Harry Reid and Democratic Senators have invoked Rule 21 and closed the Senate, barring C-SPAN, reporters, etc. Reid claims to be doing this because he is upset that the Senate has refused to hold hearings into the pre-war intelligence lies of Chimpy McHilterburton and his bloodthirsty band of warmongering neocons. Evidently, the bi-partisan Senate report that already pronounced on such questions isn’t good enough—and, given the recent Libby indictments (which special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald explicitly stated has nothing to do with pre-war intelligence), Democrats wish to be able to waste time and money creating an appearance of impropriety rather than concentrating on the business of governing. Too much to wait for the Phase II report, I guess. What, not close enough to the Libby indictment to draw big bold lines?
Bill Frist is calling this grandstanding manuever—which is an attempt to call attention to the desire for an even greater grandstanding maneuver, namely, hearings on the false charges leveled by congenital liar Joseph Wilson—an “affront” and a “deeply disappointing.”
For my part, I find stunts like these almost refreshing, in that they show quite clearly that the Democratic Party’s agenda is driven entirely by a desire to bring down this Republican adminstration and install itself in their place—and any damage done to the country barely rates consideration.
****
Related: Ace has an interesting and detailed analysis of the Libby indictments: “Libby’s Defense?: Materiality (Or, “How Can You Have Any Pudding If You Don’t Eat Your Meat?)”
Meanwhile, progressives—who’ve spent 5 years screaming about the “secrecy” of Bushco—are lauding this as the Democrats “showing of spine like we’ve not seen before, along with the brass balls that we thought were auctioned off” (Pandagon). See also, the Daily Kos.
These people are immune to irony.
****
update: Schumer said moments ago that we WILL now get another investigation into pre-war intelligence—asserting that their gambit has worked. This is true, if it is indeed the point of government to turn permanently into partisan theater.
I guess when you have the media firmly in your camp, any time politics can be boiled down to creating a patina of blame and bad faith, you go for it—particularly if you have nothing else to offer the country.
I say let’s do it. Only this time, I want to see the actual leakers—the CIA—investigated.
The Dems, for the sake of grabbing back the news cycle, may have just put their opportunistic feet right into it.
Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
Today is the day that, for me, is the day when the chances that I will be willing to ever take Democrats seriously for any reason plummeted to nearly zero.
I should add that I believe this to be a pathetic attempt to get the Libby indictment back in the headlines.
It’s the Senate equivalent of a child stamping his feet until the adults pay attention. It is tied entirely to their (idiotic) conpiratorial notion that the Miers withdrawal and the Alito nomination were timed to get the Libby indictments off the front pages.
It’s disgusting and disheartening that half of our government is acting this way.
Awesome! A picture-postcard showing of obstructionist petulance from Reid and co. Gives us something to point to if/when they try to filibuster Alito.
The Pandagon kids are eating it up, too. I wonder if Reid pulled this because he knows he doesn’t have the votes to block Alito and is afraid of not giving the fellow travelers something to jack off to.
You can’t parody these guys anymore.
They’re…self-parodying.
True, and many others have said before that it doesn’t do to have one of the two parties—even one’s own opponent—at the level of ridiculousness that the Democrats are at now. It hurts everyone to some extent.
My first thought when my disgust subsided was similar to your last paragraph: I think it’s good when the current representatives of the Dems let the masks slip. It kind of reminds those of us who swing both ways why we backed President Bush.
This is pure comedy.
So, you don’t have any notes. No media and no reason for decorum with the doors closed.
How many F-bombs are getting tossed around? It’s either boiling down to a taiwan parliment melee or the Republicans are playing it smart by putting their feet on the desks and acting bored.
I consider Wilson a genital liar.
Doesn’t make much sense, but it definitely has a ring to it.
Leaving us with no viable alternative to the excesses of the Republicans. Doom on us all – thanks Harry.
I couldn’t agree more.
