Antiwar.com Blog

Norman Ornstein in the HuffPuff:

“Americans all have to consider the implications now of a worst case scenario– the problems of scandal and polarization result in a meltdown of the W. Administration and a collapse of governance in Washington.”

Since Ornstein and his crowd are little orbs that move in relation to the glowing sun of Washington, the meltdown of Imperial authority would be — for them — the equivalent of the heat death of the universe. For the rest of us, of course, it would be a liberation — a fact that old Norm recognizes when he follows up his remarks with:

“No doubt some hard core partisans and ideologues would exult. But with the domestic and foreign policy challenges the country faces, it would be a disaster for all of us.”

It would be no such thing. Life would go on. People — real people, ordinary people, the farthest from “partisans” and “ideologues” as it is possible to get — would go about their lives, unencumbered, for once, by the knowledge that the warlords of Washington could start a new war (think Syria, think Iran), or come up with a fresh reason to restrict what is left of our traditional liberties. Naturally, such a state could not be allowed to persist for too long — after all, where there is a chance to seize power, can any politician resist? — but it would be good (good fun, that is) while it lasted.

That aside, however, take a look at Ornstein’s scenario of what happens next:

“1. Vice President Cheney resigns– and President Bush replaces him not with Condoleeza Rice, as the rumors in Washington speculate, but with his father, George H.W. Bush.

“2. President Bush resigns, allowing his father to move up to the presidency.

“3. Bush 41/44 chooses his best buddy and surrogate son Bill Clinton (42, that is) to be Vice President. Talk about a fusion White House. Talk about bringing us together. Talk about compassionate triangulation.

“Keep this roadmap in your back pocket for now. And remember, you heard it here first.”

Earth to Norm, re: 2 – 3: it ain’t gonna happen. Just remember, however, where you heard the “Cheney resigns” prediction first — on Antiwar.com, of course. Waaaay back in October 2003:

“”If Libby is implicated as having anything to do with Plame’s ‘outing,’ then that, in turn, implicates Cheney, who must take responsibility. The vice president’s resignation, under these circumstances, is a distinct possibility.””

UPDATE: Ornstein emailed me shortly after this post went up:

“Earth to Justin: it was a joke­, a parody. Like the last one. I guess I have to write PARODY around these posts.”

Who can tell, these days ….?

Arianna Huffington rightly descries the New York Time”s mea culpa for excusing Judith Miller from pushng fiction disguised as journalism: Miller claims that everybody thought Iraq was hiding WMD. Er, not quite, Arianna points out: she then details a few stories from the Washington Post and the New York Times from 2003 expressing some skepticism, and asks her readers for nominations to the “honor role” of those who defied the conventional wisdom. Okay, here goes:

The Myth of the Saddam Bomb, Antiwar.com, February 2, 2001.

Saddam and the Man From U.N.C.L.E. — How they lie: journalism and the art of fiction, Antiwar.com, February 26, 2001.

The Fix Is In — Phony Iraq war ‘hearings’ – more propaganda for the War Party , Antiwar.com, July 31, 2002.

There ya go, Arianna dah-link ….

There’s more in the Antiwar.com archives. But I’m too lazy to look .(hey, it’s 11 p.m.) …

Holy cow, who’s leaking to the Daily News today? Here’s another shocker they just broke:

It was called the White House Iraq Group and its job was to make the case that Saddam Hussein had nuclear and biochemical weapons.

So determined was the ring of top officials to win its argument that it morphed into a virtual hit squad that took aim at critics who questioned its claims, sources told the Daily News.

One of those critics was ex-Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who debunked a key claim in a speech by President Bush that Iraq sought nuclear materials in Africa. His punishment was the media outing of his wife, CIA spy Valerie Plame, an affair that became a “side show” for the White House Iraq Group, the sources said.

The Plame leak is now the subject of a criminal probe that has seen presidential political guru Karl Rove and Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis (Scooter) Libby, hauled before a grand jury.

Both men were members of the group, also known as WHIG. From late 2002 through mid 2003, it was locked in a feud with officials inside the CIA and State Department over claims Saddam tried to buy “yellow cake” uranium in Niger to build nukes, a former Bush administration and intelligence sources told The News.

“There were a number of occasions when White House officials or Vice President [Cheney’s] staffers, or others, wanted to push the envelope on things,” an ex-intelligence official said. “The agency would say, ‘We just don’t have the intelligence to substantiate that.'” When Wilson was sent by his wife to Africa to research the claims, he showed the documents claiming Saddam tried to buy the uranium were forgeries.

“People in the Iraq group then got very frustrated. It was a side show,” said a source familiar with WHIG.

Besides Rove and Libby, the group included senior White House aides Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin, James Wilkinson, Nicholas Calio, Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Hadley. WHIG also was doing more than just public relations, said a second former intel officer.

“They were funneling information to [New York Times reporter] Judy Miller. Judy was a charter member,” the source said.

The wheels are coming off the Bush war bus.

What if they have a trial and no witnesses come?

THE chief judge trying Saddam Hussein and seven others on charges of crimes against humanity said today the main reason why the trial has been adjourned was because many witnesses were too afraid to turn up.

Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin said about 30 or 40 witnesses had not come to Baghdad for the trial, which took place in a heavily defended building inside Baghdad’s fortress-like Green Zone compound.

“The main reason is the witnesses did not show up,” Judge Amin said. “They were too scared to be public witnesses. We’re going to work on this issue for the next sessions.”

The trial has been adjourned until November 28.

It’s kind of takes the show out of your show trial when you hold it in the middle of a war zone occupied by foreign troops. And Saddam studied up his dialogue and everything!

“Sparked by today’s Washington Post story that suggests Vice President Cheney’s office is involved in the Plame-CIA spy link investigation, government officials and advisers passed around rumors that the vice president might step aside and that President Bush would elevate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.”
— US News and World Report, October 18, 2005

“If Libby is implicated as having anything to do with Plame’s ‘outing,’ then that, in turn, implicates Cheney, who must take responsibility. The vice president’s resignation, under these circumstances, is a distinct possibility.”
— “L’Affaire Plame,” by Justin Raimondo, Antiwar.com, October 3, 2003

Yet another reason to remember why Antiwar.com is absolutely indispensable.

Condoleeza Rice is telling Congress today that the Bush strategy for Iraq is the “successful” one they used in Afghanistan.

Here’s Condi:

“Our strategy is to clear, hold, and build,” she said. “The enemy’s strategy is to infect, terrorize, and pull down.”

I couldn’t find a mention anywhere that indicated what the end to this was supposed to be. However, shooting for the Afghanistan benchmark is probably a good idea, as the two countries have some clear similarities already.