Memos, 'Wing Nuts' and 'Hit Lists'

Michael Getler, Ombudsman for the Washington Post responds to Dana Milbank's column. Dana then responds to Michael.

Bush's Missing WMD 'Joke': Is the Media Still Laughing?

E&P smacks down Dana Milbank's article bashing John Conyers and the DSM, while asking the question of why the reporters who were at the event thought Bush's "missing WMD" joke was so heartily received.

" I was reminded of all this at the Thursday forum when former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, after cataloguing the bogus Bush case for WMDs and the Iraqi threat, looked out at the cameras and notepads, mentioned the March 24, 2004 dinner, and acted out the president looking under papers and table for those missing WMDs. “And the media was all yucking it up….hahaha,” McGovern said. “You all laughed with him, folks. But I’ll tell you who is not laughing. Cindy Sheehan is not laughing.” This was the woman sitting next to him whose son had been killed in Iraq. “Cindy’s son,” McGovern added, “was killed 11 days after the show put on by the president…after that big joke.” Dana Milbank, who seems to like a good laugh, did not mention this in his story the following day."

Avowedly With Them

via Digby :read the whole post:

Excerpt:

Sadly, being plagued with some incurable need for intellectual honesty, I can't find it in me to claim with a straight face that Dana Rohrabacher and Grover Norquist are really in cahoots with terrorists. But if one were to rely on actual evidence rather than the wild, unsupported halluciations we see breaking out in the right blogsphere as they routinely accuse the Left of supporting terrorism, it's clear that one could quite seriously make a case that one of the most powerful Republican members of congress and the single most powerful Republican activist are literally working with terrorists.

These right wingers should probably watch their steps. Their glass houses are lying in very sharp shards right under their feet.

The debate rages on as to whose fault it is that we find ourselves in the situation that Joe Lieberman can decide to cut whatever he likes out of the health-care reform bill and tongue kiss Dana Bash while doing it. Was the Obama administration so naive that they didn't think they needed to cut a deal with Lieberman on health care as soon as he won the election? Joe actually supported John McCain to the bitter end and bloggers made the argument that Joe should go from the beginning of his term, but the leadership decided to keep him on board.

Yes, the health-care fight was never going to be easy so why didn't David Axelrod secure Joe's vote on health-care before it got off the ground? It boggles the mind. We all know what prima donnas conservative Democrats are in the Senate. It's quite clear that Lieberman is only interested in punishing liberals and not helping Americans. They knew who he was. He wasn't f*&king hiding. He was stumping for McCain!

Howie Klein, Digby and I all thought that the Senate was ultimately going to call the shots at the end. I always figured the House would pass a fairly progressive bill, but it was the ConservaDems in the House of Lords who would be the problem. So that's why Blue America targeted Blanche Lincoln. She was the only senator up for re-election and had to face the voters in 2010.

Matt Yglesias makes a good case as to why this mess isn't really Obama's fault, but I don't agree with all of it.

I think there’s something perverse in the very strong desire I see among liberals to make problems in congress be about anything other than congress. It’s just not in the power of Barack Obama to make the senate anything other than what it is. To pass a bill, you need sixty votes. To get sixty votes you need Ben Nelson or Olympia Snowe to back your bill. Neither Nelson nor Snowe is especially liberal, and the President doesn’t have a great deal of leverage over either of them. You can try to change the rules, or you can accept that you’re at the mercy of Nelson and Snowe and maybe a few other moderate members.

And it’s crucial to remember that these people—each and every member of congress—is an adult human being, capable of making up his or her own mind, responsible for his or her own decisions, and possessed of moral agency. These are men and women who have amassed a great deal of power, and who ultimately need to decide on a daily basis what it is they want to do with that power. If they choose to use it for bad ends, then blame them for that, not Obama or his team’s alleged lack of familiarity with the United States Senate.

I really like Matt's writing. First, I never thought Tom Daschle was the guy for the job because he whipped the Dems to vote for the war in 2002, but maybe I'm wrong there. Obama is still the president and he won a mandate with health-care reform on the table. I think part of the problem is their inexperience in real-world governance and especially in handling a piece of legislation this massive and this momentous.

I believe that President Obama does want to pass good health-care reform, but you can't use the same tactics that were used for running a general election campaign and apply them to legislation. Not with the Senate vacant of any decent Republican human beings. The president is a wonderful speaker and a great communicator, but there was no way he could swoop in at the end and save the day like he was able to do in the general election. Policy does not work like that as we've just seen.

