Justin's Thursday Political News 07.12.07

Posted by Justin Baragona on 07.12.2007

The President refuses to have his aides testify before Congress, Sen. David Vitter hearts escort services, Bush keeps on defending his Iraq policy and the former Surgeon General is just the latest in a long line to criticize the White House.

Welcome to another edition of Justin's Thursday Political News. Work has slowed down to a crawl during these dog days of summer, with everyone on vacation and changes going on in my department and the bank as a whole. So, this means that I have had an awful lot of time to devote to writing over the past week. Toss that in with a lot of stories that have been breaking over the past few days and for the first time in a while I had to actually cut some material to keep this column from being too long of a read. With that being said, let's jump right into the news.



Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) had this to say Monday afternoon about the President citing executive privilege regarding subpoenas issued to White House aides to testify:


"What is the White House trying to hide by refusing to hand over this evidence? It's apparent that this White House is contemptuous of the Congress and feels it doesn't have to explain itself to anyone -- not the people's representatives in Congress and not the American people."



Well, it seems like Bush is making a concerted effort lately to thumb his nose at not just Congress and the Democrats, but the American people as well. Also, not only is the President stating that the aides will not testify under oath before Congress, but he is also withholding documents related to the case under the same 'executive privilege'. The White House feels that with Gonzales and several of his staff members having already testified to Congress about the firing of several U.S. attorneys last year, and the Justice Department having released documents about said firings, that there is no need for anything else in the investigation, especially as it relates to the President's office. However, Congress feels that the testimony and the documents they have received show that the White House was involved in the firings and they need to investigate further, therefore the need for testimony from White House staff and the request for documents held by the administration.

The two White House aides in question that have been subpoenaed are Sara Taylor, former White House political director and Harriet Miers, former White House counsel. Taylor resigned her post back in May while Miers resigned in January. It can be seen that Taylor resigned a few weeks ago as a direct result of the brouhaha that was building over this investigation and to possibly try to cut ties with those higher up from her, such as Karl Rove, who she worked directly with. Therefore, if she is forced to testify despite the White House evoking executive privilege right now, the administration can state that the White House involvement stopped with Taylor. Miers resignation back in January has always been seen more as a result of Bush's failed nomination of her for the Supreme Court.

To the credit of the Democrats, they are not looking for the investigation to stop at Taylor and Miers in regards to the White House. They want to build a case and need to start towards the bottom so they can work their way up. This is the reason they haven't subpoenaed Karl Rove yet, despite their feeling that he had heavy involvement in the firings. I think they also knew that the President would do anything possible to keep Rove from having to testify. This was made apparent even before the President evoked his executive privilege, when the compromise that was offered to Congress was that they could interview the aides privately, off the record and without it being under oath. The Judiciary Committee, of course, rejected this. It looks like this is now going to head to the federal courts to decide if the President is able to actually use executive privilege in this way. Just one more thing to roll your eyes about regarding this administration and the lengths they'll go to in order to cover their collective asses. The sense of entitlement that this President feels is just mind-boggling. He honestly feels as if he doesn't have to answer to anybody.



Below is the response from Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) after it was revealed that his name turned up on a list of phone records from a D.C. escort service:


"This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible. Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and from my wife in confession and marriage counseling."



I always like when hypocrisy is exposed, especially when it involves holier-than-thou bible-thumpers who use religion and an implied moral superiority to get themselves elected to public office. David Vitter is just another Republican notch on hypocrisy's bed post and I'm sure he will not be the last. Apparently, Sen. Vitter, back when he was only a lowly Representative in the House, was contacting an escort service in Washington, D.C. run by Deborah Jeane Palfrey, other wise known as the 'D.C. Madam'. He has admitted his name has turned up on the telephone records for the service, but has not stated that he had sex with any of the supposed prostitutes there (Palfrey is under indictment for money laundering and racketeering involving her business, which is alleged to be a place of prostitution. She has denied this, stating it was a legit escort service.) Another former 'madam', Jeanette Maier of New Orleans, has now come forth and stated that Vitter was a regular client of her brothel, the Canal Street Brothel, which was shut down in 2002. Maier took a plea deal at the time.

