Don't Believe A Damn Thing I Wrote In My Book

It was pretty amazing watching Rachel Maddow push former Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, into disavowing stuff he had written in his own book last night. In order for him to walk back his comments on the politicization of the threat level, she made him run from his own words and didn't let up. I can't imagine that his interview will be good for book sales, thats for sure.

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Gutted Like A Fish

Rachel Maddow just ethered Tom Ridge over the Iraq War in a way that was cathartic for anyone who was opposed to the war from the start. She didn't have to yell, scream, or holler but she knee capped him like the most vicious capo and hung the run up to the war around his neck like an anvil. As soon as the video is available I will put it up and trust me its an instant classic.

You will NEVER see David Gregory pull off that kind of interview. Not EVER!

Update: As promised.

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The Price Of Being Right

Glenzilla absolutely eviscerates Marc Ambinder for trying to dismiss the fact that once again liberals and progressives were proven right about he Bush Administration. Unfortunately as Glenn points out, the more liberals and progressives are right, the more the Villagers disdain them and continue to try to dismiss them as partisans.

Truth really does have a liberal bias, unfortunately the mainstream media is so afraid of being labeled the latter that they will eschew the former. It is what it is.

Of Course They Did

I'm no doubt outraged, but not at all surprised that Tom Ridge has confirmed that the Bush Administration politicized national security so as to gain electoral victories. i don't know of any credible person who was paying attention for the last 8 years who could have claimed that not to be the case. But it is always a punch to the gut to see it acknowledged by one of the players involved.

"The darkest possibilities of the politics of terrorism became obvious in the summer and fall of 2002 as the midterm elections approached," Mr. Ridge writes. "Members of my own party carried out a campaign of shameless character assassination."

He describes how GOP operatives painted then-Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., a triple amputee from wounds he suffered in Vietnam, as being soft on terrorism because, over personnel issues, he had voted against the creation of the department Mr. Ridge would lead. The assault included a campaign commercial twinning Mr. Cleland's face with that of Osama bin Laden.

"It was an early and brutal example of playing the patriotism card and set a new standard for low," Mr. Ridge said. "But the tactic worked and the GOP picked up a Senate seat. But in the end it was very much a pyrrhic victory. The accusation that we were playing politics was something we dealt with often, and the Georgia campaign gave those accusations a basis in fact."

Mr. Ridge is adamant in rejecting the contentions of Bush administration critics that the often-derided color-coded warning system he helped devise was manipulated for political ends. He depicts an atmosphere, however, in which the motives of some senior officials and Cabinet colleagues sometimes left lingering questions on that score.

The most dramatic example -- and one that Mr. Ridge said would help him confirm his previous plans to leave his post -- came on the eve of the 2004 election between Mr. Bush and Sen. John Kerry.

Osama bin Laden had released a videotape with one more ominous sounding but unspecific threat against the United States. Neither Mr. Ridge nor any of the department's security experts thought the message warranted any change in the nation's alert status.

" . . . at this point there was nothing to indicate a specific threat and no reason to cause undue public alarm," he writes.

But that view met resistance in a tense conference call with members of the intelligence community and several other Cabinet officers including Attorney General John Ashcroft and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

"A vigorous, some might say dramatic, discussion ensured. Ashcroft strongly urged an increase in the threat level and was supported by Rumsfeld."

Noting the correlation found between increases in the threat level and the president's approval rating, Mr. Ridge writes, "I wondered, 'Is this about security or politics?' "

Keep in mind that this is from a book that Ridge wrote freely, imagine how many more details would come out if he was ever deposed. It is evident at this point that we will never really know just how slimy the Bush Administration was, but from all we already know I can't think of anybody who was any worse.

Peak Wingnut Will Never Come

John Cole made famous the term "Peak Wingnut". It refers to some mythical level of wingnuttery which will be the limit to their wackiness. However every time we think we have met Peak Wingnut, they do something to prove they have more batshit crazy in reserve. Sometimes the kinds of rhetoric the wingnuts engage in is dangerous. But other times its just plain hilarious. Today is such a day for the latter.

