Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

Iraq: Why Won’t They Obey?

by tristero

First, Sistani gets a personal letter from His Emperor-ness, George Bush himself. Then, God’s Avatar On Earth deigns to send a high official over to Iraq so close to His heart, she once unthinkingly called Him “my husband.” One would think they’d get the message: Do as your told!

But no. Sistani doesn’t bother even to get Young Churchill’s immortal words translated. As for the effectiveness of Rice’s visit, read on:

A top adviser to Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said Wednesday that the visit this week by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw of Britain had backfired, prolonging a deadlock over a new government and strengthening Mr. Jaafari’s resolve to keep his post.

“Pressure from outside is not helping to speed up any solution,” said the adviser, Haider al-Abadi. “All it’s doing is hardening the position of people who are supporting Jaafari.”

He added, “They shouldn’t have come to Baghdad.”

His comments were echoed by several political leaders on Wednesday, including Kurds and Sunni Arabs.

Mr. Jaafari was nominated by the main Shiite political bloc in February to be prime minister in a new government. But the selection has faced fierce public resistance by a coalition of Sunni Arabs, Kurds, independents and some Shiite leaders.

The visit by Ms. Rice and Mr. Straw appeared to grate even on politicians who oppose Mr. Jaafari. “They complicated the thing, and now it’s more difficult to solve,” said Mahmoud Osman, an independent member of the Kurdistan Alliance, speaking Wednesday about Ms. Rice and Mr. Straw. “They shouldn’t have come, and they shouldn’t have interfered.”

Meanwhile, the killings and the anarchy.

In Baghdad, two car bombs detonated Wednesday afternoon within 20 minutes, killing 3 people and wounding at least 16, an Interior Ministry official said.

Gunmen wearing the uniforms of Interior Ministry commandos and driving ministry vehicles opened fire on guards outside the Baghdad headquarters of the Iraqna cellular phone company, wounding a guard and then abducting him.

[UPDATE: Meanwhile, according to Sidney Blumenthal, State Department reports on the deteriorating situation are being ignored. And that’s not the worst of it:

Under the pretense that Iraq is being pacified, the U.S. military is partially withdrawing from hostile towns in the countryside and parts of Baghdad. By reducing the numbers of soldiers the administration can claim its policy is working going into the midterm elections. But the jobs that the military will no longer perform are being sloughed off onto State Department “provincial reconstruction teams” led by Foreign Service officers. The stated rationale is that the teams will win Iraqi hearts and minds by organizing civil functions.

The Pentagon has informed the State Department that it will not provide security for these officials and that State should hire mercenaries for protection instead. Apparently, the U.S. military and the U.S. Foreign Service do not represent the same country in this exercise in nation-building. Internal State Department documents listing the PRT jobs, dated March 30, reveal that the vast majority of them remain unfilled. So Foreign Service employees are being forced to take the assignments, in which “they can’t do what they are being asked to do,” as a senior State Department official told me…

The State Department was correct in its assessment, contained in the 17-volume “Future of Iraq Project,” of the immense effort required for reconstruction after the war, but it was disregarded. Now the State Department reports from Iraq are correct, but their authors are being punished. Foreign Service officers are to be sent out like tethered goats to the killing fields. When these misbegotten projects inevitably fail, as those inside State expect, the department will be blamed. The passive resistance to these assignments by Foreign Service officers reflects informed anticipation of impending disaster, including the likely murders of diplomats.

Amid this internal crisis of credibility, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has washed her hands of her department. Her management skills are minimal. She has left coercing people to fill the PRTs to her counselor, Philip Zelikow, who, by doing the dirty work, is trying to keep her reputation clean…

“Did you ever imagine in your wildest dreams that after Vietnam we’d be doing this again?” one top State Department official remarked to another last week. Inside the department people wonder about the next “strategy” after the hearts-and-minds gambit of sending diplomats unprotected to help secure victory turns into a squalid, overlooked fiasco. “Helicopters on the roof?” asked one official.]

A Dime’s Worth

by digby

The latest Rasmussen Reports election poll in the Keystone State shows Democrat Bob Casey leading Santorum 50% to 41%. That’s the first time in all six polls we’ve conducted on this race that Casey’s lead has slipped to single digits. It’s also the first time Santorum has moved above the 40% mark since last July.

However, another aspect of the poll might be even more encouraging for Santorum… and troubling for Casey.

