. Except, well, that's simply not true. As others noted, McCain made the remark more than once, saying it on Hugh Hewitt's radio show the night before. That time, Lieberman wasn't there to correct him, letting him know that he has little idea what's happening on the ground in Iraq.

McCain's credibility just took a big hit. First, when he showed he doesn't understand Iraq, but wants to stay there 100 years anyway. Second, when he had his campaign mislead reporters about what happened.

McCain Made Iraq Blunder Repeatedly

It seems McCain's failure to understand the basics of what's happening on the ground in Iraq isn't a one-time deal. Not only did he keep making the statement repeatedly today, but he was also making the false claim last night.

In other words, he didn't simply mis-speak; he just has very little idea about what's going on in the country. Maybe he should spend a little time learning basic facts about Iraq before claiming that those who disagree with him don't understand war. And maybe it'd make sense for him to find these things out before committing our troops there for the next 100 years.

The audio of McCain making the same statement last night on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show can be found at Think Progress.

Afternoon Open Thread

• I mentioned this earlier, but there's video of the shocking display of McCain's lack of understanding of the situation in Iraq and Iran (about 2:10 in).
• 91 percent of Americans are worried about inflation.
• US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says the economy is facing a "sharp decline."
• Economists now say that the cost of the Iraq war, in dollars, now is more than the entire price "of the 12-year US conflict in Vietnam." Small price, indeed.

Chat away...

McCain Gets His Iraq Facts Wrong

This wasn't some little piece of trivia, either, and it undermines his argument that he somehow has his an expertise on matters of foreign policy.

For details, the WaPo:

He said several times that Iran, a predominately Shiite country, was supplying the mostly Sunni militant group, al-Qaeda. In fact, officials have said they believe Iran is helping Shiite extremists in Iraq. [...] Pressed to elaborate, McCain said it was "common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that's well known. And it's unfortunate." A few moments later, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, standing just behind McCain, stepped forward and whispered in the presidential candidate's ear. McCain then said: "I'm sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al-Qaeda."

McCain simply does not understand what is happening in Iraq, and this shows that clearly his visit hasn't helped give him any better understanding of the situation on the ground.

UPDATE: There's video, already, of McCain's poor display of what he thinks is happening on the ground in Iraq/Iran. You can watch it about 2 minutes and 10 seconds in.

Give it Another 95 Years

Most Iraqis say the escalation of the war isn't working, a new poll for this week's fifth anniversary of the war shows:

In the poll, however, more than half the Iraqis, 53 percent, felt that the rapid buildup of U.S. troops in Anbar province and in Baghdad has made overall security worse, not better.

Poll: 3 in 4 Say U.S. in Recession

A recent USA Today/Gallup poll found that three in four Americans believe the economy has tipped into a recession.

As the Federal Reserve expanded credit to securities dealers and President Bush said his administration had taken "strong and decisive action," the poll revealed pessimism about the economy's direction.

Seventy-six percent of those polled said the economy is in recession, compared with 22% who said it's not. Not since September 1992, two months before President George H.W. Bush lost re-election, have so many said the economy was in such bad shape.

Last week, President Bush warned a room full of economists in New York that "overcorrection" could lead the U.S. economy "into a ditch" while the Fed took the "rare path" and bailed out Bear Stearns.

In Lockstep

We're not going to let John McCain get away with trying to rewrite history. Fact is, he stood with this administration on Iraq from the beginning, as our latest video shows:

Morning Open Thread

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March 17, 2008

Evening Open Thread

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John McCain Doesn't Know Who He Endorses

John McCain appeared on the NPR program, Morning Edition today. In the radio appearance, McCain cited Jim Oberweis' anti-immigrant rhetoric for the Republicans' loss of former Speaker Denny Hastert's seat to Democratic Rep. Bill Foster.

Despite traveling to the district to formally endorse and headline a fundraiser for Oberweis, McCain claims to have not known about the Republican candidate's fiercely anti-immigrant stances.

"We just had a loss of Denny Hastert's seat out in Illinois. The Republican candidate out there, I am told, had very strong anti-immigrant rhetoric also, so I would hope that many of our Republican candidates would understand the political practicalities of this issue." [emphasis added]

Oberweis remains on the November ballot as the general election candidate for the Republicans. Among the anti-immigrant ties of Oberweis: "elimination" of birthright citizenship, cozying up to the Minutemen, and running an infamously anti-immigrant ad.

