Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) intends to block the nomination of former Rep. James Rogan (R-CA) to the federal bench because of his role in the impeachment of President Clinton.
In an appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) gave a scathing, to put it mildly, commentary on George Bush and his administration.
This is one of the most arrogant, incompetent administrations I’ve ever seen personally or ever read about.
…This administration in my opinion has been as unprepared as any administration I’m aware of, not only the ones that I have been somehow connected to and that’s been every administration — either I’ve been in Washington or worked within an administration or Congress or some way dealing with them since the first Nixon administration. I would rate this one the lowest in capacity, in capability, in policy, in consensus — almost every area, I would give it the lowest grade.
…And you know, I think of this administration, what they could have done after 9/11, what was within their grasp. Every poll in the world showed 90 percent of the world for us. Iran had some of the first spontaneous demonstrations on the streets of Tehran supporting America. They squandered a tremendous amount of opportunity.
Hagel has always been outspoken and very critical of the Bush administration since the Iraq war began; however his comments yesterday are by far the most severe I have heard him or any Republcan ever make about Bush.
The full speech can be read here.
This is a video of the suspect, Leeland Eisenberg, being arrested.
6:34 PM: It’s over. Video will follow soon.
5:41 PM: This is a picture from CNN of the hostage that was released a few minutes ago.
5:35 PM: A female hostage has just been released. Appears to be 25 - 30 years old
5:16 p.m. Herman Ejarque, the co-owner and manager of the nearby Governor’s Inn in Rochester, N.H., said in a telephone interview that a relative of the suspect had come into the inn about 2 o’clock this afternoon after being interviewed by police. The man’s relationship to the suspect was not clear — he is either the son, step-son or son-in-law. He talked with the inn’s front-desk receptionist, Chelsea Coul, telling her he was cold and looking for a cup of coffee but the town had been evacuated and everything was shut down.
The man told Ms. Coul that the suspect’s wife had sought a divorce a few months ago and that he was unemployed and “hasn’t been in the right state of mind” for three months. Ms. Coul said the man told her that the suspect had been drinking for 72 hours and that he needed help and quoted the suspect as saying, “I don’t know what to do with my life.”
The man told Ms. Coul that the suspect had asked him where he could buy roadside flares. What happened next is not clear.
MSNBC reporters indicate all presidential candidates that have offices in the area have closed.
5:14 PM: The network is running commercials now. I’ll take a brief break and will start a new post for any additional updates.
4:59 PM: MSNBC - According to Rochester, NH police log for the week of April 3rd, Leland Eisenberg, a man who lives in the area, on Milton Rd., was charged with two counts of stalking.
“Somebody in the area is demanding to talk to Hillary Clinton.”
4:53 PM: MSNBC - The suspect has been tentativly identified as Leland Eisenber [sic], a local man, in his mid-40’s, and according to his son-in-law is someone who wanted to be hospitalized
4:40 PM: Press Conference - Capt. Paul Callaghan, Rochester Police Department
The situation is still fluid. the area is stablizied. they have adequate resources to handle the situation. FBI, ATF, and Secret Service participating with local authorities.
It is a hostage situation and is inappropriate to provide details on how many hostages or any other details of the ongoing investigation.
He cannot confirm the identity of the suspect.
When asked if a bomb threat currently existed, he responded “ased on information received, we have stablizied the area, which is about four or five blocks.
There have been no reported injuries.
Continues to emphasize it is a fluid investigation.
54-sworn officers (local) are working the situation.
End 4:46 PM
That is a rather cryptic summariztion of what Capt. Callaghan said — typing fast and not able to hear most of the questions asked, just responses.
4:37 PM: MSNBC is reporting that according to sources (suspects son) the suspect had been drinking earlier today and entered the office with intention of causing a scene.
Excerpt of original post from the Caucus followed by updates:
3:26 PM ET: A man claiming to have a bomb strapped to his chest walked in to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign offices in Rochester, N.H., today and took hostages, police and witnesses said.
Senator Clinton was not in the building at the time. She was scheduled to speak at the Democratic National Committee meeting in Vienna, Va., afternoon, but she canceled that appearance after receiving the reports that at least two volunteers were being held captive.
Bill Shaheen, a co-chairman of Mrs. Clinton’s New Hampshire and national campaign, said in a telephone interview at 2:40 p.m. that the two hostages are both staff members in the Rochester campaign office, one of 16 offices that Mrs. Clinton has around the state.
Updates as posted by the Caucus:
4:20 p.m. MSNBC is reporting that the son-in-law of the suspect walked into a restaurant and while he ordered coffee, told witnesses that his father-in-law had gone to a hardware store and bought roadside flares.
4:10 p.m. Mitt Romney’s campaign released a statement saying they have asked all the campaign field offices to “lock all exterior doors and be on alert for any suspicious individuals.”
“We’ve also reminded all Romney campaign employees in Boston and across the country to be cognizant when entering or exiting staff offices so as not to allow anyone into offices who is not authorized.”
“Everyone is keeping those involved in the situation in our thoughts and prayers right now as well, with hopes of a safe resolution.”
