<Scarlet Ohara>
Oh Please, Come Quickly and Bring the Smelling Salts.
I Do declare Young Master Gerson has had a fit of the Vapors and has passed out all over his Keyboard
</Scarlet Ohara>

Warning: The following contains extreme vulgarity by a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

Now Let's try and see who young Master Gerson is

Michael John Gerson (born May 15, 1964, New Jersey) is an Evangelical Christian[1] op-ed columnist for The Washington Post and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.[2] He served as President George W. Bush's chief speechwriter from 2001 until June 2006, and as a senior policy advisor from 2000 through June 2006. A member of the White House Iraq Group,[3] Gerson was called "the conscience of the White House" by some admirers.[4]

So the Conscience of the Consciousless, the Seller of WMD,  the man who invented the Axis of Evil
and

The Smoking Gun in the form of a Mushroom Cloud

Recent Bush Administration mutterings about an enduring "Status of Forces Agreement" (SOFA) between the US and Iraq, together with the still-pending passage of a new "Oil Law" in Iraq, inspires the following:

This story (via Raw Story) is an icon for everything that is bad about the Democratic Party's pampered, out of touch, DC based consultant class. It's a modern version of Guess Whose Coming to Dinner without any of that film's redeeming features.

And who is comming to dinner? Why, his good buddy, Scooter Libby, that's who.

(cont. below the fold)

In what could potentially be a very interesting event, Rep Peter Hoekstra (R-2nd Congressional District - Holland, MI) will face-off with Ray McGovern this week.

The event this Wednesday, May 10th at 7:00PM at the Wealthy Street Theater in Grand Rapids is part of the Community Media Center's Media and Democracy Series with the title "Iraq, Government Intelligence and the State of US Foreign Policy - A dialogue with former CIA officer Ray McGovern and 2nd Congressional Rep. Pete Hoekstra".  The "dialog" is co-sponsored by the Fountain Street Church great lectures group and is and an event being promoted by the Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy (GRIID).

Continues with some more background...

Well, Josh Marshall over at the Talking Points Memo claims that there's been a DEEP coverup on this and anything having to do with the administration's bogus claims of an Iraqi nuclear WMD program, and that it's been going on for a very long time. We obviously know about the whole Joe Wilson/Valerie Plame story that is clearly a key part of this coverup. But as Marshall claims, there is still much about this coverup that we haven't yet heard about.

Before (or while) everyone starts to speculate why Andy Card stepped down as White House Chief of Staff, maybe we can lay a few things out that could let us make educated guesses.  Obviously, unless he is indicted within the next week or 2 (hat tip to seesdifferent), everything will be speculation.

But as far as speculation goes, we do know that he goes way back with the Bushies and we know that you can screw everything up royally and still be just a-ok with Bush crime cartel.  And we also know that Rumsfeld said that he tendered his resignation twice, only to have Georgieboy say no way.

So yes, something seems rotten here.  But let's try to separate the pure wild speculation from the facts.

More below:

In an interview that aired on PBS on Friday, Feb. 3, Colin Powell's former chief of staff claimed that the speech Powell made before the United Nations on Feb. 5, 2003, laying out a case for war with Iraq, included falsehoods of which Powell had never been made aware. He said,

"My participation in that presentation at the UN constitutes the lowest point in my professional life. I participated in a hoax on the American people, the international community and the United Nations Security Council."

Also, I figured that it would be a nice change of pace, plus a little news about the CIA Leak investigation for those of us that are starved for something to HAPPEN.

So without further ado, I'll quote some of Jason's article below the fold.

Talking about 'wing dings', Wilkinson -- a specialist in the political manipulation of words and influence operations who is extremely close to Condoleez Rice -- feels free to equate his food service with violations of international law?  Should we be surprised ... should we? Perhaps not ... but outraged, yes ...

Well, today they ran the LA Times investigatory piece on "Curveball" which documents the Administration's manipulation of crucial intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war.

I felt it was time to challenge them to take a similar stance in the political war of words over whether or not the Administration lied us into war.  Since the facts so clearly show that the Administration played fast and loose with the truth in trying to convince us that war with Saddam was necessary, I feel it should be an easy step for them to take.

My letter follows:

GEORGE W. BUSH is so desperate for allies that his hapless Asian tour took him to Ulan Bator, a first for an American president, so he could mingle with the yaks and give personal thanks for Mongolia's contribution of some 160 soldiers to "the coalition of the willing." Dick Cheney, whose honest-and-ethical poll number hit 29 percent in Newsweek's latest survey, is so radioactive that he vanished into his bunker for weeks at a time during the storms Katrina and Scootergate.

The whole world can see that both men are on the run. Just how much so became clear in the brace of nasty broadsides each delivered this month about Iraq.

--snip--

... both impugned their critics' patriotism and retreated into the past to defend the origins of the war. In a seasonally appropriate impersonation of the misanthropic Mr. Potter from "It's a Wonderful Life," the vice president went so far as to label critics of the administration's prewar smoke screen both "dishonest and reprehensible" and "corrupt and shameless." He sounded but one epithet away from a defibrillator.

more and link on the flip

The hard part is proving it. We are beginning to get the little pieces of information about what the White House knew and when they knew it regard Iraq's WMD programs. This weekend's much ballyhooed L. A. Times piece is the latest (and among the best) examples of the Neo-Con Chickenhawk's attempts to hype dubious intelligence WITHOUT revealing the flaws of the sources behind it. The issue now is whether we can place the warnings about dubious and flawed intelligence into the hands of top Administration officials BEFORE the war. We know what the spies knew, but not when Bush and his minions knew it.

Has anyone noticed that the most vocal critics of the war and/or the execution of the war (torture, no-bid contracts) tend to come from the septuagenarian ranks?  Murtha, Warner, McCain, Byrd (older than salt), Kennedy, and for some reason Feingold (oh yeah, Madison is stuck in the 70's).

Why is this important?  It is important to recognize the wisdom that comes with age.  It is important to make parallels between today and yesterday.  It is important to recognize the courage it takes to stand up to the most powerful White House in decades and command its attention. (flip)

They get little.  They ask little.  In fact, all they ask is one thing, and that is the one thing we owe them.

Whatever his moral flaws as a human being, or indeed a chordate life form, it must be said that he is a bureaucrat par excellence.  .  Dandy Don always keeps his sails trimmed close to the wind and his ass firmly covered in memoranda and directives, all of which clearly show that no matter how much it seemed like he was in charge, whatever went wrong cleary isn't HIS fault

So, it'll come as no shock to you to find out that In an interview with the WaPo Rumsfeld reveals that he never really thought this whole "Iraq thing" was a great idea to begin with;  and he has the memo to prove it:

I am a "diary virgin" after lurking for a long time and finally joining up as an actual user some weeks back.  Be kind and failing that, at least be constructive.

The letter follows after the fold.