Early in the primaries, McCain claimed he "got the message" on immigration, a line that he often repeated in front of conservatives and stated in interviews in the run-up to the Republican primaries, signifying his move away from comprehensive immigration reform to "enforcement-first."

Now that he's got the GOP nomination, McCain is putting on the same dog-and-pony show that he always has.

100 Years, Revisited?

Maybe instead of four more years of Bush, with McCain we'd be getting four more years of Dick Cheney. Last week, McCain channeled Cheney and said -- citing no specific intelligence reports -- he thought our troops might get attacked in Iraq this year in greater numbers in order to prevent him from winning the election.

And now he and Cheney are in Iraq "promising to uphold a long-term military commitment." How long, he didn't say. But we know what he has said previously.

Afternoon Open Thread

• 1 in 25 residents are homeless in New Orleans.
• The backlog of public records requests is only getting worse. An audit has found more than 200,000 unanswered requests.
• Lots of interesting information in this AP article, some of which is counter-intuitive.
• Stocks down.

Chat away...

All Politics All the Time In Baghdad For McCain

While McCain is saying his tax-payer funded trip isn't part of the presidential campaign...

Asked by one of the vendors if he would return to Iraq, McCain responded, "We'll come back if I win." Footage of the visit was distributed on a military Web site.

This Post Has Nothing to do With Politics

McCain's 'I swear it's not political' trip abroad includes a high dollar fundraiser in London:

The trans-Atlantic fund-raiser, to be held March 20 at the home built by the first Earl Spencer, an ancestor of Diana, the late Princess of Wales, comes at the end of a foreign trip that Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, has repeatedly said is not political. Mr. McCain is to travel to London, Paris and the Middle East next week with Senators Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, and Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut.

“I do want to emphasize again that the three of us are going as members of the Armed Services Committee,” Mr. McCain told reporters on his campaign bus on Friday in Philadelphia. “And we will emphasize that at every stop.”

Strolling Through the Market

(Via ThinkProgress)

It's been almost a year now since Senator McCain took that famous leisurely stroll through a Baghdad market -- just him, 100 American soldiers, three Blackhawk helicopters, and two Apache gunships.

How have things changed since then? Well, according to CNN:

[Our security advisers] didn't believe it was safe for an American to be in that area. We were in a thriving marketplace nearby.

But when you show up, the local Iraqis, while it is clear security is better on the street — it is clear there are more markets open, just the traffic jams alone tell you that things are better on the streets of Baghdad — it’s also a very sensitive potential neighborhoods.

That one marketplace, as a matter of fact, you do see Iraqi police, you do see the Iraqi army, but in truth, that area is controlled by the radical cleric Moqtada al Sadr’s Mahdi army.

Morning Open Thread

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March 16, 2008

Sunday Open Thread

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March 15, 2008

From the Archives

Saturday Open Thread

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March 14, 2008

Evening Open Thread

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This Again?

Now McCain is not only saying he fears al Qaeda wants him to lose, but also that they might attack Americans just to prevent him from getting elected.

Hmm... who does this remind me of? Oh yeah.

Friday Five

Here are five of the events in PartyBuilder for the coming week. You can add your own event or find one near you.

1. Camp Wellstone Southern California (Fullerton, CA) - The California College Democrats are proud to host a Camp Wellstone training in Southern California. The event will be held at Cal State Fullerton on Saturday, March 15th 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM and on Sunday, March 16th 9:30 AM to 2:00 PM.
2. St. Judes Fundraiser/ Voter Registration (Duluth, MN) - On Tuesday March 18th the College Dems will be holding a Voter Registration in the commons from 11-2. We will also have a place to drop of money to go to St. Judes Children Research hospital.
3. Maple Syrup Tapping (Chicago, IL) - Learn the whole mayple story from sappy start to finish
4. 70's Disco Night Fundraiser Dinner (Highland Village, TX) - You are invited to a 70's Disco Night!
5. Rockaway Beach Spring Clean Up (Rockaway Beach, MO) - We will meet at 7am at the First Community Bank on Highway 176, and then proceed to the Community Center for breakfast and instructions. At 4pm there will be a cook out and live music in the park for volunteers.

Afternoon Open Thread

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Chairman Waxman Issues Subpoena for EPA Docs

The EPA won't provide documents about the decision to reject California's attempt to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gasses. So Chairman Waxman has now issued a subpoena for "unredacted copies of documents that have been improperly withheld from the Committee."