After asking survey respondents who they would vote for, we informed them that the National Organization for Women (NOW) is concerned about Casey on the abortion issue and is endorsing another candidate in the primary. We then asked a second time about how each respondent would vote.

Twenty-four percent (24%) of Casey’s initial voters changed their mind upon hearing this news. Half switched to Santorum while the others split between “some other candidate” and “not sure.”

The change was dramatic enough that, having heard the new information, voters favored Santorum by a five-point margin (46% to 41%). This suggests a lack of voter knowledge about Casey that could make the race more competitive than it seems at this time.

News about NOW’s concerns caused Casey’s support to fall 12 points among moderate voters and 13 points among liberal voters. It did not gain him any conservative votes.

From a partisan perspective, Casey lost 7 points of support among unaffiliated voters and 13 points among Democrats. Just as important, however, the highlighting of Casey’s pro-Life views actually increased Santorum’s support among Republicans.

Initially, the GOP voters favored Santorum by a 61% to 27% margin. On the second ask, they favored Santorum 69% to 21%.

Despite all of this, however, it is important to remember the basic fact that Senator Santorum remains in terrible shape for an incumbent. It may be possible for him to mount a comeback, but it will be uphill all the way.

Pennsylvania is a 58% to 42% pro-choice state yet both candidates running for the senate are anti-abortion. Unsurprisingly, then, when certain pro-choice Democrats find out that Bob Casey is anti-abortion, they become disillusioned and want to vote for someone else. When certain pro-choice Republicans find out that Bob Casey is anti-abortion, they figure they might as well vote for Santorum.

He might still beat Santorum. Choice is not the only issue at play in that race. And perhaps those Democrats and unaffiliated will hold their noses and vote for Casey in the end. But Democratic strategists had better wake up to the fact that since the Supreme Court just got another anti-abortion justice and the wingnuts have begun their legal campaign to overturn Roe, pro-choice voters are going to be much more active and as likely as the pro-life forces to decide for whom to vote on that basis. Chuck Shumer had better hope they don’t find themselves too busy to vote in November because they haven’t got anyone to vote for.

.

Back On The Blue Babies

by digby

TBOGG (via media matters) catches Howie Kurtz’s favorite mainstream conservative babbling incoherently and assumes, I think correctly, that he’s hitting the hillbilly heroin again. This is just weird:

CALLER 1: Why is it, do you think, that you haven’t heard hardly anything from Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton about the whole immigration thing? I mean, the silence is deafening from —

LIMBAUGH: Well, they’re busy.

CALLER 1: — the NAACP [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People] and the —

LIMBAUGH: They’re — they’re busy. They’re busy. The Reverend Jackson is in New Orleans. He’s leading a big march there tomorrow. The march is — what is it called? The — the march for the right to return a protected vote and reconstruction. He’s trying to — they got problems down in New Orleans. They don’t have voter base, and Sharpton’s working on a New Orleans deal, too. He’s trying to figure out how he can get involved in the deal down there at Duke where the lacrosse team —

CALLER 1: Yeah.

LIMBAUGH: — uh, supposedly, you know, raped, some, uh, hos.

CALLER 1: But I don’t think they’re very happy about all of this.

LIMBAUGH: Yeah, well, but, the problem — that — that has a possibility down — that Duke thing’s got a possibility of being a Tawana Brawley situation. That — and Sharpton’s got a balance — can he afford another one of those as — as his life’s going on? New Orleans is a big deal to him, and I — I’m gonna tell you something. You’ll — you’ll see these guys — at some point, they will get involved, be-because when Ted Kennedy calls it the new civil rights movement, that’s Jesse Jackson’s turf. He owns it. So —

CALLER 1: Right.

LIMBAUGH: Yeah, anyway, I gotta run here because of the constraints of time out there. [Caller], a great, great question. Uh, exotic dancer, OK, say rape — whatever happened. You know what it is down there at Duke. It’s — you watch what happens in that. That’s —

[…]

LIMBAUGH: It’s open-line Friday, and I am Rush Limbaugh, America’s anchorman and your host for life. This is — this is [caller] from Bryant, Texas. Hello, [caller], great to have you with us.

CALLER 2: Rush, did you just call those young ladies “hos” on the nationally syndicated program?

LIMBAUGH: Yes.

CALLER 2: Do you know something about them that perhaps we don’t know?

LIMBAUGH: Yes, yes I did.

