When Politicians Tell the Truth

Mitt Romney makes a horrible Freudian slip during the Florida Atlantic University debate.

Tim Russert: Why not tell the voters of Florida and across the country how much of your own wealth you're spending. So, they can make a judgement and factor that into their own decision.

Mitt Romney: Well, I'm not concerned about the voters. I'm much more concerned about the other guys on this stage.

Nice.

Romney On Meet the Press

Willard Mitt Romney on the Issues
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Mitt Romney discusses with Tim Russert why he is against the morning after pill and turning over Roe vs Wade. Romney wants to turn abortion laws back to the states. The man is hameless in his pandering. Romney has flip-flopped on abortion so many times.

The weakness of the anti-abortion position is they refuse to prosecute women getting illegal abortions. Anti-abortion advocates failed make abortion illegal in South Dakota. The movement understands that arresting woman would deep six their slim support.

Romney is forced to explain how he could be a member of a church that didn't allow blacks to join the Preisthood until 1978. Romney defends himself by dicussing his parents civil rights record. The Mittster lacks his own accomplishments in standing up for minorities.

Once again we are lef6t won

Don't Cry For Rudy

Rudy Giuliani's Meet the Press appearance maybe remembered as the moment his campaign official crashed. Tim Russert asked Giuliani about Giuliani using New York City tax dollars to provide security for his (then mistress) Judith Nathan. Russert quotes Bernard Kerik stating that no NYPD officer provided security for Nathan at that time. Giuliani attempts to explain his way around it. Only a fool would believe Giuliani's story.

Russert asks Giuliani about his foreign policy adviser Norman Podhoretz's statement of on Iran.

“Well, if we were to bomb the Iranians as I hope and pray we will. We’ll unleash a wave of anti-Americanism all over the world that will make the anti-Americanism we’ve experienced so far look like a lovefest.”

The last things Americans can stomach now is another President starting a preemptive war in the Middle East.



An ABC News poll shows Giuliani polls numbers dropping nationally. A little Rudy doesn't go a long way.

Revisionist Tim Russert

Tim Russert shows his usual lack of balance. He did not challenge Senator John McCain for his vote to give President Bush the power to declare war on Iraq.

RUSSERT: In hindsight, was it a good idea to go into Iraq?

McCAIN: You know, in hindsight, if we had exploited the initial success, which was shock and awe, and we succeeded, and we had done the right things after that, all of us would be applauding what we did. We didn't. It was terribly mismanaged. It was -- I went over there very shortly after the initial victory and came back convinced that we didn't have enough troops on the ground, we were making the wrong decisions, and that [then-Defense] Secretary [Donald] Rumsfeld was badly mismanaging the conflict. And I spoke about it and complained for years.

So, if we had succeeded and done the right thing after the initial military success, then all of us would be very happy that one of the most terrible, cruel dictators in history was removed from power. Now, because of our failures, obviously, we have paid a very heavy price in American blood and treasure and great sacrifice.

RUSSERT: So it was a good idea to go in?

McCAIN: I think at the time, given the information we had. Every intelligence agency in the world, not just U.S., believed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. He had acquired and used them before. There's no doubt that he was going to acquire and use them if he could. The sanctions were breaking down. The Oil for Food scandal was in the billions of dollars. And, of course, at the time, given the information we had -- hindsight is 20/20. If we'd have known we were going to experience the failures we experienced, obviously, it would give us all pause. At the information and the knowledge and the situation at the time, I think that it was certainly justified.

Russert does not challenge McCain on his vote. He takes a different tone with Senator Joe Biden.

RUSSERT: But when you read the National Intelligence Estimate, which has now been released, there are a lot of caveats put on the level of intelligence about the aluminum tubes and everything.

BIDEN: Absolutely.

RUSSERT: General [Anthony] Zinni, who's been on this program a few weeks ago, said when he heard the discussion about the weapons of mass destruction that Saddam had, he said, "I've never heard that" in any of the briefings he had as head of the Central Command. How could you, as a U.S. senator, be so wrong?

