Quote of the Day - September 16, 2008

"McCain has gone in some of his ads -- similarly gone one step too far and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the '100 percent truth' test."
- Former Bush advisor and current Fox News Network Analyst Karl Rove speaking on Fox News about Senator John McCain.

The Obama campaign jumped at the Republican strategist's tidbit:

"In case anyone was still wondering whether John McCain is running the sleaziest, most dishonest campaign in history, today Karl Rove -- the man who held the previous record -- said McCain's ads have gone too far," said campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor, in a statement sent to reporters minutes after Rove's on-air comments.

Sen. Barack Obama gave his thoughts on McCain's blatant attempt of obfuscation in the current campaign during a stop in Manchester, New Hampshire:

""They're going to talk about pigs, and they're going to talk about lipstick; they're going to talk about Paris Hilton, they're going to talk about Britney Spears. They will try to distort my record, and they will try to undermine your trust in what the Democrats intend to do."

McCain accuses Obama of being an empty suit, a celebrity. But he offers no plan, no solutions, and trots around the country puppy-doggin' behind Sarah Palin, like a groupie. All of the McCain ads are a gross distortion of the Obama plan or a smear of the Obama campaign... to date, I have not seen one substantive ad from McCain about what he would do if he gets to move into the White House.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In other news, the Obama campaign announced Sunday that it had raised $66 million in August. The new total bests the campaign's previous high of $55 million, which came in February during his tough primary fight with Clinton. The Obama campaign said more than half a million new donors contributed in August, when the Illinois senator accepted the Democratic presidential nomination and named Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware as his running mate. The campaign had more than $77 million in cash on hand at the end of August, compared with about $66 million in July.

On September 1, McCain's campaign reported raising $47 million in August. That haul also set a monthly record for the Arizona senator, whose campaign says it received a financial shot in the arm after McCain picked Palin to join the ticket.

Read the CNN.com article about Karl Rove's quote here.

Read the CNN.com article about negative campaigning in 2008 here.

Read the AJC.com article about John McCain's sleazy campaign here.


plez sez: dirty campaigning goes back to the beginning of america's political process. john adams and thomas jefferson ran a pretty nasty campaign at a time when few americans knew or cared about the character of their elected officials... as long as they weren't running for election as KING!

the 2008 presidential campaign has been a minefield of supposed political correctness buttress with allegations of ageism, racism, reverse racism, sexism, and just about every other "ism" we can think of... with a black presidential candidate, a woman presidential candidate, an AARP member presidential candidate, a "hockey mom" vice presidential candidate, a mormon presidential candidate, and a pig-wearing-lipstick candidate! the fodder for television ads is rich and it would take the restraint of even the tamest of campaign managers to not fall victim to easy stereotyping and innuendo. and with Barack Obama running as a Black guy who really isn't running as a Black guy, it becomes an even more tenuous position to stay away from BOOGIE MAN references meant to scare the BeJesus out of white folk!

i can't wait for the debates in the coming weeks... we'll see what happens when we get Obama and mccain on the same stage for an hour to jab and poke at each other while maintaining a modicum of civility. i grew up in New York and i love a good argument...

to be honest, plezWorld isn't that crazy about the fake civility...

• i wanna see Obama call mccain out for being a lily-livered POW who broke under a little pressure and gave out the few military secrets his stupid ass could remember to the viet cong;
• i wanna see mccain call out Obama about his white momma and his tissue-paper thin foreign policy ("sarah palin with her worthless degree from Idaho has more experience in her little finger than all that high brow Harvard bullshit law degree that you wasted on those miserable south chicago streets");
• i want Obama to call mccain out for ditching his crippled wheelchair-bound first wife for the MUCH YOUNGER, MUCH BLONDER cindy;
• i want mccain to call Obama a pencil-necked geek who he'd take around back and whip his ass if he could lift those damn arms above his chest.

"Well, yo' momma liked it!"

now that would be a debate that i could rewind and watch a couple of times!

Karl Rove Ignores Congressional Subpoena

President Bush's former White House aide Karl Rove thumbed his nose at a congressional subpoena to appear before the House Judiciary subcommittee on Thursday morning. He has refused to testify about allegations of political pressure at the Justice Department, including whether he influenced the prosecution of a former Democratic governor of Alabama, Don Siegelman. Rep. Linda Sanchez, chairman of a House subcommittee, ruled with backing from fellow Democrats on the panel that Rove was breaking the law by refusing to cooperate - perhaps the first step toward holding him in contempt of Congress.