CALLER 2: Oh, you —

LIMBAUGH: It was a, it was — hang on — now, what, what did you say there, [caller]?

CALLER 2: I said, because — and if they are hos, it doesn’t mean that they can still — you can do to ’em whatever you want.

LIMBAUGH: No.

CALLER 2: Well, why would you call them hos on the national —

LIMBAUGH: Well, because, because I’m running on fumes today, [caller], and I felt terrible about it. And I knew somebody was gonna call and give me a little grief so I’m takin’ the occasion of your call to apologize for it. That was, it was a terrible slip of the tongue. I’m sorry. But it wasn’t the worst one that has been said recently. You want — do you know who Keanu Reeves is?

CALLER 2: Yeah, I know who he is. He’s an actor.

LIMBAUGH: Well, he’s, he’s, he’s an actor.

CALLER 2: Yeah.

LIMBAUGH: He’s a whacko. He’s, he’s an — an actor and, he — what was he doing? He was — the Women Against Domestic Violence group was already in a dither because Keanu Reeves told an interviewer he learned something filming a rape scene with Hilary Swank for a movie called The Gift. And he said was, what he learned was that some of these ladies don’t mind it.

CALLER 2: OK. But —

LIMBAUGH: He said he learned that in a rape scene but — so, you know, I’m not the worst offender.

CALLER 2: Well, I hope you —

LIMBAUGH: I just, I’m looking at this case down there at Duke, [caller], and it’s — there’s some things about it, some inconsistencies. You’ve got some timeline differentiations and matriculations and, and so forth. I’m just — but it was, it was terrible slip of the tongue, and I am, I am terribly, I am terribly sorry.

CALLER 2: Well, I was hoping that your animosity for Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton wasn’t your motivation for calling them hos.

LIMBAUGH: No — why — they, they have nothing to do with it.

CALLER 2: Oh, OK. Well, but, I — it definitely offended me to hear you say that on the national program. The world’s largest — as you say.

LIMBAUGH: Yeah, well —

CALLER 2: But maybe you should take half your brain from behind your back next time.

LIMBAUGH: You know, I’m thinking what I ought to do, [caller], is something that I used to do in the early days of this program and that is spank myself.

CALLER 2: Well, I don’t know if that’s gonna work. The apology would be good.

LIMBAUGH: I just — how — you want me to apologize again? I’m sorry.

CALLER 2: Oh, no, I’m saying — the apology was good.

LIMBAUGH: I regret that you heard me say it.

The good news is that this country at large is no longer tolerating this kind of thing. That’s why they are throwing the book at that racist Cynthia McKinney.

.

“It was good for me”

“Thanks, I owe you one. No, I owe you two, for today and last night.”

Words of a lover? A John?”

Well yes, in a manner of speaking. These are the words of Chris Matthews verbally fellating Tom Delay during a commercial break yesterday. (Click that link to see the video)

Perhaps that’s just the way all DC insiders behave toward disgraced, corrupt Republicans, I don’t know. However, it does surprise me just a tiny bit that this fellow whom everyone describes as a journalist (and a Democrat!) is offering to send derogatory focus group information about Dem ’08 hopefuls to Tom Delay. Call me crazy, but that looks suspiciously like he feeds information to the Republicans in exchange for access.

Tweety’s misogynist revulsion toward Hillary has been obvious for some time. We all know that he has a codpiece fixation. But watching the two of them gossip like a couple of little boys about her being a “know-it-all” is just precious. Poor little insecure fellas. No wonder Osama scares them so much.

Update: Check out this stultifying segment of Joe Scarborough’s show in which Hillary’s allegedly lousy housekeeping and decorating skills are discussed. I always assumed tha the White House had servants who scrubbed the floors, but I get the impression from this that Laura (the good first lady) is on her hands and knees with a a sponge and a bucket every morning. I thought Junior was joking when he said she was in Crawford sweeping the porch at Crawford getting ready for a visit from the Chinese president, but apparently not.

.

John Kerry On Iraq’s Civil War

by tristero

And that’s what he calls it. And calling it like it is suggests a sensible plan.

We are now in the third war in Iraq in as many years. The first was against Saddam Hussein and his supposed weapons of mass destruction. The second was against terrorists whom, the administration said, it was better to fight over there than here. Now we find our troops in the middle of an escalating civil war…

So far, Iraqi leaders have responded only to deadlines — a deadline to transfer authority to a provisional government, and a deadline to hold three elections.