If you look at the Senate report a great deal of the sections about Wilson are redacted. Then in the appendices, one GOP Senator laments the failure of the committee to reach a judgement about the veracity of Wilson’s various claims. Sure, they note the discrepancies in his story but they never call him the bald-faced liar he plainly is.
Now, there’s a reason this stuff was redacted and my guess is it was the only way to get the Donks to sign off on the report. Provided the redacted portions do indeed rip Wilson but good, I wouldn’t be surprised if those were at issue here. After all, it looks like they want to keep this in the news cycle and Libby may produce just such facts in preparing his defense.
/thinking out loud on Jeff’s bandwidth
Podhoretz writes at the Corner that he thinks this is a “canny” move by the Dems.
Allah’s rule of thumb: anything that excites Kos and Marcotte as much as this should excite us too. They’re steering their train off a cliff; they should have as much coal as they can for the engine.
BAR THE DOOR, HARRY! THEY SHALL NOT PASS!
Something in a slightly different context got me thinking – this quote from Ann Althouse:
I’m starting to think a lot of Democrats increasingly believe they *won’t* ever have a chance at power again. The moonbats, because they’re mortally certain that unless Bushitler and his Dark Lord Rove are destroyed now, they’ll institute a reign of darkness over the land to last a thousand years. The more canny Democrats maybe see that their party simply can’t or won’t reform itself, and at best is headed to the fate of the Conservative Party in Britain, at worst that some third party will take over. And the moonbats are the current owners of the party, and the only source of revenue, so a canny politician might just want to ride that gravy train as far as it’ll go, and make himself a personal golden parachute.
But the common element – the only hope for near-term relevance is the complete and total destruction of George W. Bush *now*, because they can’t gain power through elections anymore.
At least they stayed in D.C. If this were Texas they’d be halfway to Nova Scotia by now.
And the media’s talking heads screeching about freedom of the press would be where right now?
Um, waiting…
The Dem leadership has turned Nietzsche into a playwright, and are in the starring roles. It takes a special case of self-loathing to try something like this.
I could live with them performing Kafka or Beckett, but this redefines over-the-top.
Wow, I wonder if this will now open the door to ethics charges against Durbin/Rockefeller/Wyden for outing that “black” satellite program; or against Reid for referring to items in Judge Saad’s FBI file. Those would be interesting intel-related counterpunches. Or maybe even that rumored criminal referral against the three senators…
A lot of the constraints on the Senate Republicans and the Administration were based on the belief that a certain degree of Democrat cooperation was necessary to prevent Bush’s 2nd-term agenda from going *poof*. Looks like that cooperation’s not forthcoming in any event.
Roberts should release a report, and he should start with the dozens of statements made by federal officials regarding Iraq’s WMD programs during the period 1/1993 to 1/2001. Misled into war, my fanny.
TW: “English,” as in “Sen. Reid put a lot of English on it but still wound up ‘in the gutter’.”
Oh, and by the way, just before this bombshell, Judge C. W. Duncan ruled that Judge Bob Perkins shall be recused from the DeLay trial.
Sorry Jeff, I cannot look on Kos yet – my sides still hurt from the last laugh-fest you linked to on that site.
Are they handing out canes? I’d kinda like to see Harry Reid get a good, old-fashioned thrashing.
SB: people
third-rate minds discuss
I have been trying to figure the Kos site out…
what does “misfinformatino” mean?
“…unless Bushitler and his Dark Lord Rove are destroyed now, they’ll institute a reign of darkness over the land to last a thousand years.”
You didn’t get your ring, did you? I got my ring. I’m ready to rock the house with undead Republican mayhem for the millenniummmmmm, baby!
The Republicans should go along with this all the way.
1) This is a chance to haul out all of the information collected by the Clinton administration which lead to Iraqi regime change being made official US policy in 1998
2) This is a chance to go through Joe Wilson’s mendacity with a fine-toothed comb
3) This is a chance for left-wing Senators to declare their hatred of this country and their admiration for “The Resistance”
4) After the session is over, the Senate has the power to declare the session no longer secret (by majority vote) and release all details.
