Ex-Aide Details a Loss of Faith in the President

A top strategist for the Texas Democrats who was disappointed by the Bill Clinton years, Mr. Dowd was impressed by the pledge of Mr. Bush, then governor of Texas, to bring a spirit of cooperation to Washington. He switched parties, joined Mr. Bush’s political brain trust and dedicated the next six years to getting him to the Oval Office and keeping him there. In 2004, he was appointed the president’s chief campaign strategist.
Looking back, Mr. Dowd now says his faith in Mr. Bush was misplaced.
In a wide-ranging interview here, Mr. Dowd called for a withdrawal from Iraq and expressed his disappointment in Mr. Bush’s leadership.
He criticized the president as failing to call the nation to a shared sense of sacrifice at a time of war, failing to reach across the political divide to build consensus and ignoring the will of the people on Iraq. He said he believed the president had not moved aggressively enough to hold anyone accountable for the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and that Mr. Bush still approached governing with a “my way or the highway” mentality reinforced by a shrinking circle of trusted aides.
“I really like him, which is probably why I’m so disappointed in things,” he said. He added, “I think he’s become more, in my view, secluded and bubbled in.”
In speaking out, Mr. Dowd became the first member of Mr. Bush’s inner circle to break so publicly with him.

You can read the story by the NY Times here.

Spring Break May Delay War Funds

Spring break checklist for Congress: A plane ticket back home, chocolate (or matzo) for the family and a war spending bill for the president.
The last item might need to wait.
Senate Democrats beat back Republican efforts Tuesday to strip a key provision of the $122 billion wartime spending package that sets goals for withdrawing troops from Iraq -- a significant turnaround from just two weeks ago, when the GOP defeated a similar withdrawal measure. The Republican amendment was defeated, 50 to 48.
The Senate will take a final vote before the Easter recess Thursday but is not expected to reconcile its version with the House bill until both chambers are in session April 16 -- one day after the Pentagon says it must get the emergency funding for troop operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in order to avoid cutbacks.
The White House doesn't intend to accept the IOU quietly, accusing the Democratic-controlled Congress of skipping town before its work is done.
"They should stick around until they send him a bill," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. "You can be sure that we won't be shy about talking about that."

The story can be found here.

Rookie Mistakes Plague Obama

Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama shakes hands with supporters following a speech at the Farmer's Public Market Building in Oklahoma City, Monday, March 19, 2007. (AP Photo/The Oklahoman, John Clanton)

Speaking early this month at a church in Selma, Ala., Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said: "I'm in Washington. I see what's going on. I see those powers and principalities have snuck back in there, that they're writing the energy bills and the drug laws."
It was a fine populist riff calculated to appeal to Democratic audiences as Obama seeks his party's presidential nomination. But not only did Obama vote for the Senate's big energy bill in 2005, he also put out a press release bragging about its provisions, and his Senate Web site carries a news article about the vote headlined, "Senate energy bill contains goodies for Illinois."
The press release said he voted for the bill "reluctantly" because he wanted something "bolder," and his staff says there was nothing inconsistent about the comment in Selma.

The story from The Politico can be found here.

Democratic Presidential candidate health care plans

More Than You Wanted to Know About Health Care

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, (D-N.Y.) speaks to an audience at The Cox Pavilion, Saturday, March 24, 2007 in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Eric Jamison)

LAS VEGAS -- Because you did not want to spend your Saturday sitting in a room for three hours listening to Democratic presidential candidates tell you how they are going to provide universal health care for America, Politico did it for you.
The candidates appeared in a forum sponsored by the Service Employees International Union and the Center for American Progress Action Fund. It was moderated by Karen Tumulty of Time magazine.
The highlights of their plans can be found here courtesy of www.thepolitco.com.

Michigan Roads

Gas tax increase weighed as option to improve Michigan roads

There is no question that here in Michigan, we have a problem with our roads and bridges. Many need repair and need to be replaced. Spring is called "pothole" season around here, and it only seems to get worse every year. I would propose raising the gasoline tax 2 cents per gallon to help raise funds to repair and replace our roads. The key is to maintain the roads so expensive repairs are not contantly needed. The Detroit News recently had an article which stated that a 1 cent increase would bring in an estimated $47.7 million in revenue. While some may say that our state is already hurting with companies leaving, horrible unemployment and one of the worst forclosure rates in the nation, it would not be fair to raise any taxes. We either need to raise taxes in our state based upon a tiered income program where the more you bring in per year, the higher your tax bracket will be, or we need to make some serious cuts to our programs. Unfortunately, neither are a comfortable choice and whatever happens will be a hard pill to swallow.

The article in the Detroit News can be found here.

