Sunday Roundup

Sex, Lies, and Videotape ruled the roost this week. The sex came in the he said, he said rumors about Trent Lott and a gay escort, and in Rudy and Judy's taxpayer funded trysts. The lies were delivered by Karl Rove and Bill Clinton, who each tried to rewrite history regarding the war in Iraq -- and Rudy (again), who had a hard time keeping his facts straight. And you can toss in Lott (again) too - unless you believe he's retiring five years early because his pastor read Ecclesiastes. As for the videotape, take your pick: we have Andy Card dissing Rove, me discussing Rove on Olbermann, Olbermann as a toon on the Simpsons, Joe Scarborough dissing CNN, and our collection of the week's Must See Video.

Comments

[thebeerdoctor]

I want to thank the Huffingtonpost for exposing the falsehoods of Bill Clinton concerning the Iraq war, just like Karl Rove. A state of denial is truly a dangerous place to be. In an age that screams for transparency and honesty, lying does not do anybody any good.

[lobo1939]

Arriana,

Please get off Larry Craig. We already know he is a hypocrit. Any further revelations only serve to fuel the gay bashing community. Larry did not seek sex is a men's restroom because he is gay any more than the catholic priests abused young boys becaue they were gay. Being gay does not in itself precude sexual abuse of children anymore than it expresses itself by seeking sexual gratification in public restrooms. Craig has unfullfilled "at home" sexual desires that he has not been able to gratify until now except in the company of another male. It is sad and unfortunatly his behavior has been linked to homosexuality by the gay bashers. Please quit reporting on Larry Craig's trials. These stories only serve to further the dangerous illusion that gays are perverted and dangerous.

[Not Blind]

Such hypocracies in politics and the media are the main reason I look to foreign news agencies to get world "news." Very few in the media have held politicians, especially those in the administration, accountable for any of their crimes: perjury, treason, torture, illegal (by international standards) invasion and current occupation of Iraq, the illegal surveillance conducted upon Americans, suspending Habeas Corpus, illegal detention of foreign nationals, not to mention the no-bid contracts given to cabinet and legislative members' favored corporate allies (family, friends or political loyalists) who've obscenely profited from the war.
Blogging isn't going to do the trick, Arianna. We need some real investigative reporting. During the Watergate investigation, Woodward and Bernstein did not wait for a congressional committee to subpoena documents or evidence. They followed the money trail. Find out who is making money off this war, and who voted for it, and we may discover the real terrorists, thieves and criminals. This includes Blackwater, Carlysle Group, Halliburton and the oil companies. Let's get copies of those "executive orders" given to the telecom companies, along with the "carrots" they got for betraying our civil and legal rights. Get us a copy of the immunity (who signed it) in the State Dept. to the cold-blooded mercenaries who slaughtered innocent Iraqi civilians two months ago. Find out what and how Gonzalez and Yoo wrote so many secretive orders to destroy our Constitution and circumvent international laws regarding humane and legal treatment of detainees.
In the end, these cries of national security, unitary or executive privilege and protecting the safety of Americans has nothing to with any of those scandals. They were a dictatorial power grab, and all are designed to protect only the President, his cabinet, legislative and judicial co-conspirators from accountability for their crimes against America and humanity.

[Fairfax]

Our boy Karl is dusting off his swift-boat game.

Maybe if we just ignore him, he'll go away.

[ParacleteofKavorka]

For all the talk of Rudy's police protection for his trips to the Hamptons, why hasn't the media found out who directed that the bills be charged to those obscure departments? Was it the police department's doing, Rudy's, Kerik's or someone else. Isn't that a critical element of the story? Why are reporters so lazy?

[DLSteinhardt]

Kind of exquisite to see Republicans at each other, isn't it?

