Good Night and Good Luck

Participant Productions (which I wrote about below) had what may be their second large social drama released this weekend, 'Good Night and Good Luck'. I saw last night, and it's interesting, and worth a watch -- a sort of 'fear but fear itself' movie.

And now, they are working on a movie based on 'Fast Food Nation'.

Participant is, without a doubt, the most interesting production company to arise in decades. When was the last time that somebody worked so hard on filims with a real angle? And who are they? The company was founded by Jeff Skoll, a co-founder of eBay, who put together entertainment talent to make films with social value.

Fitzgerald: A Miss Piggy Enthusiast

I'm sure some were disappointed with Fitzgerald's News Conference. After all, the major charges were for perjury in the process of the investigation.

Read closer: what Fitzgerald is doing is following a dictum succinctly annunciated by Miss Piggy: "Never eat more in one sitting than you can lift."

We don't know what Fitzgerald has on Rove, on Cheney. He didn't even get Libby on the main point of his investigation -- knowingly revealing classiified secrets. But if you read the indictment, what becomes clear is that, if he's able to prosecute Libby under these charges, he will have prima facie convicted him on the knowingly revealing classified secrets as well.

So then you might ask -- why doesn't he just go after the whole group. And here is where a combination of wishful thinking (mine) and wry poker-manship will come in: Fitzgerald is a single little man in the employ of the DOJ, and They are the White House. If he came out with indictments for 4/5 of the White House, they'd have him on the end of a hot pitchfork, dangling him above the howling coulters.

So what has he done -- something which looks almost silly: he's indicted someone who appears to be key, but small enough fish to appear politically important -- a sacraficial lamb, if you will, that Rove can wave bye-bye to as a casualty of political war -- who can be fully prosecuted. And, in the process, everything we the public might want to know, will be revealed by the prosecuters of that case, in the public courtroom.

Which is a much heavier eater than Mr. Fitzgerald. And that's where Rove and Cheney can find themselves on someone else's pitchfork.

AAAARRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!

Why would SBC do this when I BLOODY HATE AT&T!!!

Ugh, the way they made my wireless life miserable.....

Rumor: 1-5 Indictments tommorrow, press conference Thursday

The Washington Note .

I'm scheduling a party for the night of the indictments being made public.

Report: Vice-President's Office "ordered" the leak of Plame's Name to the Media.

In RawStory -- which has been reliable in pre-reporting issues 3-7 days in advance of the regular press for the Plame Affair. It's reporting that a mid-level White House Staffer -- David Wurmser -- first brought the information regarding Plame to the White House, telling Scooter, Stephen Hadley and Condi Rice (Scooter told Karl Rove). He was then "ordered" to leak this information to the press by "executives in the Vice-President's office". He has past ties to the CIA, where he got the information.

That's conspiracy. This is big news. This guy's not in regular touch with reporters, so being "ordered" to tell this to specific reports constitutes a dedicated effort to use this information to discredit Joseph Wilson.

Is it Scandal When It Helps Your Poll Numbers? Campaigning in Quebec

[NYTimes]
In a party leadership contest, the frontrunner was hit by revelations that, while a government minister, he spent wild drunk weekends in Quebec City, often very high on cocaine, the "kind where you can't remember where you parked your rented car afterwards". Result: his poll numbers went up, from 53 to 64 percent.

Scooter Libby a Big Fat Liar

The NYTimes is reporting that Fitzgerald has notes which demonstrate that Scooter Libby learned on June 12 2004 that Valerie Plame, a CIA operative, was Joe Wilson's wife from none other than --- guess who? -- no, not Judith Miller as he had been claiming (that happened on June 23rd) but from

Dick Cheney

Hmm.... now why was Dick Cheney talking about this to Scooter Libby? Could it be that they were talking about ways to discredit Joe Wilson, who had been already by then talking about the President's misstatments in the State of the Union Address around the government?

But then, wouldn't that make him part of the group effort to publicly discredit Wilson? by spreading that it was his wife who sent him on a junket? Conspiracy to treason, sounds like.

No Limits to Pettiness: Abramoff

Unbelievable. Jack Abramoff -- the DeLay enabler and lobbyist -- worked with Ralph Reed to, now get this, block the appointment of one Angela Williams to be the head of the Interior Department's Office of Insular Affairs (which oversees the US government's dealings with Abramoff's client, the Northern Mariana Islands).