This could be one of the greatest political acts of ju-jitsu in history. Give the Dems what they want!
SW: almost. It’s almost Rovian
Since “Peace” wasn’t the answer. It’s time for “war” guys!!
I’m rooting for the “right” side.
All it is, is an effort to keep the Wilson narrative alive.
To the extent that any news show attempts to unravel the Libby indictment, they will have to discuss the purpose of the investigation into the identity disclosure of Valerie Plame, why she’s important (nepotism), and what Wilson didn’t find in Niger–that in fact, some CIA personnel thought his report bolstered pre-war intelligence regarding Iraq’s attempts to re-constitute its nuclear program.
This attempt to explain background details may cause the eyes of the uninitiated to glaze over, but it changes the discussion from Wilson’s “the 16 words in the SOTU were a lie” to Wilson lied four times to the public, while some in the Administration were trying to set the record straight.
The Democrats’ criticism of the Administration relies entirely on Wilson’s public narrative and his conclusions from the Niger trip as the basis of their (Dems) interpretation of what pre-war intelligence revealed.
Any public discussion of the Libby indictment is likely to raise doubt as to the veracity of Wilson’s claims, and therefore undermine the Democrat’s criticism of the Administration.
In other words, the Democrats cannot afford to have the truth come out, so efforts will be made to keep their version of events on the front page. Another chapter in the sad story of the demise of a once respectable political party.
This is complete and utter bullhockey. We won the damned election, and we control congress and the courts. The dumbocrats need to realize that they have no power and stop acting like an opposition party. We won, get over it and moveon.org.
Aren’t you sort of glossing over the distinction between phase I of the Senate investigation, which happened, and phase II, which was promised but didn’t happen?
The GOP promised that phase II would be handled separately. If you want to claim that phase II is just a rehash of phase I then you’re calling the GOP liars for promising a separate investigation of the phase II issues.
This is hilarious. The Dems are saving their best arguments for behind closed doors?
Silly beyond words.
Well while some the Nat Review editors are busy sucking off Reid for his “canny” actions, I’d like to think the Republican leadership are formulating a response which include words like “idiotic” “obstructionism” “lack of message” and “barking moonbat”.
Unfortunately, despite Frist’s first reaction, I expect the republicans to do what they always do – take it on the chin without hitting back =x
“Member” – So many ways I can go with that.
That has become the essence of our two party system–regardless of which party is in power. The Rs don’t exactly have clean hands in this regard.
Trent Lott was just on Hannity. The “Phase II” investigation was set to be anounced this week in sub-committee. Reid’s move was purely a ploy to secure a “victory” for the dums for something that would have happened anyway. Pure sleaze.
TW: volume. It’s now past eleven.
Honestly I’d suggest not looking at Kos at all. Nietzsche was correct in his aphorism about staring into the abyss. But the real question now is whether Senator Frist and his gang of 55 have the cujones to do anything about it beyond whinging. Hmmm…, when Senator Frist speaks of the nuclear option, do you think he’s talking about a neutron bomb that will leave the infrastructure more or less in place or a full scale thermonuclear MIRV that will leave nothing but radioactive rubble for the political cockroaches to crawl around on for the next 100,000 years?
Meanwhile, I have this vision of Senator Byrd lecturing the rest of the Senate behind closed doors about the need to protect our precious bodily fluids.
My birthday’s tomorrow, but I think I’m going to get a head start on the resultant hangover in about 55 minutes.
Turing word: increase, as in pump up the volume.
Crossposted at balloon juice.
Reid claims to be doing this because he is upset that the Senate has refused to hold hearings into the pre-war intelligence lies of Chimpy McHilterburton and his bloodthirsty band of warmongering neocons. Evidently, the bi-partisan Senate report that already pronounced on such questions isn’t good enoughâ€â€
Woefully ignorant of the deal struck by Senator Roberts as well as the scope of the senate inquiry?
Or just plain full of it?
You make the call folks.