Now we must set another deadline to extricate our troops and get Iraq up on its own two feet.

Iraqi politicians should be told that they have until May 15 to put together an effective unity government or we will immediately withdraw our military. If Iraqis aren’t willing to build a unity government in the five months since the election, they’re probably not willing to build one at all. The civil war will only get worse, and we will have no choice anyway but to leave.

If Iraq’s leaders succeed in putting together a government, then we must agree on another deadline: a schedule for withdrawing American combat forces by year’s end. Doing so will empower the new Iraqi leadership, put Iraqis in the position of running their own country and undermine support for the insurgency, which is fueled in large measure by the majority of Iraqis who want us to leave their country. Only troops essential to finishing the job of training Iraqi forces should remain.

For this transition to work, we must finally begin to engage in genuine diplomacy. We must immediately bring the leaders of the Iraqi factions together at a Dayton Accords-like summit meeting. In a neutral setting, Iraqis, working with our allies, the Arab League and the United Nations, would be compelled to reach a political agreement that includes security guarantees, the dismantling of the militias and shared goals for reconstruction.

To increase the pressure on Iraq’s leaders, we must redeploy American forces to garrisoned status. Troops should be used for security backup, training and emergency response; we should leave routine patrols to Iraqi forces. Special operations against Al Qaeda and other foreign terrorists in Iraq should be initiated only on hard intelligence leads.

We will defeat Al Qaeda faster when we stop serving as its best recruitment tool.

[UPDATE: Still don’t think it’s a civil war? Read this. Better yet, read the sources Cole links to. Perhaps most ominously is the spreading of the conflict. According to Cole, Kurdistan looks like it will go its own way, which will increase tensions with Turkey. Furthermore if a “hot” civil war breaks out, Iraq’s neighbors – to use the term only in a geographical sense – seem poised to consider it a pan-Middle East confrontation.

The Gates of Hell indeed.]

A Sense Of Security

by tristero

One more creepy Bush administration official gets arrested:

The deputy press secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was arrested Tuesday for using the Internet to seduce what he thought was a teenage girl, authorities said.

Brian J. Doyle, 55, was arrested at his residence in Maryland on charges of use of a computer to seduce a child and transmission of harmful material to a minor. The charges were issued out of Polk County, Fla.

Doyle, of Silver Spring, Md., had a sexually explicit conversation with what he believed was a 14-year-old girl whose profile he saw on the Internet on March 14, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

The girl was really an undercover Polk County Sheriff’s Computer Crimes detective, the sheriff’s office said.

Doyle sent pornographic movie clips and had sexually explicit conversations via the Internet, the statement said.

During other online conversations, Doyle revealed his name, that he worked for the Homeland Security Department, and offered his office and government issued cell phone numbers, the sheriff’s office said.

Doyle also sent photos of himself that were not sexually explicit, authorities said. One photo, which authorities released to the news media, shows Doyle in what appears to be homeland security headquarters. He is wearing a homeland security pin on his lapel and a lanyard that says ” TSA.”

The Transportation Security Administration is part of the Homeland Security Department.

On several occasions, Doyle instructed the girl to perform a sexual act while thinking of him and described explicit activities he wanted to have with her, investigators said.

Doyle later had a telephone conversation with an undercover deputy posing as the teenager and encouraged her to purchase a Web camera to send graphic images of herself to him, the sheriff’s office said.

hat tip to an anonymous commenter.

[UPDATE: The far right thinks this case is a good excuse to get all Dirty Harry and ignore Constitutional guarantees of due process:

This is the kind of scum only the ACLU types will defend. I won’t be suprised [sic] if they take up his case.

Assuming Doyle wasn’t illegally entrapped, the ACLU has as much interest in his case as they would in any other pedophile’s: zero. But if it appears that Doyle’s arrest occurred because the government violated his Constitutional rights, the ACLU *should* take up his case. As they did with Oliver North, a different kind of scum.]

Tom Demento

by digby

Who knew Tom Delay had such a dry sense of humor?

Soon-to-retire Rep. Tom DeLay (R.-Tex.) said today he would personally file an ethics complaint against Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D.-Ga.) for striking a Capitol Police officer should no other House member do so first.

DeLay’s comments came during a wide-ranging interview at his Capitol Hill office with reporters, including HUMAN EVENTS Editor Terry Jeffrey.