Vitter is known as a very socially-conservative lawmaker who was one of the main backers behind the failed push to get same-sex marriage banned by a constitutional amendment, and it has been one of the things he has been most vocal about since he became Senator in 2004. Just to mix a bit of irony into all of this, Vitter became a Congressman when a special election was held in 1999 when Republican Bob Livingston resigned after he was involved in an adultery scandal during the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal that had brought about the impeachment hearings for then President Bill Clinton. Livingston was supposed to take over as Speaker of the House from Newt Gingrich until the scandal hit. As was the case with Livingston, it appears that Vitter's infidelity was exposed by 'Hustler' publisher Larry Flynt. Flynt recently offered $1 million to anyone with evidence of sexual indiscretions involving elected officials, as he did during the impeachment hearings. I think the funniest thing about all of this is back in 2000, after Vitter had been elected to Congress and the Lewiinsky scandal had blown over, Vitters wife had this to say: "I'm a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary [Clinton]. If he does something like that, I'm walking away with one thing, and it's not alimony, trust me. I think fear is a very good motivating factor in a marriage."





President Bush spoke to a crowd in Cleveland, OH on Tuesday and made the following statement about the Iraq War and the surge in troops there:


"Congress oughta[sic] wait for General Petraeus to come back and give us his assessment before they make any decisions."



I think what the President really wanted to say is, "We aren't pulling any troops out until I have left office. I'm leaving this in the hands of whoever succeeds me. I'm banking on the .0001% chance that this will work and I can save my legacy with this dumbass decision to go to war. No cut-and-run here." Sure, that's a bit crass, but it pretty much nits the nail on the head, I think. Dubya can't deal with being wrong or being told he is a failure, but he sure as hell knows how to pass the buck on to someone else or just be bailed out. He has done it his whole life, so why stop now? Sure, he is President of the United States, but that doesn't mean he has to accept responsibility or be held accountable for his actions. He knows he can just keep vetoing bills that are put on his desk that call for a timetable for withdrawal, at least until it becomes apparent that he has lost enough members of the GOP where an override is imminent. However, by the time that comes, the timetable can be set for the withdrawal to take place after he leaves office. Thus, in his warped viewpoint, he can then state that he didn't lose the war, his successor did, as well as the Democrats in Congress. He did everything possible to win this unnecessary war, dammit.



Former Surgeon General Richard Carmona told the following to a House committee on Tuesday:


"Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried. The problem with this approach is that in public health, as in a democracy, there is nothing worse than ignoring science, or marginalizing the voice of science for reasons driven by changing political winds. The job of surgeon general is to be the doctor of the nation, not the doctor of a political party."


The fact that what Carmona said doesn't shock me just goes to show how low of an opinion many of us really have of this administration now. You would think that you would not try to politicize the Surgeon General and try to force him to only make statements that fit within your ideology, but there you go. He stated that his speeches were edited by the administration and he was told not to speak about certain issues that he felt strongly about but did not fit within the agenda of the White House. He supported a comprehensive sex education program for teenagers rather than an abstinence-only program. He also was told not to speak on embryonic stem-cell research and the scientific benefits it could have, abortion or emergency contraception. Just for comparison, C. Everett Koop, who was also present at the hearing, served under President Reagan from 1981-1989. Despite the ideological views of that administration, Koop was able to speak forthright about AIDS and the health consequences and addictive nature of tobacco. While he has stated that he was pressured at times by the White House, and many within the office wanted him out as Surgeon General, he was still able to use his office to speak honestly about health issues, even if not in line with the administration's position.



Well, that's going to do it for me this week. For your reading pleasure (if my column is just not enough) I would suggest checking out Greg's column. However, when reading Greg's column, it got me thinking: Is Dubya really worse than Nixon? Nixon was really just paranoid and power hungry, but nobody ever thinks of him as an imbecile or stupid. Bush is now viewed with such disdain that Comedy Central feels comfortable having an animated show on that has the President and his staff as central figures and makes endless fun of them, and he still has a year and a half to serve! I think it may be safe to say that Bush is the worst President ever. The bad thing is me saying that statement is like shooting fish in a barrel. Anyway, I'll be back next week with more news in the realm of politics.