Why? Apparently, because she is the wife of a guy who was a vietnam POW with Senator John McCain.

Journalist, with Fangs

Deborah Solomon, who usually asks benign if interesting questions in her weekly "Questions For" column in the NYTimes Magazine, this week suddenly grows fangs while interviewing Connie Mack, who headed the President's advisory committee on tax reform -- soon to recommend the popular mortgage interest tax deduction, and who advocates repealing the estate tax.

Here's to a vigalant press.

The New Social Films: Participant Productions

Participant Productions is a new production company, which is now coming out with a series of films which should attract interest. I mentioned North Country (below), and you've probably already heard of GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK -- the movie about Edward R. Murrow and newscasting during the McCarthy/Red Scare years. MURDERBALL was a documentary, showing the hard-ball game played by wheelchair buond men. And soon, we have SYRIANA -- starring Matt Damon and George Clooney in a mid-east centered action film.

However, what brings these films together is that they are meant to be message movies. The production company's motto: "Changing the world one story at a time." NORTH COUNTRY did not deliver on this promise, with the exception that, at least, it highlights real social problems which exist, today, even if it did so hamhandedly. SYRIANA looks far more interesting -- highlighting the relations between the businesses and Middle Eastern politics.

In any case, have eyes wide open here.

A couple of movies not to see

Don't bother seeing Elizabethtown or North Country .

North Country, in particuilar, is unworthy. "Based on a true story", it ends up being an amalgam of SILKWOOD and THE ACCUSED, with the family unification theme thrown in ("I just want to be able to feed my kids"). Now, certainly, life is real drama -- but the "based on" tells us that the moviemakers found some drama a little too dramatic. Spoiler alert . But, the movie starts being about the mineworker simply wanting to work her job, unmolested -- hello NORMA RAE -- and ends up in a courtroom, where the entire drama hinges upon whether or not one of her attackers, who, coincidentally, she knew in high school, will confirm that she was indeed raped by one of her teachers. The script is a dog.

Go see A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE instead.

Fitgerald Blows the Timing, Cosmic Concordance

Too bad -- Fitgerald blew his chance at a cosmic concordance by lagging on those indictments, to drag Rove, Libby or Cheney into court to plead "not guilty" on the same day as Saddam Hussein.

That would've been a neat trick.

An Arrest Warrant for Tom Delay

A warrant has been issued for Tom Delay's arrest. Bail's been set at $10,000.

NY Daily News Confirms: Bush Knew About Rove & Plame

Daily News story with confirmation from White House sources: Bush knew about Rove's role in the Plame Affair two years ago.

Josh Marshall's item on the story over at the redesigned and markedly-more-debonair TPM (check out that stubble!).

My previous deductions here at 13D go back three months: July 17, July 23, October 14. Bob also contributed some commentary.

Plame Game - Final Days

One of the strategies taken by conservative commentators throughout L'Affaire Plame has been to insist that "there is no there there" - that is, that Valerie Plame was not "really" a covert operative, that the Intelligence Identities Protection Act represents an unconvictable statute, that "all is fair" in love, war and domestic politics, and so forth. Usually, these arguments walk hand-in-hand with an enumeration of the lies which Amb. Wilson is alleged to have told in his NYT Op-Ed and following public appearances (plus - did you hear he worked for the Kerry campaign?).

For example, I am informed (via Salon) that John Tierney engages in this rhetorical strategy today within the gated community of the NYTSelect.

Apart from the facts that (1) By attempting to smear Wilson at the same time that they allege no harm done, these commentators undermine their own case - since if there is no crime, there is no victim, and no need to smear same; and (2) The CIA made the initiating criminal referral to the Justice Department, would not have done so if no crime were committed, and presumably know better than anyone else whether Valerie Plame was "truly" covert or not; we now have (3) Another iron-clad argument that proves - proves - that somewhere in the machinations against Wilson/Plame lies a true crime.

Namely, we now have the cover-up. I am not talking about the various public statements, now revealed to be lies, that were made by Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Scott McClellan, and the President. Lying to the American people is their stock in trade (apparently). No - I am talking about lying to Federal investigators, which is a Federal crime. According to news reports, both Rove and Libby have been caught in lies made to investigators or the Plame grand jury.

If there was indeed "no crime" then this was the dumbest thing they could have done - they told a lie, which was a crime, to protect themselves from... nothing. These men are not dumb, and they know the ins and outs of the law. Whether or not the IIPA is provably unconvictable, it is a very tough statute to get a conviction from. So long as they told the truth - or took the fifth! - in response to every question, they had nothing to fear... as long as there was no original crime.

