MoDo, again

Mostly I have held the opinion that Maureen Dowd was somewhat obsessed, perhaps even a little depraved, regarding her unrelenting criticism of the Clintons. But here she is, simply and sadly, dead on target:

If Bill Clinton has to trash his legacy to protect his legacy, so be it. If he has to put a dagger through the heart of hope to give Hillary hope, so be it.

If he has to preside in this state as the former first black president stopping the would-be first black president, so be it.

The Clintons — or “the 2-headed monster,” as the The New York Post dubbed the tag team that clawed out wins in New Hampshire and Nevada — always go where they need to go, no matter the collateral damage. Even if the damage is to themselves and their party.

Bill’s transition from elder statesman, leader of his party and bipartisan ambassador to ward heeler and hatchet man has been seamless — and seamy.

This is believed to be the Clintons' strength: in boxing parlance, their counterpunch. Their steel jaw.

It appears to me as '90s style guttersniping. Slime your opponent before (you think) he can. Rovian politics without the Rove.

When he was asked yesterday if he would feel bad standing in the way of the first black president, he said no. “I’m not standing in his way,” he said. “I think Hillary would be a better president” who’s “ready to do the job on the first day.” He added: “No one has a right to be president, including Hillary. Keep in mind, in the last two primaries, we ran as an underdog.” He rewrote the facts, saying that “no one thought she could win” in New Hampshire, even though she originally had had a substantial lead.

He said of Obama: “I hope I get a chance to vote for him some day.” And that day, of course, would be after Hillary’s eight years; it’s her turn now because Bill owes her. “I think it would be just as much a change, and some people think more, to have the first woman president as to have the first African-American president,” he said.

Bad Bill had been roughing up Obama so much that Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina suggested that he might want to “chill.” On a conference call with reporters yesterday, the former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a national co-chairman of the Obama campaign, tut-tutted that the “incredible distortions” of the political beast were “not keeping with the image of a former president.”

Jonathan Alter reported in Newsweek that Senator Edward Kennedy and Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois congressman and former Clinton aide, have heatedly told Bill “that he needs to change his tone and stop attacking Senator Barack Obama.”

There is the anecdotal evidence that portends doom in the general election: in the face of Democratic leaders, even elders asking -- perhaps demanding -- that he cool it, the former president keeps his foot on the gas. That defiance could ultimately result in a blowback that destroys not just his wife, but the party he purports to lead. It's still just fun-and-games to him, though:

At the Greenville event, Bill brought up Obama’s joking reference to him in the debate, about how Obama would have to see whether Bill was a good dancer before deciding whether he was the first black president.

Bill, naturally, turned it into a competition. “I would be willing to engage in a dancing competition with him, even though he’s much younger and thinner than I am,” he said. “If I’m going to get in one of these brother contests,” he added, “at least I should be entitled to an age allowance.”

He said, “I kind of like seeing Barack and Hillary fighting.”

“How great is this?” he said. “Neither of them has to be a little wind-up doll who’s supposed to behave in a certain way. They’re real people, flesh and blood people. They have differences.”

And if he has anything to say about it, and he will, they’ll be fighting till the last dog dies.

These are truly uncharted political waters we're entering now. It's just a shame -- rather nauseating, in fact -- that this sea is taking on the appearance of a septic tank.

They lied. No one could have predicted that.

I'll just bold the vital statistics:

A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The study concluded that the statements "were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."

The study was posted Tuesday on the Web site of the Center for Public Integrity, which worked with the Fund for Independence in Journalism. White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said he could not comment on the study because he had not seen it.

The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to al-Qaida or both.

"It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al-Qaida," according to Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the Fund for Independence in Journalism staff members, writing an overview of the study. "In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003."

Named in the study along with Bush were top officials of the administration during the period studied: Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan.

Bush led with 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 28 about Iraq's links to al-Qaida, the study found. That was second only to Powell's 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq and al-Qaida.

The center said the study was based on a database created with public statements over the two years beginning on Sept. 11, 2001, and information from more than 25 government reports, books, articles, speeches and interviews.

"The cumulative effect of these false statements — amplified by thousands of news stories and broadcasts — was massive, with the media coverage creating an almost impenetrable din for several critical months in the run-up to war," the study concluded.

"Some journalists — indeed, even some entire news organizations — have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical. These mea culpas notwithstanding, much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, 'independent' validation of the Bush administration's false statements about Iraq," it said.

In January of 2002 I went into private practice. Earlier the previous fall, in the wake of September 11's tragic events, my co-workers and I had discussed the fact they America intended to go after Iraq as retribution. I thought at the time that was a positively ridiculous proposition, but as history kept unfolding it became clear to me that was exactly what my government intended to do: start an unprovoked war on a completely distinct, uninvolved third party based on a web of deception so thorough that even members of the so-called liberal media (Judith Miller, anyone?) were complicit.

