Sep 23, 2005 at 4:35 PM by Political Chase
I want to reflect on something for a moment.
Just for starters, there is Plamegate, which obviously spans the entire White House. Include Safavian and Jack Abramoff’s tangled web reaching everywhere including Karl Rove’s office…there’s probably more that I can’t remember off the top of my head at the moment. I won’t include Tom DeLay, yet.
Okay, so you want to know where I am going with this. Just how many people are in or are associated with the Bush administration that have, let’s say, less than stellar resumes? We know about what has been disclosed, but usually there’s much more that has not been disclosed.
In 2004 one of the primary key points Bush campaigned on was "values." Some attributed his reelection specifically to people who voted for him based upon values. Webster says:
value - something (as a principle or quality) intrinsically valuable or desirable
Okay, let’s look at valuable:
valuable - a: having desirable or esteemed characteristics or qualities b : of great use or service
Now, let’s go back further. Remember that often repeated statement Bush made in 2000 about restoring dignity to the White House.
Georgie, you’re doing a heck of a job of fulfilling those campaign promises.
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Sep 23, 2005 at 3:57 PM by Political Chase
More Safavian associations…
Lobby disclosure forms originally filed by Safavian’s firm, Janus-Merritt Strategies, show that it represented Alamoudi, a prominent Muslim activist, until 2001. Alamoudi has since been convicted and imprisoned for accepting money from the Libyan government as part of an alleged plot to assassinate the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.
Also, Josh Marshall says that the Secret Service had serious concerns about Safavian and his connections.
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Sep 23, 2005 at 3:13 PM by Political Chase
The David Safavian matter gets deeper and deeper…
Last Monday, David Hossein Safavian, a high-ranking White House official and pal of GOP powerbroker Grover Norquist, was arrested in a federal corruption case involving lobbying bad boy Jack Abramoff. According to the FBI, Safavian repeatedly lied to federal investigators in order to cover up Abramoff’s shady dealings. He not only bent ethics rules to accompany Abramoff on a 2002 golf junket to Scotland; he also used his position as chief of staff at the General Services Administration to deliver GSA-managed land into the lobbyist’s hands.
But Safavian’s not just tied to a dirty lobbyist. He’s also tied to a convicted terrorist and a suspected terrorist supporter. Lobbying disclosure forms revealed last year that he has been in the employ of Abdurahman Alamoudi, an avowed supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah. Prosecutors have discovered evidence that he has links to al-Qaeda. At the time, Safavian waved aside any affiliation to Alamoudi. He insisted that he was really lobbying for a client named Jamal al Barzinji. That revelation did little to clear Safavian’s name: A federal affidavit identifies Barzinji as the ringleader of a group suspected of aiding terrorists.
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Sep 23, 2005 at 1:07 PM by Political Chase
Tragic events — just trying to evacuate — hope this is not ominous.
A bus filled with Hurricane Rita evacuees caught fire early today on gridlocked Interstate 45, reportedly killing as many as 20 elderly passengers trapped inside.
KHOU-TV reported this morning that the bus was carrying about 30 elderly and frail evacuees, and oxygen tanks may have exploded after the bus caught fire due to a brake problem.
The bus was engulfed with flames, preventing rescuers from getting inside to pull out the helpless passengers.
Sep 23, 2005 at 5:40 AM by Political Chase
This seems to be heating up. It sounds like good ole George might have fallen off the wagon. Crooks and Liars is carrying it now and reports to have more details forthcoming.
The National Enquirer broke the story…so consider the source.
Faced with the biggest crisis of his political life, President Bush has hit the bottle again, The National Enquirer can reveal.
Bush, who said he quit drinking the morning after his 40th birthday, has started boozing amid the Katrina catastrophe.
Family sources have told how the 59-year-old president was caught by First Lady Laura downing a shot of booze at their family ranch in Crawford, Texas, when he learned of the hurricane disaster.
His worried wife yelled at him: “Stop, George.”
Following the shocking incident, disclosed here for the first time, Laura privately warned her husband against “falling off the wagon” and vowed to travel with him more often so that she can keep an eye on Dubya, the sources add.
“When the levees broke in New Orleans, it apparently made him reach for a shot,” said one insider. “He poured himself a Texas-sized shot of straight whiskey and tossed it back. The First Lady was shocked and shouted: “Stop George!”
“Laura gave him an ultimatum before, ‘It’s Jim Beam or me.’ She doesn’t want to replay that nightmare — especially now when it’s such tough going for her husband.”
Bush is under the worst pressure of his two terms in office and his popularity is near an all-time low. The handling of the Katrina crisis and troop losses in Iraq have fueled public discontent and pushed Bush back to drink.
A Washington source said: “The sad fact is that he has been sneaking drinks for weeks now. Laura may have only just caught him — but the word is his drinking has been going on for a while in the capital. He’s been in a pressure cooker for months.
“The war in Iraq, the loss of American lives, has deeply affected him. He takes every soldier’s life personally. It has left him emotionally drained.
The result is he’s taking drinks here and there, likely in private, to cope. “And now with the worst domestic crisis in his administration over Katrina, you pray his drinking doesn’t go out of control.”
Another source said: “I’m only surprised to hear that he hadn’t taken a shot sooner. Before Katrina, he was at his wit’s end. I’ve known him for years. He’s been a good ol’ Texas boy forever. George had a drinking problem for years that most professionals would say needed therapy. He doesn’t believe in it [therapy], he never got it. He drank his way through his youth, through college and well into his thirties. Everyone’s drinking around him.”
Another source said: “A family member told me they fear George is ‘falling apart.’ The First Lady has been assigned the job of gatekeeper.” Bush’s history of drinking dates back to his youth. Speaking of his time as a young man in the National Guard, he has said: “One thing I remember, and I’m most proud of, is my drinking and partying. Those were the days my friends. Those were the good old days!”
Age 26 in 1972, he reportedly rounded off a night’s boozing with his 16-year-old brother Marvin by challenging his father to a fight.
On November 1, 2000, on the eve of his first presidential election, Bush acknowledged that in 1976 he was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol near his parents’ home in Maine. Age 30 at the time, Bush pleaded guilty and paid a $150 fine. His driving privileges were temporarily suspended in Maine.
“I’m not proud of that,” he said. “I made some mistakes. I occasionally drank too much, and I did that night. I learned my lesson.” In another interview around that time, he said: “Well, I don’t think I had an addiction. You know it’s hard for me to say. I’ve had friends who were, you know, very addicted… and they required hitting bottom (to start) going to AA. I don’t think that was my case.”
During his 2000 presidential campaign, there were also persistent questions about past cocaine use. Eventually Bush denied using cocaine after 1992, then quickly extended the cocaine-free period back to 1974, when he was 28.
Dr. Justin Frank, a Washington D.C. psychiatrist and author of Bush On The Couch: Inside The Mind Of The President, told The National Enquirer: “I do think that Bush is drinking again. Alcoholics who are not in any program, like the President, have a hard time when stress gets to be great.
“I think it’s a concern that Bush disappears during times of stress. He spends so much time on his ranch. It’s very frightening.”
Isn’t that what we need now? An already cloudy president to be surrounded by his own personal hurricane (pun intended).
Sep 23, 2005 at 5:24 AM by Political Chase
Announcement: The revised maintenance for the server that supports this site is scheduled for tonight, September 23, at 1:30AM EDT. The site will not be available during scheduled downttime. The estimated time to complete the maintenance is 1 hour, so with a little luck, vox populi will be available at approximately 2:30 AM EDT.
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