The fact of the cover-up therefore proves the existence of that original crime.

Old Time Miers Friends Judge Kinkeade and Justice Hecht Say: Heck Yeah, Miers will Overturn Roe v. Wade

Online, from notes in a conference call of the Arlington 60. The White House told Dobson to talk to these guys, they know Harriet Miers.

Update on Rich's WHIG artlce!

It's Free Online! NYTimes may have made an error, in that I found an obscurely placed link to an unprotected version. Everywhere else, it's marked "TS".

Frank Rich gets the WHIGs

Over at the OpEds, Frank Rich is writing about the White House Iraq Group.

I'm *dying* to read this. I'm *this* close to caving.

Conspiracy in the White House

I just wanted to make a note, for the record. As Patrick Fitzgerald prepares to indict senior Administration officials, it is reported that he may choose to indict them under criminal conspiracy charges. Namely, a felony was committed - the leaking of the name and covert operative status of Valerie Plame Wilson - and several members of the Administration, including Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, and Ari Fleischer, were involved. So this is prima facie a conspiracy if he gets indictments on two or more of these. (The smearing of Joe Wilson was basically a self-anointed task of the WHIG group.)

As I have argued in these pages, the President himself has been aware for more than two years of Karl Rove's involvement in this conspiracy. To my knowledge, he has not during this time cooperated with the Fitzgerald investigation, or reported his knowledge of Rove's involvement to proper authorities.

In other words, if there is a criminal conspiracy, our President himself is an accessory after the fact - if not a co-conspirator.

Facing revolt, White House touts Miers "experience" - Reuters

Reuters article. The content isn't that interesting -- but what is interesting is that Reuters decided, when talking about Miers experience, to put it inside quotation marks.

Don't Worry! Yachts And Caviar Are Still Cheap!

Inflation Surges to Highest Monthly Rate in 25 Years - New York Times: "The much-watched consumer price index, which has been on a far more steady rise through much of the year, surged at a pace not seen since March 1980. But in a sign that the price of most goods remain restrained through much of the economy, the Labor Department reported that the excluding the energy and food sectors, the index only rose 0.1 percent."

So, other than food, heat and gasoline, nothing's increased in price!

*Big* sigh of relief in the White House.

"

Wow! What an Endorsement

No less a person than the former special assisatant to the President and Deputy Director of Speechwriting (2001-2004) comes out for Harriet Miers in this NYTimes OpEd, declaring "what America got is a nominee of enormous legal ability and ferocious integrity, and in the bargain a gracious Christian woman only more qualified for her new role because she would never have sought it for herself." Where do they dig these guys up?

In case you haven't noticed: The reason "Christian" is appearing everywhere now is, in case her nomination fails, so the Wingnuts can scream "Anti-Christian Bigotry!"

The White House Iraq Group (WHIGS) -- An Historic Group

You had better read this story. It will probably determine what happens politically in the US for the next 2 years. Skip past the Cheney parts -- that's not so interesting. [Raw Story]

Ever hear of the White House Iraq Group, or Whigs? Me neither. But, we will be hearing a lot about them from now on. Better bone up:

The Whigs were formed in August 2002 by Cheif of Staff Andrew Card for the express purpose of developing, coordinating and deploying political strategy to sell the Iraq war --- which began with invasion in March 2003 -- to the American People. Let's repeat that -- the war which Bush was claiming could lhave been avoided the night before it occurred was being pushed politicallly by this group beginning eight months before.

It's membership included: Special Assistant to the President Karl Rove (Chairman), Chief of Staff to the Vice president Scooter Libby, National Seciruty Advisor Condoleezza Rice (now Secretary of State), external advisor Karen Hughes (now Deputy Secretary of State), Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley (now National Security Advisor), Deputy Director of Communications James Wilkinson, Assistant to the President and Legislative Liaison Nicholas Calio.

There were meetings, conferences, group emails. They set about writing reports to put together all the "information" we received through the press about Iraq's WMD. They coordinated the propoganda effort within the whitehouse -- which includes, everything.

They fed Judith Miller her first story on the aluminum tubes they alleged were for centerfuges (they weren't technically capable of being centerfuge parts); Miller took her information from them, anonymously sourcing them -- and then quoting them explicitly too, as if they were independent sources (these were the stories which the NYTimes has now disavowed as being wrongly sourced).

