Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

“Pivoting”

Forrest Sawyer just asked David Gregory if the White House is in chaos. Gregory said no, the White House says it is “pivoting” in a number of different directions.

This is also known as running around in circles.

heh.

Required Reading

Josh Marshall says to read this and he’s right. It is devastating.

By Michael Lind

The United States is now more isolated from its major allies and more internally divided over foreign policy than at any time since 1945. The strategy of the Bush administration-and not merely its style-is to blame.

The grand strategy of the Bush administration rests on three axioms: American global hegemony; preventive war; and the so-called “war on terror.” All three axioms are fallacies that inevitably produce counterproductive and misguided policies. What the great French diplomat Talleyrand said of Napoleon’s execution of the Duc d’Enghien applies with equal force to Bush’s grand strategy: “It is worse than a crime; it is a mistake.”

Go

Not Quite Enough

With Democratic presidential candidates under fire for their reluctance to speak out about Iraq, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry delivered a major policy address in San Francisco Thursday — and omitted any substantive mention of the looming war.

In a 40-minute speech to a packed hall sponsored by the Commonwealth Club of California, Kerry offered a stinging indictment of Bush domestic policies on the environment, homeland security, eroding civil liberties and the declining economy. But he saved his comments on the war for a question-and-answer session afterward, and even in those tempered remarks, his position on Iraq was less than clear-cut.

The ongoing failure of the Bush administration to win allies in the U.N. Security Council “displays some of the weakest diplomacy we’ve ever seen in the history of the continental U.S.,” Kerry said after the speech.

Although he voted last fall to authorize the president to use military force against Iraq and said Thursday that he did not regret his vote, Kerry did not say whether he still believes force should be used — or if so, when. “The United States should never go to war because it wants to go to war,” he said, echoing statements made in January. “We should go to war because we have to go to war. And that is not clear at this time.”

He did flesh out a rather fine critique, however, of the Bush administration’s handling of the diplomacy. Why he couldn’t do it in his speech is anybody’s guess, but I assume it’s because he’s afraid of Sean Hannity and Ari Fleischer:

Only one-third of the job of president is to be “CEO of the domestic choices of the country,” he said in response to one question. “Two-thirds of the job of president is head of state — therefore chief diplomat.”

And the international chaos of recent months proves the need to have a strong person in that position, he said, suggesting that neither Bush nor Secretary of State Colin Powell have measured up well in the job.

In 2002, there was clearly a path to the inspections process that brought legitimacy and consent to an international endeavor, he said. What led to its demise is an endemic unwillingness to strengthen relationships with European nations. “I don’t know if they put the lock and key on the airplane so he [Powell] isn’t allowed to travel,” Kerry said, “but somehow this has been a secretary of state who’s been unwilling to go over and build those relationships.”

“I regret the way this administration has conducted foreign policy and given the back of its hand to so many nations,” he said. “The United States, the strongest military power on the face of this planet, has not had diplomacy that matches it.”

I don’t understand why Kerry can’t just say that he is for ousting Saddam, but that they hashed it up so much and are so incredibly incompetent that the congress is going to have to assert itself like never before to ensure that they do not create complete chaos in the region, and the next president is going to have to clean up the mess that’s been made of our international relations. He should be thundering his criticism of the unilateralist bent of the administration and their inability to convince the world that the invasion scheme is the right one.

He voted for the damned war. If he’d stick to his guns and use the opportunity to show how the Republicans have compromised their own goals, he would be a principled politician that even the doves could respect. Instead, he just seems vague and scared.

People are not going to vote for a candidate who is trying to split the difference on national security.

These Democrats have got to realize that there is no margin in trying to appease the GOP. They are going to get it coming and going, no matter what they say. They have to concentrate, instead, on laying out a principled alternative to Bush Imperialism and let the chips fall where they may. The have got to step up and fight and that does not mean that they must be doves. It just means they must stand for something.

And, it’s not like the Republicans haven’t given them enough to criticize, for gawd’s sake. They’ve fucked up even on their own terms. How hard is it to make a passionate speech about Bush’s failure in international relations?

All The Sock-Puppet’s Men

TBOGG is on to Howard Fineman.

Burning CD’s

People are (literally) burning the Dixie Chicks’ CD’s because of their treasonous statements objecting to the imminent invasion of Iraq. And, if that wasn’t bad enough, they also said they were ashamed that George W. Alamo is from Texas. The humanity.

I must remind all of you people who would like to show solidarity with the coalition of the willing, it really shouldn’t stop with the Dixie Chicks.

I wrote before that Shania Twain, Hank Williams Jr., Willie Nelson, Trisha Yearwood, Vince Gill, Reba McIntyre, Earl Scruggs, Mark Wills, Tom T. Hall, Lee Ann Womack, and George Strait all work for that Saddam loving enemy, Vivendi of….gasp….France.

