Quote of the Day

"Again, it’s something I had suspected, but I’ll you, he’s got one of the most interesting analytical minds I’ve ever seen. I described it like watching these chess masters who will go and play 40 boards at once. He can keep a lot of moves in his head, and especially when he talks about geopolitics."

The late Tony Snow, telling an interviewer how George W. Bush's mind works similar to a master chess player.

Joel Award: Tony Snow

The Joel Award is named after a less than famous blogger who made a horrible statement. He proceeded to make contradictory statement. This is commonly known as flip-flopping.

This March 13, 2002 quote from President George W. Bush came from the liberal media service known as the White House website. He stressed that he wasn't stressed about finding Osama bin Laden.

And I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don't know where he is. I -- I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run.

Tony Snow made this comment on the sixth aniversary on the 9-11 attacks.

Well, we're going to find him. I mean, we -- (Bush) said all along we're going to find him.

There is two possibilities: the Press Secretary doesn't read his boss's comments on the White House website or he is delusional. The latter sounds about right. Snow is guaranteeing the administration will find the FBI's most wanted man before they leave office. Does Snow have delusions he is Joe Namath?

White House v. White House

Tony Snow makes a major fuck up in his Press Gaggle. He claims that President Bush never made the case for Saddam Hussein having nuclear weapons. The White House keeps getting in trouble because they fail to realize they can't spin this stuff away. Bush's 16 words in the State of the Union address is the defining moment of his presidency.

Q One more thing, on another topic. This is not asking you for a book review, but Al Gore's new book is out, and he says that Saddam Hussein posed no threat and that President Bush, "forged evidence that Hussein was seeking to develop atomic bombs."

MR. SNOW: Well, the second is false, and the first is in contradiction to Senator Gore -- then Vice President Gore's prior statements. So I'll let him rectify those differences.

Mr. Snow should go to the White House website and read the 2003 State of the Union.

"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought
significant quantities of uranium from Africa." - President George W. Bush,

The Bushies will say anything. They are incapable of willing telling the truth.

Quote of the Day

"[Congress] does not have constitutional oversight responsibility over the White House, which is why by our reaching out, we're doing something that we're not compelled to do by the Constitution, but we think common sense suggests that we ought to get the whole story out, which is what we're doing."

Tony Snow

Shakes wonders if Snow has ever seen School House Rock.

The reason the House can vote for impeachment and the Senate hold impeachment trials is as a check on executive power. The legislative branch can hold hearings to investigation the actions of the legislative branch. Watergate is a classic example. If the White House is going to use that as their legal argument then they are screwed.

Here Comes the Subpoenas

It's on.

The House Judiciary subcommittee has approved subpoenas for Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, Kyle Sampson and their aides. All that remains is the formality of officially issuing the subpoenas. The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote tomorrow on the subpoena issue.

But Mr. Snow said, “If they issue subpoenas, the offer is withdrawn, because it means that they will not have responded to the offer. They will have rejected the offer.”

“The moment subpoenas are issued, it means that they’ve rejected the offer,” Mr. Snow emphasized.

The White House is still talking tough. That didn't work yesterday. It won't work today.

"The White House is in a bunker mentality - won't listen, won't change," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. "I believe there is even more to come out, and I think it's our duty to bring it out."

Tony Snow is making the administration sound out of touch with how much trouble they are in.

"At this point, it is our hope that Congress in fact is going to accept what is a generous, reasonable offer to enable them to do their jobs. . . . If they don't accept the offer, it lifts the veil on some of the motivations, which means that people are less interested in the truth than creating a political spectacle."

1. Democrats have made it quite clear they don't want the offer. "I want to hear Karl Rove testify under oath about the role he played in this whole affair," Harry Reid said.

2. It's a little late for an administration that has been extremely partisan to be crying wolf. Bush had much political collateral after 9/11. He used it to bash Democrats and question the patriotism of those whom disagreed with him. The President was full of tough bravado on television yesterday. He challenged Democrats and they responded with subpoenas. It was a tactically bad move and now he is suffering the consequences.

Bush Press Conference on Attoney Purge

Talking Points Memo has a video of the Bush press conference on the U.S. Attorneys purge. It's a horrible performance even by Bush standards. It really is something when Bush cheerleader Kathryn Jean Lopez feels the need to say so.

Instead, the president has now gone before the press and while delivering his remarks lost his place at least once, and sounded like an exhausted lame duck lamely reading his unconvincing statement..

Of course K-Lo quickly was back in pom pom-waving mode. Scott Horton of the must read email newsletter No Comment brilliantly summed up Bush's performance.

I just watched Bush deliver his response to Congress' request. The cable news commentator instantly described Bush as "firm and vigorous," and I couldn't suppress a laugh. In fact he was Nixonian from the shaky, teetering final days.

Bush is doing himself no favors with his official stance. The Fred Fielding letter to Congress puts the White House on a collision course with disaster.

Such interviews would be private and conducted without the need for an oath, transcript, subsequent testimony, or the subsequent issuance of subpoenas.

That way Karl Rove can lie without fear of legal repercussions. Fat chance of that happening. John Conyers probably read that letter and wondered who are these people kidding.

What will probably happen is White House and Justice Department officials will be subpoenaed and lie under oath. Which sets up the possibility of criminal prosecution. These people learned nothing from the Lewis "Scooter" Libby trial. Bush would do himself and his party a favor by purging officials involved with the U.S. Attorneys scandal. Tony Snow told Brian York that the White House has the upper hand.

Finally, I asked whether the White House believes this is a battle the president can win. "Yes," Snow said. "In terms of presidential prerogative, in terms of preserving confidential communications with your staff — yes."

Snow's interview with York gets even more bizarre.

I pointed to the recent Libby trial, in which there was great dispute over what had been said in unrecorded, untranscribed interviews with the FBI. You need a transcript to know an interviewee's precise words, I said. Snow argued that that wasn't necessary because there will be members of Congress from both parties, staff, and others at the interviews. "There will be a whole lot of people there [at the interviews] to be witnesses to what's going on," he said.

Even a talented spinmeister like Snow can't make that not sound laugh out hysterical. Snow wants the public to believe that people remembering conversations is as accurate as recordings and transcripts. That's just plain bullshit.

Bush has a dismal approval rating and a Democratic Congress. Republicans are telling him to fire Gonzales. Bush will lose.

Year 4 In Iraq

Think Progress points to a BBC poll that shows only 22 percent of Iraqis think the invasion was right. That is some gratitude.

Think Progress also has a CNN video of CNN’s Ed Henry talking about an exchange he had with Tony Snow. The latter called the Democrats plan for withdrawal a "recipe for defeat." Henry asked him for the President's recipe for success in Iraq. Snow quickly tried to change the subject and ask Henry what was his recipe for success. I'm wondering why a White House official is soliciting from a news correspondent. When Henry tried to make Snow answer the question he was told to "zip it."

This is the kind of questioning reporters should ask the White House. These people have no plan for success in Iraq. They are just holding on to the end of their term and leaving the problem for the next administration. Their egos are too big to admit that they made mistakes. Which is why they are so fucking utterly incompetent.