Monday Blues

Monday morning started early today, dropped Marina off at the airport at 5 am. That's always kind of sad, then I had to go to work on top of it! So I was badly in need of some distraction....

I am fascinated by John Dean. I was paying pretty close attention to politics right up to the time Nixon resigned, so I am familiar with him from Watergate. Then I sort of lost interest in politics for about 25 years…until the threat of Bush getting elected scared me back into not just caring, but really paying attention. And lo and behold, here’s John Dean back again, trying to give us fair warning of another president run amok.

Barber's collective portrait of Wilson, Hoover, Johnson and Nixon now fits George W. Bush too: "He sees himself as having begun with a high purpose, but as being continually forced to compromise in order to achieve the end state he vaguely envisions," Barber writes. He continues, "Battered from all sides . . . he begins to feel his integrity slipping away from him . . . [and] after enduring all this for longer than any mortal should, he rebels and stands his ground. Masking his decision in whatever rhetoric is necessary, he rides the tiger to the end."

Read all about it!

Here’s some good news, that would tend to reveal the silliness of the Dem establishment in running away from censure.

Sen. Russ Feingold's call for censuring President Bush appears to have paid dividends for the senator's political action committee.
Feingold's leadership PAC, the Progressive Patriots Fund, pulled in $282,000 last month, according to a report filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission. In February, the PAC raised $105,000.

More details here

Russ has apparently been busy. I knew I should have mentioned my blog when I talked to him at the Progressive Patriots fund event!

Russ Feingold blew through town this weekend, and called on a few bloggers to meet him for lunch

Here’s Brad’s blog


Poor Scotty gets some (tepid) love from the Australian Press:

You had visions of him being asked by his children whether they could go to the beach this year: "Well, I think, as we have always made clear, the beach is certainly a possibility but right now we're keeping all available vacation options open."
In fairness to Scotty, the material he was given to work with wasn't the finest. Elaborating plausibly on the President's celebration of his handling of Hurricane Katrina would be a theatrical challenge of Olivier proportions. The task of spinning every setback in Iraq as a victory in the War on Terror would have made Tokyo Rose blush.

full story here


Donald Rumsfeld. Need I say more?

"There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity." ~~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

We are now victims of a full-bore public relations assault. White House bullhorns and media mockingbirds are out in force, only too happy to be diverted from discussing the treasonous Bush/Cheney/Rove/Libby leak of an undercover CIA operative or from investigating the restless murmurings of an impending nuclear attack on Iran. The punditry brigade, including former military brass on media payrolls as "analysts" immediately began regurgitating talking points from a Pentagon memo hurriedly sent out when criticism began to gain momentum. They were then summoned en masse to the Pentagon for a briefing on the miraculous successes of Iraqi Operation Let God Sort 'Em Out.

This is pretty damning, Henry K isn’t exactly Mr Mild…

Henry Kissinger once said, " Of all the despots I've had to deal with, none was more ruthless than Donald Rumsfeld."

Interesting point, all four generals who defended Rummy in the WSJ had no involvement in Iraq war…details here