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The Tea Party is coming to town. Yesterday, Sarah Palin--Kelly Ayotte's biggest supporter--kicked off the Tea Party Express' national tour.
The Tea Party's final stop on their tour will be on the steps of our state house in Concord the night before the election.
Sarah Palin, Karl Rove, Glenn Beck and their friends on the Tea Party Express are working hard on Kelly Ayotte's behalf. Ayotte proudly accepted Palin's endorsement and groups like Karl Rove's American Crossroads and the Glenn Beck-backed Chamber of Commerce have spent millions of dollars to boost her campaign
"Amrican Crossroads", the "independent" group formed by Karl Rove and former RNC chair Ed Gillespie, has purchased 110 spots at a cost of $309,370 on WMUR.
Assuming that American Crossroads stays true to form, this will be a negative, nasty ad basically accusing Paul Hodes of destroying America.
Ironic that Karl Rove wants to do anything in New Hampshire, as he does not like our state very much, and has little respect for New Hampshire voters. As you may recall, in remarks given after George W. Bush was elected, he sarcastically referred to Berliln, NH as a "critical intellectual center."
I am guessing that Kelly Ayotte will not ask American Crossroads to stay out of the race. Back in the spring, she attacked Americans for Job Security as a secretive out of state group when it attacked her. Since consistency is not her strong point, she will not call on AC to stop running ads or to disclsoe where all its money is coming from.
Expect more of these out of state extreme right wing groups to attack not only Paul Hodes, but also Annie Kuster and Carol Shea-Porter, as well as Governor Lynch. New Hampshire is crucial to their efforts.
Rove's comment about Berlin (it really gives you a sense of what a smug, self important guy Rove is):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Types of ads run by American Crossroads: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo...
Because while we're working to put Karl Rove behind bars, we should simultaneously be working to make sure the Spawn of Rove in the Future can't hide their shenanigans behind the latest version of The Computer Ate My Homework (email release):
"The people of the United States deserve an open and honest record of the actions of all administrations, regardless of party," Congressman Paul Hodes said. "This bill will ensure that actions taken by the Executive Branch are transparent and that they can be held accountable to the public."
Committee investigations have revealed that during the Bush Administration, numerous White House officials - including former Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove - used e-mail accounts maintained by the Republican National Committee, which regularly deleted the e-mails from its servers. E-mails sent by White House officials under these RNC accounts included e-mails concerning official government business. In addition, the White House cannot account for hundreds of days worth of official White House e-mails sent and received between 2003 and 2005.
What Judd Gregg showed today is that he's not willing to swap his integrity for a place in the Cabinet. When the administration insisted on gutting Commerce Department supervision of the Census and putting it under direct White House political control, it stung Gregg. And when the administration set aside its own principles of "temporary, targeted and timely" stimulus measures to embrace a big spending measure full of programs that Gregg has opposed since coming to Congress, New Hampshire's senior senator realized that he was window dressing and that the administration had a greater interest in grabbing his Senate seat in 2010 than in listening to his counsel today.
Karl Rove: "And while a Republican is likely to occupy it for the next two years, Judd Gregg would have been difficult if not impossible to defeat in 2010.
Stoopid:
Charles Krauthammer: "... It might be that Gregg, looking at an upcoming reelection campaign in two years, thinking that his state has been trending Democratic as the southern part of New Hampshire becomes a colony of liberal Massachusetts, that he may lose.
Is it any wonder the GOP has trouble winning elections when their national experts are a) incapable of being honest, or b) gullible to the most basic myths?
And what must it be like for the southern tier Massachusetts-migrant GOP base in NH to be dissed over and over and over again by clueless meme carriers? Massachusetts transplant and Mensa member John H. Sununu ought to address this stat.
Sarah Palin is good with a gun and spunky and she gives a good speech. She is also totally unprepared to be vice-president or heaven forbid, president of the United States. Given that John McCain would be the oldest first term president in our history, the idea of a President Palin is too close for comfort.
Remember how shocking it was when Tim Russert died suddenly?
When Russert died it was obvious that no one had the experience and depth of knowledge to take his place on Meet the Press during an election year. Heavyweight Tom Brokaw is standing in for now. Imagine if an unknown sportscaster with no experience with national politics--someone who didn't know the issues or the players, had replaced Russert. Could someone cram hard enough in a week to ask tough follow up questions of people like Barack Obama, John McCain, President George Bush and the other leaders who frequent Meet the Press?
That would be absurd of course. The American people deserve better. No network in its right mind would do that.
That's what makes John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin so bizarre and so irresponsible.
We have higher standards for the people who ask the important questions of the day than we do for the people who (should) answer them.
That's why the McCain Campaign is keeping her isolated from the press. When will she face tough questioning from Tom Brokaw or George Stephanopoulos? Probably not until the televised debates.