Digby writes:

I'm not sure how that will all work out in the end. But I'm fairly confident that the deficit scolds are getting ready to launch a full scale offensive on government spending, so "improving the bill" in any financial way is probably not going to be on the agenda any time soon, certainly not with a looming election and tanking poll numbers. And with the president's approval rating suffering not simply due to health care reform, but because of unemployment and economic torpor, what we get in this health care reform bill had better be enough to last us for quite a while.

Since the media loves Lieberman and everything he stands for, no matter what bill is passed he'll suddenly be the face of it and the Villagers will rejoice.

And Duncan adds:

I feel like those more supportive of this bill are attacking anti-mandate strawmen. The reason for thinking that without a public option or similar mandates are going to be a disaster is that without competition or sufficient affordability (due to not quite generous enough subsidies), you're forcing people to buy shitty insurance that they can't afford. Mandates aren't bad in and of themselves, but they're bad if they aren't part of a comprehensive plan which is... good!

Cohn:

Now, the reforms moving through Congress won't produce a system as comprehensive as what the Netherlands or Switzerland has. But that's not because of the individual mandate, which actually makes a lot of sense. (Read here if you want chapter and verse on that.) That's because the subsidies and regulation in these bills aren't as generous and strong as they could be.

In other words, you're forcing people to buy shitty insurance that they can't afford. Why would anyone possibly object to that?

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Dana Bash interviewed the most hated man in America on The Situation Room and he had the balls to call what we have now a "progressive" health-care bill.

BASH: But you talked about the fact that on this particular issue, a Medicare buy-in, you have changed your position and you've said it's because things have changed. The deficits are high and Medicare is in more trouble -- the system.

LIEBERMAN: Yes.

BASH: But give me a little straight talk like your friend John McCain gives. Is it also that you philosophically have moved to the right a little bit?

LIEBERMAN: No, I don't think so. I mean, actually, this is a very progressive bill. The parts that I didn't like are taken out, I'm prepared to support. I've always believed that government has to be there when nobody else will be there to help people. But in this country we don't believe the government should take over everything. And for me, that's what's been on the line here. What kind of future are we going to have? And of course all of this goes to the debt -- the national debt and taxes. If government takes over everything -- the public option is something the public will pay for. And that means higher taxes. That's why I did that.

Didn't you know that John McCain won the election and put Lieberman in charge of health care reform?

There was nothing in this bill that could be considered a government takeover of health care in America, but don't ask a Villager to make Lieberman be honest about it. He has his bullshit fallback position and they just eat up his words and move on. Opening up Medicare to people at age fifty-five would have only helped Americans.

You know that if a health-care bill does pass, Joe Lieberman will take full credit for it. He'll be out there saying that it shows how incredible our system of government is. The media -- who love Lieberman and consider him a real independent soul who was forced out of the Dem party because of the dirty hippies -- will praise Joe's leadership on getting a bill passed.

Since the media believe liberals should always lose, they will relish the opportunity to promote Lieberman all over the TV because they know how much it will piss us off. Anybody who gives that lowlife props should be vilified early and often.

The Evolution of Dad trailer, a film by Dana H Glazer

My book chat this week with Andrea Batista Schlesinger really had me thinking about how to raise my kids to honor their curiosity and love to learn and try new things. And I have to admit that most of those characteristics in me were learned from my dad. My mom was my source of comfort and my role model in nurturing, but my dad was the one who told me to crack heads and take names and never be afraid to ask questions and more importantly, to keep asking them until I was satisfied. I learned from a child development book that your relationship with your mother affects how you feel about yourself; your relationship with your father affects how you relate to others. And now I see it with my own kids, and how they look to cues from their daddy and how their eyes light up when they make him laugh or he praises some little bit of something they've worked out. So I want to wish my dad and my hubby a very happy Father's Day and thank them for their roles in raising inquisitive kids. And happy Father's Day to all you daddies out there as well. It is frequently a thankless job, but possibly the best and most important role a man can have.

This Sunday's shows are simply more of the same. I almost suspect the bookers of these shows to be reading C&L and choosing guests that guarantee a good number of snarky posts. How else can you explain Presidential runner-up John McCain on Face the Nation, Fred Thompson on Meet the Press, Lindsay Graham on This Week and Pete Hoekstra on Fox News Sunday? Seriously, with all the problems we're facing in the world, these guys are the best ones to opine? Maybe it's because all the adults who can actually have real ideas to deal with these problems are too busy working.