If Harry Reid and his band of toddlers has anything significant, I’m sure they wouldn’t be going into a “secret” session (sounds kinda like a Flash Gordon thing, doesn’t it? Super Secret! Get your decoder rings out!).
What a fucking joke. I think it’s time for the Bush Justice Department to start an investigation into Joe Blow Wilson for treason. As far as I can see, he’s edged a little too close to the line. I would love to see whoever has promised him protection (Soros?) get blown out of the water along with that little egomaniac. Wilson may be full of shit, but he always makes sure that there is not one hair out of place. IT’S THE PRIORITIES!!
Anyway, I’m bored. I don’t usually play with the Kos Kids, but I think I’m gonna go throw up a post there – it might be extra fun today. See ya later…
wow…..what a collection of simpletons. Frist is a scum-sucking lying turd. he’s gotten filthy rich by denying many of you your proper health care. yet, some of you think he’s just fabulous.
delay is simply a common thief posing as a person with a brain.
if any of you posting here don’t understand the consequences of Bush’s lies, you’re a threat to the rest of us and your grandchildren probably will be speaking chinese.
tiki,
Is that parody, because, really it’s too close to tell.
“chinese!?”[sic]
nice touch.
ISN’T THAT AMAZING????????? Lott states that this “PHASE II” investigation WAS GOING TO BE ANNOUNCED THIS WEEK! …..rather convenient, don’t you think? why not a year ago? why does it take so long to investigate what may well be an impeachable offense?
Bill Frist hasn’t denied me anything, tikiman. My health care is just fine, thank you very much. And if people like you don’t get back on your medication, you’re not only a threat to people with functioning brains, you’re a threat to yourself.
P.S. Is your Shift key broken or something?
Tikiman,
Hmmmm…
Although most people here tend to ignore trolls, I’ll bite.
“Bush’s lies”? Why don’t you post some so that we can all see your innate grasp of the English language? So far all we’ve seen are lies about what Bush actually said. C’mon. Knock us all down with some of “Bush’s lies”…
Chris, nah, they just think shouting makes their argument more, um, robust.
Turing word: wall, as in Harry has hit the wall.
“Bill Frist is calling this grandstanding manuever..”
OK.
“I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office,” he said in a lengthy speech in which he quoted medical texts and standards. “She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli.”
OH NO!! SHUT IT DOWN!!
Chairman Sensenbrenner…..
http://www.detnews.com/2005/politics/0506/17/polit-212115.htm
‘Teacher, they’re hurting me……..
Dickboy
Just a warmup. If you get tired of explaining that away we can always move on to others.
You are missing a step, like showing us where Bush made the claim to the non-existant report.
Here come the KOS trolls.
I don’t think any of us have to think too hard to figure out what the democrats reaction would be if Frist pulled the same stunt.
I hope you all are right about how this will play out. Everyone here seems to be saying how this can bite the Dems back and with good reason. The problem is the Republicans don’t have the talent for open P.R. war that Dems have.
I hate to say this, but Clinton would have turned this around in about 45 minutes. Bush and the Reps do not have that mojo. Neither do they have the MSM, who, like the wounded animals they are, will be going all out for their team.
Defense Guy
OK, I admit it, you’ve got me. The Washington Times really is just another cog in the vast left wing conspiracy machine.
But then you already knew it was an actual quote of Bush’s and just want others to go through the motions right?
“There you go again, Bill.”
No, I don’t trust the press anymore, from either side. Too many lies and too much spin has made me very wary of ANY claim.
So, was there EVER a report from the IAEA making the 6 month claim?
Still missing a step.
You must show that Bush knew with certainty that there was no such report, otherwise, he’s simply mistaken or thinking of some other agency.
But the larger question is–six-months away or not, you’re saying you would not have removed Saddam from power?
Davebo
I found an IISS report that makes the claim, perhaps he had the agency name wrong.
Source
Skip it, Defense guy. These idiots coming over here from Cole’s site are over there calling me all sort of choice names. Cole’s site is a sewer. I’m through with it.
If John wants to host that band of dickless fucktards, that’s his business. I don’t need them over here.