Here's what he had to say about the documents they're seeking:

These documents must be provided to the Committee because they are relevant to the examination of the Administration’s decision to reject California’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles. The desire to conceal embarrassing facts is not a valid legal basis for withholding these documents from the Committee.

November's Economic Outlook

The failing economy spells bad news for McCain and GOP in November:

The employment numbers for recent months strongly suggest that presumptive Republican nominee John McCain and his congressional colleagues will face huge political problems this year.

Most worrisome is the fact that private-sector nonfarm employment fell by more than 100,000 jobs in February, a development that led many fence-sitting economists to finally predict that a recession was imminent, if one had not already begun. Indeed, noting that private-sector payroll employment had now suffered an average monthly decline of 47,000 jobs over the previous three months, Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics, told the New York Times that every time such a trend has occurred in the last 50 years, a recession inevitably resulted. Moreover, in all instances, the job market did not recover until after monthly job losses had exceeded 200,000.

If job losses continue this year and the unemployment rate inevitably begins to rise, Republicans will face unhappy voters who, if history is any guide, will blame the political party occupying the White House.

Censored Iraq-Al Qaeda Report Revealed

I wrote about this yesterday, but now ABC News has posted a copy of the Pentagon report that the Bush administration reportedly tried to keep secret, throwing up as many barriers to access as possible.

Key finding: "This study found no 'smoking gun' (i.e., direct connection) between Saddam's Iraq and al Qaeda."

So there's still no press release, no background briefing. They're still refusing to post it themselves or email it to reporters. But now it's out there for all to read.

You can check it out here (PDF).

Morning Open Thread

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March 13, 2008

Evening Open Thread

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UPDATE: Here's a good read for the evening.

No Confidence in McCain?

Jefferson County Republicans, in Indiana, might have a "no confidence" vote for Senator McCain. The county's Resolutions Committee has reportedly passed a resolution with a list of grievances.

McCain has completely flipped on most of the major issues (tax cuts, immigration, Social Security, etc.) towards the far right-wing of the party, and yet they're still not content with their nominee.

Read the resolution here.

Afternoon Open Thread

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Flip Flop Some More!

Rick "I lost by 18 points" Santorum offers campaign advice:

The vast majority of the people at the meeting and in the conservative movement will vote for McCain. I will. But will the people who make up the backbone of the get-out-the vote effort go to work for him?

Only if he demonstrates that his vaunted pragmatism and open-mindedness will lead him to different positions on some issues.

Why the Big Secret?

The Bush administration is reportedly trying to make sure a Pentagon report finding "no direct connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda" never sees the light of day.

There were plans for a press release on the study. "No more." There were plans to post it online. Now they won't. And the background briefing? Also cancelled.

They're refusing to even email it to people. Instead, they're only sending it "via U.S. mail." Not because there's a national security risk -- obviously, since they're willing to mail it if you jump through the hoops. And not because they think it looks prettier on paper than the electronic version -- because what they're sending via U.S. mail is an electronic copy on a CD.

So why the big secret?

Morning Open Thread

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March 12, 2008

Evening Open Thread

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Memo to Mitt Romney

You're not exactly the best person to be making dog metaphors, in light of PuppyGate.

Afternoon Open Thread

• The acting CentCom commander is a "fan of transition" in Iraq, yet a "likely successor to Fallon is Petraeus, some defense experts said."
• CREW has asked the FBI to look into "whether any White House officials obstructed justice in deleting internal e-mails relating to the outing of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson."
• House Republicans block the waterboarding ban by voting to uphold Bush's veto.
• The number of"significant human rights" problems is on the rise.

Chat away...

Bomb Bomb Bomb...

ThinkProgress highlights a Bloomberg article, which reports that some think McCain is "less bellicose" than Bush, he's actually "more confrontational [...] on foreign policy issues ranging from Russia and China to North Korea."

Here's what others had to say in the article.

Ken Weinstein, chief executive officer of the Hudson Institute: "On Russia and China, he is clearly more hawkish than Bush."

Ivo Daalder, a former National Security Council aide in the Clinton administration: "This is a man who hasn't seen a country he doesn't want to bomb or invade."

John McCain, Not A Friend To The Animals

Well, at least not the grizzly bears:

Senator John McCain loves to present himself as a fighter against waste and pork-barrel spending. His fusillades against the “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska and other such projects were well justified. But his jabs at a study of grizzly bears in Montana are way off the mark.

