AM Feed - May 8: Bush Pick for CIA Already Under Fire
Hot Topics
- Is President Bush on the verge of making yet another disappointing personnel decision? Bush is set to tap Gen. Michael Hayden as the new CIA director, replacing Porter Goss, who recently resigned under mysterious circumstances. Already, some influential lawmakers have voiced doubts over putting someone with a military background in charge of the CIA. Yesterday, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) noted, “There’s some real concern about somebody from the military heading up the CIA.” Meanwhile, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), called Hayden “the wrong man at the wrong place at the wrong time.” [link]
- Presidential adviser Karl Rove is still in hot water over his role in the Valerie Plame leak investigation, as Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is reviewing testimony from Rove’s five trips before the grand jury and weighing the case against the powerful White House aide. Rove has testified that he merely forgot about a key conversation he had with Time reporter Matthew Cooper. Rove expects to know whether he will be indicted by the end of this month. One administration official has said that he’s testified that Rove discussed the political necessity of opposing the questions about prewar intelligence raised by Joseph Wilson, Plame’s husband. [link]
- And indicted Rep. Tom DeLay’s (R-TX) troubles could soon be increasing as well: Emails indicate that his office knew disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff paid for a now-infamous European golf trip in 2000, a clear violation of rules. DeLay initially reported that a public advocacy group paid for the trip. The trip included a stop at the world famous St. Andrews golf course in Scotland. The emails show that DeLay’s staff asked Abramoff’s office about the cost of the trip – instead of asking the “advocacy group” DeLay claimed paid for the outing. “Our financial disclosure forms from the England/Scotland trip are due tomorrow afternoon. ... I would appreciate if you would send me your information,” said one email from a DeLay staff to Abramoff’s firm. [link]
Quote of the Day (Part 1)
“I did not. I said I knew where suspected sites were.” – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, when challenged by protestors that he had said he knew where Iraq’s WMD were located.
Quote of the Day (Part 2)
“We know where they [WMD] are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.” – Rumsfeld, during an interview with ABC News, 3/30/2003.
Comment
- hello AFV readers – DNC Chairman Howard Dean has articulated that if the Dems take over one or both houses of Congress, impeachment will not be on the agenda. Simply amazing…
This revelation has its parallel in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s pathetic performance on Tim Russert’s show Sunday. Just when you thought that a bottom has been reached regarding the Regressives’ venality, lies, and incompetence and the Dems’ paucity of ideas and betrayal of their base, it somehow gets even worse…
— John May 8, 12:58 # - I would like to recommend a book to readers that addresses the issue of the Juarez femicides – a mysterious and chilling series of some 400 murders, rapes and tortures of young Mexican women. I was first alerted to this ongoing tragedy in a 1998 issue of Ms. Magazine. Now, a wonderful author and professor of Chicana/o studies has written “Desert Blood” to disseminate awareness of this topic in highly readable novel form that will appeal to a wider audience than a book of non-fiction would. I’d also like to point out the work of Hilda Solis (D-CA) in single-handedly informing and generating concern in the U.S. House of Reps with respect to these atrocities.
The ever-vigilant Amnesty International has led a campaign about the Juarez murders, but is now directing its attention to Guatemala where apparently a similar thing is going on, but on a scale that dwarfs the Juarez calamity.
I was encouraged by the huge turnout at the Darfur protests, but we need large numbers of people to demand aggressive measures be taken by both the U.S. and Mexican gov’ts, in cooperation, to get to the bottom of these crimes, and stop the terror. I urge everyone to go to: http://www.capwiz.com/now/issues/alert/?alertid=8312586 and speak out…
— John May 8, 13:38 # - Well, I said it before and I’ll say it again:
The Dems are just like the Repubs in the most powerful respect – they take care of themselves and their own grab for power and money first and foremost.
They do not really care about the rest of us or the enviornment unless there is something for them to gain.
And Nancy Pelosi showed a truly pitiful performance on Meet the Press.
— MO May 8, 16:02 # - As much as I’d like to see Bush impeached, there are higher priorities. While Congress pursued the mockery of the Clinton impeachment, truly important matters were largely ignored. Undoing Bush’s disasters is going to be a full time job for a Democratic Congress. It won’t have time to fix all his mistakes and pursue impeachment. And if they did, and were successful, a new Republican president would take over, and then he or she would be an incumbent in 2008.
Never has a Resident been more deserving of impeachment than Bush, but better for the country and the world that he be made utterly powerless and Congress devote it’s full attention to cleaning up his mess.
— Reep Daggle May 8, 17:40 #
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