“If nobody in this House files an ethics charge, I am,” DeLay said in response to a question about McKinney. “Her behavior is outrageous. And it’s not the only time.”

DeLay was asked if he supported the Capitol Police’s actions following the incident with McKinney, which took place last week when she bypassed a metal detector and a police officer stopped her.

“You bet,” he said.

“It’s outrageous behavior,” he said about McKinney. “Had it been Tom DeLay, the Ethics Committee would have met the next day.”

Of course the ethics committee doesn’t meet for any reason whatsoever and I guess that whole “Delay Rule” thing was secret Democratic plot to take over the minds of Republicans and make them act like asses. (A common leftist tactic.)

This guy has spent the entire day giving interviews in which he says perfectly ridiculous things like this with a straight face and utter sincerity. He’s claiming that he’s a victim of the politics of personal destruction – he’s not under any kind of suspicion — he’s never done one thing wrong — he’s going to keep playing checkers, er… golf.

The interviewers can’t lay a hand on him. They are completely useless in the face of someone who is willing to look them right in the eye and dare them to call him on his blatant, obvious lies. Matthews’ show was hallucinogenic. But this Blitzer interview was awesome in its serene, otherworldly insanity:

REP. TOM DELAY (R), TEXAS: Good evening.

BLITZER: Here’s what you said on January 7th. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DELAY: As you know, I am still a candidate for re-election this November and I plan to run a very vigorous campaign and I plan to win it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Since then, you won your primary. What has changed since January 7th?

DELAY: Well, it became quite obvious to me that this election was going to be a referendum on me and not the values and priorities of my constituents. It’s going to be nasty. Millions of dollars would be spent by the Democrats to take this seat.

I have worked my entire adult life for the Republican majority and the conservative movement, and I felt like that the best course of action would be to step aside so a Republican who — any Republican can take this seat. And I can take my talents elsewhere and work for the conservative movement outside the House.

BLITZER: You mean someone who is new to the business, in effect, not as experienced as you, a Republican, would have a better chance of winning that seat than Tom DeLay?

DELAY: Yes, they would.

I think I could win. But the damage that would be done not only to me personally in my career, but the damage to the district that would be done isn’t good for the district. And my constituents deserve better, they deserve a Republican.

BLITZER: Some of your critics already have come out, and you know this quite well, and they say there are other reasons in effect right now; that the timing of your decision coming on the heels of a couple of your former top aides pleading guilty and now cooperating with federal prosecutors in this expanding lobbying investigation involving Jack Abramoff; that, that may have had a role to play in your decision to step down.

DELAY: I made this decision before I even knew that Tony Rudy was going to plead guilty. Those are people that believe in the politics of personal destruction. They’ve been trying to destroy my reputation for 10 years.

They’re trying to criminalize politics. The Democrats have no agenda. They have no ideas. They have no solutions. All they have is the politics of personal destruction.

There is nothing that connects me to Abramoff or any of the activities that they have. I am not a target of this investigation. I haven’t even been interviewed by these investigators.

BLITZER: How do you know you’re not a target of the investigation?

DELAY: The Department of Justice has told my lawyers that I am not a target.

BLITZER: They have formally told your lawyers you are not a target?

DELAY: Exactly right.

BLITZER: Because in the past, sometimes that can be conflicting. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’re not a target, even if they say so.

DELAY: Well, I know I’m not a target because I know I haven’t done anything wrong. I’ve paid lawyers. They spent four months investigating me as if they were prosecuting me — looking through everything for the 20 years I’ve been in Congress, and they have found nothing that is even unethical, much less illegal.

BLITZER: What about your wife?

DELAY: My wife is the same. She’s an honorable woman of great integrity. She has the right to work in this country, just like anybody else. And she has the right to be paid.

BLITZER: The suggestion by federal prosecutors, these former aides of yours — Tony Rudy and Michael Scanlon — that there was, in their words, “a far-reaching criminal operation” being run out of your office when you were the House majority leader. That’s a powerful accusation.

DELAY: No, that’s a powerful indictment of what they were doing. And none of us…

BLITZER: And then they pleaded guilty and they’re cooperating with federal prosecutors right now.

DELAY: It has nothing to do with the people that worked in my office or us. They were doing that on their own.

You know, I have hundreds of people that have worked for me — wonderful young people. These are two that may have done something wrong.