To hear Mr. McCain tell it in his presidential stump speech and campaign ads, the government has squandered $3 million (actually more like $5 million) to study the DNA of bears in Montana. “I don’t know if it was a paternity issue or criminal,” he jokes, “but it was a waste of money.”

A report by Joel Achenbach in The Washington Post makes clear, however, that this was not really a study of bear DNA but a study that used bear DNA to determine whether the grizzly bear was still a threatened species or had rebounded. Mr. McCain and his staff either failed to realize that or chose to distort the facts for political effect. Either choice is not encouraging.

Worst Blog Names Ever?

Last we heard from the GOP Convention committee, they were promoting their odd-looking logo. Now they're back with a contest to name their blog, and the nominees can't be all that they were hoping for when they ran this video asking for help.

Here's a sample of what's in the running for the number one slot:

• Elephant Droppings
• Red Hot and No Blues
• Junk From the Trunk
• Twin Bitties

They've also nominated "The Gavel," which is already the name of Speaker Pelosi's blog. Feel free to submit your own favorites in the comments or help them choose the winner.

Wednesday Open Thread

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March 11, 2008

McCain Defends Hagee

He never distanced himself from the endorsement, but previously had, kind of, said he didn't agree with some of the remarks. Now he's defending Hagee and only repudiating the "impression" of "out of context" remarks.

Here's exactly what McCain said today, which differs from how he has responded in the past:

I will say that he said that his words were taken out of context, he defends his position. I hope that maybe you’d give him a chance to respond. He says he has never been anti-Catholic, but I repudiate the words that create that impression.

Audio at ThinkProgress.

Afternoon Open Thread

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Nothing 'Straight' About McCain's Budget Talk

His plan would only worsen the state of the economy:

John McCain's reputation for "straight talk" has helped him clinch the Republican presidential nomination but budget experts say his numbers do not add up.

McCain's promises to reduce wasteful spending if elected president in November would not begin to cover the costs of his proposed tax cuts, analysts say.

He also has not yet explained how he would rein in the health-care and retirement costs expected to swamp the federal budget as some 77 million people retire from the U.S. work force in the coming decades.

On top of that, a President McCain would inherit a $400 billion budget deficit, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that cost nearly $200 billion per year and a similar bill for interest payments on the $10 trillion national debt.

Many experts said McCain's proposals would make the fiscal picture worse.

Ouch.

A $35 Billion Contract

We know McCain's campaign is filled with lobbyists. We know at least one of those lobbyists does his lobbying work from inside of the so-called "Straight Talk Express." And we also know those same lobbyists have had a lot of business "before the Senate and the Commerce Committee, of which McCain is a member."

Today there's a story about McCain's role in a bidding battle for a $35 billion contract.

Top current advisers to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign last year lobbied for a European plane maker that beat Boeing to a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract, taking sides in a bidding fight that McCain has tried to referee for more than five years.

Two of the advisers gave up their lobbying work when they joined McCain's campaign. A third, former Texas Rep. Tom Loeffler, lobbied for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. while serving as McCain's national finance chairman.
[...]
[...] Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., said the field was "tilted to Airbus" because the Pentagon did not weigh European subsidies for Airbus in its deliberations - a decision he blamed on McCain. [...]

In December 2006, just weeks before the Air Force was set to release its formal request for proposals, McCain wrote a letter to the incoming defense secretary, Robert Gates, warning that he was "troubled" by the Air Force's draft request for bids.

Tuesday Open Thread

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March 10, 2008

Evening Open Thread

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McCain's Management Style

John McCain's hands-on management style, and if by "hands-on" you mean, "hands-on BBQ tongs," then you'd be correct. From the Tucson Citizen:

John McCain says indicted Arizona Congressman Rick Renzi is no longer taking part in his presidential campaign.

McCain told reporters in Phoenix on Monday that he didn't know if Renzi had officially stepped down as a campaign co-chair.

McCain's Waterboarding Doubletalk

He stands with Bush, yet again.

Afternoon Open Thread

• Doug Feith's yet-to-be-released book reports "a Dec. 18, 2002, National Security Council meeting, that 'war is inevitable.'" The Washington Post notes this was weeks before Iraq weapons inspectors reported their initial findings.
• The House Judiciary Committee "filed suit" against Harriet Miers and Joshua Bolten "to provide information about the firing of U.S. attorneys."
• Not a shock, but oil prices expected to remain high.