BIDEN: I wasn't wrong. I was on your show when you asked me about aluminum tubes, and I said, "They're for artillery. I don't believe they're for cascading."

RUSSERT: But you said Saddam was a threat, that he had to be --

BIDEN: He was a threat.

Is that the fairness and the balance or the B.S. I am smelling?

Russert's questioning of John Edwards reads as a replay of his attack on Biden.

RUSSERT: General [Brent] Scowcroft, former President Bush's national security adviser, and the National Intelligence Estimate that was given to you, and now made public, had some real caveats, and this is one of them: "The activities we have detected do not add up to a compelling case that Iraq is currently pursuing what the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research would consider to be an integrated and comprehensive approach to acquire nuclear weapons." Do you remember seeing that?

EDWARDS: I did see it. I mean, I think it was -- there were serious questions about whether -- again, we're looking back. Now, we know none of this was true. But, at the time, there were serious questions about any effort to obtain nuclear weapons, which is what that statement just was. All of us believed there was no question that he had chemical and biological weapons, and there was at least some scattered evidence that he was making an effort to get nuclear weapons.

RUSSERT: But it seems as if, as a member of the Intelligence Committee, you just got it dead wrong and that you even ignored some caveats and ignored people who were urging caution.

It's nice to see a pundit who mislead viewers about his role in the Valerie Plame scandal take others to task for their integrity. Russert didn't mention it on the show until he was subpoenaed.

In 2003, Russert has pushed bogus tales of Iraq's WMD program.

Inspectors never found any nuclear weapons program in Iraq until 1995, when Saddam’s son-in-law defected and revealed secret nuclear program unknown to the inspectors. It was sheer luck, not the inspections, that kept Saddam from building 21 nuclear bombs by 2003.

The weapons facility Russert speaks of was destroyed during the first Gulf war. I support Democrats being held accountable for their vote. Russert lacks the credibility to be the interrogator.

Classic David Broder

It is amazing that the Dean of Comedy can pack so much humor into his September 4, 2005 column. Satirist David Broder never fails to provide the funny. He writes how Katrina will help President Bush's political standing.

We cannot yet calculate the political fallout from Hurricane Katrina and its devastating human and economic consequences, but one thing seems certain: It makes the previous signs of political weakness for Bush, measured in record-low job approval ratings, instantly irrelevant and opens new opportunities for him to regain his standing with the public.

Broder continues to be on a roll. He blames the Congressional Democratic, who were in the minority, for the lack of oversight hearings.

The decline of oversight hearings on Capitol Hill reflects what many of the commentators called a loss of institutional pride in Congress. Majority Republicans see themselves first and foremost as members of the Bush team -- and do not want to make trouble by asking hard questions. Democrats find it more rewarding to raise campaign funds and cultivate their own constituencies.

My guts are about to burst from so much laughter. The staff at The Onion have nothing on Broder. What other comedian would have the brilliance to go on Meet the Press to suggest the Democrats were hurt after Trent Lott stepped down for his pro-segregation remarks. Younger comics like Sean Hannity should take note of the Dean.

BRODER: I think there are two losers, Tim. I think the Democrats lost ground, in part. Former Senator Al Simpson from Wyoming said to me, “They have defanged Daschle now.” Daschle can go stand up there and point his finger and talk about those rotten evil Republicans, and people are going to see Bill Frist standing across the aisle from him, who doesn’t look rotten or evil.

The other reason I think the Democrats are losers is that when they had a moral issue in front of them with President Clinton, they denounced him, but they never acted against him. Indeed, they rallied around him. And I think that contrast is one that people will remember.

Not to be outdone, fellow funnyman Tim Russert called Broder "the most objective and respected reporter I know in this town."

Hollywood will never beat the Beltway in the humor department.