And a leader’s office is a whirlwind of activity every day. And so you hire people and you trust them with the responsibility that you give them.

If they violate that trust, they do that on their own. It has nothing to do with our operation or the way we do things and did things in my office.

BLITZER: The normal procedure with these federal prosecutors — as you well know, these investigations — they go after relatively small fish to find and catch a big fish. You would obviously be a huge fish in this operation.

How worried are you that these former aides of yours might say something or provide some sort of evidence or suggestion that could further cause you grave, serious legal problems?

DELAY: I’m not worried at all. I know I haven’t done anything wrong.

Wolf, I’m not stupid. The Democrats have scrutinized my operation — every part of my operation — for 20 years and, most particularly, in the 11 years we’ve been in the majority.

I would be incredibly stupid to do anything illegal, because they would find it — even if I wanted to, and I don’t.

I have lawyers check every decision that I make. If I come up with an idea, we make sure it’s within the spirit of the law or in the House rules. We check everything.

BLITZER: What would you have done differently involving your relationship with the now-indicted Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist? Looking back on that relationship that you had with him, what would you have done differently given what you know right now?

DELAY: I wouldn’t have done anything differently. The Jack Abramoff…

BLITZER: You would have still gone on that trip to Scotland and played golf at St. Andrews?

DELAY: Excuse me, but those trips were vital trips. I was working with Margaret Thatcher in building a conservative movement in England. She had asked me to come over and work with conservatives in England because they had just lost an election and they wanted my advice on how to rebuild their conservative movement.

I worked very, very hard on that trip. And yes, at the end of the trip, I went and played golf. I love golf.

BLITZER: Was that a mistake?

DELAY: No.

BLITZER: Given the appearance that some might say, you know, “He’s going to one of the great golf courses in the world at St. Andrews. He’s playing golf and” — what the argument is — “on somebody else’s dime.”

DELAY: That’s an appearance created by the national media and my detractors. There is nothing wrong. There was nothing illegal. There was nothing against the House rules in taking that trip to help build a conservative movement.

I’m involved all around the world. I’ve been involved in Christian persecution in China. I’m involved in Jewish persecution in Russia. I’m involved in supporting Israel. I’m involved in the war on terror in Indonesia and in Malaysia. I have been heavily involved in a lot of issues — and I travel. And I also play golf.

BLITZER: But everybody makes mistakes, right? You’re not perfect.

DELAY: No, I’m not perfect.

BLITZER: You’ve got to look back and say to yourself: “It’s only normal. Yes, I would have done a few things differently.”

DELAY: No.

BLITZER: There’s nothing you would have done differently that could have avoided some of this embarrassment?

DELAY: No. This is trying to create a strawman and trying to demonize me and making me look different than I really am. I am very involved. I have never done anything — while I’ve been in elective office — for my own personal gain. Yes, I have a hobby. It’s called golf. It’s the only thing I do for myself. And if people want to criticize me for playing golf after I’ve worked hard for seven days, then go ahead and criticize me.

I’d still — wherever I go, I try to play golf.

BLITZER: What do you want to do next?

Because a lot of your colleagues when they leave Congress, you know what they do — they go out and become lobbyists.

DELAY: I want to continue my effort to work with the conservative movement.

I think I can bring a unifying force to the conservative movement. I want to continue to elect Republicans and grow the Republican majority, something I’ve worked on for 21 years.

And I’m very proud of our record of building a good conservative movement not just here in Washington, D.C., but all over the country. I think I can do that. And I think I have the experience and the talent to accomplish some pretty amazing things.

BLITZER: Do you want to be a lobbyist?

DELAY: I don’t know what the future holds for me.

I’m in God’s hands and he guides me. And whatever I can do to help this country by leading it in a conservative direction, I’m going to do.

BLITZER: There have been a lot of Republicans out there today at least privately saying, you know, it’s sort of a collective sigh of relief — Tom DeLay is stepping down, one less problem that they have to worry about given the enormous problems the Republicans face right now.

Do you feel a sense of betrayal given the enormously important work that you did, the hard work as the majority whip and then the majority leader? You really hammered that place and got the votes you wanted for the Republicans.

DELAY: Well, that’s what brought this all upon me.

We were effective in changing this country. We were effective in changing the culture of this town. We were effective in advancing the conservative movement. Some people…

BLITZER: Is there a sense of betrayal that you feel right now?

