The Administration

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.

Ambassador to the World!

For months, everybody’s been asking: How will Bill keep busy if Hillary’s elected president? Now we know: Hillary says she’ll make him some kind of roving ambassador — to make friends around the world for the United States.

If you ask me, it’s the best idea Hillary’s come up with yet!

For one thing, after six years of George Bush, we need a goodwill ambassador. By his arrogance, his unilateral war in Iraq, and his cancellation of so many international treaties, Bush has turned the United States from the most admired nation in the world … to the most despised. Read more...

What a difference an election makes. Now, to the shock of the White House head-in-the-sand crew, members of Congress are holding them accountable on all fronts. Today, we see the family of Pat Tillman, and Jessica Lynch, and a House committee uncovering the lies and cover-up from Bush’s military. We have seen Republicans and Democrats rake Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his aides over the coals and uncover more political incompetence.

Did the “loyal Bushies” really think that none of this was going to come to light? Did they really believe that they could keep the lid on their White House decision making? Did they really believe they could run roughshod over the Congress, as though it did not even exist? Read more...

For Washington, D.C, it’s as close as we ever get to prom night: The White House Correspondents Dinner. I was one of the 3,000 who crowded in the ballroom of the Hilton Towers for this year’s intimate event. And, as always, it was jammed with big names.

From the White House: President and Mrs. Bush, Karl Rove, Tony Snow. From the Cabinet: Condoleezza Rice, Alberto Gonzales and Michael Chertoff. From the Congress: Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), David Dreier (R-Calif.), Jane Harman (D-Calif.). From Politics 2008: Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson. From the states: Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley; New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer; California Attorney General Jerry Brown. Read more...

Attack. Attack. Attack. Is that really all the Bush team knows how to do? Yes, it has won them two elections but it doesn’t help a great deal when it comes to governing.

Take the latest effort at going nuclear over Harry Reid, a usual target. OK, I grant you that “the war is lost” makes a nice sound bite to eviscerate. No one likes to hear that anything is lost — your wallet, your umbrella, your pet — let alone a war. The trouble is that Harry Reid became so furious at George Bush and his my-way or the highway approach to this war that he let it fly. The surge is not working, he said — hard to argue with that after the last several weeks.

But Bush and his attack dogs have it all wrong. This is precisely about supporting the troops……as the bumper sticker says: SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME. Reid and other Democrats have given the president everything he has asked for and then some, as Budowsky writes. It really is time to set limits, to avoid making the same mistakes as we did in Vietnam, when over half those 58,000 who died were killed after the war was "lost."

Bush can only attack Reid to try and boost his own sad policy, not try and come up with a political solution that works, and works fast.

We create more insurgents each day than we kill. We now have polls in Iraq that show over 80% of Iraqis want us out. We are losing more precious young men and women, both Americans and Iraqis, every day. We are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on a lost cause, weakening our military beyond what is imaginable, and destroying the country in order to save it.

Democrats in Congress are proposing benchmarks for the Iraqis to meet, setting exit strategies, calling for dialogue, as did the bi-partisan Iraq Study Group. The Bush doctrine is more of the same. My guess is that Secretary Gates may return from his trip to Iraq and report privately to the president what members of Congress have found (Republicans and Democrats) — the country is falling apart and our presence is hurting not helping. That would be the honest assessment and, how ironic, not far from what Reid declared in his own impolitic way.

Well, it is after 6:00 on a Friday night — time to announce the Gonzales resignation.

Oops, the White House Correspondent's Dinner is tomorrow, when Hollywood and politics and the Prez mix. We wouldn't want that to be the FOCUS for POTUS now would we? OK, folks, how about a nice Sunday, post-talk show announcement. Yup, sounds good.

If I were a cynical, true-blue Democratic strategist I would argue that Gonzales should stick around for several more weeks (months?) so we could make political hay from this complete incompetence but no, not me, get it over with and let's get a new Attorney General appointed. Maybe Karl Rove would like the job?

With respect:

When Harry Reid was fighting for more body armor, more armored vehicles for the troops, and was opposed by George Bush and Dick Cheney, who do you believe was right?

Did you stand with Reid, supporting the body armor and armored vehicles, or did you stand with Republicans who opposed those efforts at the time?

When Harry Reid was fighting for more funds and support for healthcare and benefits for wounded troops, and American veterans, did you stand with Republicans who opposed that support for troops and vets? Or did you
stand with Harry Reid, who was fighting for them? Read more...

I’ve long suspected that despite the rhetoric that they “support the troops,” many Democrats in Congress never really supported our missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. This despite the fact that an overwhelming number of Democrats voted in favor of the authorization of the use of military force a few years ago. The reason for their vote then and the reason for their cold feet now can be summarized in one word: politics.

Years ago, I believe many Democrats voted in favor of authorizing the president to send troops in harm’s way as they felt this was where the sentiment of the country was. Still reeling after the attacks upon American soil on 9/11 and confronted with compelling evidence that Saddam posed an imminent threat to the United States — an assessment believed by both Democrats and Republicans — President Bush was given authority to send our brave men and women into combat to wage the War on Terror. Read more...