The Blue State

Changing of the guard

So much has happened over the month of August.  If you were gone on vacation, you missed the beginning of the end of what has been a dreadful era in Washington.  Today was Karl Rove's last day.  A few days ago, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced his resignation.  Earlier on Friday, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said that he would step down.  His deputy Dana Perino will take over.  John Warner, the elder statesman who recent has distanced himself from Bush's Iraq policy, will not seek reelection in 2008.  All of these changes come in the midst of yet another sex scandal involving a closet Republican.  Larry Craig, the Senator involved, will likely resign.

This Labor Day weekend pretty much marks the beginning of the countdown to the end of this brand of leadership in Washington.  Populism is back.  In both presidential fields, the populist candidates are the rock stars -- Barack Obama and John Edwards on the Democratic side, and Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul on the Republican end.  The establishment is crumbling in the wake of its own clumsiness, and quite frankly because they have failed to get anything done except for dragging up the national debt, supporting a failed foreign policy, and making us less prepared to respond to disasters.

We are approaching the end of the line.  It will be important to evaluate the 2008 presidential, Senate, and House candidates closely, and pick populist leaders to run our government for years to come.  Let's hope we learned our lesson.

Why Conservatives Only Speak in Slogans

Recently, an Associated Press-Ipsos poll noted that liberals read more books than conservatives. This combined with a poll noting that 1 in 4 adults in the US did not read any books in 2006 indicates a trend toward sound bites and slogans.
Pat Schroeder, head of the American Association of Publishers, has a theory as to why this is the case. Note: The following section may be considered offensive to our conservative readers. Fortunately, according to the AP-Ipsos study, no conservative readers will manage to read this far.
Says Schroeder:

"The Karl Roves of the world have built a generation that just wants a couple slogans: 'No, don't raise my taxes, no new taxes. It's pretty hard to write a book saying, 'No new taxes, no new taxes, no new taxes' on every page."

Once again, we're stuck with a generation of voters on the right side of the aisle that don't want to actually be informed of the very issues that affect their lives. The Right packages up talking point slogans and bores them into the heads of the American people. "Terrorists hate our Freedom. Iraq is making Progress. Democrats want to 'cut and run.' We fight them there so we don't have to fight them here."
Without context, these slogans mean nothing. But through the miracle of incessant repetition, people start to buy into it. One poll I would love to see AP-Ipsos run would be applicable only to the population of Americans that still support the president and his war. There only has to be one question; multiple choice of course!
Question: Where do you obtain your information on the government and the war?
A. Newspapers
B. Newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch
C. The Internets
D. Television News Stations
E. Television News Stations owned by Rupert Murdoch
F. I read a book about it

See how many of these conservatives want to know more about the world than the sound bites they hear on Fox News.

Rove accused Fox host of being agent of Democratic Congress

I missed this one yesterday, but got a laugh out of it this morning when I read it.  Karl Rove went on three Sunday news shows -- Meet the Press, Face the Nation and Fox News Sunday.  Of the three, Rove seemed to be the most annoyed during the Fox interview.

When host Chris Wallace asked Rove why he chose not to comply with a congressional subpoena, the White House adviser who will resign at the end of the month seemed a bit irked by the question:

Mr. Rove said the Constitution prevented him from complying with aCongressional subpoena to describe his part in the firings of United States attorneys.

When Mr. Wallace argued that executive privilege did not prevent himfrom answering a reporter’s questions (“Why did you push to fire someU.S. attorneys in the president’s second term?”), Mr. Rove turnedtesty. “I know you don’t understand you’re being an agent of Congresswhen you ask me that question,” he said. “But you are.”

Fox News is usually considered by Bush officials as a safe harbor.

Chris Wallace an agent of the Democrats?  Now that is a line we will definitely never hear anyone use again.

Hillary admires Rove's political strategy

The question has been posed thousands of times since Monday: What is Karl Rove's legacy?  There are literally thousands of answers.  James Carville, a long-time Democratic strategist, believes Rove will be credited with losing an entire generation of Republicans between the ages of 18 and 30:

If the trends hold, the one thing that we can be sure of is that MrRove’s political grave will receive no lack of irrigation from futureRepublicans.

But for those more interested in what Rove's legacy will be in terms of political strategy, it is clear that he left an impression on the Clinton family.  Peter Baker of the Washington Post revealed Hillary's admiration for Karl Rove's brand of politics:

Harris and Halperin wrote last year that Rove and the Clintonsshared some of the same understandings of how politics work, and thetwo authors even crafted a list they titled "What Hillary Clinton andKarl Rove Know About the Way to Win the White House in 2008." Clinton,they wrote, has "borrowed some strategies" from Rove for dealing withthe news media, enemies and anticipated attacks. "Like Karl Rove," theywrote, "Hillary Clinton knows that playing offense is better thanplaying defense. . . . Hillary Clinton obviously dislikes Bush's policygoals, but she appreciates some of the methods he has used to achievethem."

So, would a Clinton victory next year be a repudiation of Karl Rove politics or the perpetuation of them?

There is a lot more in that article worth reading!