ABC's "This Week" - Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; former Sens. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., and Fred Thompson, R-Tenn.

NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel: Gloria Borger, Bob Woodward, Joe Klein, Tina Brown. Topics: How will this year's health care reform debate be different from 1993? What will be the lasting impact of this past week's protests in Iran? Meter Questions: Will Republicans unite as a bloc to oppose any health care reform bill? YES: 9 NO: 3; Will President Obama's policies be a riper target than his personality for Republican critics? YES: 12 No: 0.

CNN's "State of the Union" - Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Bob Casey, D-Penn, and Richard Lugar, R-Ind; Zbigniew Brzezinski.

CNN's "Reliable Sources" - Diane Sawyer, Bill Keller.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - An in-depth look at the crisis in Iran. What do we know about the man with the REAL power in Iran - the Ayatollah Khamenei? Plus, how technology has altered the power of the people.

"Fox News Sunday" - Sens. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and McCain; Reps. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., and Paul Ryan, R-Wis.; Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

So what's catching your eye this morning?

The Real News Network: When John McCain took the podium Monday on the first day of the national conference for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, his rhetoric was all-too familiar. Like George W. Bush, he ignored facts and opted for the kind of spurious charges that were made against Iraq in the run-up to that invasion. He's not called McSame for nothin'. On the other hand, Obama will apparently just continue the tradition of telling this most powerful of lobbies whatever they want to hear.

Bitch Ph.D.: Phony feminist

The Brad Blog: The most vigilant watchdog of our broken, illegal, corrupt voting system checks in with more on what has been an endless series of outrages against the electorate and democracy itself.

Fishbowl DC: How the world sees Obama's win

Balloon Juice: Rethug Dana Rohrabacher says Gitmo torture is more like "fraternity pranks."

Jon Swift: He's back!

Friday's White House Press Briefing included two economic advisers to discuss the volatile economic situation here in the US, though they were careful to not paint to dire a picture. Obviously, with crude oil trading at record levels and OPEC releasing a statement blaming the price on the weakness of the American dollar, the media might be expected to ask a question or two. However, White House Spokesperson Dana Perino was not having any of it.

Q I'd like to follow up on their refusal to talk about the dollar, if I could. I mean, we're in a kind of a bad situation here, when OPEC says the reason for $105 or $106 a barrel of oil is the falling value of the dollar -- and you won't address that issue. Where do we go to find out who is right?

MS. PERINO: Well, as he just said, the Treasury Secretary is where you go to talk about the dollar. It's a longstanding policy that predates this administration, and I'm not going to change it today. But Treasury can talk about it.

Q I don't expect you to change it, but I do expect you to be able to say whether OPEC is completely wrong about this, or whether there is at least something to their claim that the dollar is responsible for the high price of oil right now.

MS. PERINO: Wendell, I'm under strict instructions, and have been from the beginning, to not talk about the dollar, and I'm not going to get fired to satisfy your question.

The Existentialist Cowboy: George W. Bush's Unitary Law ends the Rule of Law, The Constitution, The Bill of Rights, and the Separation of Powers.

Obsidian Wings: Just when I thought I couldn't be more angry about Iraq...

First Draft: Dana won't comment on how Chimpy's Torture Fetish has imperiled the case against KSM.

Common Cause Blog: Comcast's recently released 'terms of service' makes it clear that they intend to continue online censorship of free speech.

hearsay: A note on 'change.'

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Undercover Black Man, Hill's Country, Insular Cabal, LAist

So what else is new? Wall Street Journal, emphasis added:

So on the day that the Mitchell report on steroid use was being released, reporters again were asking why Bush — an owner of the Texas Rangers in the early 1990s — didn’t notice the epidemic of performance-enhancing drugs that was then taking hold of the game?

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino was ready, pointing to an ESPN interview Bush did recently, in which he said that he’s thought long and hard about it, but doesn’t recall ever seeing or hearing evidence of a steroid problem. ...read more

Bush says that steroids "sullied" the sport...Ironic from the man that sullied not only the office of the President, but the global reputation of this country as well.

...And Jose Canseco claims "that Bush smirked his way through his ownership tenure, as syringes were passed around the locker room like a Christmas at Courtney Love's house."

graphic by Zen Comix for The Aristocrats (click image for larger)