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Happy 4th of July Weekend

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:30:00 +0000

My time's just about up filling in for the venerable Alex Koppelman this week. Alex will be out again next week, but the estimable Ed Kilgore, managing editor of the Democratic Strategist, will be here on Monday.

Before I go, I wanted to take a moment to thank Alex and Salon's team of editors for their support and assistance. They do great work day in and day out, and I was delighted to be a temporary part of the team.

Thanks also to War Room readers for the support and encouragement. Feel free to stop by my regular digs anytime.

I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Fourth of July weekend.

Obama will “continue to refine” Iraq policy

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:34:00 +0000

Barack Obama's comments on Iraq in Fargo, N.D., are drawing quite a bit of attention, but if the news accounts are an accurate reflection of what he said, I'm not sure if there's anything especially unusual about his remarks.

"I've always said that the pace of withdrawal would be dictated by the safety and security of our troops and the need to maintain stability. That assessment has not changed," he said. "And when I go to Iraq and have a chance to talk to some of the commanders on the ground, I'm sure I'll have more information and will continue to refine my policies."
As he arrived for a campaign stop in North Dakota, Mr. Obama told reporters on Thursday that he intended to conduct "a thorough assessment" of his Iraq policy during a forthcoming trip to the country.
"My 16-month timeline, if you examine everything that I've said, was always premised on making sure that our troops were safe," he said. "I said that based on the information that we had received from our commanders that one to two brigades a month could be pulled out safely, from a logistical perspective. My guiding approach continues to be that we've got to make sure that our troops are safe and that Iraq is stable."
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The drilling myth that just won’t die

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:45:00 +0000

About a month ago, as the debate over coastal drilling began in earnest, Dick Cheney pushed the rhetorical envelope a bit, telling the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that "oil is being drilled right now 60 miles off the coast of Florida. We're not doing it. The Chinese are in cooperation with the Cuban government ... Even the communists have figured out that a good answer to high prices is more supply. Yet Congress has said ... no to drilling off Florida."

It has been a common Republican talking point, but it's patently false -- the Chinese are not drilling off Cuba's coasts. The day after Cheney made the bogus claim, the V.P.'s office acknowledged that he was mistaken.

And yet, for some reason, high-profile Republicans can't stop repeating the claim that's already been debunked. Maybe conservatives have decided that they can't win a debate on energy policy on the merits, so misleading people about communists stealing our oil is the better strategy. Here's failed presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani talking to CNN's resident right-winger, Glenn Beck, Wednesday night:

Fox News stoops to digital graffiti

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:16:00 +0000

It's pretty common for children to take pictures of people they don't like and manipulate them, perhaps with crayons. They'll black-out a tooth, draw a mustache, add glasses, draw earrings, etc.

What's breathtaking, however, is when a major news outlet acts the exact same way, only instead of children with crayons, we have Fox News using Photoshop. If you haven't seen this video, by way of Media Matters, be sure to take a look.

You'll notice in the clip that the hosts of Fox News' "Fox & Friends," Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade, are complaining about an alleged "hit piece" on the Republican network, published in the New York Times by Jacques Steinberg and Steven Reddicliffe. They showed pictures of both Times journalists.

The religious right warms up to McCain

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:03:00 +0000

It's hard to overstate the extent to which the religious-right movement and its leaders have not gotten along with John McCain. It's not just that they preferred other candidates during the Republican primaries; it's that they actively and publicly hated the guy.

Consider an example. In October, the Family Research Council hosted a "Values Voter Summit," and nearly all Republican candidates showed up to kiss the movement's ring, touting their faith and their commitment to religious-right issues. At the end of the conference, organizers held a straw poll -- and McCain came in dead last with just 1.4 percent support. McCain did even worse than Rudy Giuliani, who supports abortion rights and gay rights.