Palin did agree to an interview with Charlie Gibson. She had to appear someplace to avoid making headlines for avoidance. She squeaked by with scripted phrases like I "didn't blink," we "can't blink" and we shouldn't "second guess" our allies. She had no idea what the Bush Doctrine is.
She squeaked by, but looked very uncomfortable doing it.
Much of the media has given her a pass so far. They cover the important issues like lipstick on pigs and contrived cultural warfare. Pathetic.
The responsible press, however, recognizes that with just seven weeks to Election Day it's time to dig hard and unearth the real Sarah Palin.
An hour ago I read an in-depth piece in the Sunday New York Times. The Times reporters interviewed dozens of Alaskans to flesh out the canned Palin the McCain/Rove campaign has served us.
I'm predicting that the trooper fiasco we've been hearing about is just the tip of the iceberg. Palin has packed government with old friends. Many go back to her high school days. She also has an inclination to overstep the bounds of public office. From settling scores, firing people who don't do her bidding, to pressuring librarians to remove books about homosexual dads from their shelves, Sarah Palin can't seem to keep her personal agenda in check.
Lastly, Palin thinks she's so special that knows God's will. Then she lies to Charlie Gibson and the American people about it.
If anyone who has seen the tapes of her invoking God's blessing on the Iraq war really believes that Palin was just echoing the words of Abraham Lincoln-well, I've got a Bridge in Alaska I'd like to sell you.
Kind of an obvious point, but one that maybe has not been made enough: the spawn of Rove that has recently nestled its larva into John McCain's campaign are employing precisely the same tricks as Papa Turdblossom. Taking the opponent's greatest strength - and their guy's signature weakness - and poisoning the well.
What do you do when your guy was a drunken frat boy who could barely even handle getting out of Vietnam through the Texas Air National Guard? You sow the media with doubts over the decorated Vietnam combat experience of the other guy.
What do you do when your guy is old and not charismatic and hopelessly out of touch with the change America wants? You prod the media into a discussion of whether the other guy's proven appeal is really just on par with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.
Same tactic, different cycle. Just don't you dare say that St. Maverick McCain is running for Bush's third term!
Dean hopes the coveted endorsement [of Al Gore] eases concerns among party leaders about his lack of foreign policy experience, testy temperament, policy flip-flops, campaign miscues and edgy anti-war, antiestablishment message.
The AP's Ron Fournier to Karl Rove, April 2004:
Karl Rove exchanged e-mails about Pat Tillman with Associated Press reporter Ron Fournier, under the subject line "H-E-R-O." In response to Mr. Fournier's e-mail, Mr. Rove asked, "How does our country continue to produce men and women like this," to which Mr. Fournier replied, "The Lord creates men and women like this all over the world. But only the great and free countries allow them to flourish. Keep up the fight."
February 2005, in the heady days of Rove's permanent Republican majority, the Senate's "only engineer" shows he's got "the math" too:
Karl Rove privately and Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.) publicly are now telling folks on the Hill that no incumbent in years has run on private accounts and lost. But this is just one more example that the worst thing that can happen to you in politics is to fall prey to your own spin.
And a year ago last week, as the elephants began their long day's journey into night, Spinunu mused:
I think the party is in a relatively good position, certainly a better position than we were two or three months ago. This week we have completed work on the military commissions legislation, which I think is a compromise that's consistent with the Detainee Treatment Act that Senator McCain worked so hard to pass a year ago. It allows the CIA to continue interrogation programs that fit within the Detainee Treatment Act and it meets our obligations under the Geneva Conventions. We will also do the Homeland Security legislation and Defense Appropriations. That's a pretty full week and the members will go home feeling positive and ready to campaign for a month.
Say, what was that about military commissions? I seem to remember another Senator mentioning that bill...
This arrived in my inbox today from Ray Buckley, Chair of the NHDP, and it struck me as both creative and funny, until I realized what a sad legacy Turdblossom has left to our government and history of American politics. Then I wasn't laughing anymore. Anyway, here it is in full:
In what seems to be another strange turn of events in Bush's White House, Karl Rove is leaving. I think we all thought he would fight until the bitter end, considering he did not leave after or during any number of scandals that had his name written all over them. Rove should hear this message loud and clear: It is too late. Leaving now will not make us forget, nor will it make us forgive, the indefensible assault on honest and transparent government that you masterminded. The President, however much a puppet of Rove he is, should ultimately be held responsible for including such a reduced person on his team for so many years.
Here are a few ways Karl Rove could fill his newly found free time:
· Spend a day with the family of every soldier lost in Iraq and explain why Bush misled us into the war.
· Volunteer at a VA hospital and give our veterans a reason why they are not receiving the best health care possible.
· Write a hand written letter of apology to the tens of thousands of African Americans in Florida whose names were struck from the voting rolls just before the 2000 election.
· Tell the truth to the people of New Hampshire about your role in the 2002 phone jamming scandal.
· Enlighten Americans why you thought it was honorable to stand behind your corrupt friends Tom DeLay, Scooter Libby and Jack Abramoff.