Really though, what methods could possibly be admirable?  The ones Rove used against John McCain in the 2000 primaries, Max Cleland in 2002 or John Kerry in 2004?  Yeah, he sure was effective -- effective in turning voters off to politics, that is.

KARL ROVE RESIGNS

White House Adviser Karl Rove told Wall Street Journal columnist Paul Gigot that he will step down at the end of the month and move back to Texas.  Gigot revealed it in a column Monday morning:

He's resigning effective Aug. 31 -- 14 years after hebegan working with Mr. Bush on his campaign for Texas governor, 10years after they began planning a White House run, and after 79 monthsin the political cockpit of a tumultuous presidency.

"I just think it's time," he says, adding that hefirst floated the idea of leaving to Mr. Bush a year ago. His friendsconfirm he had been talking about it with others even earlier. ButDemocrats took Congress, and he didn't want to depart on that sournote. He then thought he'd leave after the State of the Union, but theIraq and immigration fights beckoned. Finally, Chief of Staff JoshBolten told senior White House aides that if they stayed past a certainpoint, they were obliged to remain to Jan. 20, 2009.

"There's always something that can keep you here, andas much as I'd like to be here, I've got to do this for the sake of myfamily," Mr. Rove says. His son attends college in San Antonio, and heand his wife, Darby, plan to spend much of their time at their home innearby Ingram, in the Texas Hill Country.

Is this Rove's way of avoiding further investigation by Congress?:

Mr. Rove doesn't say, though others do, that thistiming also allows him to leave on his own terms. He has survived aprobe by a remorseless special counsel, and lately a subpoena barragefrom Democrats for whom he is the great white whale. He shows notableforbearance in declining to comment on prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald,who dragged him through five grand jury appearances. He won't evendisclose his legal bills, except to quip that "every one has been paid"and that "it was worth every penny."

What about those who say he's leaving to avoidCongressional scrutiny? "I know they'll say that," he says, "But I'mnot going to stay or leave based on whether it pleases the mob." Healso knows he'll continue to be a target, even from afar, since beliefin his influence over every Administration decision has become, well,faith-based.

As for Rove's legacy:

"I'm a myth. There's the Mark of Rove," he says, witha bemused air. "I read about some of the things I'm supposed to havedone, and I have to try not to laugh." He says the real target is Mr.Bush, whom many Democrats have never accepted as a legitimate presidentand "never will."

Well, he is right about one thing.

Lastly, and thank God, this is likely the last we will ever see of Karl Rove in American politics:

And what about Jeb Bush in 2012? Mr. Rove first says with a tone ofskepticism, "Ask Jeb." Then he adds, "You better get a younger man. Mywife would kill me."

The godfather of modern-day Machiavellian political strategy is taking off his cleats for the final time, and the nation can finally exhale.

UPDATE (6:27 AM): Just occurred to me, with Rove gone at the end of August, Cheney is now Bush's number one influencer.  Last week, the USA Today reported that Cheney has recently been pushing for air-strikes against selected targets in Iran.  Maybe in some sick and twisted way, that is the only negative of losing Rove.  Other than that, a whole lot of cynicism is about to leave the political arena.  What an occasion to celebrate!

UPDATE (6:37 AM): This is from a Daily Kos commenter:

Hmm, Murdoch buys WSJ, Rove gives WSJ huge scoop, Billo moves to WhiteHouse, Rove goes to..... Wait for it..... Fox! Who wants to put moneyon it?"

Well I would definitely not bet against it!  At the very least, he will always have a place on Cavuto's show.

Rove Subpoenaed -- adding to very productive week in Congress

The Senate Judiciary Committee today took their biggest step in uncovering the mystery behind the fired US Attorneys.  They subpoenaed White House Adviser Karl Rove and his deputy, Scott Jennings.  Rove and Jennings will be forced to show up at a hearing on August 2nd.  It is expected that the Bush Administration will fight this subpoena.

Here is a quick refresher of Congress' busy week, spearheaded by Senator Pat Leahy (D-VT) and House Rep. John Conyers (D-MI):

• MONDAY: House Judiciary Committee handed down contempt charges against former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and current White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolton.
• TUESDAY: Senate Judiciary Committee confronted Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, as he evaded questions from both Republican and Democrat committee members.
• WEDNESDAY: Alberto Gonzales' testimony the day before was contradicted by federal documents.  Lawmakers raised the concern that Gonzales could face perjury charges.
• THURSDAY: Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Karl Rove and Scott Jennings.

UPDATE (4:00 PM ET): Here is a copy of the subpoena handed down by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

90 White House officials used private email accounts

Last month the Democrats tried to subpoena Karl Rove's White House email account, and discovered that he had a private account set up with the RNC.  Until now, everyone had thought Karl Rove was the only White House member to have an alternate email account.  But according to a report released by Henry Waxman's House Government Reform Committee, over 90 White House officials had private accounts with the RNC:

Almost 90 White House officials have maintained private e-mailaccounts on the server of the Republican National Committee, includingtop advisers such as Karl Rove and former White House Chief of StaffAndrew H. Card, according to a House committee report released today.