I urge all righteous God fearing Americans to call Rush and Sean and the rest and let them know you want them to use their clout in the radio industry to put a stop to this traitorous war profiteering on the part of their employers. They, of all people, understand that allowing the radio and record industry to put profits over freedom is Un-American. DEMAND that Rush tell Clear Channel to stop playing the following artists immediately:

U2, Bob Marley, Elton John, Eminem, Nelly, Diana Krall, George Benson, John Coltrane, Enrique Iglesias, Limp Bizkit, No Doubt, Sheryl Crow, Sting, Ashanti, Elvis Costello, Smokey Robinson, B.B. King, Melissa Etheridge, Blink 182, Cranberries, Mary J Blige, Erykah Badu, Stevie Wonder, Ja Rule, Nirvana, 50 Cent, The Temptations, Bon Jovi, Ludacris, Jay Z, Shaggy, Placido Domingo, Andrea Bocelli, Lionel Richie, Hansen, Hooba stanks, Injected, Tatu, Wallflowers, MS Dynamite, 2 Pac, Ms Jade, American HiFi, Def Leppard, Die Trying, Letter Kills, PJ Harvey, Portishead, MJ Cole, Rosy, Shorty 101, Hoobastank, A Teens, Avant, Res, The Roots, Brian McKnight, India Arie, Remy Shand, AZ Black Coffey, Corey, DJ Rogers J,r Melanie Durrant, Dave Hollister, India.Arie, Jene Jose Brian McKnight, Stephen Marley, Remy, Shand, Charlie Haden, Al Jarreau.

These people are making blood money off of the backs of America’s freedom and they need to know that if they don’t quit working for the godless, Iraq loving French enemy, we will end their careers. You know that Rush will put his career on the line for this and require his employer to either stop playing all artists that work for Vivendi or he will quit.

He’s a patriot above all else. You know he is.

Update:

YOU can call The Rush Limbaugh Show program line between 12 Noon and 3PM Eastern Time at: 1-800-282-2882

You can e-mail Rush at: rush@eibnet.com

You can fax Rush at: 212-563-9166

You can write Rush at:

The Rush Limbaugh Show

2 Penn Plaza

New York, NY 10121

Update II: I can’t believe I have to do this, but my comments section proves that I have been much too obscure with my little satire.

I don’t really think that we should be boycotting Vivendi and I think the Dixie Chicks are a-ok. What I was trying (and obviously failing) to do, was show that Rush and his hate radio cohorts are being hypocritical in calling for a boycott of French products, when their own employers are making zillions from playing artists who work for one of the biggest French companies in the world.

It would be fun to see whether Rush would be willing to put his career on the line by threatening to quit Clear Channel if they continued to make money from a French company, but I have no illusions that he would give up one single penny in this cause. I would love to see him explain why, though, wouldn’t you?

whew.

Word To The Wise

I don’t subscribe to any GOP e-mail lists and I certainly don’t have access to the daily talking points that so obviously are passed around amongst the bow-tied, doughboy Republican cognoscenti, but it doesn’t take an insider to figure out what they are since they multiply like bacteria into the media within minutes of introduction.

Here’s the current infection:

Yesterday, Perle gave aninterview on RTL in which he claimed that Chirac and Hussein have been “good friends” since the 70’s. This is not news, but it was also put forth as a startling revelation on Brit Hume’s show on Fox News yesterday. I would bet that it’s all over Talk Radio again today.This adds to the contention that Chirac has given so much illegal contraband to his friend in the hopes of good deals on oil leases that he’s petrified that good people everywhere will recoil in disgust when they find out the truth.

Charles Pierce pithily retorts to that last accusation today on Altercation saying, “if you’re keeping score at home, it should be noted that it wasn’t the Freedoms who redacted 12,000 pages of the Iraqi weapons report before they made it public. What did we edit out? The receipts?”

No way, Marseilles. Just so’s ya knows — Jacques has promised his lover Saddam a stocking full ‘o Nukes for Christmas. And, apparently, out ‘o principle, John Negropont and Don Rumsfeld kept those 12,000 pages of love letters from the world in order to spare Mrs. Chirac the embarrassment. Or something.

The Wurlitzer always plays on key.

Iraq, the Middle East and Change: No Dominoes

A classified State Department report expresses doubt that installing a new regime in Iraq will foster the spread of democracy in the Middle East, a claim President Bush has made in trying to build support for a war, according to intelligence officials familiar with the document.

The report exposes significant divisions within the Bush administration over the so-called democratic domino theory, one of the arguments that underpins the case for invading Iraq.

[…]

The domino theory also is used by the administration as a counterargument to critics in Congress and elsewhere who have expressed concern that invading Iraq will inflame the Muslim world and fuel terrorist activity against the United States.

