?

I suspect that Wolfowicz etc know something we do not....like maybe National Security Advisor Rice has the spine of a chocolate eclair and can be counted upon to fold up under strong cross examination.
Anecdotal evidence supports this thesis when you consider that Cheney and Wolfie basically brushed past Rice without getting their hair mussed on the way to talking GWB into invading Iraq.
She screwed up prior to 9-11-01...she probably signed onto the invasion as a means to obscure her own ineptitude.
In which case Condi's conscience might be bothering her...which could prove troublesome if she is put under oath and under pressure from even a half-bright interlocutor.
On the other hand, Condi is a prize trophy appointment right up there with Colin Powell...a black woman republican in a serious position of power does much to deflect criticism of her President's racial policies.
Besides, Bush would love to appoint her Secretary of State in his notional second term....her ability to handle the job (which is quite frankly, nil) is unimportant, it is the symbolism that counts.
Someone up there must be afraid that if Condi gives a poor performance in front of the 9-11 Commission her value to the President as a future marker might be undercut.
Such is the inherent disposability of a courtier and flatterer.
But it's worth it to the President to at least try and keep her out of the witness stand...although if she comes in for much more grief look for Condi to exit by way of an ambassadorship to some out of the way spot like New Zealand or Argentina.
In the midst of a campaign to elect more republican's to the state legislature, Romney is taking time out to host a one million dollar fund-raiser for his patron President George Bush Jr.
That is another million dollars squeezed out of the fast withering local GOP money base and sent off pell mell to parts unknown to buy adverts in states far far away.
The Kolobian Viceroy will make the best of the situation never fear, trying out his latest and lamest zingers on John Kerry and otherwise comporting himself in a disgustingly servile fashion.
La Famiglia Arbusto demands nothing less of it's gubernatorial thralls and vassals.
The problem with Mitt is, he won in 2002 and this has given the Man from Kolob an inflated and delusional belief in his own skills as a political strategist.
How can he not believe in his own omnipotence?
What with toadies like Scot Lehigh praising him every day and in every way.
It is enough even to turn a Bishop's head.
Mitt really thinks he has to get on the good side of the Bush machine in order to clear the decks for his own presidential run in 2008 or 2012.
On the surface, Mitt has a lot going for him as a presidential prospect, he is decorously condescending, has a full head of hair and record of inertia to put the Statue of Liberty to shame.
Moreover, fanatical GOP activist Grover Norquist is predicting the demise of the two party system within the next eight years. This means that a well positioned conservative candidate need only sweep the N.H. primary in order to carry the day.
And a republican governor of Massachusetts is well positioned to do all this...very well positioned indeed.
Alas it will all blow up in Mitt's face...it truly will.
When the time comes to jump into the race, Mitt will find himself under relentless bitter attack from his former patrons.
Willard will be down on his knees screaming for mercy before the first vote is cast in Franconia Notch-he can't hold up under that kind of attack.
After all Florida Governor Jeb Bush hasn't had his turn as President...and after him there is Marvin, Neil and young Noelle Bush to be considered.
No room for a bootlicking Governor of Massachusetts in that line up no matter how impeccable his movement conservative bona fides may be.
Count on it, come 2008 or 2012, the Bush Clan will do to presidential candidate Mitt Romney what they did to John McCain.
Mitt's past services to the President will mean nothing, the overseership of Plantation U.S.A. is at stake and nothing will prevent La Famiglia Arbusto from retaining it's hold on the old homestead at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Least of grinning phony jerk off from Belmont Mass.


With the Bush's gone to smash for a second time in ten years, Romney can credibly claim that the time has come for new leadership from a new family of telegenic overseers.
Kerry quite frankly is Mitt's only hope to get anywhere NEAR the White House come 2008.
Laura "hollow leg" Ingraham on Imus today...
Normally Laura is as boring as a bill of lading....a booze fueled fembot locked in sarcasm mode and programmed with the latest Rovian talking points no matter how inane and mendacious.
Today though, her vaulted composure cracked a bit.
Maybe it was the timing or maybe she is building up a tolerance to her hangover cure.
Ingraham was pressed into service at the last minute to replace Lesley Stahl, who interviewed Richard Clarke on CBS last night.
For those of you just tuning in, Richard Clarke is a former civil servan with a counter terrorism portfolio who has just published a scathing critique of the Bush Admin's "war" on terrorism.
Surprisingly, Laura got off on the wrong foot, suggesting that Stahl and Clarke were having an illicit sexual affair of some type or another.
I have to give Laura Ingraham credit, given her slanderous utterance, it is clear she fears nothing from the F.C.C.
Nice to see that kind of courage these days.
Boy oh boy when those morning bells start ringing in Laura's booze battered brain watch-out no-one is safe!
But then, Laura has nothing but daggers for her feminine competition no matter how remote they may be...anyone else out there recall her irritating "impression" of Faux Network straw liberal Susan Estrich?
Laura then drew a shuddering breath and went on to call Mr. Clarke "unhinged" and a "drama queen".
After that it was the usual stuff, boring and repetitive and even less effective than usual owing to the obvious fact that beyond the excerpts published here and there, she hadn't read Clarke's book.
Clearly these revelations scare poor Laura, she sounded frantic and confused hence the heavier than usual character assassination.
When in doubt kill the messenger and all like that.
Poor Laura, her head was pounding and all she could do was blather on about Clarke's mental incapacity and such like.
Couldn't address a single point of fact as she wasn't really familiar with any of the facts at hand.
Nor will she be any time soon.
Then she started ranting and raving insisting that the 9-11 Commission was going to "rehabilitate" Bill Clinton...anything less than a criminal indictment of the former president would be evidence of appeasement and liberal bias to her.
At this point I started to fade out, it is pretty safe to say that when Laura gets to her Clinton fixation during these Imus call ins, the informed listener can safely turn off the radio and listen to the sound track to "Evita" with no fear of missing anything.
Monday, in the crowd with Teddy...
Sooo...ooo Teddy Kennedy has come out for amending the constitution to allow foreign born Americans to run for President.
Just goes to show you, even the almighty Edward Moore Kennedy is occasionally wrong.
Look what we have to look forward to a "Schwarzenegger amendment" to our "sacred" constitution.
If by some miracle of political alchemy, Teddy Kennedy is reading this artless blog, then I say him, that it not about Schwarzenegger at this point.
Oh don't get me wrong, Arnie could easily be elected President in the present circumstances.
He'd be a marvelously bad commander in chief, but the republic would survive him.
For years now we've all lived in fear of some monster glam-freak rising up out of Hollywood to crush the United States in his or her sequined embrace.
Gruesome stuff yes but, lets face it...the sort of hambones who rise of tinseltown to Washington D.C. tend to be twits, ideologues, and mediocrities like George Murphy and Ronald Reagan.

My own personal view is that the famously fickle national electorate would quickly tire of Arnold's toneless Austrian rumble.
No what this is really about, is preventing the Reverend Moon or Rupert Murdoch from seizing power and ending all pretense of American's exclusive place in the world.
With the wretched likes of them presidentially enfranchised and qualified we can look forward to an America that is naught but a target for leveraged foreign buy-outs.
Bad enough the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has been made the political plaything of a hostile takeover artiste from Utah...now we propose to internationalize this sort of horrorshow??
So far, Orrin Hatch (who has never seen a bad idea that he couldn't worship) and now our own senior senator are behind this awful proposal.
Hatch I can understand...he is a stooge so addlebrained he can hardly recall what catastrophic nonsense he is advocating from one day to the next.
