Sunday Roundup

Must have been quite the holiday party at the vice president's house this week: old chums Dick Cheney and Karl Rove tossing back a few eggnogs and talking about the possibility of a preemptive presidential pardon. Or evaluating the first steps of the Bush Legacy Project. No doubt there was a lot of backslapping when Fox's Chris Wallace stopped by. Earlier in the week, Wallace had vociferously defended Bush against criticisms leveled by Frost/Nixon filmmaker Ron Howard at a screening of the film. At the VP's party, a "genuinely grateful" Cheney thanked Wallace for standing up for the president and promised him "a special exit interview" in a couple of weeks. Should be very fair and balanced. In other holiday party news: the Treasury Department holiday bash will be held in the department's "Cash Room." Emptiest room in the place, I suppose.

Comments

[rckayla]

First, Arianna, I would like to wish you and yours a very Happy Holiday season!! Second, excellent post Arianna; I do hope you keep writing them in the New Year and beyond because we, the American People, need informed citizens like you to educate us!!! Third, I'm going to say something here that may anger some... I do not totally blame the Bush Administration for what has happened to the United States of America, I also blame the voters who pulled the lever for Bush in 2000 and then re-elected him in 2004. That's right, I also blame the American people for what is happening in America now because they were not informed voters nor did they educate themselves about George W. Bush's horrible agenda against all Americans. Great that Obama/Biden won but look at the awful mess they have to clean up now; all thanks to those who voted for, and then re-elected, George W. Bush and the Republican Party!

[Hrotea]

BUSH LEGACY PROJECT IS DOOMED FROM THE START BECAUSE HE AS WELL AS CHENEY HAVE FORFEITED THEIR DESIRED PLACE IN HISTORY BECAUSE OF THEIR WAR ADDICTION

By Hermie Rotea

Why lame-duck President George W. Bush and lame-duck Vice President Dick Cheney are so concerned about their legacy to the extent that they have brainstormed on the quesstion with idea chums like Karl Rove and Chris Wallace, is beyond our comprehension.

Having recklessly plunged the United States into the quagmire of Iraq and Afghanistan wars, wasted billions of dollars into their imperialistic misadventures in the Middle East, and after pushing the national economy to the edge of a great depression, what do they expect?

If they thought that history would be kind to them, they are obviously in self-denial and dreaming of the impossible. After committing war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan and causing the current economic crisis, they are so discredited and vulnerable to criminal prosecution.

They should be ashamed and should not have the face to still justify the unjustifiable. It is not enough that they apologize and atone for their sins and crimes. They should be dealt with in accordance with law and history.

[BannedInBoston]

Should is not is, are, or will. We can make these kinds of accusations till we're blue in the face and what have we got? A blue face. But if it makes us feel better....

[pcplz]

With the pardons of cronies.......what about

RAMOS AND COMPEAN???

[folksinger]

"Cash Room." Emptiest room in the place, I suppose. "

Don't count on it...They'll print more...or have it outsourced.

[KarelS]

The Bush/Chaney (as in Lon Chaney) Cabal has nothing to lose no matter how they handle this pardon affair. They can and will do anything they damn well please because the pardon procedure is as sacrosanct as Palin's religiosity. They'll be thumbing their noses while exibiting those pathetic smirks at any sign of criticism.
Look for totally outrageous behavior on the part of these two criminals; we're talking preemptive pardons, pardons for Scooter, Clemens, Abramhoff . . . the whole panolopy of criminals past, present and future.
Our only hope is Obama coming through on his campaign promise to sic the Justice Department on criminal behavior that occured during the last eight years in this Administration. Hope they have the funds to hire the thousands of lawyers that will be needed in this pursuit.

[BannedInBoston]

Re "pre-emptive pardons" -- After Richard Nixon resigned from the Presidency in 1974, Gerald Ford pre-emptively pardoned Nixon of all charges that he MIGHT face in the future (and it looked likely there WOULD be some). The question is, can a President pre-emptively pardon HIMSELF? (I suspect the answer is probably "yes" -- in BushWorld at any rate....)