In the discussion fora I was participating in at the time, I remember not only the dismay of trying to speak out against the massive , foolish rush to war and the intoxicated patriotic fervor everywhere I looked ("God Bless America", anyone?), but also the steadfast refusal to consider that the course we were on might be misguided. I remember being accused of treason many times simply for speaking out.

As more developments came to light, we learned -- eventually -- that the Bush administration took the word of an Iraqi ("Curveball") over the advice of a former United States ambassador, and then went out of their way to discredit him by revealing his wife to be a undercover CIA agent.

And then there were the (occasional) unintended consequences: the torture of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib, the detention without charge of suspected prisoners of war at Guantanamo Bay, the no-bid contracts of Halliburton, the loss of life of our brave soldiers who went to war without proper body armor or vehicular plating, the travesty of the poor treatment of our battle-wounded within the veterans' so-called health care system ...

What did I leave out?

Oh, yeah: the refusal of a Democratic Congressional majority elected to do something about it not doing anything about it.

These sad developments compelled many Americans to make the second-most ultimate sacrifice: max out their credit cards, then take out home equity loans to pay them off, then run them up again, all the while keeping their eyes peeled for any distraction from reality, such as American Idol or Dancing With the Stars. It forced mortgage lending companies to bend the rules in order to keep the stock market up and the rest of the economy humming, and it also forced the Bush Administration to cut the taxes for the wealthiest Americans so that they could prop up America's best restaurants and luxury auto dealers.

Everyone has to make sacrifices during a time of war, after all.

But geez, things are still kind of, you know, turning bad a little. So the Fed cuts the funds rate again so that the markets don't drop quite as much and Bush says he'll send us a check for 300 bucks and the surge is working, so hey, maybe we gon' be awright after all.

Ya think?

Blogging for a woman's right to choose today

Today, on the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision upholding women's reproductive freedom, Roe v. Wade has never been more imperiled. MissLaura points to the ages of Justices Stevens (87), Ginsberg (74), Breyer, (69), Souter (68), Alito (57), and Roberts (52) as evidence that the coming presidential election is likely to matter significantly to the fate of Roe, and women.

Choose wisely.

Goodnight, Grampa Fred

It just won't be quite as much fun without ya.

Even Candy Crowley thinks Edwards won

Do you have any idea how difficult it was for those words to pass the Butter Queen's lips? Ohhh, those lips:

As for the press corps, they really weren't that bad. I don't think I was ignored any more than most other small-time reporters, most of whom were pretty nice people who just had lousy jobs. But the cool kids, the people working for the big papers and TV stations who really loved hobnobbing with all the pols on the plane — they were a pretty disgusting group in some ways. I think the one image that will stick with me is Candy Crowley (CNN) jamming fistfuls of complimentary chocolate chip cookies into her mouth in a bus in Houston (the Kerry campaign had given us all free cookies wrapped in American-flag-patterned bandanas) and talking about Kucinich. She's got this huge waterfall of crumbs coming out of her mouth and she's talking about how ugly Kucinich is. That to me summed up the whole campaign press crew, right there...

The words of Matt Taibbi, late of Rolling Stone. You may have seen him on Bill Maher last Saturday evening.

The worst on display

Was anyone else embarrassed by the conduct of the two front-runners for the Democratic nomination in last night's debate?

On Martin Luther King Day, of all days, for the mud to be slung with such vigor by our candidates. Disgusting. The only thing missing was them calling each other "b*tch" and "n*gg*r".

If you saw it, you know what I'm talking about. If you didn't, then consider yourself fortunate.

In a contest which has already featured a former president doing the dirty political work for his wife (who seems more than capable of doing it herself), we also got to see a visibly incensed Barack Obama call both of them liars. Lovely. And to observe the facial expressions and body language of Mrs. Clinton and Obama -- too close for comfort, CNN, in a warning to other networks about pore-revealing closeup shots in future debates -- it is plainly and painfully obvious that these two do not like each other. A lot.

This is a revoltin' development. And a best-case scenario for a plenty *ucked-up bunch of Republicans to capitalize on.

That vivid demonstration of extraordinarily unprofessional conduct in last night's debate simply does not inspire independent voters to turn out at the polls and vote for Democratic candidates for any office. It doesn't even inspire Democratic voters to do so, for Pete's sake.

