Instahoglets December 14, 2008

By Cernig

I think we're going to try to revive these roundups as a more regular feature.

- Ten years of The Clenis! How it poisoned the political well and turned the GOP into "the party of the moral Jihad" (as one Republican put it). Steve M is certain the episode caused the Dem leadership's spinelessness on Bush's high crimes and misdemeanors, I'd agree and add "and much else". Steve Benen writes that this week's breathless efforts to connect Blagojevich to Obama are eerily familiar, and Republicans will refuse to accept that there's no there there this time.

- There's a new report detailling the Bush administrations many nation-building failures in Iraq. Over $100 billion awol. Deb at Buck Naked Politics comes right out and says that there's been more than incompetence at work - follow the money and see who got their pockets lined. Those missing 190,000 guns, some of which ended up killing Turkish priests and US soldiers, would be a good place to start.

- Meanwhile, Bush is in Iraq for a last visit that the wingnuts are calling a "victory lap". Steven Taylor writes "One would think that if security was sufficiently improved that Bush could run a “victory lap” over Iraq that it wouldn’t have to be a secret reinforced by misdirection."

- A Glenn Greenwald appears on Bill Moyers talling about political reluctance to prosecute Bush et al for clear crimes, the wingnuts are baying for the blood of the NSA whistleblower who exposed Bush's illegal warrantless wiretapping program. Talk about a two-tier legal system.

-Steve Clemons is worried that Afghanistan will be the  place where the dreams and hopes of the Obama Presidency are buried. He writes: "we shouldn't allow corruption scandals and other silly posturing on Sunday morning shows to distract us from the reality that we are on a quite negative trajectory in Afghanistan (and Pakistan) right now -- and we need whopping game-changing moves there that are as significant, if not more, than challenges about America's auto sector." Agreed, unfortunately.

Comments

[cheflovesbeer]

Some one threw a shoe at Bush during one of the press conferences. He is an embarrassment to this great nation.

[anderson]

Shoe Fly:

Iraqi journalist throws shoe at Bush

Getting slapped by the sole of a shoe is considered a grave insult in Arab culture.