DELAY: Some people don’t want to stand up and fight for what they believe in. They would rather just sit in a job and carry on.

I am passionate about what I believe in and I feel like I have a mandate to stand up for what I believe in, and I’m very proud of that.

BLITZER: You feel let down, though, a sense of betrayal at all by some of these comments that are coming out by your fellow Republicans?

DELAY: No, that’s their problem.

I keep focused on what I believe in and standing up for what I believe in.

BLITZER: Thanks for coming in. We hope you come back.

DELAY: My pleasure.

That was so demented it sent chills down my spine. Blitzer looked kind of creeped out by it, too. He doesn’t just intimidate people into doing what he wants them to do. He insists that they pay him fealty by pretending that he isn’t stark raving mad. His eyes are completely dead. No wonder nobody ever crossed him.

.

Katherine’s Decompensating

by tristero

As we famously know, John Aravosis encountered a very nice Katherine Harris at a black tie affair. Apparently, however, this is something that can’t be sustained for very long. Harris is going majorly weird with her staff and others:

[I]n the past 10 days, Harris has:

•Had locks changed and posted a security guard at the door of her campaign headquarters in Tampa and had former staff members escorted in to retrieve their belongings.

•Told a gathering of supporters in Cocoa Beach on Saturday that the Republican Party had “infiltrated” her campaign staff to put “knives in my back.”

•Told a reporter that a longtime, trusted political adviser had leaked a story about her staff members quitting, then called back to retract the comments.

•Announced hiring her new staff without identifying them.

Those events come atop previous reversals and contradictions, including her announcement last month that she would spend her inheritance from her father on her campaign, which she changed, saying she would sell her assets.

Former campaign manager Jim Dornan, who left in November, called the most recent events in the campaign “unbelievable.”

“It smacks of real paranoia,” he said of the headquarters lockout and comments about infiltration. “That campaign staff was so loyal to her, and to be treated like that is absolutely unconscionable.”

In interviews over the past few weeks, speaking in confidence, former employees from Harris’ congressional and campaign staffs said the trauma of the unexpected death of her father has taken a toll.

“She’s in total meltdown. The campaign is in chaos,” said a longtime Republican operative who worked closely with Harris until recently.

I’m sorry she lost her father recently. I’m not sorry her campaign’s falling apart. Clearly the stress is too much. She should quit. Immediately. And not only for her own good, but for the good of the country.

Hat tip to The All Spin Zone

Delay’s Dupes

by digby

Last summer I wrote a piece about a woman named Mary Fowler. She is a good, hard working woman from Oklahoma, a member of the Christian Right. Rose Aguillar interviewed her as part of a project to speak to people across the country:

Why do you think we’re in Iraq? People say we’re freeing the Iraqis one minute and then change their opinion and say they’re horrible people.

Soldiers over there say we don’t get half the news. There’s so much good going on. The majority of the people appreciate the help. The majority, not the weirdos who are deceived.

Where do you get your information about the war?

The Bible and the 700 Club. I also listen to preachers who know what’s going on. Pat Robertson.

What do you like about Bush?

He’s a praying man of god. He’s a family man and he does care. He gets blamed for everything. If this country would turn back to god, things would get better. You can’t go on killing babies and allowing homosexual stuff to stay. We do love the people, but we don’t love their actions.

Do you think talking about homosexuality does anything to improve healthcare or poverty?

I guess for me I’ve always had to trust the lord for the next job, which is usually housecleaning. If you have your eyes on him, he’ll take care of you. The government can’t help us.

Do you always vote?

Yes, I volunteered for the Republican Party and I enjoyed it very much.

Have you always been Republican?

When I first registered, I was a Democrat. Just from studying in school, I thought that’s what I wanted to be because I believed in government for the people, by the people and of the people. But after I was saved, I realized the Republican beliefs are me so I switched and I’m glad I did.

What does it mean to be a Republican?

Republicans pick the people who believe like we do.

You mean believe in the Bible?

Yes and godly principles. If we kick god out, we’ll be like other countries that have AIDS, sickness and poverty. God created the earth, he created the rules and he knows what’s best for everybody.

Unfortunately, we have AIDS, sickness and poverty in this country.

Yes, because we allow homosexuality.

You blame homosexuality for AIDS, sickness and poverty?

Well, sometimes people are innocent. This nation is in trouble. The ACLU are run by communists and funded by communists. What does that tell you? They want to take god away from us.