That paragon of journalistic integrity, Fox Nation, thought they had discovered an amazing find. They thought they caught on a website an article about Tom Ridge taking on Rush Limbaugh for some of his recent comments and basically daring him to a fist fight. And in order to make sure their "fair and balanced" readers were well informed, they decided to link to said blog post. But there was only one problem. The post was satire.

From ThinkProgress

On his radio show, Limbaugh responded to Ridge, saying, “I must have missed something, because I remember that Colin Powell endorsed the Democrat, Barack Obama, at a strategic point in the campaign in 2008.” The blog, Elective Decisions, which features “the satire of Chris Davis,” then wrote up a post saying that Ridge responded to Rush by challenging him to a fight:

So this morning, Ridge went back on Washington Journal, responding to Limbaugh’s rhetoric. “I’m so sick of Rush Limbaugh. He’s the reason we lose elections. He needs to get the hell out of the Republican Party. As far as I’m concerned, he isn’t a Republican anymore. The man’s running. The man’s hiding. He’s too scared to face me!”

Ridge continued his rant, threatening Limbaugh. “Meanwhile, he sits there in his ‘Southern Command Post,’ and destroys the Republican Party! I’d like to just have three rounds in a boxing ring with that guy so I could shut him up! I’m caling (sic) you out, Limbaugh. Let’s see if you have a big enough set of marbles to back up your crap!”

Though the “Elective Decisions” blog is clearly marked as “satire,” the Fox Nation linked to the post and promoted it as if it were based on reported facts:

Now I was gonna post some of the more than 100 wingnut comments at FoxNation from idiots totally buying the story but it took me a little too long to format this post and they have now taken it down. Bummers...

Schism

This morning two prominent Republicans went on Sunday shows and dismissed the small tent philosphy embraced by both Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney. Colin Powell and Tom Ridge, both military veterans, calmly and thoughtfully put forth their case for their visions of the Republican Party going forward. Now seeing as how neither man is in office or running for office they could speak their mind without having to carry water for the wingnut base. Now they didn't present the exact same case, but one thing was for certain with both of them. Neither man believed the Republican Party can make a comeback if they listen to people like Rush Limbaugh. Now here is the thing, Rush Limbaugh is one of the most polarizing people in America let alone inside the Republican Party. But right now the GOP is not just trying to shore up its base, its also trying to reach out to independents and people in the middle. That is a fight that normally they would be fighting against the Democrats but it turns out that it seem clear now that they will also be fighting for them within the party.

I believe that today is a watershed moment. There are now two totally conflicting views of the party and sooner or later people are going to have to chose. The reason for this is that the Rush Limbaugh wing of the party wants to expel the Colin Powell/Tom Ridge wing. But they aren't going anywhere and while they would never say publicly that Rushbo needs to haul his fat ass, I am sure privately they think HE is the one that needs to go. So who will the majority of Republicans back? Who will those independents who lean Republican line up behind? The truth is it doesn't matter what the numbers end up being. What matter is I think what we are seeing now are two irreconcilable wings of one party. So unless there is some kind of miraculous kum by yah moment it would seem that it is now the destiny of the Republican Party to fracture off into at least two separate entities. I don't know how soon the public split will happen but it would seem that the private split is already in play. I do believe that we need at least two viable political parties in this country as a form of checks and balances, but until the Republicans or Republican lites get their shit together, they won't have the capacity to fulfill that role. If I could hazard a guess I am betting when the moderate wing of the Republican Party emerges as something else, Colin Powell may just be their standard bearer.



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Tom Ridge Says Cheney Is Wrong

No wonder why Tom Ridge refused to run for the Senate, he wanted to be able to tell the truth whenever he wanted to. I wonder how many members of the GOP in Congress would like to be able to do the same thing but can't because of their leadership and their base.

Ridge Is Out

Looks like its going to be Pat Toomey as the Republican nominee in the general election in Pennsylvania.