Thedisclosure means the practice is much more common than Bushadministration officials have previously acknowledged, the report noted.

The RNC has preserved more than 140,000 e-mails sent or received byRove, but only 130 were written before President Bush won re-electionin 2004, according to the report. The committee has preserved another100,000 e-mails from two of Rove's top lieutenants, former White Housepolitical director Sara M. Taylor and deputy political director W.Scott Jennings, according to the House Oversight Committee.

This is serious because all emails pertaining to policy -- especially the US Attorney firing scandal -- are supposed to be on the White House email account.  Rove and other White House officials were using RNC email accounts in order to keep their conversations hidden just in case WH emails were subpoenaed.

Bottom line: Some of the business pertaining to the Justice Department's firing of 9 US Attorneys was conducted on partisan email accounts.

Revealing documents released by DoJ right after 'no confidence' vote failed

The Bush Administration waited until after the Alberto Gonzales 'no confidence' vote failed before finally releasing evidence that proves Karl Rove helped micromanage the political strategy behind the firing of US Attorneys.

Back in February, White House Political Director Sarah Taylor, who conveniently resigned last month, got mad at the Justice Department for disclosing Karl Rove's role to Congress:

The White House's former political director was furious at JusticeDepartment officials for disclosing to Congress that the administrationhad forced out the U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Ark., to make way fora protege of Karl Rove, President Bush's political adviser, accordingto documents released late Tuesday.

 

Then-White House political affairs director Sara Taylor spelledout her frustrations in a Feb. 16 e-mail to Kyle Sampson, then thechief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

This all has to do with Tim Griffin, a former aide to Karl Rove, who was nominated to replace fired US Attorney Bud Cummins.  Because of a loophole in the Patriot Act, the former Rove aide was installed without Senate confirmation.  No one knew about this loophole until after Griffin started serving.  Once the scandal broke, Griffin resigned, and the Congress passed a law that repealed the Patriot Act loophole -- meaning that all U.S. Attorney replacements would once again need to be confirmed by the Senate before serving.

Now to perjury.  Many allege that Alberto Gonzales lied under oath to Congress on January 19th.  Gonzales claimed that all US Attorney replacements would be confirmed by the Senate.  But as mentioned above, that Patriot Act loophole allowed Gonzales to hand-select US Attorneys without having them be approved by the Senate.  Either Gonzales was not aware of the loophole, or he misled Congress.

Bottom line: Gonzales is not out of the woods yet.  In his next appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he will be pressed on the documents that were just released.

Q: What Do You Call a Song Titled 'Let's Impeach The President'? A: A Good Start

I feel compelled to find and post the truth every time I hear Our GreatPresident open his mouth which has become synonymous with lying.Thanks again to "granny" for sending us the link for the video.

It didn't take the liberal bloggers and general long public to react and speak outagainst the dems for caving in on the funding bill. And it seems that theybetter grow a set quickly before we start shopping around. Think about this fora moment, you tell your spouse or significant other you are going shopping, butinstead go to a friends house...simple right? umm, NO!, you are confronted bythem and are told you lied. Maybe that's a simple minded analogy, but comparethat to The President of the United States lying on an ongoing basis, changingthe story and then his supporters actually lie further to support him. Wrong,just plain old everyday kindergartenly,  fundamentally, unacceptably wrong.

Well lets start this thing....

'Let's Impeach The President' Song by Neil Youg. Check out Neils page of Song Videos HERE.(check out the hompage)The Lyrics are HERE.

I do not like Andy Dick in just about everything I have ever seen himin...except this video

'Bush Idiot Speech'

Here is a huge list of anti-warsongs worth a peak. Listof Bush lies.

There is just so much more content which could be added to this post, but Ineed to move on from this "consumption" of me.

Fitzgerald came close to viewing Rove email account

The Senate Judiciary Committee is continuing its fight to obtain the emails on Karl Rove's RNC account to settle once and for all the White House adviser's roll in the U.S. Attorney firing scandal.  Robert Luskin, Karl Rove's lawyer, is refusing to hand them over because he claims "there’s nothing on there that’s relevant" to the investigation.

But back in 2004, as Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was in the middle of the CIA leak case, he came very close to seeing Rove's email account first-hand:

Back in April of 2004, Rove and Luskin had allowed the prosecutor in that case, Patrick Fitzgerald,to obtain images of the hard drives of a home computer, a personallaptop, a Republican National Committee laptop and a handheld device,all being used by Rove at the time. After Fitzgerald combed through theinformation, he returned the hard-drive images to Luskin in sealedcontainers, as part of an agreement on evidence handling. That way,Rove’s personal information could get greater protection from pryingeyes.

Of course, this was prior to when the Justice Department fired the nine U.S. Attorneys.  It was also before Alberto Gonzales became Attorney General.  However, that episode with Fitzgerald and Luskin does show how difficult it is to investigate Karl Rove without getting bogged down in the legal process.

If Fitzgerald was unable to gain complete access to Rove's email account, then it will be near impossible for Congress to do just that.