Day: November 1, 2005

Via Drudge:

FLASH: Lott Questions Whether Rove Should Stay At White House…Trent Lott became the first Republican Senator to question whether Karl Rove should stay at the White House as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, interview on MSNBC ‘HARDBALL’… Developing…

Why do I have the feeling that guys like Lott, Frist, Reid, Leahy, McCain et al monitor the face time each of them receive on television during a media event like this and if one feels like he hasn’t received ‘equal time’, he proceeds to ‘outdo’ the other by saying something reckless like this? They know the MSM will jump on it like warm blood soaked red meat.

It drives me crazy.

According to Drudge, for the first time in 25 years, rule 21 has been invoked by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid; Dems Seek to Investigate Pre-War Intelligence, Libby Indictment; Frist: ‘The United States Senate has been hijacked by the Democratic leadership’

Standing Rules of The Senate

RULE XXI

SESSION WITH CLOSED DOORS

1. On a motion made and seconded to close the doors of the Senate, on the discussion of any business which may, in the opinion of a Senator, require secrecy, the Presiding Officer shall direct the galleries to be cleared; and during the discussion of such motion the doors shall remain closed.

2. When the Senate meets in closed session, any applicable provisions of rules XXIX and XXXI, including the confidentiality of information shall apply to any information and to the conduct of any debate transacted.

AP – Democrats force Senate into Iraq Meeting

Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session Tuesday, questioning intelligence that President Bush used in the run-up to the war in Iraq and accusing Republicans of ignoring the issue.

“They have repeatedly chosen to protect the Republican administration rather than get to the bottom of what happened and why,” Democratic leader Harry Reid said.

Taken by surprise, Republicans derided the move as a political stunt.

“The United States Senate has been hijacked by the Democratic leadership,” said Majority Leader Bill Frist. “They have no convictions, they have no principles, they have no ideas,” the Republican leader said.

I can’t wait for the rest of this story.

— Kevin Drum has a list of the Dems talking points.

— Frist calls the move a “lack of respect” and says “he can’t trust Senator Reid”. Duh.

Why Reid Did It (According to Byron York of National Review)

Perhaps the best explanation for the Democrats’ decision to virtually shut down the Senate today can be found in one passage from CIA leak prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s news conference last Friday:

“This indictment is not about the war. This indictment’s not about the propriety of the war. And people who believe fervently in the war effort, people who oppose it, people who have mixed feelings about it should not look to this indictment for any resolution of how they feel or any vindication of how they feel….The indictment will not seek to prove that the war was justified or unjustified. This is stripped of that debate, and this is focused on a narrow transaction. And I think anyone who’s concerned about the war and has feelings for or against shouldn’t look to this criminal process for any answers or resolution of that.”

Fitzgerald’s statement, and his decision to confine the indictment of Lewis Libby to charges of lying and obstruction, threatened to dash the Democrats’ hope of using the CIA leak case as an opportunity to re-debate the reasons for going to war in Iraq. So the party, or at least its leaders in the Senate, has decided to use another route, the shutdown of the Senate, as a way to achieve that goal.

Meanwhile, John Podhoretz thinks the Democratic move in the Senate is politically canny:

In the past five days, Democrats have seen the political momentum shifting the president’s way with shocking speed. They don’t know what to do about the inspired Alito nomination, which they almost certainly can’t filibuster. And with the president’s announcement of a war against bird flu this morning — which strikes me as ridiculous policy but inspired Clintonian politics — Democrats were on the verge of having the Fitzgerald probe consigned to the ash-heap of history. And what do they have going for them right now but Scooter-gate? So by pulling this unprecedented maneuver with Section 21, they’re staging a counterassault against the president’s effort to change the political story of the moment. This is the sort of thing to make the Huffington Puffington people shriek with happiness and the Kossians to chortle with joy — almost as much as Bush pulling Miers’s nomination did for us (I know, we’re not supposed to gloat, but come on). And unfortunately, what the GOP has to respond to the maneuver is Bill Frist, who’s a great and noble human being but a stinko political leader. It may not work, but there’s no sense pretending this is a dumb thing to do. It isn’t.

Maybe Podhoretz is right? This stunt is all they have to work with. They have nothing else. They know they’re going to lose the fight against Alito. Basically, they’re all Joe Wilson Democrats.

Headlines and Commentary for 11.01.05

Conservative? Alito’s Record Leaves Little Doubt

Samuel Alito Jr. has the most judicial experience of any U.S. Supreme Court candidate since Benjamin Cardozo in 1932, and the most conservative judicial record of any candidate since Robert Bork in 1987.