Bush, the Dick

[Can you believe this guy?]: "Mr. Bush joked late last year with Matthew Cooper, a reporter for Time magazine, about why Mr. Cooper was not yet in jail for fighting a subpoena demanding that he testify about a conversation with a source who later turned out to be Mr. Rove."

He openly mocked the journalist who was protecting the ass of his senior advisor.

Margaret Thatcher: Against the Iraq War

You get your quotes where you can find them. Thatcher (famous for stiffening George Senior's spine with "don't go all wobbly on me, George" prior to the Gulf war) is quoted (second hand) about the wisdom of the Iraq war in this WaPost OpEd by Tina Brown: "The former chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain, Lord Palumbo, who lunched with Mrs. T six months ago, told me recently what she said when he asked her if, given the intelligence at the time, she would have made the decision to invade Iraq. 'I was a scientist before I was a politician, Peter,' she told him carefully. 'And as a scientist I know you need facts, evidence and proof -- and then you check, recheck and check again. The fact was that there were no facts, there was no evidence, and there was no proof. As a politician the most serious decision you can take is to commit your armed services to war from which they may not return.'"

I'm Calling 'Bullshit' on NYTimes Select

According to the Times 'Most Emailed Articles' list, Maureen Dowd's Oct 12 Column 'To Sir, With Love' is the Times' most emailed article in the last 24 hours.

Bullshit. The upshot of duck-girl's article: 'Scooter and Karl leak Harriet Miers's missives to President Bush.' In other words, one of her idiotic "channeling" articles, in which (here) she pretends she's a fawning Harriet Miers writing George Bush. Dowd's columns of this type -- a form perfected by William Safire, who didn't do it to mock someone, but instead to say what he thought Nixon or Sharon might say if they had the opportunity -- have always been simpering awful. No one is emailing this around. No chance.

Certainly not more than the OpEd article suggesting we let infants run around in split-pants, such as the Chinese do.

The Times is padding it's "popularity" list in order to sell NYTimes Select. ('Gosh! what are we missing?').

Bet with Steve and Bob

Resolved: If Dick Cheney is indicted while serving as Vice President, he will step down within 2 weeks.

Pro: Bob
Con: Steve

Terms: one Luxury Caffienated Beverage

Bob also points out: who would be top contender for VP? What about John McCain?

Blogs: Way Too Public

[WaPost]It seems that some bloggers are finding out that their blogs are being read.

Gosh, wouldn't that be a nice problem to have.

If I Were Conservative, I'd be Really Angry Too.

We know how angry all the conservatives are with Bush. After all, instead of picking a heavy-weight conservative academic for the Supreme Court, he picked the Church Lady.

Maybe that's not very nice to point out, but consider the ramifications for the right:

• She has no tried-and-true bedrock judicial principles -- never having been a judge -- which probably couldn't be spun out of her in a 10 minute whirl-wind conversation with liberal academic juggernaut Ginsberg. She wouldn't even know what hit her. Ginsberg can quote precedent and history till the cows come home. Miers would totally Souter in that position.
  
• Even if Miers doesn't Souter, and keeps to her religious principles of being anti-abortion, religious principles are not going to hold up on a 40 year timescale. So, if Miers gets on the court, and starts saying, "Yeah, and God says, no abortion neither", Chief Justice Roberts is going to say, "um, right. Okay. So, I guess you are going to want to write your own opinion then?" and so she does. Which then gets ignored a generation down the line, and which -- even if Roe v. Wade were revisited with a 5-4 against outcome, would completely undermine the precedent.
  

Tooo bad for all those conservatives. They made the devils' bargain with the Wingnuts to get Bush into office, and lo and behold, it's the Wingnuts who get their Supreme Court position, not them.

Where We're Going With This: Bush Off The Cliff

Judith Miller testified for the second time in front of the Grand Jury today. Libby and Rove are going to have additional shots.

Where is this all going? Well, it seems inevitable that, at the present rate, we will be (perhaps not soon) having Rove on a witness stand in court answering charges. And, you can bet, the question will be put to him: "Why did you, acting as Special Advisor to the President, feel the need to specifically discredit critics of the President's policy to go to war in Iraq?"

With the country polling at >50%, saying that Bush should be impeached if it should become public that he lied to send us to war in Iraq, this could be a very, very interesting trial.