[Edzero]

As The Economist printed recently. Competence is back! Hopefully the Beltway
will provide role models in all three branches of government that the voters,
their children and grandchildren can look up to.

What a dramatic change that will be. I suspect the citizens of all countries
in the world will applaud this wonderful transformation.

[CarolinaDem]

Well I need help here. I'm a lifelong despiser of republicans, and worked for democrats since I was 14. But I need to know what the Clinton administration did to make people like Chris Wallace, Brit Hume and that former SNL comic turn into such rightwing demagogues? Was the personal corruption that smelly? Or did they just rebel against their fathers' liberal suspicion of the military? I just can't get a grip on this.

[brassminnie]

It's simple. They were offered very nice incomes if they cooperated.

[Andrew149]

How did Fox News get to the top by employing such bottom feeders? Chris Wallace will never gain the respect his father has and no one should ever mistake him for a fair and accurate journalist.

[KarelS]

Simple. Look at their audience.

[firstcrasscitizen]

Chris Wallace who?

[Fleisch]

Chris Wallace's "defense" of Bush is ludicrous. He is saying it's OK to abuse power if you're not doing it for self-aggrandizement. Chris Wallace must like Joe McCarthy because he was trying to protect the country from Communism. In fact, that analogy is so close, it's probably not an analogy. Chris Wallace probably does think it's OK to have a Star Chamber that blacklists people if their opinions are different from his and therefore dangerous.

[firstcrasscitizen]

Chris Wallace, the "neo-commentator"

[zest]

Do presidential pardons cover international war crimes?

[firstcrasscitizen]

If we don't press charges untill after 01/20/09, "w" won't have anything to pardon.

[pineapplegal]

I think that's why its called a "pre emptive" pardon - to pardon themselves now for anything that comes out in the future.

[leftLibertarian]

If the Democrats had a spine, the criminals Bush, Cheney and Rove would be in prison.

[LeftCoastLarry]

Responding to Lavici,
Where it is true that compared to other governments, we weren't that bad under Bush, however, as the "most powerful person in the world" Bush trashed the Constitution, trashed the Bill of Rights, totally corrupted the Department of Justice, invaded a foreign country under false pretenses, diverted our national wealth to his corporate buddies, and ruined the economy for the middle class.
I wish you well and let's hope we all have a brighter future with responsible leadership. We are on our way there and hope you will soon, also.

[lavici]

thank you leftcoast larry: thanks for your wishes, but i have to clear up first that i may have not expressed myself correctly, 'cause i wasn't at all praising or justifying the bush administration for one second. it has been the worst 8 year nightmare for the US and he did trash the constitution etc. but still, to my venezuelan eyes, that trio is like snow white's dwarfs,by deeds, by intent and by results... in comparison. totally disneyworld
i was in the US for the elections and i described how I jumped with joy and cried together with the majority of north americans, for your wonderful gain in spite of all the crisis, or because of the crisis... and by contrast i also cried for our loss. for what we are eons from. i feel it close and personal since my two girls are residents and my grandchildren are little 'gringos'.
i'm just saying that even though it was bad, at least you DO have the mechanisms, the institutions, the independence of powers to overcome any partisanship or politicos lobbying, even if bush would pardon them. you still have the ways and the means to see them someday in hague.ours is much slower, filled with all kinds of obstacles and corruption but we have already beat him twice to his pretense of being re elected chavez goes beyond trashing our constitution. just believe me when i tell you that he calls her "the bitch" :'(

[LeftCoastLarry]

You made your point very eloquently both times. No confusion here. My hope is that as we return to a higher standard it will lift not just us, but the rest of the world as well - including - especially - Venezuela! The best to you.

[oncethere]

Oh, let it never be again, the marriage of an Administration and a news network. As much as Republicans will try to tell you about liberal media bias, there is no precedent for or equivalent of the Fox-- Bush axis in American hx. The idiocy and incompetence of the last 8 years came to a climax with the nomination of Sarah Palin.

Now, Rove is writing a book in which he will name "Bush Haters" (from Think Progress), much like Nixon had an enemies list. This just confirms that Republicans tend to split the world into for and against, good and bad. You are either one or the other.