Snow Job

So the media spin for the day, which several in the media have picked up hook, line and sinker, is that Bush picked an outsider to be White House Press Secretary.

Tony Snow, an outsider? You've got to be kidding. Just because he wasn't on the official White House payroll doesn't mean he isn't an insider. After all he works for FOX and that's little more than a GOP propaganda machine.

Just look at some of Snow's experience: commentator for FOX News and as host of his own radio talk show; director of speechwriting for the first President Bush; editorial page editor of the conservative Washington Times, and substitute host for Rush Limbaugh.

What few in the media are willing to say out loud is that FOX and the various right-wing radio shows are little more than extensions the GOP or White House, so Snow has been working for the White House for quite a while now.

If the media was really interested in this story they would examine the relationship among FOX and red radio and figure what a huge propaganda machine it is, and one that the GOP can utilize without paying for it, and during election years, have it count against any campaign spending limits.

A few in the media say Democrats are helping Bush on the Snow hiring by pointing out that Bush is willing to bring in someone who has criticized him. And while Snow's comments on Bush are fun to read, maybe the reason Bush had to ignore Snow's criticisms is that since he's at 32% approval rating it was probably impossible to find someone who hadn't criticized him.

So rather than showing that Snow is an outsider, perhaps hiring a so-called "critic" shows that even the hard core are now criticizing Bush.

Conservatives Complain about Frankenstein

After spending years acting like spoiled, unbehaved, or angry children, conservatives have decided that society is angry. But rather than actually act like grown ups and take responsibility and help fix the problem they helped create, they are now working to hide their role in creating the angry society.

The latest example is the new White House Press Secretary Tony Snow's complaints about comments made about him. After spending years belittling and degrading others Snow had the gall to write a column "We need a pause button for the insult industry" where he asked "Where do such passions come from?"

Gee, Tony, I don't know. Maybe from listening to you, as American Street pointed out, or your budy Rush Limbaugh, whose comparison of former Senator Tom Daschle to the devil may have inspired threats against Daschle, or Jerry Falwell's or Robert Bartley's Wall Street Journal editorial page long term crusade against President Clinton.

While one might think that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, apparently conservatives believe that by attacking, rather than admit responsibility, is the best political move.

Recently Daniel Henninger of the previously mentioned Journal's Editorial page also complained about the Internet and liberals without mentioning the Journal's or conservatives role in degrading today's political discourse.

Now it's no doubt that the Internet is a wild and uncouth place in many areas. The question is why? Could it be that after eight years of relentless and unfounded attacks on Clinton, followed by the media's War on Gore, that the public now thinks its OK to act that way? If so, isn't it a little hypocritical to complain about what one helped create?

CIA Determines Scapegoat

With the announcement by a lawyer of fired CIA officer Mary McCarthy that she had neither the access to the information she is accused of leaking nor did she leak the information, one has to wonder if the CIA determined who to blame by looking at campaign contributions rather than evidence.

If true, then a statement by political hack turned CIA director, Porter Goss potentially passed along was dishonest or disinformation by alleging that McCarthy "knowingly and willfully shared classified intelligence, including operational information."

NBC reported that "a defense source tells NBC News that while McCarthy may have failed her polygraph on the issue of having unauthorized contacts with reporters, she did not fail the question about leaking information on the secret prison system."

The CIA says unauthorized speaking with the media is grounds for dismissal, McCarthy's lawyer said that was why she was terminated. However it appears Goss decided to go the extra mile in order and found a Democrat to blame for the leak. (Maybe the classified information McCarthy leaked is that the Bush administration is incompetent, although I'm pretty sure that information was declassified long ago.)

So at Goss's CIA outing a fellow agent is OK but telling the media about secret prisons is cause for finding a scapegoat. That must make CIA agents sleep well at night knowing that their job is secondary to the political whims of the Bush administration.

But with Bush's approval rating dropping to the freezing range and stories on the prisons winning Pulitzers, it may have become extremely important to find a scapegoat. McCarthy appeared to be a good one, donating money to Democrats and John Kerry. One has to wonder if the CIA's investigation was limited to running CIA employee names through Fundrace.org until they got a hit for someone contributing to Sen. John Kerry.