Not enough? How about this -- James Dobson issued a statement in February, insisting he would not vote for McCain in the general election and would stay home if McCain was the GOP nominee. For that matter, Pat Robertson has said he would not vote for McCain "under any circumstances." Dobson and Robertson, of course, are the movement's two biggest, most well-known leaders.

Thursday’s campaign roundup

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:05:00 +0000

Today's installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn't generate a post of their own but may be of interest to political observers:

* Barack Obama unveiled his policy on national service Wednesday at an event in Colorado.

* In a new Time magazine poll of U.S. Roman Catholics, John McCain enjoys the narrowest of leads, 45 percent to 44 percent.

* An "independent" arm of the Republican National Committee will spend $3 million on TV ads in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, starting Sunday. The ads will focus on energy policy.

* McCain's allies have found another loophole in the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, and will funnel funds through the Republican Governors Association.

Bush vows more troops for Afghanistan, but Mullen doesn’t have them

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:05:00 +0000

For the second consecutive month, more U.S. troops were killed in Afghanistan than in Iraq. Nearly seven years after the war in Afghanistan began, June was the deadliest month for U.S. troops there, and our force levels in the country are now at their highest since the war began. All of this, tragically, comes a few years after the president assured Americans that the Taliban "no longer is in existence."

With conditions worsening, the White House now believes it's time to send more U.S. troops into Afghanistan before the end of the year. "We're going to increase troops by 2009," President Bush said, without elaboration.

As it happens, that might be easier said than done. Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he doesn't have the troops for Afghanistan, until he can pull them out of Iraq.

Another discouraging month on the jobs front

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:01:00 +0000

The latest employment figures were released Thursday morning, and the news was less than encouraging.

Employers cut payrolls by 62,000 in June, the sixth straight month of nationwide job losses, underscoring the economy's fragile state ... Heavy job losses in construction, manufacturing and financial services, along with cutbacks in retailing, eclipsed job gains in education and health services, leisure and hospitality, and government.
Job losses in both April and May turned out to be considerably deeper than had been thought. Payrolls dropped by 67,000 in April, versus the 28,000 previously reported. And, losses in May came to 62,000, rather than the 49,000 initially estimated.
So far this year, the economy has lost a total of 438,000 jobs, an average of 73,000 a month.
The McCain campaign quickly issued a press statement after the release of the data, arguing that we should be careful not to stray from the economic agenda of the last eight years. Complaining about the prospect of tax increases, regulation and tighter controls on trade, McCain said, "The American people cannot afford an economic agenda that will take our country in the wrong direction and cost jobs."
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McCain reboots, gives rise to the Rovians

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:48:00 +0000

After effectively securing the Republican nomination in early February, and officially crossing the delegate threshold in early March, John McCain had plenty of time to shape a general election game plan, decide on a message, and put a campaign infrastructure in place while Democrats continued the longest nominating fight in American history.

In that time, McCain pulled together a cadre of high-priced D.C. lobbyists to get his campaign on track. That is, until Wednesday afternoon, when we learned that Steve Schmidt was replacing Rick Davis as McCain's campaign manager. What was not immediately apparent, however, was that McCain has effectively rebooted his entire campaign operation, abandoned the structure it worked for months to create and given rise to Karl Rove's acolytes.

Senator John McCain's presidential campaign has gone through its second shake-up in a year. Responding to Republican concerns that his candidacy was faltering, Mr. McCain put a veteran of President Bush's 2004 campaign in charge of day-to-day operations, and stepped away from a plan to have the campaign run by 11 regional managers, Mr. McCain's aides said Wednesday.
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Betancourt freed in Colombia

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:45:00 +0000

Good news out of Colombia this afternoon.