Kinda Interesting

This blog (elsewhere) makes an interesting description of what may be the tribal warfare between the Office of the President (Rove and Bush) and office of the Vice President (Libby and Cheney), making the case that that Cheney has been MIA for months, and isn't responding to the President's calls.

NYTSelect subscribers: Possibly more than zero, definitely less than 100,000

Over at Slate, Mickey Kaus points out the first sign of chest-thumping by NYT Editor-in-Chief Bill Keller regarding NYTSelect (as reported by BusinessWeek):

Keller hailed early returns on TimesSelect, which grants online access to the paper's columnists only to Times subscribers and those who pay $49.95 a year, saying a "couple hundred thousand people" have signed on for the service. However, a Times spokeswoman later clarified this figure, explaining that it includes current Times subscribers, who get TimesSelect for free, saying that the paper was not disclosing how many people were paying for TimesSelect.

A couple of points. First, as chest-thumping goes, this is pretty mild stuff. Where is he comparing the revenue to projections, or to the haul provided by WSJ subscribers (his self-termed arch-rivals)? Next, his unqualified reference to a "couple hundred thousand" subscribers provokes the natural question: How many print subscribers to the NYT are there, exactly? Answer: 1.25 million. Thus, Herr Keller's claim amounts to a statement that 1 of 6 print subscribers have signed up for NYTSelect. In the absence of other evidence, I'm assuming that the number of those who are actually paying for the service, rather than leaping the hurdles to (free) online access via their print subscription, are negligible. Thus my inference that since Keller claims ~200,000 subscribers, less than half (and in fact, probably less than 20%) are actually anteing up for the service.

N.B. 100,000 is a key number because Martin Nisenholtz at NYTDigital has stated in advance that they were looking for this kind of buy-in from the public to justify the service - see this pre-launch story at Editor & Publisher.

A Very Long Game

The Houston Astros just beat the Atlanta Braves in an 18 inning, 5 hour, 50 minute game to win the first round of the playoffs. The 10th through 17th innings were completely scoreless. I'm so glad I wasn't watching that game.

Judith Miller To Blow Wide, Wide Open. Fitzgerald Is Going to Indict Her.

Check it.

Patrick Fitzgerald has just staged a prosecutorial coup. He apparently got Judith miller to lie on the stand last Friday, in front of the grand jury. He then called her lawyer, said "Why is your client lying?" -- and now, Judith Miller suddenly admits to having had the June conversations --- earlier conversations with Scooter Libby than she's ever admitted before. It also means she could be tried as a co-conspirator.

Seems that while Miller languished in prison, Fitzgeraled found out somehow that Miller talked to Scooter back in June, earlier than July as she had previously admitted. So, he promised to restrict his questions to her about Scooter Libby only, she got sprung from prison, and testified. Then, he got her to answer questions under oath which indicated she had not spoken to Libby before July. After her testimony, Fitzgerald called her lawyer and asked: "Why did your client lie about the June Meetings?", to which the lawyer and Miller repsonded by suddenly discovering and turning over her notes about that meeting to Fitzgerald. In only a few hours. Now that's fast-faxing.

Now, it's all well and good when the questions put to you in front of a grand jury allow you to keep limited answers. But it's a no-no to commit perjury in front of a grand jury. It makes you look like a co-conspirator.

So, what do you think Fitzgerald will do in this case? I'll tell you: he'll indict her. And she could chose to continue her "I'm a journalist, and will say nothing" pose, or she could turn state's evidence and talk -- not only about Scooter, but about anybody and everybody she spoke to about Joseph Wilson's wife.

Oh, and if Scooter Libby talked to Miller in June about Wilson and Plame? It would demonstrate a long-running attempt to discredit Wilson, rather than the "four days in July, knee-jerk reaction, no-conspiracy-here" claim Scooter and Rove have been claiming.

Freaky Scary: Bush Jaw Spasms

AMERICAblog points out that Bush has suddenly started having jaw spasms at the end of every sentence. ( Video here ). They state that this is a symptom of someone addicted to cocaine or alchohol.

Whatever it is, it's a bloody frequent and scary tic.