In case you hadn't noticed, we Democrats tend to fight amongst ourselves. And we tend to call each other names when we do. Sometimes the bitterness from a tough campaign lingers afterward, and dampens our enthusiasm for the general election fray and the real enemy. This results in a presidential nominee failing to get enough grassroots motivation -- blockwalking, phone calling, even things as nebulous as water cooler conversation and putting a bumper sticker on one's car -- to actually win an election they shouldn't lose. This phenomenon already occurred in 2000 and 2004 to some degree (yes, there were indeed other, more significant factors like hanging chads and the SCOTUS in 2000 and malfunctioning voting machines in Ohio in 2004. I don't intend to minimize those facts in any way. But we Democratics aren't like the Republics; we don't fall in lockstep behind our nominee no matter who it is. We think. But I digress).

I was already plenty disillusioned about the prospect of supporting one of these two people, and now ... well, you tell me.

What did either Clinton or Obama say or do to earn your support last night?

I'll let Martin Luther King III, in his letter to John Edwards, have the last word for me:

So, I urge you: keep going. Ignore the pundits, who think this is a horserace, not a fight for justice. My dad was a fighter. As a friend and a believer in my father's words that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, I say to you: keep going. Keep fighting. My father would be proud.

Update: Rhymes agrees.

Remembering MLK today

On some positions a coward has asked the question: is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question: is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.

-- Martin Luther King Jr., November 1967

More WTF: Huck and Chuck in Navasota

Huckabee's Sunday fundraiser and rally at the Lone Wolf Ranch of martial arts action star Chuck Norris was the first major presidential event for either party in the state since Jan. 1.

Unintentional humor was in blessed abundance:

Freshly bruised from a second-place finish in the South Carolina Republican primary, presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee told a gathering of Texas financial supporters Sunday that the GOP nomination may come down to the Lone Star State on March 4.

"By the time we get through Feb. 5, there still will not be a decisive winner," said Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas. "I'm having to reach down deep and swallow my Arkansas pride, and it is taking everything in me to be able to say this, but, folks, Texas may just have to save this Arkansas boy and put us over the top in March of this year."

Count on it, Huckster. The Lord's flock of sheep are going all in for ya. Texas, hold him; those weekly poker game winnings -- not to mention the commissions on Total Gym sales -- are likely to save God's Chosen Republican yet.

More from other campaigns about the potential for Texas to matter as it regards picking a president:

Houston lawyer Patrick Oxford, a national co-chairman for Republican Rudy Giuliani, said the mixed results of the early primaries have helped Giuliani because the campaign always downplayed the early contests to focus on the Jan. 29 Florida winner-take-all primary and the Feb. 5 primaries, which have 1,462 delegates at stake.

"I don't think it is any secret that chaos is our friend," Oxford said. ...

Oxford said Giuliani can organize Texas quickly by tapping into the campaigns of his top Texas political supporters: Gov. Rick Perry, Comptroller Susan Combs and Railroad Commission Chairman Michael Williams.

"You have to take advantage of their organization quickly to have a ground game," Oxford said. "Texas is a big state. Any type of media campaign even by then probably will be too expensive for everybody."

It almost sounds like he's wishing another plane would fly into a building, doesn't it? More visionary insight: "Texas is a big state". I think I've heard that one.

And this from the bright side:

"Clearly, the Clinton campaign has an advantage in creating an infrastructure overnight," said state Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, an Obama supporter. "They've done this before and they've got a network of past supporters."

Strama said dedicated volunteers with Texans for Obama have been working since 2006. He said many of them have worked on political campaigns in the past.

Ian Davis, one of the organizers, said part of the effort has been dedicated to having 20 percent of all students on college campuses pledged to Obama by election day. He said the San Antonio operation has 400 volunteers, some of whom went to Iowa to campaign.

But wait ... the evil Dr. No is going to have a say in the Texas outcome, yes?

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Lake Jackson, also has a small army of volunteers. Hundreds tried to vote in a state Republican straw poll last summer, but were turned away because they had not previously voted in a GOP primary.

They obviously forgot to bring their Voter ID cards. Recall that this was the Texas GOP primary that yesterday's quitter, Duncan Hunter, won. More from Oxford, who's just a laugh a minute, but first a word from another disciple of Huck:

Kelly Shackelford of the Liberty Legal Institute said having Perry's endorsement will not help Giuliani because Huckabee will have the support of social conservatives who oppose abortion and support home schooling.

Shackelford said that even if Perry were to give his political supporter lists to Giuliani, "if you get them out to vote they will just vote for Huckabee." He added the "establishment doesn't have campaign structure. Let's see if they can crush one grass-roots guy."

Social conservatives make up an estimated 35 percent to 40 percent of the Texas Republican primary vote. And they have an extensive e-mail network through church leaders and conservative organizations.

Oxford said he believes that enthusiasm will dampen after Feb. 5 if Republican voters see Giuliani as the candidate who can defeat the Democratic nominee in the November general election.