Colombia freed Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military contractors from leftist guerrillas on Wednesday, saying military spies tricked rebels into giving them up without a single shot fired.
Betancourt, who was seized while campaigning for president six long years ago, called her surprise rescue "absolutely impeccable" and said she and 14 other hostages had no idea they were being rescued until they were airborne in disguised military helicopters.
"They got us out grandly," Betancourt told Colombian army radio.
Eleven Colombian police and soldiers were also freed in the rescue, the most serious blow ever dealt to the 44-year-old Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which considered the four hostages their most valuable bargaining chips. The FARC continues to reel from the deaths of key commanders and the loss of much of the territory it once held.
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McCain bristles at Vietnam question

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:05:00 +0000

The New Republic's Michael Crowley, commenting on the still-inexplicable Wesley Clark flap, noted today, "I do think the whole episode was bad for Obama in the short term, although if it plants seeds with MSM editors to think more critically about McCain's military experience down the road that would be substantially mitigating."

That sounds about right. The whole point of Clark's comments, which he has been emphasizing for quite some time, is that John McCain's military service during the war in Vietnam, while obviously honorable, is not necessarily a presidential qualification, despite what the McCain campaign would have us believe. If news outlets stop to consider this point, just a little, in the midst of its Clark free-for-all, this might help change the nature of the discussion.

Consider what happened earlier today, while McCain was talking to reporters on a plane over Colombia, South America. The Clark subject came up, and McCain urged Obama to "cut him loose." Then, ABC News' David Wright explained, things got rather tense.

Why copy the communists?

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:00:00 +0000

It's not that U.S. interrogators were winging it with detainees at Guantánamo Bay, without any guidelines or suggested tactics; it's that the interrogators were given the wrong model to follow. Trainers ended up using, "Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions From Air Force Prisoners of War."

The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of "coercive management techniques" for possible use on prisoners, including "sleep deprivation," "prolonged constraint," and "exposure."
What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners.
The recycled chart is the latest and most vivid evidence of the way Communist interrogation methods that the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations both by the military at the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and by the Central Intelligence Agency.
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Matthew 25 Network takes its message to Christian radio

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:59:00 +0000

There's a new religious political action committee, the Matthew 25 Network, that may very well have an impact on the political scene this year, far more than any religious progressives have had in quite a while.

To briefly review, the Matthew 25 Network is spearheaded by Mara Vanderslice, who served as director of religious outreach for Kerry-Edwards in 2004, and who has been active in encouraging Democratic candidates to discuss matters of spirituality more openly on the campaign trail. (The name of the project comes from the 25th chapter of the biblical book of Matthew.)

The PAC's efforts have been kept under wraps for a while, but we learned this week about the group's first initiative -- a minute-long ad that will begin airing on Christian radio stations, starting in Colorado Springs, best known for being home to James Dobson and Focus on the Family.

Another major staff shake-up in the McCain campaign

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:58:00 +0000

The perception in Republican circles is that John McCain's campaign has been slow to take advantage of various opportunities, lacks focus and has generally been unimpressive as the general election phase of the race has gotten under way over the past month.

Given the intraparty grumbling, it probably shouldn't come as too big a surprise that McCain has made another staffing change at the top, the second major shake-up in a year.

Steve Schmidt is taking over the day-to-day operation of John McCain's campaign, according to multiple campaign sources.
At a staff meeting in the campaign's Arlington, Va., headquarters this morning, campaign manager Rick Davis made the announcement about Schmidt's new role.
According to reports, Schmidt will now handle the responsibilities of a campaign manager -- coordinating the campaign's message and overseeing scheduling, policy matters, coalitions and campaign surrogates. Lobbyist Rick Davis, who had these responsibilities until Wednesday, will reportedly tackle "big-picture issues such as general strategy," which I thought was Charlie Black's job.
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McCain plays dumb

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:00:00 +0000

Earlier this year, in a nationally televised debate, Tim Russert confronted John McCain with some of his inconvenient admissions about the economy: "You have said repeatedly, 'I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues.'" McCain was incredulous and dismissive, "Actually, I don't know where you got that quote from."