Chat away...

90 Percent Bush, 10 Percent Flip Flop

From the Washington Post:

McCain has also been a strong Bush ally, most especially in the battle to liberalize immigration laws and to create a path to citizenship for people living illegally in the United States. He has reversed himself on the tax cuts, saying they should be made permanent; he has become the biggest supporter of Bush's troop buildup in Iraq; and he sided with the president against a bill -- vetoed this weekend -- that would have banned waterboarding by the CIA. Congressional Quarterly reports that McCain supported Bush 90 percent of the time in five of the first six years of his presidency.

Mitt Returns??

Conservatives push Romney as VP choice:

That leads to Romney. He has run a vigorous national campaign and been vetted by the press and his opponents for the Republican nomination. These are very strong pluses. A pick who produces unhelpful surprises, as Geraldine Ferraro did in 1984 (her husband's business deals) and Dan Quayle did in 1988 (his National Guard duty), is exactly what McCain doesn't need. Romney is a known quantity.

Romney has three other add-ons. He's acceptable to conservatives and especially to social conservatives, who disproportionately volunteer as ground troops in Republican presidential campaigns. He's unflappable in debates. With the downturn worsening, the economy may surpass national security as the top issue of the campaign. And after years of success as a big time player in the global economy, Romney understands how markets work. He could shore up McCain's admitted weakness on economic issues.

Romney has allies in the Bush wing of the Republican party. President Bush favors him as McCain's veep. Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, preferred Romney over McCain in the primaries, but never endorsed him publicly. Karl Rove, the president's political strategist, has hinted that he considers Romney to be McCain's best running mate.

McCain: Baghdad Like U.S. Cities... Wait, Nevermind

This weekend McCain showed why he's second to none when it comes to painting a rosier picture of the war in Iraq than anybody else. Discussing the violence in Baghdad, McCain replied that "there's problems in America with safe neighborhoods as we well know."

But this time, unlike in the past, he tried to cover it up. From the beginning, years ago, he talked about "trying to look at the bright side" -- his way of ignoring the reality of the situation.

No more. McCain immediately backtracked after making the comparison, saying "I'm not making that comparison." But he continued to make things worse: "Because it’s much more deadly in Iraq obviously. But it’s kind of the same theory."

I'd like to hear him explain how, exactly, it's the same theory. Is he saying we should stay in Iraq as long as we'd stay in an American city that was as violent, if it existed?

Monday Open Thread

Some stories to get your morning started:

• Tucker cancelled?
• McCain finally gets somebody advising him that isn't a lobbyist. But not so fast -- it's Karl Rove.
• $12 billion a month.

Chat away...

March 9, 2008

Sunday Open Thread

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March 8, 2008

Evening Open Thread

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Afternoon Open Thread

Enjoy this new video by the Democratic Party, and chat away...

From the Archives

Saturday Morning Open Thread

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March 7, 2008

Evening Open Thread

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Angry John McCain

His famous temper was on display, as he lashed out at a NY Times reporter asking him a basic question that wasn't even very tough. My favorite part of the exchange, via Crooks and Liars (who also has the entire video):

Reporter: Can you describe the conversation?

McCain: No, of course not. I don’t describe private conversations.

Reporter: Okay. Can I ask you –

McCain: Why should I? Then there’s no such thing as a private conversation. Is there (inaudible) if you have a private conversation with someone, and then they come and tell you. I don’t know that that’s a private conversation. I think that’s a public conversation.

Reporter. Okay. Can I ask you about your (pause) Why you’re so angry?

McCain: Pardon me?

Reporter: Nevermind, nevermind.

Afternoon Open Thread

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McCain, Despite Hagee Endorsement, Goes to New Orleans

Today John McCain is attending a Council for National Policy meeting in New Orleans. Here's what the man who John McCain proudly stands with -- a person he actively sought out support from -- has to say about the city:

The image in the video, by the way, was taken while much of the Gulf Coast was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

Countdown to McCain's Iraq Withdrawl

He promised us 100 years in Iraq, so let the countdown begin with this 100 year countdown widget!

You can easily embed this on your own blog, too. I've added the simple code that you need to embed it below. Just stick it wherever you want it to appear:

<object width="150" height="200"><param name="movie" value="http://www.democrats.org/page/-/flash/100yrcount.swf" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.democrats.org/page/-/flash/100yrcount.swf" width="150" height="200" wmode="transparent"></embed></object>

(Hat-tip to Raising Kaine, where the first 100 year widget appeared.)