HUGE: Senator Brownback is not on Board with Miers for Supreme Court (yet)

[NYTimes]
This is huge, because Sen Brownback is of Kansas, and is discussed at length in "What's the Matter with Kansas", where he is described as a Republican "Con" -- a conservative elected as the Kansas' moderates were swept out of office by religious conservatives who took over the Kansas GOPs (he's also a member of the Judiciary Committee, which must approve her nomination for it to be voted on by the full Senate). It explains that he was converted to the anti-abortion cause late in life (ahem) and is likely a political opportunist taking advantage of religious conservatives zeal, and making the most of the "promising the undeliverable" bargain that Republicans have with religious conservatives (i.e., GOP politicians promise to repeal abortion, and are foiled at every turn, which fuels their outrage, which fires up their base, which re-elects them, etc. etc.)

So what does it mean when he says "Ms. Miers had not persuaded him to vote to confirm her"? He left his meeting, he says, not convinced she would overturn Roe v. Wade. As one who speaks for the religious right, his lack of backing is shocking -- it's the academic conservatives (think tanks, etc) who have been against her. Brownback will run for President in 2008, and likely wants Roe v. Wade un-repealed so that his base is still fired up. If he votes to kill her in committee, he could see other GOPers follow his lead.

Wow.

DeLay Still In Power in the House

In the day of Lyndon Johnson, Tip O'Neill, the Speaker of the House was the leader of the Majority Party in the House, setting the agenda, and determining the legislative direction. Not any more.

Even though DeLay has been indicted and forced to relinquish his title as Majority Leader, he's still in charge. How do we know?

Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert nominated "Rep. David Dreier of California, chairman of the Rules Committee and an affable leader who would step aside should DeLay be cleared and seek to return to his post."([see Baltimore Sun article]). And how many votes did he receive in the GOP House Caucus? ZERO. None. Nada. The House Speaker's hand-picked candidate got no support from the membership.

ALL votes when to Roy Blunt of Missouri -- who is now the Majority Speaker. And who is Roy Blunt? Well, we now know that Roy Blunt is a congressman who took $150K from DeLay -- who had ostensibly raised the money from corporate donors not for political purposes, but to pay for "entertainment at the 2004 Republican National Convention." National Election Law takes a dim view of raising money not for political purposes (which the Federal Election Commission does not control) and then using it for political purposes (which it does).

So, it was DeLay's co-conspirator in dirty money-laundering scandal who is now the Majority Leader.

And the guy is toast.

Our Own Derek Fox in the New York Times

In case you missed the article, here it is.

Senator Reid: Bush is Still Hallucinating

[Article]: In response to Bush's speech calling for more American sacrifice to support the Iraq war (as if the $300B price tag weren't enough) Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said Bush failed to outline a strategy for achieving military, political and economic success in Iraq.

'Instead, the president continued to falsely assert there is a link between the war in Iraq and the tragedy of September 11th, a link that did not and does not exist,' he said.

So, in addition to hallucinating, Bush wants us to pay more. Oh, and he threatened Syria and Iran, too, so now we have to support his hallucinations that Syria and Iran are related to Sept 11.

More GOP Corruption: DeLay and Blunt

[News Article]
After Tom DeLay had to step down as House Majority Leader because of his indictment in Texas, Missouri Senator Roy Blunt (R -- what else?) took his place.

The AP reports that, examining public fundraising records finds the following:

• After raising "too much money" for entertainment expenses for the June 2000 Republican National Convention, DeLay transferred $50,000 of that on March 31st 2000 (way before the convention) to Roy Blunt's "Rely on Your Beliefs Fund" (this, while both funds were run by the same guy -- Jim Ellis -- who was indicted with DeLay in Texas). Eight days later, Blunt's fund gave $10K to DeLay's personal chairty for children, and started payments which totaled $40K to a political consulting firm run by DeLay's former chief of staff, and which employs DeLay's wife (note to Rove: see how I'm not naming names?). If you're keeping score at home: $10K+$40K=$50K -- the amount of DeLay's transfer. Blunt says he had no idea DeLay's wife worked for that consulting firm, and that it was just a coincidence.
  
  
• Later, on May 24 2000 (still way before the convention), DeLay's convention fundraising group transferred $100k to Blunt's group. Then, over the next three weeks, Blunt's group donated this $100K to the Missouri Republican Party. The next month, Missouri GOP began spending lots of $$ to aid Blunt's son's candidacy for Missouri Secretary of State. Blunt says Missouri's GOP's support of his son after his donation is a coincidence.
  