The ACLU once helped Pat Robertson’s son set up churches. They also helped Jerry Falwell fight church restrictions three years ago. If they wanted to take god way from you, why would they help Pat Robertson’s son and Jerry Falwell?

I haven’t heard about that. I’m sure there are a few good people in the ACLU.

I’ve interviewed a lot of people on this trip and while they want freedom of religion, none have said they want to take god away.

When they first started the country, those that didn’t believe in Jesus were put in jail. Once a country is dedicated to god and founded on its principles, it has to stay that way.

What issues are most important to you?

Getting the right Supreme Court Justice in you. I want god back in the schools. They kick god out of schools and they wonder why we have drugs and sex in the schools.

I suggested that it would not be very difficult to persuade Mary Fowler that the Republican party wasn’t fulfilling her vision of what government should do and considering her views, she would probably not vote at all. I wrote:

Mary Fowler is an evangelical Christian who believes that Republicans pick their candidates based upon their devotion to Jesus. In fact, she sees Republicanism as part of her church. For her, religion and politics are the same thing.

[…]

Mary Fowler can be dealt with only one way — we must separate Republicanism from her church. It won’t be possible to out church them but it can be done by exposing them. Republicans are not godly. When she finds out that they aren’t godly she will stop voting for them — most likely stop voting at all. (And unless she learns to separate religion from politics that is probably the best thing.) It won’t be easy to convince her, but she is much more attached to her vision of the Bible than the Republican party. She chose Republicanism after she was saved, not before. She will choose Jesus over Tom Delay if push comes to shove.

I do not wish Mary Fowler would stop voting. I wish she would vote for Democrats. But considering her belief system, I do not think it’s possible. It is not evil to want people like Mary Fowler, who do not believe in the US constitution or the principles on which this country is founded, not to be involved in politics. Certainly, it is in my best interest that someone like her not volunteer her time and money to a cause that seeks to destroy everything I believe in.

Evangelicals used to believe that politics was a bad business and existed in a “worldly” sphere that didn’t terribly affect them. It took some theological jiujitsu , some savvy political operatives and some huckster preachers to change that around and turn them into a behemoth voting block for the Republican party. They are voting for a lie, having been duped by Tom Delay and other phony Jesus pimps into believing that their religious beliefs are also political beliefs and it’s just not so.

These people are essential to the GOP machine. If they come to see that the Republican party for the criminal enterprise it is, this will not happen again:

… evangelical Christian groups were often more aggressive and sometimes better organized on the ground than the Bush campaign. The White House struggled to stay abreast of the Christian right and consulted with the movement’s leaders in weekly conference calls. But in many respects, Christian activists led the charge that GOP operatives followed and capitalized upon.

[…]

In battlegrounds such as Ohio, scores of clergy members attended legal sessions explaining how they could talk about the election from the pulpit. Hundreds of churches launched registration drives, thousands of churchgoers registered to vote, and millions of voter guides were distributed by Christian and antiabortion groups.

The rallying cry for many social conservatives was opposition to same-sex marriage. But concern about the Supreme Court, abortion, school prayer and pornography also motivated these “values voters.” Same-sex marriage, said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, was “the hood ornament on the family values wagon that carried the president to a second term.”

These are the foot soldiers in the Republican revolution. It’s well worth our while to get them to lay down their arms and go home to their churches. Tom Delay is wrapping his fetid, reptilian reputation around the necks of the evangelicals and we should make sure they smell it for what it is.

Mary Fowler is a decent law abiding person. I think it’s good for her and good for us to let Mary know the extent to which “worldly” politics have failed her. It’s up to her what she does with that knowledge.

.

Democrats are from Earth, Republicans are from Pluto

by digby

Delay just said that the Democrats are drunk with power. I’m not kidding.

It’s a common delusion among Plutonians. Here’s Hindquarters:

By “the left” I’m including almost the entire Democratic Party, you can count the exceptions on your fingers, you can name them, Zell Miller, Joe Lieberman…The whole mainstream of the party is engaged in an effort that is a betrayal of America, what they care about is not winning the war on terror…I don’t think they care about the danger to us as Americans or the danger to people in other countries. They care about power.

Unfortunately, I’m having a hard time understand what Matthews is saying today his mouth is so full. I’m pretty sure he just spent five minutes talking about how Tom is a caring foster dad.

.