McCain Hires ANOTHER Lobbyist

Two this week alone.

Maybe his plan to get the Washington lobbyists away from Congress is to hire every single one of them. Then, if elected, they can have nice spots in the White House, instead.

From ThinkProgress: "Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has tapped yet another lobbyist to play a crucial role in his campaign. Frank Donatelli, who is currently a lobbyist at McGuire Woods, will take a leave from his lobbying job to 'serve as the new deputy chairman of the RNC' as well as 'the chief liaison between the committee and the campaign.'"

Don't Worry, He Has Alan Greenspan's Book!

It's about time for John McCain to get with the economic program:

Not long ago John McCain was almost boasting that he knew little about economics. That kind of candor, a distinctive McCain trait, is likable but has its limits. His days of making jokes about his ignorance appear to be over. Worries about the economy began to dominate public opinion even before the current slowdown was properly under way.

Between now and November, those worries will only mount: The faltering economy is likely to get worse before it gets better. McCain is going to need an economic program, and he had better get used to talking about this subject as though it matters.

UPDATE (by Mike Link): Speaking of the economy, it's worth noting that consumer confidence has sunk to new lows.

Morning Open Thread

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March 6, 2008

Evening Open Thread

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McCain Trying to Distance Himself From Bush?

It's just one day after Bush and McCain shared glowing praise for one another. That's one day since McCain promised that he wouldn't try to put as much distance between himself and Bush as he could -- and one day since Bush noted that McCain wouldn't change his policies.

No more, according to Roll Call Executive Editor Mort Kondracke. Transcript via ThinkProgress:

I know, as a matter of fact, that they’re talking in the McCain camp about ways to separate themselves in some way from Bush, and they haven’t figured out how to do it–some issue that he can be distinctive from Bush about.

Clearly it’s not going to be the war. It’s not going to be tax cuts. It has got to be something reasonably major so that the Democrats can’t say this is just the third term.

What a principled stand! And that stand lasted, what, an entire day?

Hundreds of Thousands Missing at the NRCC

Last month, news broke that the NRCC called the FBI on itself regarding some accounting irregularities that scared several House Republicans.

In Thursday's New York Times, more details emerged as Christopher J. Ward, the former treasurer of the NRCC for the last five years, falsified years of audits.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars are missing and presumed stolen from the chief fund-raising arm of House Republicans, according to party officials who described the findings of emergency internal audits.

Ward was brought on by Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-Clarence, N.Y.) in 2003. Rep. Reynolds addressed the unfolding scandal involving Ward in a statement. No word on if he was hiding behind children when it was issued.

Yep

This image just about says it all.

Dean on Morning Joe

Governor Dean woke up early this morning and appeared on most of the Morning TV Shows.

Here he is on Morning Joe. Enjoy.

The rest of his appearances on the flip.

Keep reading "Dean on Morning Joe"

Afternoon Open Thread

• Best buddies.
• Bush: Congress not needed for long-term agreement with Iraq.
• White House claims press stopped asking about Iraq.
• Conservative leaders do what they always do when one of their own gets caught doing something wrong -- applaud.

Chat away...

Oil Hits $105 a Barrel

Oil hits $105 a barrel.

Mr. Bush’s earlier comments echo remarks he made more than eight years ago, while running for president. Then, the onetime Texas oilman said that if prices rose, he would not hesitate to call OPEC producers and persuade them to increase supplies.

“I would work with our friends in OPEC to convince them to open up the spigot, to increase the supply,” Mr. Bush said at the time. “Use the capital that my administration will earn, with the Kuwaitis or the Saudis, and convince them to open up the spigot.”

Let's hope there's a Plan B.

Spring Break!!!

Don't expect McCain in the Senate anytime soon:

Sen. Brownback, on McCain's lack of voting: "I don't think ... it's a high priority because he is our presidential nominee, and he needs to build his campaign organization out. He needs to build the party, and he needs to reach out to all the factions within the Republican Party."

So McCain won't vote, but he's taking a taxpayer-paid overseas trip, the Politico reports:

Immediately following his New Hampshire trek, McCain will head overseas on a 10-day congressional delegation trip to Europe and the Middle East that will coincide with the Senate’s spring recess.