Alito’s 15 years on the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia provide a storehouse of ammunition for both supporters and opponents of President Bush’s nominee to succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

A sampling of his 300 published opinions shows a careful, workmanlike judge who quietly explains his conclusions without needless rhetoric, ideological pronouncements or attacks on opponents. Alito can vote to uphold a city’s display of a creche, a menorah and other holiday symbols without a discourse on religion in public life and to uphold a spousal-notification requirement for abortions without condemning either abortion or the 1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling.

And after the Miers debacle, this is what we want – a solid conservative judge who will interpret the constitution, not legislate from the bench.

NY Sun – Bush Is Back

Those who have been hoping that the Supreme Court battles would provide an opportunity for a concerted debate about constitutional principles have a lot to smile over after yesterday’s nomination of Samuel Alito. Not only have Judge Alito’s 15 years riding the 3rd Circuit left him with an extensive paper trail that will be grounds for such a debate, but this nomination seems to signal that the White House is finally ready to force senators to confront issues that were obscured in both the Roberts and Miers nominations. The bold President Bush whom Americans re-elected in 2004 may be making a comeback.

I find it funny that Liberals will allow a sports team to have a slump, they will allow a temporary slide in corporate quarterly earnings, and they will allow their favorite actor to make a bad movie, but the President of the United States has a tough week and they’re calling for impeachment. How silly. Actually, this comment left by a reader at Lucianne can speak for me:

“The U.S. economy is growing at about a 3.5 percent annual rate. (sans H. Katrina, it would be doing even better.) Iraq is well on its way to being a federal republic with a strong constitution. Libya’s nuclear program was stopped. Terrorists are being killed and arrested globally. Justice Roberts has taken his seat at the SC. Justice Alito will soon follow. An excellent replacement for Alan Greenspan was made at the Fed Reserve. So? What is not to like?”

Indeed.

CNSNews – ‘A Mother Who Risked Her Life to Protect Her Country…’

Democrats who work to elect other Democrats to Congress have compiled a two-minute video comparing the CIA leak case to the Watergate cover-up.

The video shows photos and headlines from the Nixon era, then transitions to photos, soundbytes and headlines involving the federal probe that led to the indictment of Lewis Libby last week.

“Last Friday we witnessed an explosion, an event that, like Watergate, will shape politics and the way we see government in America for years to come,” the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said in a press release introducing its video.

“This is a solemn time, and gives us a moment to remember what men can do when they abuse the power given to them by our nation,” the DCCC said.

The video makes the point that President Bush has not fired everyone “involved” in the leak, as he once said he would do. Democrats are particularly eager to get rid of Bush adviser Karl Rove.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said the video is intended to “remind America of the facts” behind the CIA leak case — and what makes the Libby indictment “so monumentally important.”

There is no violin music in the video, but the press release does contain the following grand pronouncements:

“If there is a silver lining of these events, it may be that, in the future, all will know they cannot abuse their power with impunity while they sit in the White House. It is nothing short of tragic to learn that those sitting there now would sacrifice the safety of an American patriot and mother who risked her life to protect her country from the very threats over which this same administration led us to war.

One word – Desperation.

Joe Wilson: I’m No ‘Commie Liberal Sympathizer’

Former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, conducting another round of media appearances related to the leaking of his wife’s CIA cover, used a National Press Club appearance Monday to assert that he is no “commie liberal sympathizer.”

OK, fine then. You’re just a commie liberal.

This is London – Comeback of ‘cocaine Kate’

She is just out of rehab after a drug scandal which has seen her stripped of some of her most lucrative fashion contracts – but Kate Moss is already gracing magazine covers again.

A mere 7 weeks after she was caught snorting coke on video, Kate Moss is suddenly ‘back’ and ready to make money for fashion biz fat-cats throughout the world. Heh.

Let’s hope she lives long enough to really make a comeback, first and foremost, as a mother to her daughter.

MediaDailyNews – The ‘Net is Killing the Paper

IT’S OFFICIAL: 2005 WILL BE the newspaper industry’s worst year since the last ad industry recession. And things aren’t looking much better for next year either, according to a top Wall Street firm’s report on newspaper publishing. “Sadly, 2005 is shaping up as the industry’s worst year from a revenue growth perspective since the recession impacted 2001-2002 period,” says the report from Goldman Sachs, adding a warning that meaningful growth in 2006 is “very unlikely.”

Unfortunately, all of the people who have the power to reinvent the daily newspaper deny its impending death. In their minds, the business is in need of a few strategically placed BandAids. They haven’t yet noticed the many others who are busy measuring the industry for its coffin.

Prince Charles, Camilla Do the Big Apple

AP – Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, paid tribute to victims of the Sept. 11 attacks Tuesday as they began a weeklong tour of the United States — a trip the British press predicted would cause little excitement among Americans.

But, in Greenwich Village and throughout Chelsea, thousands of men have gathered to welcome the royals, as the anthem, ‘It’s Raining Men’ is amplified through the streets. The Village People are on tap to heat the place up tonight.