Iran ‘to try Britons for espionage’

FIFTEEN British sailors and marines arrested by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards off the coast of Iraq may be charged with spying.
A website run by associates of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, reported last night that the Britons would be put before a court and indicted.
Referring to them as “insurgents”, the site concluded: “If it is proven that they deliberately entered Iranian territory, they will be charged with espionage. If that is proven, they can expect a very serious penalty since according to Iranian law, espionage is one of the most serious offences.”
The warning followed claims by Iranian officials that the British navy personnel had been taken to Tehran, the capital, to explain their “aggressive action” in entering Iranian waters. British officials insist the servicemen were in Iraqi waters when they were held.

The remainder of the story can be found here.

A quick sidenote: Admiral Sir Alan West, the former head of the Royal Navy, dismissed suggestions that the British boats might have been in Iranian waters. West, who was first sea lord when the previous arrests took place in June 2004, said satellite tracking systems had shown then that the Iranians were lying and the same was certain to be true now.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems coincidental that the Iranian president canceled his trip to visit the U.N. in NYC just days before this happened.

Clinton Foundation

Take some time to view the Clinton Foundation.

Through the William J. Clinton Foundation, President Clinton promotes the values of fairness and opportunity for all. His vision is the Foundation's mission: to strengthen the capacity of people in the United States and throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence. Together with the generosity of citizens and volunteers, President Clinton and the Foundation are vigorously working to advance those principles that move us beyond differences to a common future of shared responsibility, shared benefits, and shared values.

Of particular interest, is the Clinton Climate Initiative.

"It no longer makes sense for us to debate whether or not the earth is warming at an alarming rate, and it doesn’t make sense for us to sit back and wait for others to act. The fate of the planet that our children and grandchildren will inherit is in our hands, and it our responsibility to do something about this crisis." — William J. Clinton

No more MySpace

Students at St. Hugo of the Hills must delete pages on Web site today or risk suspension

A suburban Detroit Catholic school, St. Hugo of the Hills, has ordered their students that if they have a MySpace webpage, that it must be taken down immediately or they will risk suspension. In my opinion, that school, or any school for that matter, does not have the right or authority to force anybody to take down their own personal blog. This is an infringement on free speech! Sure, I may agree with the fact that the principal is just trying to keep the children safe, but saying that they will get suspended if the page is not taken down is going a bit far.

The article in the Detroit News can be found here.

Thoughts?

House Passes Spending Bill, Iraq Withdrawal Date

The House barely passed a $124 billion spending bill Friday to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, establish benchmarks for political progress by the Iraqi government and set a deadline next summer for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq.
Approved largely along party lines, 218 to 212, the measure was the first by the House to place conditions on President Bush’s prosecution of the war in Iraq, and require the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops by the end of August, 2008.

The bill faces an uncertain fate in the Senate. The White House has vowed to veto the bill if it reaches his desk.

The article can be found here.

BTW, the Democrats did try to add billions of dollars of additional spending.

The Politico

Here is a good Political website. The last post was info from their site.

http://www.politico.com/

GOP Forces House Democrats To Pull DC Voting Bill

GOP Forces House Democrats To Pull DC Voting Bill

House Democrats pulled a bill to grant voting rights to Washington, D.C., after Republicans offered a motion that would repeal the gun ban for the District.
The move is a clear signal that Democrats have lost control of House floor after minority Republicans presented the Democratic majority with a politically unpalatable motion that their conservative members would be forced to support for fear of angering the gun rights community.
Fifty-two Democrats voted with Republicans on a similar measure to repeal the gun ban in 2004. That would be more than enough support for Republcians to add a repeal to the voting rights bill - something a majority of Democrats would vehemently oppose.
Republicans have taken great pride in offering motions to recommit during their time in the minority, an often over-looked legislative procedure that has allowed them to amend various bills on the House floor.
Democratic Rep. Ellen Tauscher of California, who presided in the chair when the House began consideration of the motion, called the postponement at the request of her leadership, saying the speaker has complete discretion to postpone consideration of any legislation at any time.
Democrats scrambled to remedy the situation on the floor but were eventually forced to pull the bill to begin debate on a controversial wartime funding measure that is expected on the floor Friday. Republicans could offer a similar procedural motion to slow consideration of that measure whenever it comes to the floor.
The House was expected to approve the bill to grant Washington, DC, with a vote in the House by a wide margin, with several Republicans expected to vote in favor of the overarching legislation.

© 2007 Capitol News Company, LLC
posted by Patrick O'Connor 02:45 PM, News from: http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0307/GOP_Forces_House_Democrats_To_Pull_DC_Voting_Bill.html