Agreed, Jeff.
Cole needs to fumigate the place and start over.
I know, and I keep telling myself I’m through with it as well, and then I’m there everyday trying to present the other side of the argument. I don’t know why John puts up with it.
I hope they do speak it as a secondary language. Be a hell of a lot more useful than dying languages like German or French. Hope they learn Hindi too.
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that there’s not a single person in this thread that’s been denied proper health care. I’ll pretty much guarantee that none of us were denied by Frist personally.
You might have a point there, tikiman, if Americans incurred travel expenses to go to Canada and the UK in order to flee their own terrible system and take advantage of incredibly easy access to fantastic medical care. Too bad for you it works the other way around here in reality. Dumbass.
I have already been called a c**t by a poster there because I brought the snark. I like breaking up the circle jerk over there sometimes. It gets them all in a tizzy, and works out the kinks. Better than working out on my elliptical.
Yesterday, Sojourner was lecturing me all day over there about my using the term “pregnant chick” in the context of abortion, but that same libfem has endorsed the use of the term “cunt” today.
John’s crowd is fickle, Stormy.
Normally I like being outnumbered in a political argument–“They’ve got us surrounded, the poor bastards!”–but after awhile commenting over there just wasn’t fun anymore. I admire those of you who’ve kept your fighting spirit.
I like a fight that I know I’m going to win.
Sure, Richard, but what about when your opponents are, in the words of the great P.J. O’Rourke, “Dead but too dumb to lie down?”
Cole’s comments section is a cesspool of the worst sort of petulant assholes I’ve seen outside of the normal “mee tooo” and “frist!! LOLZ!!” BS at Eschaton/etc where they need 3+ open threads a day in order to maintain the incessant spewing hatred. INSTALL A FUCKING MESSAGE BOARD ALREADY, DUNCAN. Uhh–wait, I’m not supposed to be trolling in this post, but I’m instinctually going for the caps-lock anyway…
You can’t win a fight over there. All you can do is hope to score a point or two. If you were to state the sky was blue, the retort would be that there are clouds, and clouds make rain, and it once rained and it is all because Bush is the “Worst POTUS Ever”.
John could clean that place up. All he would have to do is ban half a dozen complete idiots and then maintain some control over the comments. I just can’t bring myself to comment over there anymore.
After a while it does get boring, but you never know exactly when you’re going to catch them in a lie, a reversal, or a gross hypocrisy.
John’s group is getting pretty predictable, however.
Catching them doesn’t faze them though. I mean, you don’t really believe that they don’t know half the shit they posit is bogus, do you? They throw it out there knowing it is, at best, a half truth.
You can’t win in the sense shutting up the retards, but you can win in the sense of presenting a superior argument that anybody who’s halfway impartial can see as superior.
Some of the cabbages are well below the normal functioning level of the conscious human organism, such as that Andrei character and ppGaz, but most of the rest know when they’ve been slapped.
You keep going over there and fighting the good fight. I’m on your side and wish you luck, but I don’t have the time or inclination to get in the middle of their circular firing squad.
You keep going over there and fighting the good fight. I’m on your side and wish you luck, but I don’t have the time or inclination to get in the middle of their circular firing squad.
Sums up my sentiments exactly. I used to enjoy Cole’s site and even, ahem, called into Jeff’s and Bill’s Big Adventure Radio show once when Cole was the guest (much to my own discredit). But I can’t even read his comments sections without continually stifling my gag reflex.
Knock yourself out, though.
[This site is the bestest ever. If I could swallow enough semen, I’d give you all oral pleasure as a way of saying thank you! – this post has been edited by the site adminstrator who, in turns out, has GREAT POWERS]
Frist is a scum-sucking lying turd. he’s gotten filthy rich by denying many of you your proper health care. yet, some of you think he’s just fabulous.
