Stygius

Bolton toast?

And Steve Clemons declares the Bolton re-nomination dead in committee.

Ret. Generals slam Rumsfeld

CBS/AP:

Retired military officers on Monday bluntly accused Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld of bungling the war in Iraq, saying U.S. troops were sent to fight without the best equipment and that critical facts were hidden from the public.

"I believe that Secretary Rumsfeld and others in the administration did not tell the American people the truth for fear of losing support for the war in Iraq," retired Maj. Gen. John R. S. Batiste said in remarks prepared for a hearing by the Senate Democratic Policy Committee.

A second witness, retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, assessed Rumsfeld as "incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically ...."

"Mr. Rumsfeld and his immediate team must be replaced or we will see two more years of extraordinarily bad decision-making," he added in testimony prepared for the hearing, held six weeks before the Nov. 7 midterm elections in which the war is a central issue.

Anti-torture Republicans

Will the grow-up wing of the Republican Party ever reassert control? At the very least, John McCain and Colin Powell are laying the groundwork for a GOP rebirth. Dan Froomkin:

"Instead of drawing contrasts with Democrats, the president's call for creating military tribunals to try terror suspects -- a key substantive and political component of his fall agenda -- has erupted into a remarkably intense clash pitting some of the best-known warriors in the Republican Party against Mr. Bush and the Congressional leadership."

Bush's position took a blow with a letter released yesterday from his former secretary of State, Colin Powell. Powell wrote: "The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism. To redefine Common Article 3 would add to those doubts. Furthermore, it would put our own troops at risk."

Bolton confirmation dead?

I've been remiss in not devoting space here to the White House's new attempts to confirm John Bolton. Steve Clemons, this morning, relays that due to Senator Lincoln Chaffee's opposition, the re-nomination may once again be dead, this time not even leaving committee.

The Washington Post has run an article this morning stating that the administration's effort to get John Bolton "confirmed" is now essentially dead -- though Condoleezza Rice seems ready to deploy some theatrics to try and get Senator Lincoln Chafee to change his mind.

Roberts the hack

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts has been colluding the the White House for years to block a meaningful accounting of the political abuse that led the nation to war. The vice president's office overruled other White House staff to block the release of his office's papers to the committee. It led to a dramatic showdown last November in the Senate. Yet Roberts still refuses to release a report that last October was reported to be "in the ending stage."

Via Josh Marshall, from Spencer Ackerman learn that the good Senator intends to never release this report, let alone get any actual intelligence reform done.

A particular bone of contention is what the committee should say about Douglas Feith's famous Pentagon intelligence operation, which sought to highlight mostly-illusory links between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.

Pat Roberts at work

It took a special closed session of the US Senate to get Pat Roberts and Senate Republicans to promise to finish the report on the use and abuse of pre-war intelligence. Will the good senator live up to his promise? Kevin Drum:

Is Pat Roberts, the weaselly chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, really going to deep six the second half of his committee's investigation of the Iraq war? You know, the part about the administration's manipulation of prewar intelligence? The part that might be a wee bit embarrassing for Roberts' fellow Republicans during an election year?

Apparently the answer is yes, and he's doing it via the most transparently political hackery it's possible to imagine.  Greg Sargent has the details.  (And further confirmation here.)

Heads up, senators

E&P reminds us of General Hayden's demonstrable unfamiliarity with the US Constitution's Fourth Amendment.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

 

Rebate post mortem

I've been taking a morbid interest in Senator Bill Frist's blundering for some time. The New York Times doesn't disappoint in their geneaology of the $100 rebate scheme:

The rise and fall of the Republican $100 rebate offers a window on how Washington sometimes works in a slapdash way, featuring in this case Congressional aides who misread the political climate and lawmakers desperate to hang on to their jobs.

It is a story, as well, of how concepts and plans can be reduced to sound bites that make them seem absurd. And it is yet another example of how Senator Frist, who is contemplating a bid for the White House in 2008, has stumbled at the pinnacle of Senate power.

'Do you think we are whores?'

The New York Times reports on the offended constituent reaction to the Senate Republicans' condescending $100 gas price rebate. It's hilarious.

The Senate Republican plan to mail $100 checks to voters to ease the burden of high gasoline prices is eliciting more scorn than gratitude from the very people it was intended to help.

Aides for several Republican senators reported a surge of calls and e-mail messages from constituents ridiculing the rebate as a paltry and transparent effort to pander to voters before the midterm elections in November.

"The conservatives think it is socialist bunk, and the liberals think it is conservative trickery," said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, pointing out that the criticism was coming from across the ideological spectrum.

Angry constituents have asked, "Do you think we are prostitutes? Do you think you can buy us?" said another Republican senator's aide, who was granted anonymity to openly discuss the feedback because the senator had supported the plan.

Bill Frist will never be president.

Pat Roberts' "intelligence"

Murray Waas castrates:

When the CIA announced on Friday that it had fired an employee who the agency claims "knowingly and willfully shared classified intelligence" with a newspaper reporter, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, immediately praised the agency's action, saying that "unauthorized disclosures of classified information can significantly harm our ability to protect the American people."

[snip]

But three years ago on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, Roberts himself was involved in disclosing sensitive intelligence information that, according to four former senior intelligence officers, impaired efforts to capture Saddam Hussein and potentially threatened the lives of Iraqis who were spying for the United States.