After returning on Easter Sunday — March 23 — McCain will deliver a major speech that week detailing his observations from the trip.

Morning Open Thread

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March 5, 2008

Evening Open Thread

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So What About John Hagee is John McCain 'Proud' Of ?

In accepting the endorsement of Pastor John Hagee, John McCain said:

"I am very honored by Pastor John Hagee's endorsement..."

And later said -

"I was pleased to have the endorsement of Pastor John Hagee..."

Talking Points Memo provided nearly six minutes of John Hagee's greatest hits. So what exactly is John McCain "proud of"?

New Video Reveals McCain's Hagee Hypocrisy

So long as John McCain continues to refuse to denounce his controversial support of John Hagee, he's going to continue facing this kind of scrutiny. And it also won't help when he keeps failing to answer questions about it, like whether he knew about Hagee's anti-Catholic statements when he actively sought out his endorsement (and happily and formally accepted).

Back in 2000, Bush caused a very similar controversy, and back then, McCain's response was far, far different:

And that's not all.

There was also a pro-McCain robocall that went out blasting Bush for campaigning with somebody who has "expressed anti-Catholic views."

We've got the text of that robocall right here:

"This is a Catholic Voter Alert. Governor George Bush has campaigned against Senator John McCain by seeking the support of Southern fundamentalists who have expressed anti-Catholic views. Several weeks ago, Governor Bush spoke at Bob Jones University in South Carolina. Bob Jones has made strong anti-Catholic statements, including calling the Pope the anti-Christ, the Catholic Church a satanic cult! John McCain, a pro-life senator, has strongly criticized this anti-Catholic bigotry, while Governor Bush has stayed silent while seeking the support of Bob Jones University. Because of this, one Catholic pro-life Congressman has switched his support from Bush to McCain, and many Michigan Catholics support John McCain for president"

So how about McCain be held to the McCain standard? Or does he, once again, think ethics apply to everybody but himself?

Afternoon Open Thread

Chat away...

McCain / Bush Press Conference

George Bush endorsed John McCain this afternoon at a press conference at the White House. Since the event was held in the middle of the afternoon we fear that some Americans may miss George Bush's assurances that John McCain would continue the Bush Administrations failed economic and foreign policies. As a public service we've posted a video of the press conference for voters to see.

Dean on Colbert

In case you missed it:

A Thousand Words

A great roundup of photos by ThinkProgress, hours before the Bush/McCain endorsement:

McCain and Bush, Together Again

It's getting more and more difficult to tell the two apart. And today, Bush will be at the White House, reportedly in the Rose Garden, officially endorsing McCain for president.

We couldn't be happier to see them together. The mask has been taken off, and we get to see exactly what a McCain administration would look like: more of the same.

For his part, McCain is going to bat for the Bush administration, saying yesterday that he does not "agree with [the] sentiment that there has been widespread corruption" in the Bush administration. He also, the Huffington Post reports, suggested he wouldn't support independent investigations into the administration.

I think the Valentine's Day video the Democratic Party put together makes the point quite well:

Wednesday Open Thread

Chat away...

March 4, 2008

Election Night and Colbert Open Thread

Governor Dean + the Colbert Report = tonight!

He'll be on via phone, briefly, in the first half of the show. Don't miss it... on at 11:30pm ET.

Discuss election results, and chat away...

Evening Open Thread

There has been a change of government. It began two years ago, when the House of Representatives became Democratic by a decisive majority. It has now been completed. The Senate about to assemble will also be Democratic. The offices of President and Vice-President have been put into the hands of Democrats. What does the change mean? That is the question that is uppermost in our minds to-day. That is the question I am going to try to answer, in order, if I may, to interpret the occasion.

Democratic President Woodrow Wilson
First Inaugural Address
March 4, 1913

Dean on Your TV

Governor Dean will appear on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews at 5pm and then CNN's Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer at 5:15pm ET today.

Don't miss it!

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

...of McCain's economic proposals:

One lifeline thrown out by the Senator from Arizona to struggling Americans: He might have "a couple of fireside chats with the American people because of what we see in the [consumer] confidence barometers."

No, wait -- there's more. Congress and the White House may have rushed to pass an economic stimulus plan, and the Democratic candidates for president are pushing a variety of middle class tax cuts and foreclosure moratoriums and other quick fixes, but for McCain, reports the Journal, "the most potent economic stimulus would be to assure Americans that taxes won't go up in the future."
[...]
So making permanent tax cuts that McCain originally voted against because he thought, correctly, that they were an unconscionable, budget-busting giveaway to the richest Americans, will now provide a short-term stimulus to the poor and working class as the economy goes into the tank.

