The Political Chase

Self-made reality

Make your own jokes:

President Bush on Monday vigorously defended U.S. interrogation of suspected terrorists after the public disclosure of secret CIA prisoner camps in eastern European countries. "We do not torture," he declared.

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Senator Pat Roberts:

Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.

With Democrats stepping up their attacks over prewar intelligence on Iraq, the Republican leader of the Senate Intelligence Committee [Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS)] said on Sunday that the panel’s initial work had found no evidence of "political manipulation or pressure" in the use of such intelligence.

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A junkyard dog…

The Washington Post has a piece about Tom DeLay’s (R-TX) ruthless persecution of Travis County, TX prosecutor Ronnie Earle, to win his court battle against two indictments.

Other politicians caught in a legal bind have tried to make a similar case that they were victims of prosecutorial excess or partisan attack. But few have done it to the degree of DeLay and his allies, who have launched an aggressive campaign to portray the former House majority leader as both a victim of a vendetta and an irreplaceable champion of conservatism.

 Through most of last month, DeLay’s allies at the conservative Free Enterprise Fund saturated Austin with TV advertisements depicting Earle as a drooling attack dog.

It sounds a bit like Karl Rove is lendng a helping hand with DeLay’s smear campaign.

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Cheney Fights for Detainee Policy

Cheney’s fight for detainee abuse is an obvious admission of guilt on historical incidents and very telling about the future.

A fundamental question lies at the heart of these disagreements: Four years into the fight, what is the most effective way to wage the campaign against terrorism?

Cheney’s camp says the United States does not torture captives, but believes the president needs nearly unfettered power to deal with terrorists to protect Americans. To preserve the president’s flexibility, any measure that might impose constraints should be resisted.