Ian Bremmer hits the nail on the head in his piece in The Australian:
THE main reason the growing scandal around Karl Rove matters – aside from the fact that a senior White House official may have committed a felony – is that it damages George W. Bush’s declining political capital.
From social security reform to Iranian nuclear proliferation, from Supreme Court nominations to US-China confrontation, a president needs domestic political capital to achieve his policy goals. Bush’s chip stack is clearly shrinking.
This shows the merits of sticking on the Plame story. I wouldn’t say we should be on Plame 24/7, we can walk and chew gum at the same time. But in the current climate, Plame is the walking, and anything else is chewing gum. We’ve finally got the White House on the defensive and it is already showing results.
Most second-term presidents have 18 months to govern before lame-duck status sets in. Bush is already wrestling with Congress on foreign and domestic priorities. The battle over Rove’s possible involvement in a felony dangerously distracts the White House and is likely to undermine support for the President’s agenda.
I agree.
It’s getting better and better.
The Washington Note has two posts up now on Bolton’s defunct UN nomination and the “media perfect storm” that has broken, as well as the serious questions about Bolton’s grand jury testimony. It’s all of a piece: Bush’s declining capital, the Plame matter, Bolton, and it’s all coming together. Yee-hah.
Somebody please check those first two items and do a diary. I haven’t time, and in fact shouldn’t be here at all just now.
Oops. I’m outta here.
Grand Jury? I haven’t seen his name on any lists of people known to have testified.
Steve Clemons:
“After personally speaking with those involved in the MSNBC reports, I will maintain my position that I believe that Bolton has met with the grand jury.”
It’s still not confirmed.
and the dark clouds of his chicanery are following him around like Joe Bltzfik (sp)the cartoon character from Lil Abner) I wouldn’t put it past Bush to do an interim appointment just to stick it in the eye of the democrats. The dems need to howl louder about whether Bolton did, in fact, meet with the proscecuter and if he did howl about the cover up. And they need to be as loud as they can now! Surely there is some dem that can teach the others what it means to be the opposition party? Kerry? Boxer? Show some leadership. Biden and Lieberman just shut up. Since you never say anything but nice about Bush, just shut the heck up.
I think it would be cool to have Bush give Bolton an interim appointment as Ambassador to the U.>N. and then have Fitzgerald indict, him (both B & B? — be still my heart) shortly thereafter.
we’d be able to export manure to developing countries!
Yes, but… I think it’s even bigger than this.
I say why, and what I think the next steps are in my diary:
http://www.boomantribune.com/?op=displaystory;sid=2005/7/24/192550/837
Briefly, this is about national security, which should transcend party politics, and it’s about trust, which can become a potent political issue in the next election cycles.
But the basic point is sound: this has the potential to cripple the neocon Bushers from turning America into a police state while they wage an ineffective war on terror but manage to ruin the American future with a war in Iraq and other policies too numerous to mention.
That’s the outcome we need to focus on, and it will mean going up the chain of responsibility past Rove and Libby.
The next tool to do that, I believe, is a concerted demand for full congressional investigation.
Absolutely right Booman. Treasonroveplamegate is THE defining moment in this administration. Every secret, every lie will come out and this is just one thread in the web of deceit. We must not relent.
Ponder this:
“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Viktor Frankl, Holocost survivor, famous author and pschoanalyst.
Great quote. Agreed, we must stay on this. Hopefully you are right and this will be the defining moment and will serve to derail the Bush agenda. Indeed, already most people believe the war was a mistake, Bush’s approval rating is diminished, social security “reform” is likely dead and desperation is apparently setting in. Nominating Roberts has not proven a great diversion, the MSM have stayed on Rove.
and Bolton will never go to the UN because he lied about testifying to the Grand Jury.Maybe?
Sure seems like he blew a lot of capital running around preaching on Social Security. Isn’t that dead now? I wasn’t against means testing, but the partisan in me doesn’t mind seeing him lose out on that.
I think a great sign of this declining capital is that bit of Rush I heard a week or so ago while on the road (before I discovered that AAR could be heard in Central Illinois). I don’t remember the exact quote, but it was something like “The Democrats may appear hapless [fuck you, Rush] but lately they are actually getting to be pretty effective at blocking Bush’s agenda.” That was pretty sweet to hear.
-Alan
When we look at the Bush WH these days, the word disarray comes to mind with everyone of these blowhards looking for shelter as the ship of state reels from port to starboard.Rove appears to be mercifully neutralized, Cheney will probably have to check in at the Colorado hospital again if the Grand Jury comes acallin’, Condi has escaped to parts unknown, Bolton is boltin’,all the blowhards on the right who frequent the airwaves seem to be on a tranquilizer.At long last, one can see a glimmer of hope that the skies are clearing and our long nightmare may be in its terminal phase.It only remains for Patrick, “Muhammad Ali” Fitzgerald to deliver the knockout punch.
Sorry, I mixed metaphors and mutilated the language so abominably but could not contain myself.