Posted by James O'Rourke on June 2, 2008
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, June 2, 2008; 1:53 PM
As the response to former White House press secretary Scott McClellan’s new book enters its second week, the focus has shifted to the messenger rather than his message.
McClellan is a flawed vessel for any serious communication. From behind the podium, he made a mockery of the press and the public’s right to know, most notably by repeating non-responsive and sometimes ludicrous talking points. He has yet to persuasively explain his change of heart. And his insistence that self-deception rather than a conscious disregard for the truth was behind what he now describes as the White House’s consistent lack of candor is spectacularly self-serving.
But the significance of McClellan’s book is that his detailed recounting of what he saw from the inside vindicates pretty much all the central pillars of the Bush critique that have been chronicled here and elsewhere for many years now. Among them:
* That Bush and his top aides manipulated the country into embarking upon an unnecessary war on false pretenses;
* That Bush is an incurious man, happily protected from dissenting views inside the White House’s bubble of self-delusion;
* That Karl Rove’s huge influence on the Bush White House erased any distinction between policy and politics, so governing became about achieving partisan goals, not the common good;
* That Vice President Cheney manipulates the levers of power;
* That all those people who denied White House involvement in the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity were either lying or had been lied to;
* That the mainstream media were complicit enablers of the Bush White House and that its members didn’t understand how badly they were being played. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by James O'Rourke on June 2, 2008
| americanprogressaction.org
ENVIRONMENT
Today, the Senate begins an historic floor debate on legislation that calls for mandatory reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, Sen. Barbara Boxer’s (D-CA) version of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (S. 3036). This is the first time the Senate will engage in full debate on legislation to cap global warming pollution and create a multi-billion-dollar market of tradable pollution permits. Lieberman-Warner would limit emissions from coal-fired power plants, oil refiners, and other major carbon polluters, reducing total U.S. emissions by 18 to 25 percent below current levels by 2020, and 62 to 66 percent lower by 2050. Such legislation would mark an important first step in the transition away from a fossil-fuel economy. Although the bill is “by no means perfect,” as Daniel J. Weiss, Center for American Progress Senior Fellow and Director of Climate Strategy, argues, “the Climate Security Act is the most comprehensive and potentially effective global warming bill ever before the U.S. Senate.” Not surprisingly, this fundamental restructuring is encountering stiff opposition from industry polluters. As former British prime minister Tony Blair wrote, this week’s debate represents “a hugely important signal of intent on behalf of U.S. legislators.” Read the rest of this entry » |
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Posted by James O'Rourke on June 2, 2008
GLOBE EDITORIAL
June 2, 2008
STATE DEPARTMENT officials commonly complain that without an embassy in Iran, the United States cannot decipher the opaque workings of the Islamic Republic. This may be true in a general way, but no classified intelligence sources are needed to grasp the importance of last week’s lopsided election of Ali Larijani to the powerful position of Parliament speaker.
The pragmatic Larijani, a former chief of Iran’s National Security Council and lead nuclear negotiator, has been an outspoken foe of hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. His ascension spells a promising power shift within Iran’s faction-ridden political system. Larijani is very much a devotee of that system, but one who makes no secret of his belief that dialogue and deal-making with the West offer the surest means to secure Iran’s national interests. Read the rest of this entry »
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