Quote of the Day

Senator Barack Obama spokesman Bill Burton response to John ’08 McCain latest tirade:

"As a senator who takes his duties seriously, and has also showed up to vote more than once this month, Barack Obama considers few responsibilities more important than his votes on the war in Iraq. Obama opposed the war from the beginning and, unlike Senator McCain, is committed to ending it as quickly and responsibly as possible."

Top Five

A quick rundown of the posts I have read during my travels around the series of tubes.

- Think Progress: In response to a soldier question ‘when are we going to get out of here?’ Senator Holy Joe Lieberman repeated a GOP talking point.

In response to their questions about leaving Iraq, Lieberman said it would be a “victory for al-Qaida and a victory for Iran.”

- Oliver Wills: If Michael Brown, the former FEMA chief, is the most qualified person you can get on your show to discuss a serious topic, then your show has no creditably left.

- Oliver Willis: For some unknown reason Chris Matthews has a deep hatred for Clintons and Al Gore, which lead him to make false claims against them on this television show.

- The Carpet Bagger Report: If you are a minority the Republican Party does not want you to vote. This is the latest example of Republicans using power of the government to disenfranchise minority voters just because they dare to vote for the Democratic Party.

- The Fan House: Is what Alex Rodriguez did last night cheating?

Iraq

Harold Meyerson’s op-ed in the Washington Post just made me rethink my criticism of Democratic Party failure to pass an Iraq bill funding bill with withdrawal timelines.

Many of my antiwar friends were furious at Democratic congressional leaders last week for their failure to attach withdrawal deadlines to or cut funding from our occupation of Iraq -- a failure chiefly attributable to the simple fact that the votes weren't there for either option. What they should recall, however, is that the much more heavily Democratic Congress that hastened the end of the Vietnam War during Richard Nixon's presidency did so by passing a series of incremental measures, each of which constrained Nixon's warmaking powers a bit more than the last. In succession, Congress banned the use of funds for military actions in Laos and Thailand, then (after Nixon ordered the invasion of Cambodia) banned the use of ground forces in Cambodia. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield, one of the Democrats' foremost doves, three times introduced an amendment that would have ended U.S. involvement in Vietnam within nine months of enactment, but it never passed.

It took the Democrats, and their dovish Republican allies, four full years to pass a cutoff of funds for U.S. ground forces in Vietnam, by which point Nixon had already pulled all ground forces out (though the legislation kept him from putting those forces back in, which was not a mere academic possibility). That hardly means that Mansfield betrayed the cause of peace, any more than Nancy Pelosi's failure to shut down the war last week means that she sold out to the Bush administration. Mansfield put one antiwar bill after another to a vote, winning more and more support each time around, leaving Nixon with fewer and fewer options. Pelosi is steering the same course, for a war even more reckless and absurd than Vietnam.

Go read the rest of Harold Meyerson’s op-ed.

CNN & Lou Dobbs

CNN claims to be the ‘Most Trusted Name in News’, but having Lou Dobbs as one of your main anchors put them in the league of Fox News and Bill O’Reilly. The suppose spokesmen of the Middle Class Americans, Lou Dobbs only really represent nativist while using misleading reporting to attack Mexican immigrants.

The most common complaint about him, at least from other journalists, is that his program combines factual reporting with editorializing. But I think this misses the point. Americans, as a rule, are smart enough to handle a program that mixes opinion and facts. The problem with Mr. Dobbs is that he mixes opinion and untruths. He is the heir to the nativist tradition that has long used fiction and conspiracy theories as a weapon against the Irish, the Italians, the Chinese, the Jews and, now, the Mexicans. [..]

More to the point, if Mr. Dobbs’s arguments were really so good, don’t you think he would be able to stick to the facts?

Go read the rest of David Leonhardt's article reporting on Lou Dobbs anti-immigrant hysteria.

Photo of the Day

(Photo via AmericaBlog)

CNN reports that Lieberman is on an unannounced "surprise" visit to Baghdad. Paula Hancocks followed Lieberman around. She talked to Lieberman and reported, "He said he was happy with the progress. He was devastated by the fact that May was turning in to the deadliest month since November 2004. But he said he did believe that this surge eventually would pay off and it would start to break the insurgency."

Top Five

A quick rundown of the posts I have read during my travels around the series of tubes.

- Think Progress: As always, Democratic Senator Joseph Biden is full of it. It is never a good move using GOP taking points to attack fellow Democrats.

- The Carpetbagger Report: Newt Gingrich attacks Karl Rove and President Bush and then Tom Delay points out Gingrich hypocrisy while over looking this own hypocrisy. I guess Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment, "Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican”, is not relevant anymore.

- The Carpetbagger Report: As always, the Politico is full of it.

Eisenhower was the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II. Giuliani was mayor of New York on 9/11. Eisenhower’s national security stature was earned by defeating the Nazis and helping save the world. Giuliani’s national security stature is a media creation, bolstered by clever public relations. To put the two in the same sentence is comical.

- AmericaBlog: There is no difference between Senator Holy Joe Lieberman and Vice President Cheney or Senator McCain.

- The Fan House: What does $700 buy you in Cook County Jail?

Does every Senator want to be President?

I guess so.

Sen. Tom Coburn is mulling an entry into the Republican presidential primary, according to sources inside and outside the Senate. Coburn, a senator from Oklahoma, is believed to be receiving encouragement from a small group of wealthy businessmen and philanthropists in the Oklahoma-Kansas-Texas region of the country.

"He's all about faith, lower taxes, and staying the course in Iraq," says an adviser outside of the Senate who has been speaking to Coburn.

Yes, I’m all for Tom Coburn Presidential run. Because, someone really needs to put a stop to rampant lesbianism in school bathrooms across our great Nation.

Update:

But Coburn spokesman John Hart shot down the balloon before it could even gain an altitude.

"He has no intention of running for president," Hart said.

He chalked up the buzz to "effective rumor planting by powerful donors who want to see a wholesale shake-up in the GOP."

Senator Coburn might not be running for President, but he would be a prefect choice for Vice President.