June 2007

This is getting old. Ann Coulter is out on our public airwaves using a defense any 5 year old would use (and she is suppose to be a lawyer?). That defense is simple - "Well Bill Maher did it". Wow Ann - if Bill Maher jumped off a bridge, would you?

So let's look at Anne's defense. What she is under fire for is the following statement:

"I've learned my lesson. If I'm gonna say anything about John Edwards in the future, I'll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot." (emphasis added)

Now she is saying that Bill Maher said the same thing about Dick Cheney. During episode 503 of Real Time with Bill Maher, the round table turned to the hot topic of the week of a suicide bombing in Afghanistan, in which Dick Cheney was the target. Bill was discussing with his panel the decision of the Huffington Post to close the comments on the news thread about the attempt, because people were commenting that they were upset Cheney survived. I dug through my archives and here is the video of the segment:

This will be so much fun:

The Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's office Wednesday for documents relating to President Bush's warrantless eavesdropping program.

Also named in subpoenas signed by committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., were the Justice Department and the National Security Council. The four parties have until July 18 to comply, according to a statement by Leahy's office.

The committee wants documents that might shed light on internal disputes within the administration over the legality of the program.

"Our attempts to obtain information through testimony of administration witnesses have been met with a consistent pattern of evasion and misdirection," Leahy said in his cover letters for the subpoenas. "There is no legitimate argument for withholding the requested materials from this committee."

Now will he claim "executive privilege"? But Cheney isn't under the executive branch - his words. So if he tries to play that he is in the legislative branch, then the subpoena should stand. Just ask William Jefferson.

No matter how much Tony Snow and the rest of the White House try to spin it, the fact remains - the news coming out of Iraq is not good. GOP Senators are also seeing this and not buying the typical spin:

Sen. George Voinovich said Tuesday the U.S. should begin pulling troops out of Iraq, joining Richard Lugar as the second Republican lawmaker in as many days to suggest President Bush's war strategy is failing.

He said the Iraqi people must become more involved and "I don't think they'll get it until they know we're leaving."

The Ohio senator's remarks followed similar comments by Lugar, R-Ind., the previous night. The two GOP senators previously had expressed concerns about Bush's decision to send 30,000 extra troops to Iraq in a massive U.S.-led security push in Baghdad and Anbar province. But they had stopped short of saying U.S. troops should leave and declined to back Democratic legislation setting a deadline for troop withdrawals.

"We must not abandon our mission, but we must begin a transition where the Iraqi government and its neighbors play a larger role in stabilizing Iraq," Voinovich wrote in a letter to Bush. (emphasis mine)

The last part is kind of idiotic. Hasn't this been the goal since the surge? This is what is failing right now. Saying that doesn't mean things are going to work. The mission is failed and our troops on the ground ARE NOT to blame. The ones to blame are the warhawks sitting in the White House and Pentagon who suffer such a disconnect from reality that it has lead us to this dark point in our history. Of course Bush won't admit that, because it is admitting fault on his part. His opinion of himself matters more than the lives of our soldiers and security of our nation.

I had a feeling the news of Cheney's saying he is not part of the executive branch would start a fire storm. I just had no idea it would be this big.

Rahm Emanuel is showing a pair and ready to really go after Cheney in a way that sounds perfectly legal:

Following Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion that his office is not a part of the executive branch of the US government, Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) plans to introduce an amendment to the the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill to cut funding for Cheney's office.

The amendment to the bill that sets the funding for the executive branch will be considered next week in the House of Representatives.

Emanuel also suggested that Cheney needs to return his salary to the U.S. taxpayers and move out of the house paid for by us. Since that house is paid for by us and for the Vice President of the United States, who is part of the executive branch, I say Cheney be evicted immediately. Hell - I say he gets charged with trespassing!

The Washington Post has also started a four part series today about Cheney, entitled "Angler". Think Progress has already torn into part one and discovered this:

Shortly after Bush was elected, “Cheney preferred, and Bush approved, a mandate that gave him access to ‘every table and every meeting,’ making his voice heard in ‘whatever area the vice president feels he wants to be active in.’”