But the theory is disputed by many Middle East experts and is viewed with skepticism by analysts at the CIA and the State Department, intelligence officials said.

Critics say even establishing a democratic government in Iraq will be extremely difficult. Iraq is made up of ethnic groups deeply hostile to one another. Ever since its inception in 1932, the country has known little but bloody coups and brutal dictators.

Even so, it is seen by some as holding more democratic potential — because of its wealth and educated population — than many of its neighbors.

By some estimates, 65 million adults in the Middle East can’t read or write, and 14 million are unemployed, with an exploding, poorly educated youth population.

Given such trends, “we’ll be lucky to have strong central governments [in the Middle East], let alone democracy,” said one intelligence official with extensive experience in the region.

The official stressed that no one in intelligence or diplomatic circles opposes the idea of trying to install a democratic government in Iraq.

“It couldn’t hurt,” the official said. “But to sell [the war] on the basis that this is going to cause 1,000 flowers to bloom is naive.”

Some officials said the classified document reflects views that are widely held in the State Department and CIA but that those holding such views have been muzzled in an administration eager to downplay the costs and risks of war.

[…]

Middle East experts said there are other factors working against democratic reform, including a culture that values community and to some extent conformity over individual rights.

“I don’t accept the view that the fall of Saddam Hussein is going to prompt quick or even discernible movement toward democratization of the Arab states,” said Philip C. Wilcox, director of the Foundation for Middle East Peace and a former top State Department official. “Those countries are held back not by the presence of vicious authoritarian regimes in Baghdad but by a lot of other reasons.”

Bush has responded to such assessments by assailing the “soft bigotry of low expectations.”

Wow. Move over George Kennan. I thought he said that the new regime would be reformers with results, leaders who knew how to lead. He said he had some stong talks with the Iraqi exiles and felt they would make fabulous leaders. He believes they can be united not divided and he promises to smoke out Saddam and keep him on the run. I never heard him say that not believing in fairy tales was the soft bigotry of low expectations though.

And then, there’s the deft handling of US Russian relations.

Oh Dmitri…

Washington had calculated that Putin, a pragmatist, valued Russia’s relationship with the United States above all other foreign policy issues. U.S. officials also thought that Moscow’s interests in the Iraqi oil business and its desire to see Iraq repay $8 billion of debt would be enough to ensure Russian compliance.

There have been some veiled threats, however, notably from a senior Bush administration official in Moscow recently who warned Russia of the economic costs of blocking U.S. objectives.

“What we have said is that if you’re concerned with recouping your $8 billion in debts and if you’re interested in economic opportunities in liberated Iraq, it would be helpful if you were part of the prevailing coalition,” that official said at a background briefing for reporters last month.

“The Americans failed to understand that in order to make Putin change his position on Iraq, it was necessary to offer and actually give him something,” said one Moscow analyst, Viktor A. Kremenyuk of the USA-Canada Institute. “In fact, the Americans have done nothing real to attract Russia and win it over to their side.”

These guys are so gooood.

That official, by the way, was likely our suave and debonair Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security — John “there is no such thing as the UN” Bolton. He’s the Zelig of diplomatic screw-ups.

Be Nice To Colin, Junior

I made a private bet that Colin Powell would resign from this administration over policy. That was 2 years ago and I thought I’d lost. Maybe not.

Fineman seems to think that the scapegoating is about to begin now that even he has acknowledged that the administration’s diplomacy has been a joke. Powell has his own constituency, particularly in the media. The Bushies had better be very, very careful. A Powell resignation could be the tipping point for a Bush freefall.

Here We Go Again

Even some antiwar Democrats are insisting they won’t criticize the Bush administration once the fighting begins. Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who’s staked out a complex pro-disarming Saddam, anti-unilateral-war approach to the mess, says he’ll hit the mute button immediately. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a more unequivocal war opponent than Kerry, told the Boston Globe he’s not sure he’ll keep it up once the shooting starts. War critics like former Sen. Gary Hart and Florida Sen. Bob Graham may postpone official announcements of their candidacies if war begins, as expected, in the next couple of weeks. Only Rep. Dennis Kucinich and former Sen. Carol Mosely-Braun, who are not given much chance of winning the nomination, have had the courage to tell reporters that they’ll stick with their antiwar message come war.

This timidity is Reason No. 392 for the political question vexing Democrats right now: Why is it that polls show President Bush losing the ’04 election to an “Unnamed Democrat,” but beating all the Democrats who are currently in the race? Everyone knows this president is supremely vulnerable. He’s plundered the surplus and pushed an economic policy that has arguably worsened the recession. He’s angered most of our allies and is now on the verge of a potentially disastrous war whose rationale changes every day. His poll numbers dip almost daily, too.