During his confirmation hearing, Sen. Jay Rockefeller questioned whether Goss would be politically objective after reviewing a series of attacks Goss made on Kerry on security issues yet didn't attack Republicans.

With Sen. Kerry getting high marks for his recent public statements lately and the American people abandoning Bush, perhaps this is Goss attempt to get back at Kerry and Democrats.

Or perhaps there is actually something to the CIA is claim. Unfortunately, the history of dishonesty the Bush Administration has built up leads one to question anything and everything they do.

FOX = GOP?

If anyone had any questions about whether FOX News is biased one only has to look at recent media reports about the relationships between the GOP and the FOX News network.

In one episode a FOX News anchor praises a questionable political hit job, while in the other two FOX news staff are rumored to be under consideration for White House Press Secretary.

In the first, in an article on FOX News anchor Brit Hume in the Washington Post, Howard Kurtz reports that former President Clinton spokesman Mike McCurry said that Hume would sit in the front row during press briefings doing crossword puzzles and that "If you tried to slip a little spin in, he'd suddenly erupt and say, 'Wait a minute!'

Wow, what a great reporter! Yet Kurtz also mentioned that Hume and Fox News were among the first to jump on the charges by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth about Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam record, with Hume pushing the controversy day after day.

As the lead panelist on "Fox News Sunday," Hume said in August 2004 that the book by the Swift Boat Veterans "is a remarkably well-done document. It is full of detail. It is full of specifics. The charges that are being made of Kerry, of irresponsible and indeed in some cases mendacious conduct in his service in Vietnam, are made by people who were there."

Remarkably well-done? For a GOP political piece of spin it may have been remarkably well done. As a journalist piece it was hardly well-done. Factcheck.org pointed out the multiple problems with the book and the veterans stories and even the Post has pointed out the problems, yet Kurtz failed to point out, or challenge, Hume on the problematic book. Maybe crossword puzzles are getting harder these days.

It's doubtful Hume's views surprise anyone, even though they go against the networks "fair and balanced" slogan. Reasonable people instead probably think Hume's on the GOP's payroll. He may not be but his coworker soon may be. FOX News reported that one of the people the White House has approached as a possible replacement for McClellan is FOX News Radio host Tony Snow and the Washington Post said Dan Senor, a Fox News contributor and former spokesman for the U.S. civilian authority in Iraq, is also among those being considered.

One wonders if Snow, a frequent guest host for Rush Limbaugh and GOP cheerleader, will have to take a pay cut to go on the "official" GOP payroll?

White House Needs New Lackey

Perhaps the pressure of being a White House lackey finally got to be too much for Scott McClellan, who announced today he was resigning as White House Press Secretary.

Since July 2003 years McClellan has been the face of the White House, spouting its half truths and distortions, helping his boss retain his job in spite of the administration's overwhelming incompetence.

In typical dishonesty, stupidity or cluelessness, Bush said of McClellan at the resignation announcement, "I thought he handled his assignment with class, integrity."

The question now is would anyone want to hire someone who basically soldout for a spot in sun, or as Pink Floyd wrote in Wish You Were Here..

...did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?

Time will tell.

Perhaps Rumsfeld Should Stay

One of the points that hasn't been made during the discussion over whether Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld should resign is whether Bush would appoint a more qualified or competent person to replace him.

The same point should be considered during the discussions over the talk of impeaching George Bush. What would that accomplish? Make Dick Cheney President? Please. If there is one person who would do a worse job as President than Bush it is Cheney.

While people have an interest in holding government officials accountable, the Bush administration, whether through planning, arrogance, or stupidity, aren't very good about personnel issues and there is no guarantee that a replacement would be any better. One only has to look at the number of people who told the truth and left while the yes-men or true believers stayed around to continue their destructive impulses.

One such example was former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill in who in The Price of Loyalty, wrote that efforts to collect evidence and construct smart policy are, with little warning, co-opted by the White House political team, or the Vice President, or whoever got to the President and said something, true or not."

