October 02, 2006

Expanding the inquiry

Josh Marshall wants to know how GOP Reps are expressing loyalty (or the lack thereof) to Denny Hastert with regard to Hastert's dissembling on Chickenhawk-gate.

You know which particular GOP Rep the Confidence Man would like to see a statement from? David Dreier.

Chickenhawk-gate

Three quick thoughts on the continually exploding Mark Foley scandal:

1. Democrats *must* capitalize on this. One suggestion: start using this eponymous epithet to slur both Foley *and* the GOP leadership as cowardly perverts. One thing the Dems should *not* do is listen to Andrew Sullivan or any other prominent gay pundits/activists; if the Dems tread cautiously and don't run to the GOP's right on this issue because of identity politics and political correctness, the party doesn't deserve to return to power. Foley's sin, obviously, was *not* being gay, but abusing his position of authority and trust -- which is precisely the larger sin of the GOP in the Bush Era. And at the root of this sin is cowardice -- cowardice to live up to the standards of one's own rhetoric, cowardice to honor the principals of American liberty, cowardice to be honest, cowardice to ask for genuine sacrifice in the interests of liberty. The contemporary GOP has more convictions than courage.

2. Current big-picture speculation on the fallout from Chickenhawk-gate is focusing on the GOP House leadership, especially Denny Hastert. But let's rack-pull back to the two-shot: who *really* controls the GOP Congress? Karl Rove. Hastert and Frist don't pee with their pj's on fire without Unka Karl poking their prostates. It's utterly implausible that Karl Rove was *not* aware of the entirety of the Foley situation. Recall that Rep Rodney Alexander's first alarum call was sent to the NRCC -- which is responsible not for managing the House majority, but for electorally ensuring the continuity of the current majority. No one told Rove? Bullshit.

3. So, Karl, how's that "30-year majority" plan turning out? The Confidence Man has long suspected that Karl's Grand Plan was an all-in bluff. The crazy-quilt GOP constituency was bound to blow up at some point in the near-to-medium-term; if it wasn't Chickenhawk-gate (which will finally drive a significant chunk of the evangelicals out of the tent), it would have been something else.

April 28, 2006

"Mojo. The president used to have it in spades."

Hunh. Well that's an interesting claim.

I didn't think Bush had ever polled especially well with African Americans.

April 06, 2006

Just following orders

Is it any coincidence that this is revealed on the same day that this is discovered?

February 22, 2006

Throw ... GEORGE Under the Bus?

The Confidence Man has been watching the UAE-port-management scandal fairly closely.

And most inexplicable dimension to the scandal has been the apparent utterly potically tone-deaf response by the administration.

Now, W. digging in his heels and insisting that as God's Handmaiden, his choices are not to be first-guessed, let alone second guessed -- that's nothing out of the ordinary.

Likewise, to make hollow veto threats -- SOP for W.

But to totally not get the symbolism of the issue, and the mechanics of the political perceptions on the ground -- that's a shocker for the Rove machine.

The strategic answer at which the Confidence Man arrives is this: Rove has decided that it's time to throw W. under the bus.

With his approval numbers pretty much permanently stuck below 40% now (the only thing that would bump them up at this point, frankly, would be another Reichstag Fire, and that's a huge-risk/high-reward proposition) and his having radioactive coattails for the '06 midterms, W. himself is presenting as the greatest obstacle to Rove's putative 30-year/permanent-GOP-majority plan.

We've always known that Kreepy Unka Dick, as incompetent as he is, has nonetheless been the operatively indispensable element of the administration. Last week's shooting controversy has pretty much demonstrated that Dick runs the show and ain't going anywhere -- and recall that Dick has always been a much more solid chit with the American Taliban crowd than W. himself.

No, it looks to the Confidence Man that Rove has decided to get rid of W. -- not in the sense of actually kicking him out of the WH (although we have to say that it is looking more and more likely that Rove's been the one encouraging the Moonbat WashTimes/Insight impeachment-and-dissension-in-the-WH talk), but in the sense of unhitching the GOP's wagon from him. Rove will have the entire GOP running away from W. by May.

February 17, 2006

1 + 1 ... + 1

John Travolta in Blow Out: "And three people makes a conspiracy, right?"

The Confidence Man has of course been following the whoop-de-do over Unka Dick's postshooting interview with Bret Hume, and Dick's minor revelation that he has the power to summarily declassify government secrets.

The invaluable firedoglake has been putting 1 and 1 together with this revelation in light of Sc0ooter Libby's defense filing last week, in which Scooter's mouthpiece suggested that Scooter had been instructed or given permission to leak certain previously classified facts in the overall effort to discredit Plame and Wilson.

Now, here's where the third 1 comes into play: If, as we can clearly surmise from Dick's revelation and Scooter's allegation, that Dick Cheney himself declassified Plame's NOC status -- and as Patrick Fitzgeral;d has demonstrated in his filings thus far that there was a conspiracy to discredit Plame and Wilson -- then doesn't that detail itself definitively make Dick Cheney part of the conspiracy?

February 07, 2006

Reality Is Unconstitutional

The Confidence Man has been closely following the FISA-bility flap regarding the illegality of Bush's domestic wiretaps.

We were intrigued this morning to read Josh Marshall pointing to a potential Constitutional defense of Bush's actions: to wit, that if in fact wiretapping/surveillance powers are vested in the Presidency, then FISA itself may be Unconstitutional per se -- Congress illegitimately constraining the power of the President.

An interesting theory.

But it doesn't go far enough.

The Confidence Man would submit that REALITY ITSELF is inherently Unconstitutional. The President -- this President, in particular -- should be able to flap his wings and FLY should he so desire. Gravity and wind resistance -- and the entire theoretical apparatus that underlies these heretical obloquys -- represent not merely a sop to Our Enemies, but an encroachment onto the powers that rightfully devolve onto the highest office in This Land.