"I wouldn't be dismissive at all of the social conservative network, but we'll see if they will be kamikazes for Huckabee," Oxford said. "I don't know that they will be."

Praise God, it looks like Mike is going to make it to heaven (aka the Republican National Convention) and anoint the Saviour.

It might even be he who wears the crown.

Update: I didn't even mention that Chuck Norris, 67, thinks John McCain, 72, is too old to be president, so check Esoterically.net for that. And Huckabee really shouldn't make comments about other people's hair color, especially since McCain obviously isn't using any.

The Weekly Wrangle

Time for another weekly roundup of Texas Progressive Alliance blog posts. This week's collection is brought to you by Steve at WhosPlayin, while Vince recovers from his wild weekend covering the AFL-CIO Convention.

WhosPlayin takes a look at a spoof website that has turned a Denton County commissioner's race ugly.

John Coby cautions Houston City Council about Houstonians for Responsible Growth.

BossKitty at Bluebloggin points out how Dick Cheney shows his loyalty toward the people who are supposed to take a bullet for him in Secret Service Takes The Fall - Cheney Not To Be Inconvenienced.

A report of the SDEC meeting posted by PDiddie at Brains and Eggs drew a response from several quarters.

McBlogger looks at Rep. Dawnna Dukes' conflict of interest in helping the film industry and wonders if she's truly non-committal in the Speaker's race.

On The Texas Blue, contributing writer David Gurney takes a look at the short-lived influence of the baby boomer era on politics in The Downhill Run.

Off the Kuff says it's time for C.O. Bradford to start speaking out about the various messes Chuck Rosenthal has created at the Harris County DA's office.

The Texas Cloverleaf informs everyone that the TTC Townhall 2.0 hearings have begun. If you care where TTC-69 is going, you best attend for your voice to be heard.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson points out that Democrat Diana Maldonado Out-Raises All Candidates In HD-52 and shows the problem with one-party government in ACLU Shames WCCC - Free Speech Under Attack.

Stace at Dos Centavos analyzes the Latino vote for Hillary in Nevada.

Gary at Easter Lemming Liberal News still can't believe what has happened to what was once Houston's premiere radio news source. The new Republican Propaganda Radio Network had Rush Limbaugh calling a spade a spade and shows expertise with using hoes. Gary provides alternatives for your radio listening and a contact link to KTRH 740 AM.

CouldBeTrue from South Texas Chisme answers the question 'What does 'immigration' mean as an issue?'

Suzanne Pleshette, 1937-2008

She was responsible for IMHO one of television's most classic moments:

Although Newhart got a new TV wife, played by Mary Frann, for his 1982-90 Newhart, Pleshette had the last laugh -- making a memorable surprise guest appearance as Newhart's previous TV wife at the end of the series' final episode.

Dick Loudon, the Vermont innkeeper Newhart played on Newhart, is knocked out by a stray golf ball. Then the show cuts to a darkened bedroom as he wakes up and turns on the light to reveal Chicago psychologist Bob Hartley's bedroom from The Bob Newhart Show.

The Vermont-set Newhart and its colorful characters, it turns out, had only been a dream, and Pleshette's Emily tells Bob he should watch what he eats before going to bed.

In a 1990 interview with CBS This Morning, Pleshette recalled that when the Newhart studio audience saw the familiar bedroom set from the old series, she heard a shocked intake of breath.

"And then they heard this mumble under the covers, and nobody does my octave, you know," she recalled. "And I think they suspected it might be me, but when that dark hair came up from under the covers, they stood and screamed."

One of my favorite bass-tenor women.

Duncan Hines quits

Oh wait, that's not his name.

So is Romney running front now or is it McCain?

Is Dr. No's second-place finish meaningful or not?

Paul took several swipes at former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who got fewer votes than Paul in Nevada and was trailing Paul in returns being tabulated Saturday night in South Carolina. He told the audience about a confrontation with Giuliani during this month's debate in South Carolina. He said Giuliani "cut me down."

"Tonight, if this is the final tally on that confrontation, we got three times as much vote as the mayor got," he said, referring to Nevada.

So when does 9ui11ani quit? Right after he doesn't win Florida? And did Grampa Fred quit last night or not? I couldn't really tell, either. And are you thanking your God this morning that the Republicans won't be nominating a guy who fried squirrel in a popcorn popper in his dorm room when he was in college?

I mean ... who knew Gomer Huckabee even went to college?

Every time I get frustrated about what's going on with the Democrats, all I have to do is look over at the Republicans, and I forget all my worries.

Sunday Funnies (brunch edition)

Thanks to my buddy Bartcop for many of this post's contributions. He's a Hillary lover but I can't hate him for it.