National:
2006Vote
When Americans go to the polls on November 7, they will not be voting because Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) “botched a joke” about President Bush on Monday, notwithstanding the national media's 48-hour fixation on Kerry's remarks. Nor will they be voting because President Bush, also on Monday, claimed that if critics of his Iraq policy are victorious, "the terrorists win and America loses." (That comment was mostly ignored.) According to the final pre-election New York Times/CBS poll, Americans will be voting because they desperately want a new direction in Iraq. The Times reports, "Americans cited Iraq as the most important issue affecting their vote, and majorities of Republicans and Democrats said they wanted a change in the government’s approach to the war." Just 29 percent of Americans approve of the way President Bush is managing Iraq strategy, "matching the lowest mark of his presidency," and nearly 70 percent "said Mr. Bush did not have a plan to end the war."
Trust Us (Again)?
In 1994, the right wing gained control over the House of Representatives on the strength of a series of reforms embodied in the so-called "Contract with America." The contract ostensibly "aimed to restore the faith and trust of the American people in their government" and end the "cycle of scandal and disgrace." But a year later, DeLay was already breaching the contract by setting up the K Street Strategy. With many of those lawmakers now enjoying the comfortable incumbency of the 109th Congress, that contract has been completely forgotten. The House Ethics Committee has been especially anemic, refusing to conduct appropriate and timely investigations into scandals such as the DeLay and Abramoff debacles, preferring to protect the conservative leadership. The American public is ready for a change. According to recent polls, 97 percent of Americans say that corruption in government will be an important consideration when they vote in November's elections and 85 percent want the government to commit "to the common good and put the public's interest above the privileges of the few."
Cheney: I Would ‘Probably Not’ Testify Before Congress, Even If Subpoenaed
Sunday morning on ABC, George Stephanopoulos asked Vice President Cheney if he would testify before Congress if he was subpoenaed. Cheney said “probably not in the sense at that vice president and president and constitutional officers don’t appear before the Congress.”
International:
Iraq ambassador Khalilzad to quit.
The AP reports, “Zalmay Khalilzad, the plainspoken dealmaker and Republican insider who has won praise and criticism for attempts to broker Sunni political participation in Iraq’s fragile government, is likely to quit his post as U.S. ambassador in Baghdad in the coming months, a senior Bush administration official said Monday.”
‘We Found WMD In Iraq,’ Hoekstra Now Says ‘I Don’t Know’
In June, Hoekstra unequivocally claimed that WMD had been found in Iraq. From a press conference with Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), 6/21/06:
"Congressman Hoekstra and I are here today to say that we have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, chemical weapons."
Hoekstra and Santorum went on a media blitz, telling anyone who would listen that WMD’s had been found. (The pair seized on a report describing abandoned, degraded pre-1991 munitions that were already acknowledged by the White House’s Iraq Survey Group and dismissed.)
Yesterday, Hoekstra reversed course, saying it he didn’t know whether there was WMD or not. CNN, 11/5/06:
In Other News:
Federal prosecutors rejected 87 percent of the international terrorism cases brought by the FBI during the first nine months of fiscal year 2006. Prosecutions fell from 118 defendants in fiscal year 2002, to 19 defendants from Oct. 1, 2005, to June 30, 2006. The Justice Department disputed the findings.
"The U.S. government conducted a series of secret war games in 1999 that anticipated an invasion of Iraq would require 400,000 troops, and even then chaos might ensue." Read the full study HERE.
Iraq is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, according to new rankings from Transparency International. "When you have high levels of violence," the group's chief executive said, "not only does security break down, but so do checks and balances, law enforcement and the functioning of institutions like the judiciary and legislature."
A recent CIA assessment found that Afghan president Hamid Karzai has been "significantly weakened by rising popular frustration with his American-backed government." Karzai continues "to struggle to exert authority beyond Kabul," and is increasingly viewed as corrupt.
House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) criticized the Bush administration yesterday "for its handling of a trove of once-secret documents from Saddam Hussein's covert nuclear program disclosed on a federal Web site." "It looks like they screwed up," he said.
Vice President Dick Cheney will (try to) shoot pheasant on Election Day.
On his first hunting trip since he accidentally shot a companion last February while aiming at a covey of quail on a private Texas ranch, Cheney will head to South Dakota to spend several days at a private hunting lodge near Pierre.
FOX News Poll: Dems Top GOP by 13 Points in Race to Control Congress
Nearly half of likely voters — 49 percent — favor the Democratic candidate in their House district and 36 percent the Republican, with 15 percent still undecided in a FOX News poll conducted the final weekend before the midterm elections.
More Democrats (37 percent) than Republicans (26 percent) say they are extremely interested in tomorrow’s elections, and more Democrats (89 percent) than Republicans (81 percent) say they plan to vote for their party’s candidate in their district.
From The Right:
Debra J. Saunders:
The woman who would be speakerPelosi's positions are those of a classic liberal. She voted against the welfare-reform bill signed by President Bill Clinton and supports same-sex marriage. She wants choice for children who don't want to notify their parents to have an abortion, but not for poor District of Columbia parents who need vouchers to send their children to private school. Pelosi voted against the war in Iraq and the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
From The Left:
Reuters (via TruthOut): Iraq Foes Would Head Democrat War-Spending Panels
Democratic takeover of the US Congress would put two of the most outspoken critics of the Iraq war in charge of dispensing the money President George W. Bush will seek for combat, adding pressure for a new approach to the increasingly unpopular war; Rep. David Obey & Sen. Robert Byrd.
Thought To Ponder:
“Heavenly Father give us grace and mercy, help us this next week and a half as we go into national elections and Lord we pray for our country. Father we pray lies would be exposed and deception exposed. Father we pray that wisdom would come upon our electorate …”
From Ted Haggard’s sermon last week, four days before accusations of his gay affair became public
(Sources: TownHall, WashingtonPost, FOXNews, NYTimes, Time, RollingStone, PollingReport, Vanity Fair, National Review, USA Today, GWU, Reuters, Transparency Int’l, AP, NBCNews)
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