Considering that Frist and his daddy got rich from providing many of us healthcare through a little set-up called the Hospital Corporation of America and that Frist add a few more pieces of gold to his treasure chest by providing cardiac surgical services to a few hundred or so patients, the helmeted retardedness of the above statement is indeed rock solid proof of a Kos Kidz invasion.
Were any of those NO buses of the short variety? We sure could use some about now…
Actually, I don’t know how to ban people in wordpress.
I would love to learn.
[Jeff’s mom is a slut! She swallows CUM! LOOOOOKIE AT MEEEEEEE! – slightly edited by the site administrator to better capture the pathos]
And please email me if you know how…
add either their IP, their username, or anything they use consistently when commenting here: Options/Discussion/Comment Moderation
I know you can delete comments and search by name/IP address…
N/M it’s late, I’m crazy, Jeff’s got it, etc
Day-um. Jeff’s gonna have to fumigate the place. Oh, I see that he’s already started.
This is why I don’t comment over there any more. Facts mean nothing to that crowd.
No seriously, it’s true. Frist is such a devious bastard he has managed to get people to pay him not to see them. Kind of like how we pay government teachers not to teach basic economics.
(adapted with apologies to Gabrielle D’Annunzio and Michael Ledeen)
It’s freakin’ amazing! Given the right confluence of thread length, topic, and moonbat-provoking commentary, a self-righteous Canadian will inevitably appear to enlighten all and sundry!
Are there other ways to make it happen? Could you face a mirror and chant “Sandwichman” three times? Or does it require tracing out some sort of maple leaf/pentagram sigil on the floor and intoning “Evoe – Trudeau” over and over?
Wow, someone managed to sound even whinier than Bill Frist.
Such hysterics over a parliamentary procedure.
I didn’t hear any hysterics, Geek. Just a twee of outrage at the stunt-edness of it all. Plus, it’s a great excuse for a new thread.
Shorter Jeff Goldstein
If I wanted rational discourse on issues from both sides I wouldn’t post such total bullshit likeEvidently, the bi-partisan Senate report that already pronounced on such questions isn’t good enough
And of course, when called on it, I’d complain about posters from blogs that actually do discuss both sides of an issue.
Protein Wisdom eh? Does it leave a stain ala Monica?
Finally, one who admits it openly!
What about the women? Will they service our fair ladies as well?
Shorter “Davebo”:
Wow, being anonymous makes “me” all but immune to criticism. Like a CIA leaker!
Man, and to think my Dad told me that being a craven, backbiting pussy was wrong.
Fuck you, Dad! Look at me now! I’m a comments board PROVOCATEUR!
Jeff,
Sorry man. You posted BS, I called you on it, and now you deflect.
Fact is, as you well know, the Senate Committee didn’t look into allegations of intelligence manipulation. They specifically claimed they would do so after the elections, then didn’t.
You claimed they did, and included it in their report.
But like a 6 year old, or George W. Bush, you refuse to admit mistakes and, for some odd reason, launch off into tirades about Daddy’s.
Hey, it’s your site. You can rant on about the fact that we had to invade because Saddam wouldn’t let inspectors back in for all I care.
And there seems to be plenty of commenters here that are willing to ignore your mistake and launch into supportive inane tirades so that’s gotta help you feel better about yourself right?
Hell, at least Defense Guy attempted to refute my point.
Have fun with it.
If you say so, Davebo.
Here’s what I wrote:
Now, the thinking behind my argument is precisely this: the bipartisan report concluded 17-0 that the administration had not pressured the CIA into shaping its finding. And the intelligence, we know from the report, supported the case for war.
So the follow-up report about how the administration handled the intelligence—a report demanded by partisan Dems—simply doesn’t matter to me. How they framed the message for war is secondary to the fact that it was justified. It’s about packaging. And it will be used, no matter what it concludes, by Dems to attack the Administration, etc.
It’s tiresome dance.
If you believe that my post made mistakes and that I’m engaging here in some sort of circle jerk, fine. But don’t lose sight of the fact that your hatred and partisanship are coloring YOUR comments—to the point where you felt compelled to say things about me and my character that you couldn’t possibly know.