W.F. Buckley, father of modern conservatism: "The political problem of the Bush administration is grave, possibly beyond the point of rescue."

"There are grounds for wondering whether the Republican party will survive this dilemma"
- W.F. Buckley, National Review - 4/28/07

George W. Bush - the candidate that conservative Republicans worked so hard to elect twice to the presidency has proven to be the biggest political disaster for the GOP since Nixon. His incompetence, abuse of power, and culture of corruption has turned all but the most hard-core denialist wingnuts to loathing of the present political situation.

It's not like we didn't see it coming.

The realist and intellectual conservative, William F. Buckley 'called it.' In his 2/06 editorial in the National Review, he wrote "It Didn't Work," where he boldly stated:

"One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed. . .different plans have to be made. And the kernel here is the acknowledgment of defeat. "

It seems there are two choices here for Republicans. If they want to salvage any shred of credibility for their party, they must not only turn away from Bush administration policies, they must endeavor to acknowledge the misdeeds and hold President Bush and members of his administration accountable. Probably an unrealistic expectation for most conservatives. But, the other choice is to go down with the ship, further dragging the GOP down.

W.F. Buckley so aptly points out this dilemma, in his 4/28/07 National Review editorial, "The Waning of the GOP":

"How can the Republican party, headed by a president determined on a war he can’t see an end to, attract the support of a majority of the voters? ... The political problem of the Bush administration is grave, possibly beyond the point of rescue. ...There are grounds for wondering whether the Republican party will survive this dilemma. "

In job approval, Dubya's been polling between 28 and 37% this year, but approval of his Iraq policy is just 24% in the latest poll. In his isolation, following the example of Nixon, Bush has reportedly adopted a 'bunker mentality.'

The Republican Culture of Corruption - They're dropping like flies

File this one under "Republican moral values"

Deputy Secretary of State Randall L. Tobias resigned Friday, one day after confirming to ABC News that he had been a customer of a Washington, D.C. escort service whose owner has been charged by federal prosecutors with running a prostitution operation. Tobias was a strong proponent of the Bush administration’s abstinence-only policies. Tobias also oversaw a controversial policy advocated by the religious right that required any US-based group receiving anti-AIDS funds to take an anti-prostitution “loyalty oath.” (More on Republican sex crimes).

File this one under "criminals investigating criminals"

Senior Justice Department official Robert E. Coughlin II, deputy chief of staff for the criminal division, which is overseeing the Department’s probe of Abramoff resigned as investigators in Coughlin’s own division ratcheted up their investigation of lobbyist Kevin Ring, Coughlin’s long-time friend and a key associate of Abramoff.

Run down of Republicans convicted or under investigation


This is a short list and does not include lobbyists, congressional aids, CEOs, contractors, war profiteers or many of the others involved in the vast umbrella that has become know as the Republican Culture of Corruption.

(A nice photo of our President with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. President Bush said of Abramoff, "I don't know him").

• Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.)
• Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.)
• Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.)
• Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.)
• Rep. Gary Miller (R-Calif.)
• Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.)
• Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.)
  
• Former Rep. Bob Beauprez (R-Colo.)
• Former Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.)
• Former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.)
• Former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas)
• Former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.)
• Former Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-Nev.)
• Former Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.)
• Former Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.)
• Former Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio)
• Former Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.)
• David Safavian -US General Services Administration - convicted criminal
  
• Ernie Fletcher, Governor, KY - Indicted for official misconduct
• Scooter Libby, Chief of staff for VP Cheney - Convicted for perjury
• Bob Taft, Governor of Ohio, Convicted of ethics violation
• Claude Allen, Advisor to the President, convicted of shoplifting
• Mark Dennis Zachares, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
• Karl Rove - Advisor to the President, U.S. Office of Special Counsel investigation
• Richard Cheney - Vice President, Articles of Impeachment presented
• Condoleeza Rice - Secretary of State, subpoenaed by House Oversight Com.
• George Tenet - Ex Chief CIA, asked to testify before House Oversight Com.
• Robert E. Coughlin - Justice Department official, resigned - Abramoff scandal
• Randall L. Tobias - Deputy Secretary of State, resigned - sex scandal
• Alberto Gonzales - Attorney General, investigated by House Oversight Com.

Lies, corruption and investigations - your update on our failed Republican leadership

Just another day . . . trying to hold corrupt and lying Republicans accountable

* According to Congressional testimony, military and Bush administration officials lied about the death of Cpl. Pat Tillman and the capture of former Pvt. Jessica Lynch to distract attention from setbacks in Iraq and the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

• * Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) introduced Articles of Impeachment against VP Dick Cheney in Congress yesterday.



