How Mark Felt Became 'Deep Throat'

Bob Woodward writes the column:

In 1970, when I was serving as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and assigned to Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, the chief of naval operations, I sometimes acted as a courier, taking documents to the White House. One evening I was dispatched with a package to the lower level of the West Wing of the White House, where there was a little waiting area near the Situation Room. It could be a long wait for the right person to come out and sign for the material, sometimes an hour or more, and after I had been waiting for a while a tall man with perfectly combed gray hair came in and sat down near me....

I could tell he was watching the situation very carefully. There was nothing overbearing in his attentiveness, but his eyes were darting about in a kind of gentlemanly surveillance. After several minutes, I introduced myself. "Lieutenant Bob Woodward," I said, carefully appending a deferential "sir."

"Mark Felt," he said....read on

David Sirota:

The newswires are ablaze with word that Congress has reached agreement on a "stimulus" package. While Democrats work making the tax rebates more progressive is certainly admirable, here's the key thing you need to know - the package includes no spending on programs like unemployment insurance or food stamps, the programs that both help those getting hit hardest, and that pump money into the economy the fastest. And why weren't those programs included? Because the money was being put into this:

"Another element of the plan is a package of tax breaks for businesses that could cost as much as $70 billion, far more than had been expected, a senior House aide and a Democratic lobbyist said."

That's right, forget the middle class...let's make sure that the businesses get another tax break. Gotta love those priorities...I'm sure that the $300 check will really stimulate the economy right out of a recession.

AttyTood:

As regular readers know, Attytood has been on the warpath urging the authorities in Iraq, under the thumb of the American military, to give Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Bilal Hussein a real day in court...or set him free. Our fear is that -- before broader awareness of the Hussein case mounts -- he will be found guilty in a kangaroo court, without the kind of due process that Americans would expect and that you'd think would be part of that "freedom" package that we delivered to Iraq:

Those worst fears are coming true, of course. Harper's magazine has the inside scoop. For example:

-- The Iraqi judge is also allowing the U.S. military to present evidence by witnesses through remote television hook-ups from undisclosed locations. This is done particularly to be sure that Bilal Hussein would not be able to cross-examine any witnesses.

-- The Pentagon was particularly concerned about the prospect of Bilal Hussein getting effective defense from his lawyer, former federal prosecutor Paul Gardephe. The judge was told to refuse to allow Bilal Hussein’s U.S. lawyer to participate in the case. The judge accepted this advice. Consequently, the U.S. military has a five-man team to press its case, but Bilal Hussein’s lawyer is silenced and not permitted to participate–and all of this has occurred as a result of U.S. Government intervention with the court. The irony of course is that under Iraqi law, the U.S. military has no authority or right to appear and prosecute, but Bilal Hussein’s chosen counsel has an absolute right.

There's a lot of good (as in "interesting," not as in "positive") stuff here, including confirmation that the military is using friendly right-wing bloggers to bypass the tradtional media. Reading this, there is little doubt that this award-winning journalist -- who risked his life to bring images from Iraq's front line to the world and is greatly admired by those who've worked with him, like my Daily News colleague Jim MacMillan -- will be found guilty by this kangaroo court and sent away for a long time. It's frustrating. If the American and Iraqi authorities have real evidence that Bilal Hussein is a terrorist, it should be presented in a fair and open courtroom.

Here's something else that's even more maddening -- America's journalistic community is not stepping forward to try to stop this disgrace from happening. Read on...

Bob Morris of Politics in the Zeros here, with more blog links for you.

The philanthropic arm of Google just announced they will fund hundreds of millions of dollars of R&D into renewable energy with a goal of making it cheaper than coal. Bravo! (standing up and applauding)

Let's see. I'll package thousands of mortgages together, slice them into risk levels creating debt instruments called CDOs, then sell them to "investors" who buy them with borrowed money while leveraged to the eyeballs. Who could ever have conceived this would lead to problems?

Former gang member Luis Rodriguez works quietly and effectively with gang youth both in the US and Latin America, and blogs eloquently about it.

The Freeway Blogger was busy over the Thanksgiving holiday spreading his anti-war anti-Bush cheer far and wide on southern California freeways.

Tankwoman wishes she'd saved those Canadian pennies.

Send tips to bob (at) polizeros (dot) com

For a president that spent six years signing every bloated budget bill he could find, and who has been a bigger spender than any president since LBJ, Bush has suddenly found his inner tightwad, at least as far as education, healthcare, and worker protections are concerned.