· Visit every law school in the country and describe why you, Bush, Cheney, Gonzalez and the rest of the Administration think you are above the law.
· Spend a month living with a working family and tell them why you oppose labor unions that would provide them better wages and increased health care access.
· Volunteer in the Gulf Coast and assist the families still ravaged by Bush?s indifference to the Hurricane Katrina crisis.
· Spend a month in witness protection so you know how scared Valerie Plame and her family were after you broke her CIA cover for political retribution.
· Testify on Capitol Hill, as you were subpoenaed to do, so Congress can perform oversight on the Bush political operation.
There is an ad currently running on Comedy Central for David Spade's show in which the comic says that Michael Jackson is having a 50 foot robot of himself built which will roam the desert shooting laser beams from it's eyes. He then asks the viewer, "Wouldn't we be more shocked if he didn't?"
Looking around the net this morning and perusing a few of the thousands of "will Bush pardon Scooter?" stories, that ad kept popping into my mind.
I think that Bush will pardon Scooter, I will be shocked if he doesn't, the real question, for me, is when?
You can be sure the question is being discussed in hushed tones in the West Wing this morning, but the hand wringing is audible out here in the heartland.
"Obviously, there'd be a significant political price to pay," said William P. Barr, who as attorney general to President George H.W. Bush remembers the controversy raised by the post-election pardons for several Iran-contra figures in 1992. "I personally am very sympathetic to Scooter Libby. But it would be a tough call to do it at this stage."
In the West Wing, Pardon Is A Topic Too Sensitive to Mention
By Peter Baker - Washington Post
Original issues came about 5/31
http://www.truthout....
Tim Griffin, formerly right-hand man to Karl Rove, resigned Thursday as US attorney for Arkansas, hours after BBC Television "Newsnight" reported that Congressman John Conyers [had] requested the network's evidence on Griffin's involvement in "caging voters." Greg Palast, reporting for both BBC "Newsnight" and "Democracy Now," obtained a series of confidential emails dating from the 2004 presidential election, in which the GOP operative transmitted so-called "caging lists" of voters to state party leaders.
It's all well and good for John Sununu to call for Alberto "Abu Ghraib" Gonzales' head, especially since the prosecutor scandal has brought renewed attention to the slow-walk of the phonejamming indictment and consequently the illegitimacy of his own 2002 "victory". But rewriting history so that he can protect the President from basic accountability? Here's John E. responding to Laura Knoy on the Exchange about the forthcoming subpoenas of Rove and Miers (transcript and emphases mine):
They're [Karl Rove and Harriet Miers] advisors to the President, and historically presidents have exerted executive privilege for those individuals to restrict their ability to testify. My guess is that what they should do is work out an agreement where discussions, testimony, questions, questioning can take place, because if this goes to the courts, it's going to be drawn out, it's going to be extremely partisan, and the public won't necessarily learn anything, and quite possibly, because executive privilege has a long precedent in history, the public might hear nothing, and I don't think that's to anyone's interest.
Hmm.... Why didn't Conyers and Leahy think of that before? Clearly, Unlike Sununu, they are not thinking of the public's interest. I'm sure Bush's people will talk candidly and truthfully without going under oath! What the Senator suggests strikes me as incredibly reasonable .
The Senator and I must share a passion for history, since I was also intrigued by the President's unwillingness to work with our democratic system of checks and balances. Here's a few snippets from "History Lesson: 10 Things You Might Want to Know About Executive Privilege":
When Aaron Burr was tried in 1807 for treason, he sought a subpoena to force Jefferson to turn over a letter that his lawyers believed might exonerate Burr. Chief Justice John Marshall ruled Jefferson had to produce the letter. The president did so, but he insisted that he was doing so voluntarily. Burr was acquitted.
and
There is precedent for Bush to reverse himself. In 2004, the president initially refused to allow his then-national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to testify in public and under oath before the commission investigating the 9/11 terror attacks. Under broad bipartisan pressure, the president relented.
and
Top presidential advisers in the Clinton administration testified nearly four dozen times, including during the Whitewater investigation.
It's also worth mentioning that the very term "executive privilege" is hardly historic or precedent setting. It appears to have been invented as a term less than 50 years ago by (don't laugh) another Attorney General, William Rogers. Just because Nixon abused his power, and Reagan dared to be secretive again doesn't mean Bush II has any "historical precedent" or that Sununu can use that prop as a legitimate talking point. As the recently deceased historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr.said about the term:
"What had been for a century and a half sporadic executive practice employed in very unusual circumstances was now in a brief decade hypostatized into sacred constitutional principle."
If Sununu continues to defend Bush on rejecting subpoenas for Rove and Miers, let us be perfectly clear that he will be doing so because he values his party more than the system of checks and balances in our democracy. It is already assured, based on his previous statements, that he will characterize Congress' desire for oversight as "partisan politics," but make no mistake that it is he who is practicing it by playing the role of Republican instead of the sacred role of Senator.