Natch, this scenario raises bells to anyone who remembers back when the House ethics committee found that DeLay offered (allegedly) $100K to help former Congressman Nick Smith's son Brad, who was running for Congress at the time, in exchange for Smith's vote on the Medicare prescription drug bill. The House Ethics Committee gave DeLay a public admonishment. Smith originally claimed that DeLay mentioned $100,000 in contributions, but later stated that no specific figure was mentioned. (Roll Call, 11/22/04)

This raises the question: now that Blunt -- who is just as dirty as DeLay with filthy corrupt fundraising scandal -- is the House Majority Leader, are the Republicans capable of finding anyone in the House who isn't mired in scandal and corruption?

White House in Full Flight

The White House is drowning. Here's a rundown:

• Conservatives are pissed about the Miers nomination. They see themselves as part of a 30-year long intellectual effort, and what Bush has done is appoint The Church Lady, ready to do her Superiority Dance on the bench. [WaPost] "Is she the most qualified person? Clearly, the answer to that is 'no,' " Trent Lott said on MSNBC's "Hardball," contradicting Bush's assertion. Their point is simple: they expected an conservative intellectual heavyweight equal to balancing the liberal muscle of Bader Ginsburg, and Miers is decidedly not. She is therefore highly vulnerable, if confirmed, to the well-grounded argumentation of Ginsburg, and so could be turned. Natch.
  
• The Senate is defying the White House to veto its defense bill, as Bush said he would, by passing on a 90-9 vote rules setting limits on interrogating detainees. Thanks for the spine, folks. [WaPost] McCain mourns "what we lose when by official policy or by official negligence we allow, confuse or encourage our soldiers to forget . . . that which is our greatest strength: that we are different and better than our enemies."
  
• Now that Judith Miller has testified, Fitzpatrick has said that this wraps up his investigation into the Plame affair, and his charge to investigate expires at the end of the month. He will signal today or tommorrow if he will obtain indictments, by naming targets of the Grandy Jury's investigation, expected to be Scooter Libby and/or Karl Rove. [reuters]
  
• Bush's body-man in the Senate, Bill Frist, is presently under SEC investigation for insider trading, and so is weakened in political standing. This, simultaneous with the loss of long-time Bush ally Tom DeLay in the House, leads to a congress whose reigns in the White House have been practically cut.
  
  Looking like a hard October for the Hizzuzis.

Miers is long-time anti-abortion

The Seattle Times: One evening in the 1980s, several years after Miers dedicated her life to Jesus, she attended a lecture at her church with Nathan Hecht, her companion, then a colleague at her law firm. The speaker was Paul Brand, a surgeon and the author of "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made," a best-selling exploration of God and the human body.

Afterward, Hecht said, Miers said words he never had heard from her before. "I'm convinced that life begins at conception," Hecht recalled her saying. According to Hecht, Miers has believed ever since that abortion is "taking a life."

"I know she is pro-life," said Hecht, one of the most conservative judges in Texas. "She thinks that after conception, it's not a balancing act — or if it is, it's a balancing of two equal lives."

....

Miers' campaign manager in her race for the Dallas City Council in 1989, Lorlee Bartos, recalled she was surprised to learn that her candidate was opposed to abortion rights.

"I wanted her to meet with a group of pro-choice women, and she said she wasn't pro-choice," Bartos said. "She said she had been pro-choice but had changed her view."

Said her friend Ed Kinkeade, a federal district judge: "People in Dallas know she's a conservative. She's not Elmer Gantry, but she lives what she believes. ... I'm like, y'all, has George Bush appointed anyone to an appellate court that is a betrayal to conservatives?"

Bush: "I have No Litmus Test"

Bush's first news conference since May is going on right now. A reporter just put it to him directly (paraphrased):

Q: Since you've known Miers for over ten years, it seems reasonable that you would have talked about her views on abortion, or gleaned from your conversations with her her views on abortion. Have you discussed abortion with the nominee?

Bush: I have no litmus test....

Q: But have you gleaned her opinion on abortion?

Bush: Not to my recollection, I've never sat down with her...

People Magazine for Scientists

Beginning this issue, Nature magazine is running short columns which give personal details on the lives and
research of authors of their journal articles. Called Authors, this week's issue tells of a scientist
and his study of the formation of sand dunes.

Miller's Martyrdom Complex

Seeing that Miller had public and private assurances from Libby that she did not have to honor any implied confidence of his, why did she go to jail for 85 days? Dan Froomkin gives the likely answer: so that she could convert herself from a journalistic pariah for her influential pre-war reporting about Iraq's WMD using a source who turned out to be a relative of the unreliable Chalabi into a martyr.

How nice.