And just look at who Bush picked to replace Andy Card as Chief of Staff - Josh Bolten, who helped oversee the transition of budget surpluses to massive budget deficits as White House Budget Director.

One could hope that getting Bolten out of the Budget Office might mean that a more competent person would step into the role, but that would involve Bush picking a more qualified person as opposed to a true believer.

So rather than pushing Bush to install good people in his government, perhaps the public should be more interested in using the power they have at the ballot box to put good people in government.

Free Speech Scares White House

One of the ironic, or hypocritical, aspects to the Bush administration's profession of love for liberty, freedom, and democracy overseas is how much they apparently despise it when it takes place in the United States.

The recent decision to attempt to silence, or counteract, former military personnel over the administration's failed Iraq policy is only the latest example of an administration that came to power by short circuiting democracy and has worked to curb freedoms over the past five years.

In the past, when a Democrat such as John Kerry would criticize the administration over Iraq, they would face attacks on their patriotism and intelligence, such as Zell Miller did in a truly disgusting and dishonest speech at the Republican Convention in 2004.

But today the administration is faced with a growing chorus of criticism from former military officers, some of whom served in Iraq and saw first hand the folly of implementing a plan by people who didn't understand the situation and didn't care to understand the situation.

Retired Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq in 2004-2005, said he believes that the administration's handling of the Iraq war has violated fundamental military principles, such as unity of command and unity of effort.

A number of people have pointed out the comparison with Vietnam when the military kept quiet and saw a war disintegrate. Apparently not wanting that to happen again, several retired officers are speaking out.

Maybe they believe that if more people like John Kerry had spoken up during the Vietnam War, fewer Americans would have died. And that prospects probably scares the Administration. Just imagine if someone in the media were to put 2 and 2 together and figure that out then Kerry's Vietnam criticism could be viewed in a whole new light and his current views would also gain credibility.

And who wants to be in office when everyone knows the other guy would be a better president. Nearly half the country figured that out long ago, the worry for the White House is that more than half might now have figured it out. Look what a recent poll found out:

Unhappiness with Bush is so pervasive that 49 percent of registered voters say they would vote for Massachusetts Senator John Kerry if the 2004 presidential election were held today, to 39 percent who say they would vote for the president.

The End to Charmed Political Lives?

With the announcement by former House Minority Leader Tom DeLay that he would not seek reelection, apparently the charmed life of a number of Republicans is coming to an end.

DeLay, according to the Washington Post, will step down from the House rather than face a reelection fight that appears increasingly unwinnable. This, only a few days after a former top aide plead guilty and apparently decided to cooperate with investigators.

In the Senate, Majority Leader Bill Frist already had decided to not seek reelection and apparently is looking forward to not being in the Senate. In an article in the New York Times, Frist said that he loved being leader but that he would find it liberating to leave.

Apparently Frist feels that in the Senate people aren't getting the proper view of him. "The real Bill Frist, they don't really see," whined Frist, who wants to run for President in 2008. Oh what a shame. I mean if people were to get an realistic view of Senators then John Kerry would be President and John Edwards would be Vice President.

At the top of the charmed food chain is George Bush and he is already prevented from seeking another term, although he actually only won one term as President so you have to wonder if he might go to the Supreme Court and argue to be allowed to win a second term.

Instead Bush apparently is going down in flames with approval ratings in the '30s and even military men criticizing his administration. In remarks Sunday on NBC, General Anthony Zinni of the U.S. Marine Corps, a former commander of the Central Command who retired in 2000, said that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld should be held accountable and should resign for tactical mistakes in Iraq.

With an election approximately seven months away, and prospects of a Republican loss growing larger everyday, one might think Bush would decide to clean house. But that would involve admitting his house is dirty and that is something he is unlikely to do.

In the past Bush, DeLay and Frist survived by changing the storyline and attacking others but at this point it is difficult for people to look away from the mess in Washington, meaning the charmed life for the three and their groupies may be about over.