The White House has cited executive privilege as a reason Rove and others who serve or served in the administration should not testify, arguing that internal administration communications are confidential and that Congress cannot compel officials to testify. Rove says he is bound to follow the White House's guidance, although he has offered to answer questions specifically on the Siegelman case, but only with no transcript taken and not under oath.

A decision on whether to pursue contempt charges now goes to the full Judiciary Committee and ultimately to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Read the entire Washington Post article about Karl Rove's refusal to appear here.


plez sez: the white house has long contended that none of its current or former aides to the president would testify for this democratic congress. White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers didn't show up, either... their cases are currently dragging through the federal courts.

once again, the bush administration is exposing the ineptitude and toothless wrangling of the democrats in congress - what if the democrats didn't take action against nixon administration insiders during the watergate scandal of the 1970's? do you think newt gingrich and bob barr even blinked before drafting impeachment proceedings on bill clinton during the monica lewinsky scandal in 1998?

i cringe everytime i hear that a decision concerning the bush administration falls upon the desk of nancy pelosi... you know that she isn't going to take any harsh action against the current administration. i would bet that she'll be harder on Obama than she's been on bush! and karl rove is sitting at home laughing his ass off.

they knew he had no intention of showing up. if i had been pelosi, i would've had the congressional police department sitting outside rove's house waiting for his time to appear to pass. and then i would've had them arrest rove on the charge of contempt of congress!

wishful thinking... i know!

plez note: for some reason this story got buried by the mainstream press. it is mentioned in the Washington Post, but is nowhere near the front page of their website. The New York Times has it buried it in the Washington sub-section of the US section and the AJC didn't even carry the AP story! if it was mentioned on the news, it got a passing reference in favor of the much more popular, but less consequential, banter of Jesse Jackson wanting to castrate Barack Obama.

one of the roles of congress is to provide a check and balance to the powers of the president! if they cannot (or will not) question (under oath) those who advise the president to engage in illegal activities, then we are losing a key benefit of our style of government. as this sits, george w. bush (and by extension, dick cheney) do not have to answer to the People of the united states... this is a stinging indictment on the inept leadership that currently sits in the House and the Senate!

Good Riddance: Karl Rove to Leave the White House

The New York Times (and just about every news outlet) reports that Karl Rove - the architect of George W. Bush's rise to power as the US President - has decided to throw in the towel and call it quits with a year and a half left in the Bush presidency.

The New York Times article continues:

In an interview published this morning in The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Rove said, “I just think it’s time,” adding, “There’s always something that can keep you here, and as much as I’d like to be here, I’ve got to do this for the sake of my family.”

Mr. Rove said he had first considered leaving a year ago but stayed after his party lost the crucial midterm elections last fall, putting Congress in Democratic hands, and Mr. Bush’s problems mounted in Iraq and in his pursuit of a new immigration policy.

He said his hand was forced when the White House chief of staff, Joshua B. Bolten, recently told senior aides that if they stayed past Labor Day they would be expected to stay through the rest of Mr. Bush’s term.

Rove not only was the mastermind behind Bush's "selection" as President back in 2000, but he also had a hand in CIA operative leak that led to Scooter Libby's conviction for perjury, the firing of the 9 federal prosecutors, the War in Iraq, and a being a thorn in the side of Democrats for the better part of the last decade.

plez sez: all is right in the world, i am really glad that karl rove is gone. somehow he weaseled out of testifying before Congress in the CIA leak and helped offer up scooter libby as the scapegoat in that case.

in addition, he had a hand in Bush taking over as President, even though Al Gore won the election in 2000! he can't be the friend of anyone who cherishes democracy (i know, i know, our system is not really a democracy, but that's just mincing words). rove represents everything that is WRONG with politics: the desire to win for the sake of winning, without any real desire to make the government/world better than when you showed up (Hillary Clinton, are you listening?).

i'm glad that he's leaving, but i do have a small amount of respect for the man: he was able to hoodwink an entire country into thinking that we'd be better off with george bush as president. he is obviously a genius... well, i guess an evil genius.

photo above: i found that picture somewhere on the Internet and to the best of my knowledge, Karl Rove has not been arrested for crimes that he's committed while working in the George W. Bush White House.