Soon after, McCain appeared on "Meet the Press," and Russert returned to the subject and responded to McCain's slight ("I got [the quote] from John McCain"), highlighting McCain's record of admissions about economic ignorance. "OK," McCain said, no longer able to deny reality, "Let me tell you what I was trying to say and what I meant."

Wednesday morning, in a disconcerting example of dishonesty, McCain went back to pretending his quote collection doesn't exist.

Wednesday’s campaign roundup

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:58:00 +0000

Today's installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn't generate a post of their own but may be of interest to political observers:

* If the McCain campaign wants to do more to distance McCain from Bush, it probably shouldn't send out pictures of McCain and Bush standing side by side.

* McCain blasted Barack Obama Tuesday for not having voted to confirm Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. When McCain learned that Joe Lieberman had also voted against Alito's confirmation, McCain decided it was time to change the subject.

* Was Obama hinting about his V.P. intentions Tuesday?

* Why is McCain accepting major financial support from an accused sponsor of terrorists?

* It looks like reports of Obama's difficulties with Latino voters have been greatly exaggerated.

GOP looks to November and plays defense

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:01:00 +0000

The congressional campaign committees for both major parties create target lists of key, competitive races. The idea, of course, is to find the defining contests that the parties see as vital to the strength and size of their caucuses.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has its Red to Blue initiative, while the National Republican Congressional Committee has launched its Regain Our Majority Program, or "ROMP." As of now, there are 236 Democrats and 199 Republicans in the House, and if either side is going to improve their numbers, it's going to start with these targets.

But you can learn a lot about the political landscape by taking a closer look at the parties' lists. The DCCC's Red to Blue, as the name implies, features 38 House campaigns in districts currently held by Republicans. The goal, obviously, is for Dems to build on their House majority.

So, are Republicans thinking along the same lines? Not so much.

Obama’s mortgage stirs smoke, but no fire

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:02:00 +0000

In recent weeks we've seen some controversies, most notably surrounding Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Kent Conrad, D-N.D, in which certain politicians received dubious mortgage discounts, thanks to personal connections.

Based on the evidence, it looks like this is far more benign.

Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois.
The freshman Democratic senator received a discount. He locked in an interest rate of 5.625 percent on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, below the average for such loans at the time in Chicago. The loan was unusually large, known in banker lingo as a "super super jumbo." Obama paid no origination fee or discount points, as some consumers do to reduce their interest rates.
Compared with the average terms offered at the time in Chicago, Obama's rate could have saved him more than $300 per month.
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Americans “very concerned” about McCain, Bush similarities

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:50:00 +0000

Ask the typical Democratic consultant to describe John McCain, and you'll almost certainly hear the same three words: "Bush's third term." McCain's campaign is clearly aware of the problem, and has taken halfhearted steps to argue that the senator may agree with President Bush on almost everything, but not literally everything.

Has McCain's push-back been effective? It doesn't look like it.

A recent USA Today/Gallup poll finds about two in three Americans concerned that John McCain would pursue policies as president that are too similar to what George W. Bush has pursued. Nearly half -- 49% -- say they are "very concerned" about this.
Indeed, an additional 19 percent identified themselves as "somewhat concerned" about McCain pursuing policies that are "too similar" to Bush's agenda, for a combined 68 percent of Americans who aren't entirely comfortable with the notion of McCain being an agent of much-needed change.
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Department of Pots and Kettles

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:19:00 +0000

For some reason, the White House feels comfortable accusing Congress of not working hard enough.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Tuesday that Senate Democrats "put off a lot of work" when they left town last week without passing several pending bills.
"They've been in session for a long time, and some very critical pieces of legislation got put off for yet another recess," Fratto said.
This, of course, is hilarious, given the source.

"The Daily Show" turned its attention Wednesday [Aug. 17, 2007] to presidential vacations, commenting briefly on French President Nicolas Sarkozy's visit to President Bush in Kennebunkport before asking "Senior Western White House Correspondent" Samantha Bee about Bush's return to Crawford, TX.
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