Two stories this morning, although unrelated, show the kind of tone-deafness that gets politicians in trouble. As Rudy Giuliani faces more and more questions about his business dealings, and particularly its work for clients that included the government of Qatar and an Asian gambling venture involving a billionaire with ties to North Korea’s Kim Jong [...]
The Washington Post makes a convincing case that Congressional Intelligence Committee leaders, of both parties, were fully briefed on CIA interrogation techniques, including waterboarding and stress positions, back in 2002 and 2003. That includes Nancy Pelosi: Pelosi declined to comment directly on her reaction to the classified briefings. But a congressional source familiar with Pelosi’s [...]
Some thoughts about the state of New Hampshire.
A day after shepherding sweeping energy legislation through the House, the Speaker replies to Dick Cheney’s “gentlemanly” swipe: “To tell you the truth, I’ve been really busy the last 24 hours,” Pelosi said. “How can I say this with the dignity of the office that I hold, and especially the dignity of the office that [...]
Well, you had to figure this was coming. The Washington Post reports that the Senate Republicans–urged on by the usual neocon suspects–are going to try to discredit the National Intelligence Report on Iran. Danielle Pletka, the neocon La Pasionaria, offers this loathsome statement in an email: “The problem is not the nature of the intelligence, [...]
Okay, we kind of already knew that. But the analytics firm Compete puts out this “data hub” comparing web traffic for the various campaign sites that makes for some fun reading. Paul’s visitors are not only the most numerous, but also appear to be the most heavily male (and have the greatest percentage earning $100,000 [...]
Ron Fournier, focusing on the politics: “Americans do not respect believers of convenience,” Romney said. “Americans tire of those who would jettison their beliefs, even to gain the world.” This from a man who campaigned for governor of Democratic-leaning Massachusetts as a supporter of abortion rights, gay rights and gun control — only to switch [...]
A day after his big speech about religion and God and all, Mitt Romney loves his neighboring candidates in a negative and inaccurate Iowa mailing. And here’s evidence, via The Page, that Hillary Clinton’s attacks on Barack Obama haven’t been working, either. This is one of the reasons why Iowa is such a difficult challenge [...]
CIA Director Hayden acknowledges that the public was going to find out about the CIA torture tapes anyway, but he still gets points for coming clean. And the revelation is further evidence of the Bush-driven sliminess of the Porter Goss regime at CIA. I’m not convinced that Hayden’s internal explanation of why the Gossites destroyed [...]