[Imatoski]

Regarding Bill Clinton's position on pre-invasion of Iraq... I can only comment on what I saw and heard Clinton say on a news show before the war. I wished I had written down the date and name of show at the time. Bill's comments were as follows:

"Yes, I do believe that Saddam has weapons of mass destruction, and that we should invade; but ONLY if we have a true coalition like in Desert Storm."

I'm sure some enterprising person can find a video of that interview.

[meo]

Arianna, why is there not a single mention of the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorist Prevention Act on Huffington Post? It is clearly the most dangerous, far-reaching, and ambiguously written legislation that puts any American citizen or organization at risk of being arrested as a terrorist and held without due process for even the "promotion" of any activity the government deems extreme or radical. And which presidential candidates will vote against it? This is another step in the erosion of constitutional rights and protections, and a further step toward martial law.

[emerywood]

There is also the notion this week among the Republicans that since the surge is "working", we should pursue the war. There is now talk of staying in Iraq forever. The lesson for our kids is " winning is everything " ; if you can win, do it. It must be right. Gangbangers would whole-heartily agree. If one can get away with murder, do it !

[longislandlol]

Sad- that Rove and Bill Clinton had to be put in the same "Liars' Category"- Clinton really should have known better than to outright lie like that- it doesn't help both Clinton's to be compared with the Bush Camp-- her poll numbers show decreases- while Barack's increase incrementally in every State Poll-- The American public is now becoming able to see through lies, flip-flops, and everything else we've been served on the platter over many years... they've smartened-up toward real change, consistency, good judgement....

[vincent123]

Just remember, the GOP today is nothing more than a collection of old southern Dixiecrats, religious nuts, greedy business criminals and closeted gays. Sometimes, they are even combinations of these types. The GOP has no honor.

[ChristopherLib]

What about Obama using right wing talking points on Social Security and Healtcare, as Paul Krugman so eloquently pointed out this week. Just to be ballance. Bill Clinton probably wished he used different words in describing his support on Iraq. He mispoke. At least he isn't riding with the same falacy time and again like Obama is doing with healthcare and social security.

[Queenhuh]

And we are still not discussing impeachment because?? Republican's and their sainted hypocritical values are currently on parade headed by Rudi who cheated on his first wife with his second wife and on his second wife with his third. Gingrich was cheating on his wife at the time he was impeaching Clinton for the great cigar incident - the beat goes on. When are we going to say enough and as one voice, stand up to these underhanded, criminals? Hello, is there anyone out there?

[julianna]

Please, disable the 'reply' feature to a blog post. Each blog is like trainwreck now with child (inverted) comments that result in little more than name-calling and drivel. Now it's more like a chat room than a blog post.

Previously, people actually read the blog posts in order, and had to to get the gist of the points that were being made by the various bloggers. I'd actually read several pages of blog posts, now I can't get past the first page.

Thanks.

[jakibaez]

Hi Arianna, I am a new viewer, but, not withstanding, a great admirer of you. You have strived from your foreign country and you make such a great success story, that I hope one day they make a movie on your life. As for the remarks of Bill, he was always quiet with the facts concerning the war, you and I know that undermining the current president's view was wrong and Bill did not express himself. Yes, he did make comments that we should have gone to the 9/11 killers first, all this is documented. This country is very divided, but, what I don't understand, being half black and half spanish, that I should be forced to either vote for Richardson and Obama due to my race. Hillary Clinton is losing ground, but, only because the young people are loose in their morals, and don't see the importance of this voting decision. Most of them are in the black hip hop culture or gay-lesbian culture that want their freedoms again. The repubicans took some of these vices and vile lifestyle away with President Bush. I admire Hillary for standing her grounds on the illegal licensing and her unaccept gay marriages. They accuse her of being a republican, and this hurts her. The public (not including the blacks who are using the race card to vote) do not see that Obama has many many secrets and these have not come out in the open. If he becomes our nominee, I can quarantee you that he will be hung to dry and some of us that are Hillary's supporter (which is half of the nation) will probably not vote or just vote for the Independent or the best republican.