The Administration

What stunning news. The White House can't find a general interested in being war czar in charge of overseeing both operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. If we held a "Most Thankless Job" contest, where would War Czar for the Bush wars of 2007 rank?

One prospect, retired Gen. John "Jack" Sheehan, former NATO commander, told the Washington Post "they don't know where the hell they're going," and explained that the power of hawks like Vice President Cheney still trumps the realists in the administration who are searching for an end to the war. "So rather than go over there, develop an ulcer and eventually leave, I said, 'No, thanks,'" he said in what is considered in Washington to be a VERY bold on-the-record statement for a military man. Read more...

A lot of media time has focused on the U.S. attorneys scandal and players such as Kyle Sampson and Monica Goodling, staffers who suddenly hit the spotlight. When I read the 33-year-old Goodling’s bio of being educated at a very conservative school in Pennsylvania, Messiah College, and the law school founded by Pat Robertson, Regent Law, in Virginia Beach, bells went off in my head.

I remember reading several articles about the sudden change in the Justice Department’s recruiting of lawyers early on in the Bush administration. Under John Ashcroft, many of the new lawyers were not chosen on the basis of competence, performance, legal training or law school record, but rather by their ideology and their politics. Read more...

Thomas Paine once wrote that in absolute governments, the King is law, and in free nations, the Law is king.

The fundamental problem is not that Alberto Gonzales lied, prevaricated, misrepresented or played Pinocchio when he falsely stated he was not involved in the decisions to fire the U.S. attorneys. Those actions were wrong and appropriate grounds for removal, but there is much, much worse.

Alberto Gonzales is a basically decent guy, a second-tier-quality lawyer elevated to great heights by blind obedience to the concept of absolute power and the unwise president who claims it for himself on matters that grossly violate the American notion of the rule of law.

Gonzales-ism is the problem, not Gonzales. Read more...

There is too much hatred, derision, disrespect, smearing, slander, polarization, division and bigotry that has infected American politics and American media.

What Don Imus said about the Rutgers women's basketball team was only the latest example of a sickness that is spreading — and in certain corporate boardrooms even encouraged as good for business.

This problem is far larger than Imus, the idea that it's profitable, beneficial or cute to spit hate, venom, or ugliness in our politics and media. Read more...

With the administration of the most failed and catastrophic national-security policy in history in full-throated attack demeaning the Speaker, and mainstream media as usual parroting the attack with minimal response for the first 24 hours, it is time to make this case: The Speaker is absolutely right and it is important to consider exactly why.

First, let's be clear about exactly what the Speaker did. She put pressure on Syria to do exactly what the president claims he wants Syria to do. She put pressure on Syria to do exactly what Israel wants Syria to do.

If there is any message received by Syria from this trip, it is that the Speaker and Democrats join the president in demanding Syria provide security guarantees to Israel, stop any support for terrorist groups, and stop any action that helps those in Iraq killing Americans. Read more...

President Bush has had his embarrassing moments. But none surpass the childish temper tantrum he pretended to throw yesterday in the Rose Garden.

Surrounded by lights, cameras, props and podium, Bush staged a great show of political theater — in order to accuse the Democrats of “playing political theater.”

He accused Democrats of forcing troops to extend their stay in Iraq — when, in fact, he has kept troops in Iraq for over four years, forcing many of them to return for a second or third tour of duty. Read more...

America, Iraq and the Middle East may have entered a profound and historical turning point.

At this moment, the Reid-Pelosi flanking maneuver is brilliant and powerful. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) moves aggressively to turn around the military escalation, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) moves aggressively to support Middle East peace initiatives.

Lets begin with one key point. When George Bush said yesterday that he decided to surge the troops and escalate in Iraq at the request of American commanders, he was telling a bald-faced lie.

No more niceties. This is so fundamental and important, with so many American lives at stake, that we should be crystal-clear about the truth. Read more...

A smart press strategy by Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) crack staff has muffled the potential political explosion of his announced support of an amendment to cut off funding for the troops as they fight in Iraq. But this story is not going away. In fact, Reid’s announcement is not merely a political tactic to get President Bush to the negotiating table. It is philosophical dogma to the hard left of the Democratic Party.

Democratic leftists want us to leave Iraq now. They wanted us to leave Vietnam, too, and guess what happened there. A communist takeover of Saigon, massacres, genocide and a crisis of confidence in the United States that led to a weakening of American influence from Iran to South America to Africa. Read more...

We barely had time to react to Matthew Dowd’s bomb of a confessional Sunday when another one exploded on Monday. Vic Gold, longtime friend of President George H.W. Bush and the Cheneys, has also left the reservation with a big, hot blast.

“For all the Rove-built facade of his being a ‘strong’ chief executive, George W. Bush has been, by comparison to even hapless Jimmy Carter, the weakest, most out-of-touch president in modern times ... Think Dan Quayle in cowboy boots.” These are not the words of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) but of Gold in his new book, Invasion of the Party Snatchers: How the Holy Rollers and the Neo-Cons Destroyed the GOP. Read more...

April 15th. Yes, it’s tax day, but we all want to forget that. The other significance of that date? Bush really seems serious about focusing on it as the day “we will run out of money in Iraq.” He is playing politics with the war, just as he has since he started the conflict. Instead of working with Congress and finding a solution, Bush thinks he will have a Clinton-Gingrich budget-shutdown moment.

Of course, this is the administration that told troops “you go to war with the equipment you have” and proclaimed our veterans’ care was “fully funded.” Right. This is the administration that fired a general when he told the American people that the war might cost as much as $200 billion. Hmm. This is the administration and president who have been accused by the military and many Republicans of trying to wage a war “on the cheap.” Please. Read more...