• Cheney continues to lie ... as usual.

• The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) has launched a broad investigation into Karl Rove and three brewing Bush Administration scandals: the firing of U.S. attorneys, missing White House e-mails, and White House efforts to keep presidential appointees attuned to Republican political priorities. It has been suggested the investigation itself could be a Bush administration coverup since OSC head Scott Bloch, a Bush appointee, has been marred with scandal himself. The Washington Post reported Bloch is being investigated for alleged intimidation of career appointees, refusal to enforce a discrimination ban within his office, and accused of political bias.

• The Senate may soon give Attorney General Alberto Gonzales a vote of no confidence
  


• Corrupt Republican congressman Rick Renzi's (R-AZ) business was raided by the FBI and in a statement yesterday said that he’ll be resigning all his committee assignments. Renzi already resigned from his seat on the sensitive House Intelligence Committee last week.


• Less than a week after his home was searched by the FBI in connection with the Abramoff investigation, Republican congressman. John T. Doolittle (R-CA), has stepped down from the Appropriations Committee.


• A Republican Congressman sent out an "action alert" claiming that they've gotten word that Waxman will issue a subpoena to Secretary of State Rice this morning


• Mark Zachares, a former congressional aide to Republican congressman Don Young, [R-Alaska] pleaded guilty Tuesday to accepting tens of thousands of dollars in gifts from lobbyist Jack Abramoff in an influence-peddling scandal. He is 11th Republican to be convicted in the Abramoff Justice Department probe.


• An agency that oversees the World Bank is asking for the resignation of the bank's president, former deputy U.S. Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.

The Bush initiated Iraq quagmire worsens –

• This month marked the first time that the U.S. military suffered five straight months of 80 or more fatalities. The last 8 months have been the worst since the war began.
• The deadliest single attack since the war began occurred this month, a suicide truck bombing in Tal Afar that killed 152 people
• The deadliest attack yet inside the Green Zone also occurred this month, a suicide bombing in the Iraqi Parliament
• The Iraq government is in disarray - al-Maliki lacks the support in parliament to push through laws.
• The Air Force's top general expressed frustration on Tuesday with the reassignment of troops under his command to ground jobs for which they were not trained to make up for shortages in the US military.
  
• Bush advisor and architect of the Iraq escalation Frederick Kagan, lies and says things are going well in Iraq: "there is reason for wary optimism. … we seem to be turning a corner." April has been the worst month for US fatalities this year and the worst for UK soldiers in 4 years.

A Republican Senator talks to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius anonymously:

“This is the most incompetent White House I’ve seen since I came to Washington,” said one GOP senator. “The White House legislative liaison team is incompetent, pitiful, embarrassing. My colleagues can’t even tell you who the White House Senate liaison is. There is rank incompetence throughout the government. It’s the weakest Cabinet I’ve seen.”

...And remember, this is a Republican talking.

Bush spies on Americans' email ILLEGALLY - but ILLEGALLY won't reveal White House emails

As mentioned in an earlier post, a 22 year AT&T technician (who has submitted key evidence in a class-action lawsuit by the civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation against AT&T) exposed the Bush Administration for illegally watching every email you send, every phone call you make and every website you search.

Now, it has come to light that Karl Rove's deputy at the White House, Scott Jennings, used an outside email domain, gwb43.com, for his emails. The domain, it turns out, is owned by the Republican National Committee. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington have sent a letter to House government reform committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) requesting an investigation of whether the White House has been violating the Presidential Records Act -- in an attempt to keep certain correspondence away from prying eyes.

Now that Congress wants to investigate these email accounts, the White House now says it has 'lost' the emails. How stupid do they think we are?

Senator Patrick Leahy says the Bush Administration is LYING.
From CNN:

President Bush's aides are lying about White House e-mails sent on a Republican account that might have been lost, a powerful Senate chairman said Thursday, vowing to subpoena those documents if the administration fails to cough them up. "They say they have not been preserved. I don't believe that!" Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy shouted from the Senate floor. "You can't erase e-mails, not today. They've gone through too many servers," said Leahy, D-Vermont "Those e-mails are there, they just don't want to produce them. We'll subpoena them if necessary."

Another installment of the Bush Administration's abuse of power and criminal activity.