3:42 p.m. WMUR-TV in New Hampshire is reporting that two hostages have been released from the campaign offices, but it is unclear whether there are still hostages inside. According to the Associated Press, at least one hostage remains in the building.
ABC News reported that the suspect is a man who is known locally and has a history of mental illness. The network also reported that the man had
told his son today, “Watch the news.”
The suspect has not been identified publicly and there is no information available on his son.
3:35 p.m. The Rochester police received a call shortly after 12:30 p.m. alerting them to a possible hostage situation, according to Captain Paul Callaghan. It took only a short time to realize the threat was real and the Rochester Police, as part of a routine procedure, contacted the neighboring Dover and Durham police departments for assistance.
The New Hampshire State Police bomb squad unit was also called in to help deal with the situation.
The streets around Mrs. Clinton’s headquarters were sealed off and the area evacuated, including St. Elizabeth Seton School, which includes children in grades 1 through 8. Captain Callaghan said buses were arranged to transport the childrten and they were all cleared out within the last half-hour.
“We have stabilized the situation in the area around the office,” Captain Callaghan said.
He would not comment on reports that one hostage had been freed or how many remained in the building.
As Mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani could not effectively and efficiently manage a simple matter of his security detail’s travel expenses, which is in stark contrast to what Giuliani claims on his campaign web site (see video).
As Americans select the next president I believe they need a proven leader and problem solver. During this campaign, when I talk about the goals I set as president, whether it’s restoring fiscal discipline or improving security, I’ll be making promises based on a proven record…We made government smarter, smaller and more effective…Improving public safety was the essential first step to New York City’s resurgence. We implemented pioneering strategies that measured crime in real time and allowed for the immediate deployment of police officers.
I’m running for president because I know how to get things done. I proved it in New York and now we need to get things done in Washington.
So, Rudy can immediately deploy police officers, but his profound restoration of fiscal discipline resulted in poor financial management within the police department forcing officers to bear the burden of travel expenses related to defined continuing security operations. His fiscal discipline was so profoundly sound and efficient that the security operations could not be financed from within its own department, rather transfers from other agencies were required. And his well-structured expense payables operations required a two-month cycle to reimburse employees.
I think its a great idea to take Rudy’s proven-record as Mayor and implement it throughout the government. Recipients of Social Security benefits could get their checks from the Department of Defense or maybe the Department of the Interior six-weeks to two-months late.
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| Mayor Rudolph Giuliani |
As everybody knows, Rudy Giuliani is plagued with account after account of corruption and scandal, which in turn requires numerous responses. Nobody — politician or otherwise — has an infinite supply of reasonable excuses and plausible deniability to defend a long-standing background of impropriety and corruption. When a cover-up strategy is employed, at some point the “excuses” given reach an incredulous level and/or expose other problematic areas. It is clear Giuliani’s campaign has reached that threshold as it tries to defend Rudy in his Shag Fund scandal.
Via Josh Marshall:
Earlier this evening we noted that the new line from the Giuliani camp is that the Shag Fund’s convoluted financing was put in place to help the cops on Rudy’s security detail. Giuliani spinmeister Joe Lohta told the AP that “was necessary because the police officers did not make a lot of money and their department took up to two months to repay them for their travel expenses. So Giuliani’s office got a credit card and paid it off with funds from the various agencies.”
Lohta gave a little more detail to Newsday. Lohta told the paper “the practice started when officers on his security detail complained that the police department was slow to reimburse them for rental cars and lodging.”
Focusing on the scandal, Josh appropriately and accurately notes it does not “tell us anything about why the expenses were squirreled away in the budgets of obscure city offices.” However, the excuse given also delivers a blow to the one of the two foundations of Giuliani’s campaign — national security (9/11 hype) and his stellar record of executive management as Mayor of New York City. Giuliani’s rationale shows profound poor management from multiple perspectives, all of which Rudy should have been aware of, and if he was the superior executive he proclaims to be they would not have been issues.
Assuming the response is true, it is clear Giuliani’s management did not provide adequate policies and procedures to accommodate basic travel expenses at a relatively minute level. It’s not like the city suddenly encountered a major issue that resulted in an unexpected high volume of travel. Providing security for the mayor was a known factor, and if there were some additional security requirements as presented, it certainly would not have been on a scale to disrupt the entire administrative process.
If expense reimbursement took two months to process, then a major management area in his administration (e.g., expense payables, accounting, etc.) was by definition dysfunctional. Proof of poor management of the administrative functions is only bolstered by the shifting of funds from various agencies. Any junior-level undergrad majoring in business, finance, or accounting could rip this entire scenario to pieces.
Then there are the human resources issues. We know most local law enforcement officers are not compensated in the six-figure range, therefore why were these security officers expected to bear the burden up front of known travel costs? The Mayor’s security requirements were known in advance, therefore why weren’t the officers provided properly allocated credit cards allowing them to do their basic jobs? And furthermore, based on the excuse given, one could easily infer that Rudy was not properly compensating law enforcement officers in general.
If Saint Rudy of 9/11 could not manage simple issues such as travel for his security detail, is he qualified to manage the entire U.S. government and the trillions of dollars associated with it?
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