The Quote of the Week Came from Phil Donahue

"I’d very much like you to see the behavior of the congressmen. They were summoned to the White House by WHIG, White House Iraq Group. This is a Karl Rove committee that included the advertising warriors who named our invasion “Shock and Awe,” and “Rolling Thunder,” like video games. And they gave them their talking points: “A smoking gun will become a mushroom cloud”; “The longer we wait, the more dangerous he becomes”; “Saddam has more weapons of mass destruction than Hitler ever had”; “I see Hitler in Saddam Hussein.” And they read this, they’re looking down at the piece of paper, in what was at most a shell debate, that led to the deaths of over 4,500 service people, men and women both, not to mention how many injuries, we’re not even sure, we’re not even sure how many Iraqis are dead, and the refugees are in the millions.
This is unbelievable. You’ve got to see this debate. It’s truly a very instructive piece on what you can do if you scare the people. George Bush took this nation, the mainstream media included, and led it right into this war. It was an amazingly executed, brilliantly executed, plan. The politics of fear. ..."
--Phil Donahue

This is from an interview with Elias Isquith in Salon that was published on July 10 with the title, "Phil Donahue’s vindication: Media icon unloads on Fox, Cheney and what happened at MSNBC; Legendary TV host was fired for opposing Iraq war. Here's how he feels seeing the return of those who got it wrong." I couldn't resist repeating this particular part of the interview because he again speaks about the pivotal role of the public relations team, the White House Iraq Group, or WHIG, that lied us into the war, and which I tried to beat the drum about on both trueblueliberal.org and whiggate.blogspot.com since 2005. Every time WHIG comes up in the news again, I make sure I check one thing; I search The New York Times to see if they have yet mentioned the White House Iraq Group in their news pages.  I may be missing something, but I still cannot find it mentioned outside the comments sections and opinion pages. If America's Paper Of Record (which gladly printed WHIG's aluminum-tube lies under Judith Miller's byline) doesn't recognize the existence of the WHIG, did it exist?

(This is being cross-posted on both the TrueBlueLiberal and Whiggate Update blogs)

Karl Rove's Loss Yesterday

Here's hoping that hubris once again leads to a short residence of the Republicans in the House majority.

To hear Karl Rove talk about "the End of the Obama Liberal Agenda" before his natural constituency of Natural Gas executives today, you would think that the Republicans had won both houses with filibuster-proof and veto-proof supermajorities, and that he had personally been invincible in all his campaigns.
His group American Crossroads came after my Congressman, Maurice Hinchey, late in the campaign with this commercial that started to seem ubiquitous on cable in the Hudson Valley.

What was Maurice Hinchey's chief crime? I don't think there's any doubt that he became a target of the energy industry insiders bankrolling Karl Rove because of his sponsorship of the FRAC Act. The Fracking Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act would end a Bush era loophole written for the natural gas industry which exempts them from the Safe Drinking Water Act and allows them to pump chemicals into the ground without even disclosing which poison mixtures are being pumped into our land and water. In these pristine Catskills -- which still provide unfiltered water to New York City--this threat of drilling and inserting a toxic stew below our mountains and forests strikes everyone who lives here as criminal (if the Republicans can pretend to speak for every American, I can certainly pretend to speak for everyone in my Congressional district).
And despire generic attack ads financed from out of state that dominated local television, with 99% of votes counted, Maurice Hinchey leads Republican George Phillips by 52.4% to 47.6%. You lost this one Karl.

Until further notice (or indictment), the phrase "Senior White House Advisor" should be globally replaced with the words "Karl Rove"

from The Washington Post, "Trial Could Pit Libby's Interests Against Bush's":

"A senior White House adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic, said the Bush team believes it dodged a bullet when Fitzgerald charged only Libby on Friday and then pointedly said in his news conference that the indictment should not be read as a condemnation of the war or its run-up."

Just once I'd love to see a sentence start with these words in the Post or the Times: "Karl Rove, speaking on the assumption that we would respect our 'promise' to protect his anonymity, ..." Is there ever anything that any anonymous senior advisors in any Administration (Republican or Democratic) reveals anonymously to their embedded media partners that isn't either a) a self-serving lie, or b) self-serving spin?

Just asking.
True Blue Liberal

crossposted from http://whiggate.org/

Attention Brave Citizens of Rovemania: What Are Your Plans for Downing Street Memo Day, July 23?

Because some prominent internet service providers (notably Comcast) and spam blockers (Brightmail) have been "innocently" protecting us from many e-mails that contain the offensive term "AfterDowningStreet.org", here is a link to events taking place on the third anniversary of the meeting whose minutes were recorded in The Downing Street Memo: "DSM Day - July 23, 2005 | AfterDowningStreet.org". If you have your own blog, pass this link on, and mention it often between now and this Saturday.



George's ventriloquist gets his dummy to say, "The What Street Memo?"



Democrats.com has a page about the July 23rd Town Hall Event here: "July 23 NYC: Torture and Lies - Who Is Accountable?"

John Conyers also has a page of events: "John Conyers' July 23rd House Parties featuring Joe Wilson and Randi Rhodes".

I'm especially glad that Congressman Conyers is explicitly linking Rovegate to the Downing Street Memo. A push on the DSM now from those of us in the liberal blogosphere can help to connect the two and frame the issue of Karl Rove's exposure of Valerie Plame as part of the larger pattern to discredit all intelligence (like Joe Wilson's factfinding trip to Niger) that did not fit their preordained march to war. DSM Day should not distract from the push to expose Rove's crimes and an examination of Karl Rove's prominent role in selling the war through the White House Iraq Group (WHIG); attention to the Downing Street Memo at this time should simply help more people connect the dots of this story of the illegal and immoral march to a war of choice, rather than focussing only on the distracting legalistic details of "who told who what when about Valerie Plame, and whether or not she was mentioned by name".

Happy DSM Day,
TBL

Eyes of a Weasel

Do you honestly believe this man would have any trouble exposing one CIA agent in order to help sell his boss's war?

See the latest Conyers letter to the White House here.