Month: May 2009

Hewitt Award Nominee II

"You look at the Obama administration, the number of attorneys that have been appointed who were defending alleged terrorists. There's this weird pattern where the Bush people wanted to defend Americans and were pretty tough on terrorists. These guys are prepared to take huge risks with Americans in order to defend terrorists," – Newt Gingrich, keeping it classy as always.

The Holy Grail Of Torture Reports?

The WaPo reports that the White House will release a 2004 CIA report about the effectiveness of the interrogation program. That's the report that gave us these chilling details about stress positions and sleep deprivation. Money quote:

Government officials familiar with the CIA's early interrogations say the most powerful evidence of apparent excesses is contained in the "top secret" May 7, 2004, inspector general report, based on more than 100 interviews, a review of the videotapes and 38,000 pages of documents. The full report remains closely held, although White House officials have told political allies that they intend to declassify it for public release when the debate quiets over last month's release of the Justice Department's interrogation memos.

Sargent responds:

Dem Congressional staffers tell me this report is the “holy grail,” because it is expected to detail torture in unprecedented detail and to cast doubt on the claim that torture works — and its release will almost certainly trigger howls of protest from conservatives. Tellingly, neither the CIA nor the White House knocked down the story in response to my questions, with spokespeople for both declining comment.

Greta Handling Todd

The increasingly surreal nexus between Greta van Susteren, her Hillarybot super-lawyer husband, the Super Adventure Club, the Palins and, er, journalism, just got weirder:

POLITICO started to chat with Alaska's "first dude" when Van Susteren intervened. The host of On The Record told us this brunch was "off the record" – no talking with the husband of former Republican vice presidential nominee, Gov. Sarah Palin. Asked why, Van Susteren told us – as we held pen, pad, recorder and camera in hand – well, you know, at these things you can't always figure out who's on the record or off the record when you chit chat. And, she added, with all the background noise Palin could easily be misquoted.

Over to Greta in that prose we have become used to:

And let me get this straight, I am the only one in the media who brought a guest? Ah….I think not….in fact, EVERYONE in the media brought a guest to the weekend’s social events….so I guess EVERYONE in the media is now a handler? or just those who brought guests and tried to show good manners at a social event? As for CNN’s comment, huh? Are they kidding? Maybe their anchors should have looked to see who the Washington CNN Bureau was bringing before they comment about Fox (which of course continues to get millions more viewers each night than CNN….even MS/NBC is beating CNN now…and remember, CNN started this with their sarcasm on air…)

Jesus, Greta. Have a cocktail.

How Cheney Remembers His Oath

Here's how he recounts it in his interview yesterday:

Now, if you'd look at it from the perspective of a senior government official, somebody like myself, who stood up and took the oath of office on January 20th of ‘01 and raised their right hand and said we're going to protect and defend the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic, this was exactly, exactly what was needed to do it.

Here's the actual oath:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

My italics, of course. Is Cheney's ultimate defense is that he didn't understand the oath he took?