But Bush can still probably beat any of the Democrats lined up against him, because no one yet has shown the charisma or the courage to break out of the pack. And otherwise admirable candidates like Kerry and Dean seem to be faltering in this early test of political integrity

[…]

Not just Kerry but the whole pack of ’04 candidates seems overmatched by the current global crisis. In a disturbing Adam Nagourney piece in Monday’s New York Times, dithering Democrats were featured complaining that in Iowa, nobody wants to listen to their speeches about women’s issues or unemployment or the healthcare crisis; they only want to talk about war! Even Dean, who’s benefited most from the surge of antiwar feeling in Iowa, whined to Nagourney: “I had a press conference and it was all about the war. And finally I said, ‘Would anybody like to talk about the enormous jump in the unemployment rate that was announced in the morning papers?'”

[…]

…They may suffer politically, for a while, whatever they do, because it’s true that the nation rallies around its president in a time of war.

But they’ll suffer more permanent political damage if they look like they’re backsliding on their antiwar views. Democrats have to remember this is a mess that’s at least partly of their own making. They’ve been treating Iraq like a tough campaign curveball, rather than a test of leadership and conscience, since before the midterm election. Democratic Leadership Council chair Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana typified the party’s cowardice when he told reporters last year: “The majority of the American people tend to trust the Republican Party more on issues involving national security and defense than they do the Democratic Party. We need to work to improve our image on that score by taking a more aggressive posture with regard to Iraq, empowering the president.”

Democrats mostly followed Bayh’s bad advice, caving on the vote that essentially gave the president a blank check back in October, to polish their “image” and put the issue behind them — so they could get back to talking about Social Security reform on the campaign trail. But voters didn’t listen. “I hope the party learned a lesson in November 2002 about the perils of going into a fetal position,” David Wade, a spokesman for Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, told ABC News just a few days before his boss issued his statement about not criticizing Bush once war begins.

This is a trainwreck. If the Democrats cannot formulate a respectful, principled opposition to the crazyassed imperialistic foreign policy of this administration we are in big trouble. They have simply got to stop being afraid of the the Republicans. They will be called traitors even if they don uniforms and go into battle themselves. Saxby Chambliss proved that there is no limit to how far they will go to impugn the patriotism of Democrats so they have absolutely nothing to lose by telling it like it is. That the GOP is so brutal and dishonest is actually freeing. Since their characters will be assassinated anyway, they are free to speak their minds.

The question is probably whether they know their own minds enough to speak them. And that’s depressing.

Necrophilia

Update: Apparently it is unclear that this post is referring to the absurd idea of bringing back remains of servicemen killed in France during WWII. The link below connects to that story. Kevin also has commentary.

They are working themselves into a complete frenzy, now.

This is embarrassing. I thought that only Condi Rice was deluded enough to believe that we joined WWII to “liberate the Germans from Hitler,” but apparently this is common knowledge amongst the scholors on the right.

On September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland. Great Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. In May of 1940, Hitler invaded France using Blitzkrieg tactics.

We didn’t rush right in to save the day like Superman as these morons apparently believe. While Hitler cut a swath through Europe we were sending some supplies and debating whether we should help out. When we were attacked at Peal Harbor on December 7, 1941 we declared war on Japan the next day. And on December 11th Germany and Italy declared war on us.

There was no overwhelming public outcry to liberate the French by good and wholesome Americans who cared nothing for their own lives but merely wanted to save all the little children. We went in because we had no choice. We had watched the war from afar for 2 long years before we actually joined and it was isolationist Republicans who were the most vociferous in their objections to doing it.

It was DAMNED LUCKY for us that it was the French women and French children and French old people who had to try to survive in a war zone on their own soil (not to mention for the American Jews who daily blessed their good fortune to escape the fate of the hundreds of thousands of French Jews who were carted off to concentration camps.) It is estimated that at least 150,000 French civilians died from bombing and Nazi terror and that’s not even counting those who died in concentration camps. In Britain, from August 1940 to May 1941 alone, more than 40,000 civilians were killed and 40,000 more were seriously wounded in bombing attacks.

This petty French bashing is obviously being coordinated by the Wurlitzer to give their neanderthals somebody new to hate. But to distort the meaning of WWII for partisan reasons is beyond the pale. It dishonors the regular guys like my Dad who fought in that war. I do not recall ever hearing him say that France, England (or even Germany or Japan) owed the United States their blind allegiance until the end of time. To him, doing the right thing was its own reward. This seems to be one of those much vaunted values that the current spoiled, silly trivial warmongers seem to have overlooked.

The French paid their dues in the fight against Hitler. They do not owe us anything. We were on the same side in a war against a tyrant who threatened the entire world and the French people paid a price for that fight that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares. To demean their experience in the war as these people are doing is shameful.

We used to be better people than this.