President Bush vetoed a $606 billion spending bill Tuesday that would have funded education, health and labor programs for the current fiscal year, complaining that it was larded with pork and too expensive as he took aim at a top priority of the new Democratic Congress. […]

At the same time, the president signed a $471 billion Defense Department spending bill that funds regular Pentagon operations other than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While the White House is anxious to characterize this as some kind of partisan fight, the funding package (which includes money for Medicare and Medicaid) actually passed the House with more than 50 Republican votes. For that matter, the whining over earmarks is misleading — the Pentagon bill also included “pork,” but Bush didn’t hesitate to sign it.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ Robert Greenstein highlighted the president’s “misplaced values.”

A month ago, congressional Republicans quietly announced that they were crafting a comeback plan, which would get the party back on track. It would include new attacks on Dems, a new GOP policy agenda, and a series of new bills. The whole package was going to be awesome.

And now, the comeback plan is off to a troubled start, because the party doesn’t know where it wants to go.

Boehner’s idea had been that the GOP could lift itself off the mat by borrowing from private-sector marketing concepts. Among those who have consulted in the effort were corporate brand experts such as Richard Costello, the man behind GE’s famous “We Bring Good Things to Life” campaign.

But modern business techniques have stalled amid old-fashioned political disputes. Lawmakers who think the party needs to embrace a more moderate image on issues like health care and the environment are at odd with conservatives, who believe the way back to victory is to reclaim the GOP’s traditional reputation for taking a hard line on spending.

Corporate advertising and “rebranding” experts aren’t going to help the Republican Party right now. The problem isn’t that the party has great ideas that it’s having trouble selling; the problem is the party has no ideas, has consistently backed a disastrous war, and is led by the least popular president of the modern political era.

Private-sector marketing concepts are usually built around accentuating positives. What’s the GOP good at? Smearing people? Feigning outrage? Using bumper-sticker slogans?

The deficit is high, the debt is growing, the war’s financial costs are exorbitant, and the nation is just coming to grips with the need for a sizable investment in the nation’s bridges and infrastructure.

Given this environment, the president has a plan: more tax cuts.

President Bush said yesterday that he is considering a fresh plan to cut tax rates for U.S. corporations to make them more competitive around the world, an initiative that could further inflame a battle with the Democratic Congress over spending and taxes and help define the remainder of his tenure.

Advisers presented Bush with a series of ideas to restructure corporate taxes, possibly eliminating narrowly targeted breaks to pay for a broader, across-the-board rate cut. In an interview with a small group of journalists afterward, Bush said he was “inclined” to send a corporate tax package to Congress, although he expressed uncertainty about its political viability.

As Kevin Drum put it, "He really is like a windup doll, isn't he? No matter what's going on in the outside world, no matter what problems we're facing, no matter what the political situation is, you pull the cord and he says 'Tax cuts!' It's like he's the Manchurian President."

Int'l Herald Tribune:

The U.S. Senate has given final approval to a far-reaching package of new ethics and lobbying rules, with an overwhelming majority of Republicans and Democrats agreeing to better police the relationship between lawmakers and lobbyists.

If President George W. Bush signs the bill into law, which administration officials indicated he would, members of Congress would face a battery of new restrictions. The legislation, approved by the Senate on Thursday on a vote of 83-14, calls for bans on gifts, meals and travel paid for by lobbyists and makes it more difficult for lawmakers to quickly capitalize on their connections when joining the private sector.

The measure, which grew out of scandals that have tarnished the image of Congress, represents a cultural shift in the traditions of Capitol Hill. While proponents hailed the measure as the most significant reform since Watergate, questions remained on how some provisions would be enforced and whether the measure would change lawmakers' ability to secure pet projects known as earmarks.

AP Via Yahoo:

Former World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz, who resigned amid a furor over his handling of a bank pay package for his girlfriend, has joined the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank, as a visiting scholar.

AEI's president, Christopher DeMuth, made the announcement Monday. Wolfowitz will work on entrepreneurship and development issues, Africa and public-private partnerships, the group said in a release.

Wolfowitz's last day as head of the World Bank, a major poverty-fighting institution, was on Saturday, ending a stormy two-year run.

He was essentially forced to step down from the World Bank after a special panel found that he broke bank rules in arranging a hefty pay raise for Shaha Riza, his girlfriend and bank employee. Wolfowitz's handling of the pay package prompted a staff revolt and calls by Europeans and others for him to resign. Read more...

(Cafe au lait photo via Bizzy Girl. Looks good this morning...)

The Sunday Talking Head Thread is up and ready for your perusal. It's a mixed line-up -- some old pros, some of the usual Sunday hot air crowd, a few celebrities thrown in for flavor.

The line-up says to me: immigration, the Middle East, Wolf Blitzer scored an exclusive with the leader of VietNam and perhaps a bit of disgust with the DOJ and Vice President Cheney, all rolled into one morning package and spread out over several shows. Oh, and Ed Koch and Ed Rollins will talk about how their political wisdom is better than anyone else’s.

What’s catching your eye on the blogs or in the news this morning?