ROVE: On Tuesday, Vice President Biden told CNN about an apparent confrontation had had with former President Bush. According to Biden's account, Bush had said something about being a "leader" in the international community and Biden told Bush, "turn around, no one is following you." You can sort of tell right off the bat that Biden was probably exaggerating this story. Yesterday, Karl Rove went on Fox News and called Biden's a "blowhard" and a "liar" for fabricating this story. The reason I write about this is to point out a consistent recent pattern of audacious statements from Bush's top flak. In his regular appearances on Fox News, and in his insufferable editorials on the Wall Street journal, Rove has said some things that scream hypocrisy. For example, Rove has talked about how the White House under Obama has been "too politically oriented." This comes from the guy who politicized every federal department, orchestrated the indictment of one of his political opponents, and contributed to the outing of a CIA agent whose husband was a critic of the administration. This week he talked about how this President was "polarizing" because his support among Democrats is much higher than it is among Republicans. Of course, for starters, that discrepancy was much higher under Bush. More importantly, any impartial observer could tell you that Bush was the most polarizing President of all time. Rove strategy was to ignite his base at the expense of the political center. Now he's calling Vice President a liar (which is a very strong accusation) about a pretty meaningless conversation that happened years ago, when we could probably come up with 100 YouTube videos of Karl Rove lying. In fact, it's Friday, so why not?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxR_FP3z0zE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8wGYxDjUPY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXCL9x8k1nk&feature=related
This is just a sampling. I've got more upon request.
NY20: A quick update from the close House race is New York's 20th District: Democrat Scott Murphy now has a 35 vote lead with all but two counties having reported absentee vote tallies. The two outstanding counties are Washington (which Murphy won) and Saratoga (which Tedisco won, and which is the population center of the district). I hope Murphy did better in Saratoga county among absentee ballots. Not even a numbers genius like Nate Silver could figure this one out right now. It's as close to an electoral tie as you could get. Stay tuned.
Now on to this week's featured comment, which comes from "anonymous." He responded to our post last weekend on Senate amendment votes to the budget resolution. This comment won both because it was insightful, and it was the only comment this week. We have to change that! Please share your comments, and YOU could be featured on our blog! Also, take the Strike challenge and send the link to this blog to 10 friends. Prizes TBA.
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Ahhh... tuned in CSPAN early last night but missed the pictures for the last amendment vote... oh well...
McCain: I always remember his argument on cutting corporate tax = attract more investment = more hiring. I did not buy that when he said that during the campaign. So he still proposed corporate tax cut? Not all corporate executives are greedy monsters but in reality, with real cases, cutting corporate tax = money goes to executives.
Wicker: Thanks for pointing it out. I have no idea there's such an amendment out there. I'm pretty fed up with this amendment after reading this. First, I don't agree with the way it's being inserted as part of the budget process (relate to the Amtrak budget??). It's just the same thing that Republicans demanded to put the provision to repeal gun laws in the DC voting rights bill - the whole idea is ridiculous anyway and probably I can write an essay on that). Second, this is more personal. I take Amtrak from time to time and use Union Station nearly everyday. I just find it ironic that while passengers see security signs everywhere in the station, then there's an amendment out there that passengers are welcome to bring firearms to the station... And thanks for pointing out who voted for this on the Democrats side.
- Angry E