Afternoon Open Thread

Open Thread

Let me try this again...

Chat away...

You Know What McCain Really Needs Right Now?

Yet another lobbyist.

March 3, 2008

Evening Open Thread

Chat away...

Who Are They Calling Dishonest?

Over at the RNC blog, they declare an "obvious distortion of the facts" when people say that the tax cuts were a giveaway for the wealthy.

What kind of dishonesty would somebody have to display to make such a wild claim??? Boy, would that person would really have to be a far-left-winger to believe such a thing! For example, one Senator even claimed:

I voted against the tax cuts because of the disproportional amount that went to the wealthiest Americans. I would clearly support not extending those tax cuts in order to help address the, the deficit.

Oh yeah, that was McCain.

You know, the guy they're supposed to be trying to get elected.

But let's take a look at the merits and see what the CBO actually said last year, via the New York Times:

Based on an exhaustive analysis of tax records and census data, the study reinforced the sense that while Mr. Bush’s tax cuts reduced rates for people at every income level, they offered the biggest benefits by far to people at the very top — especially the top 1 percent of income earners.

Though tax cuts for the rich were bigger than those for other groups, the wealthiest families paid a bigger share of total taxes. That is because their incomes have climbed far more rapidly, and the gap between rich and poor has widened in the last several years.

But now, apparently, McCain is fine with extending the Bush tax cuts to the wealthiest, despite saying exactly the opposite a few years ago.

Afternoon Open Thread

• Speaker Pelosi notes that the House will "promptly" file a civil enforcement action in court, over the refusal to enforce contempt citations.
• Warren Buffet says that we're essentially in a recession.
• Oil reaches new highs.
• Maybe he's just pacing himself?

Chat away...

He'll Say Anything

An article in the Wall Street Journal today highlighted some big flip-flops in McCain's record that I think are pretty striking in how clearly shameless they are.

A couple weeks ago, on "This Week," McCain was specifically asked if he was a "read my lips" candidate when it came to his tax pledge. McCain responded that he would have "no new taxes" and added that there wouldn't be any exceptions.

But that was then.

Asked about his position by the WSJ, now that the primary is basically over, he claimed that he's "not making a 'read my lips' statement," which of course is exactly the opposite of what he said just two weeks ago.

The other flip-flop is on Social Security. It's long been true that McCain has been for privatization -- diverting payroll taxes for private accounts that could go into the stock market. Not only was he for it in 2000, but he was also in favor of it when Bush pushed for it back in 2005.

His website begs to differ, however, the WSJ reports. Instead of diverting those payroll taxes, his website says he favors "supplementing" existing taxes so that people can create add-on accounts. While McCain simply says this was an error, he has not changed it, as of now, on his website.

WaPo Calls Out McCain on Special Interests

The Washington Post "fact-checker" takes on McCain's statement that he's the only candidate who doesn't take money from special interests -- a claim they conclude is clearly false.

Watch it here:

The facts, according to the fact-checker:

• "Public Citizen, a non-profit group researching campaign finance, has identified 59 lobbyists or former lobbyists who serve as major fund-raisers or 'bundlers' for McCain."
• "Many of the lobbyists who are raising money for McCain or working for him on his campaign have had business before the Senate Commerce Committee..."
• "... the Arizona senator has collected more than $3,000,000 from lawyers and employees of law firms, and $453,000 from self-identified lobbyists."
• "Companies whose employees have contributed most to his campaign include big financial houses like Citigroup and Merrill Lynch and telecommunications companies like IDT and Univision."
• "During the 2000 presidential campaign, McCain flew to several fund-raisers in a corporate jet belonging to Paxson Communications, which had business before his Senate committee."
• "A study by the Center for Public Integrity showed that McCain received more than $2.5 million in contributions from telecommunications and media companies between 1996 and 2002, the bulk of the money during his unsuccessful 2000 presidential bid."

Monday Open Thread

Chat away...

March 2, 2008

Sunday Open Thread

Chat away...

March 1, 2008

From the Archives

My favorite 'From the Archives' yet.

This week also marked the anniversary of Mr. Rogers passing away, with his birthday coming next month.

Saturday Open Thread

Chat away...