The Administration

At last, an honest answer out of Tony Snow.

When asked why, after four years in Iraq, President Bush decided he needed a war czar, the White House press secretary responded: “I honestly don’t know.” No, Tony, and neither does anybody else.

After several generals turned down the job, because they don’t support the president’s policy in Iraq, Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute accepted the assignment. But that still leaves a lot of questions unanswered.

1.    If the president is commander in chief, why do we need a war czar?

2.    If the war czar is now in charge of the war, what happened to the secretary of defense? Read more...

It is a high crime and misdemeanor to refuse to faithfully execute the laws of the land and on a number of occasions Alberto Gonzales has acted in a manner that should compel the House of Representatives to initiate an investigation including potential articles of impeachment.

We now learn that Alberto Gonzales tried to railroad through extension of executive action and assertion of authority that the then-attorney general, John Ashcroft, and acting attorney general, James Comey, believed was illegal.

In what can only be described as a goon-like attempt to buffalo a very ill John Ashcroft into approving illegal action, Alberto Gonzales acted more like an official in a government of Pinochet-in-pinstripes than an official of the United States. Read more...

President Bush is like the boy in the bubble. He is looking out through a haze, isolated, unable to comprehend much of the outside world.

He jokes with the queen, tries to empathize with tornado victims, goes about his daily routine of bike riding, all while Republicans on the Hill become more and more disenchanted. November 2008 is looming larger and larger, and they can't get through to this guy.

Some started trying to penetrate the hermetically sealed bubble with a letter opener. Now they know they need a howitzer. Soon they will recognize that this president is not coming back from over 70 percent disapproval ratings. And that the only way to save their political skins is to convince Bush to change course in Iraq. Read more...

This country needs a realistic optimist as its president.

A realistic optimist would look at all the assets of this great country and all of its debits, and understand that we don’t need a great social revolution or monumental reforms, but some changes here and there to improve what is really a pretty good place to live.

Yes, we are in a war with people who want to take the world, or more particularly their world, back into the 12th century. But let’s face it, we ought to be able to beat these crazy people in the long run. The world is not going back into the Dark Ages. A little more realistic talk would be helpful here. Read more...

I always wondered how the White House would respond when that dismal day came and the poor Republicans in Congress would have to tell Bush they had had enough. Indeed, we now know that 11 moderate Republicans went to Bush to tell him Tuesday that he has lost credibility on the war and has spent nearly all of their patience. But the characterization of this event by Tony Snow, who I am a huge fan of, almost made me fall out of my chair this morning. It is not another "marching up to Nixon," and "not one of those cresting moments when party discontents are coming in to read the president the riot act," Snow said.

OK, so what is it? Read more...

The White House bullies are at it again.

A tornado levels the town of Greensburg, Kan. The city’s police and fire departments are wiped out. State and local officials struggle to deal with the emergency. And what’s the Bush White House do? Attack the governor of Kansas and accuse her of not acting fast enough.

Shades of Hurricane Katrina! That’s just what they did with the governor of Louisiana — another woman, and another Democrat. And all Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sibelius did was tell the truth! Read more...

A television commercial in the works by VoteVets.org, challenging the notion that President Bush listens to commanders on the ground, will feature Maj. Gens. John Batiste and Paul Eaton. Batiste and Eaton were those very commanders on the ground, and their words will inform voters in districts and states represented by Republicans that, indeed, Bush did not heed their advice about the right strategy for Iraq. These words, from the non-political military, will be hard to forget.

In a staggering letter Eaton wrote Bush last week following Bush's veto of the emergency war spending bill passed by Congress, Eaton said the bill Bush vetoed represented "a course of action that is long overdue." He accused Bush of ignoring the advice of his military experts and noted that a number of generals, including Gen. Eric Shineski, who "did not tell you what you wanted to hear," were forced out of their jobs. Eaton expressed respect for the office Bush holds but said he "could not sit idly by as you told the American people today that your veto was based on the recommendations of military men. Your administration ignored the advice of our military's finest minds before, and I see no evidence that you are listening to them now." Read more...

It was a regal gathering at the White House. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of England was received by His Majesty King George II of the United States.

As seen on national television, it was all glorious pomp and circumstance, except for one untidy fact: She’s a real queen, while he’s just a wannabe king.

Yet he acts like he really is a king. He disdains the common people. He ignores the will of members of Parliament, or Congress. He decides which laws he will obey and which ones he will not. In fact, ever since Sept. 11, 2001, he acts as if he is above the law. Read more...

The new congressional majority is making great headlines beating up members of the executive branch, but making little progress on important priorities of the nation.

House Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) has subpoenaed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rise over nuclear yellow cake, sparking a possible executive branch-legislative branch showdown. This fight will dominate the headlines. But what new ground will this hearing break? After all, Rice already testified on this issue in her confirmation for the post she currently occupies.

Following the grilling of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales last week over the firing of U.S. attorneys who everyone agrees the president has the right to fire, you can see a trend here. Read more...

Vice-President Dick Cheney took the unusual step Tuesday of blasting Senate Majority Leader during a visit to Capitol Hill. The veep usually says nothing on these visits. But he broke custom this time, he says, because he believes Reid was so seriously out of line in suggesting publicly last week that the Iraq war is already "lost." What do you think? Scroll down to our Quick Poll! and tell us whether you approve or disapprove of what Reid said.