Monthly Archives: July 2007

July 19, 2007 — Scott Johnson

Pete Hegseth’s circuitous path to Washington

Yesterday John noted that the Minneapolis Star Tribune (and the Washington Post) had failed to carry a single word on the mission to Capitol Hill of hometown hero Pete Hegseth (above left). Today in her Star Tribune column Katherine Kersten profiles Hegseth: “Minnesota warrior takes his fight from Iraq to Washington.” Kathy provides some background on the journey that took Hegseth from Forest Lake, Minnesota to Guantanamo, Iraq, and Washington: »
July 18, 2007 — John Hinderaker

More Ado About Nothing

Tomorrow’s New York Times tries to keep alive the “issue” of Fred Thompson’s work on behalf of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. The Arent Fox law firm has apparently found its billing records and provided them to the Times–they should give the Rose Law Firm lessons in how to preserve billing records–and the files confirm that Thompson did a de minimis amount of work for the abortion »
July 18, 2007 — John Hinderaker

More Revelations From the Intelligence Community

Yesterday, another National Intelligence Estimate was made public, this time on “The Terrorist Threat to the US Homeland.” The portion of the report that has been made public is meager, consisting of two pages of “Key Judgments” and five pages of boilerplate by way of procedural explanation. Nevertheless, its release was greeted breathlessly as yet another refutation of the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq. Of course, every time the Sun »
July 18, 2007 — Paul Mirengoff

Pseudo-analysis from the Washington Post

John has already taken down this Washington Post “Analysis” piece regarding the latest National Intelligence Assessment (NIE). A decent regard for truth in labeling would have caused the Post to add the words “Strained” and “Partisan” to its description of Michael Abramowitz’s piece. Abramowitz’s contends that the NIE undercuts President Bush’s claim that terrorists in Iraq pose a threat to U.S. interests. He purports to extract this conclusion from two »
July 18, 2007 — Scott Johnson

A mission for the blogosphere

At the Weekly Standard site, Michael Goldfarb inquires whether a pseudonymous New Republic article entitled “Shock troops” by “Scott Thomas” (“a freelance writer and soldier currently serving in Baghdad”) is “Fact or fiction?” The New Republic article describes three scenarios involving disgraceful incidents featuring American soldiers serving in Baghdad. Goldfarb summarizes them and puts out a call to readers who may be able to shed light on them: We contacted »
July 18, 2007 — Paul Mirengoff

The trade secrets of great souls

NFL quarterback Daunte Culpepper has been attempting for some time to obtain his release from the Miami Dolphins. After unsuccessfully attempting to trade Culpepper, the Dolphins have finally acquiesced. Culpepper had this to say about the good news: As I was going through this process, I heard about a quote by Gandhi that best expresses my thoughts about this victory: “first they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they »
July 18, 2007 — John Hinderaker

Good News From Nebraska

Robert Novak writes that Attorney General Jon Bruning raised twice as much money as Senator Chuck Hagel in the second quarter and now has a significant cash advantage. Novak says that most observers think Hagel is in his last term in the Senate, one way or another. »
July 18, 2007 — John Hinderaker

A Big Catch in Iraq

The U.S. military has announced that on July 4, it captured one of the top leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq, Khaled Abdul-Fattah Dawoud Mahmoud al-Mashhadani. Mashhadani is particularly significant because he was the highest ranking Iraqi in that organization. U.S. military spokesman Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner…told reporters that al-Mashhadani carried messages from bin Laden, and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, to the Egyptian-born head of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Ayyub »
July 18, 2007 — Paul Mirengoff

The new Nixon?

In his latest column, Michael Gerson compares Rudy Giuliani to Richard Nixon. The comparison is interesting, but are there really similarities between the two that should worry conservatives? Gerson thinks so. For one thing, Giuliani is, and Nixon was, a social conservative in the secular “cultural warrrior” sense, but not in the religious, pro-life sense. But this matter is well-known, and throwing Nixon’s name into the mix doesn’t shed new »
July 18, 2007 — John Hinderaker

About Last Night

We haven’t said much about the Democrats’ stunt in the Senate last night, because we didn’t think it merited a lot of comment. For the record, the Democrats’ cloture motion failed on a 52-47 vote; so the Dems were eight votes short. There were no new Republican defectors. Hagel, Smith and Snowe voted with the Democrats and have said that they support a pullout deadline. Susan Collins voted for cloture »
July 18, 2007 — Scott Johnson

What is CAIR?

CAIR is the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). It holds itself out as a civil rights group. Yesterday it held a panel discussion on “Islamophobia” at the National Press Conference. At the event, CAIR chairman Parvez Ahmed denounced the Bush administration as a fount of “Islamophobia.” Audrey Hudson and Sara Carter report on Ahmed’s comments in today’s Washington Times. By apearing on the panel with Ahmed, in my view, David »
July 18, 2007 — Scott Johnson

Bush Bakered, part 2

On Monday in “Bush Bakered” I wrote briefly about President Bush’s speech announcing a regional conference to be chaired by Secretary Rice and attended by representatives from nations that support a two-state solution, reject violence, recognize Israel’s right to exist, and commit to all previous agreements between the parties. The text of the speech is here. Based on a reading of the text of the speech, I thought that President »
July 18, 2007 — Scott Johnson

A letter to Speaker Pelosi

We have received a copy of the letter dated July 17 sent by Rep. Zach Wamp and Rep. Eric Cantor to Speaker Pelosi regarding Minnesota Fifth District Rep. Keith Ellison regarding his “Bushitler” comments last week. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports on the letter here; the Hill reports on the letter this morning here. The Star Tribune notes that in addition the Anti-Defamation League has called on Ellison to retract »
July 17, 2007 — Paul Mirengoff

The haircut narrative, Part Two

The Washington Post takes a whack at explaining why, despite his ardent efforts on behalf of poor Americans, John Edwards seems to be making so little headway in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Like some left-wing bloggers, the Post’s primary explanation is the adverse publicity Edwards received about his 28,000 square-foot house and his $400 haircuts. But it’s not as if these fairly recent developments have eroded Edwards’ »
July 17, 2007 — John Hinderaker

A Man Addresses the Boys

Tonight Harry Reid and his minions are going through the stupid charade of an all-night “debate” on Iraq. It won’t be much of a debate, of course, as the Democrats’ minds are made up: in their eyes, the surge was a failure before it even began. Earlier today, John McCain released a statement that puts the Dems, and the handful of wobbly Republicans who may vote with them, to shame. »
July 17, 2007 — Paul Mirengoff

Giuliani’s bench, Part Three

From a conservative perspective, two legal issues come quickly to mind with respect to Rudy Giuliani — abortion, of course, and also the perception that as a federal prosecutor he tended to use the government’s power and the legal process abusively at times. The first issue is pretty straightforward, at least as a legal matter. Either one accepts Giuliani’s statement that he will appoint stict constructionist judges like John Roberts »
July 17, 2007 — John Hinderaker

Staunch Republicans for Ted Kennedy

This is a story we’ve seen before–the “staunch Republican” who turns out not to be. From the Chicago Sun Times, with the headline “GOP Lawyer Sold On Dems:” After watching the top five Democratic candidates for president speak before a trial lawyers’ group Sunday, attorney Jim Ronca of Philadelphia, a staunch Republican, became certain of one thing: He is not going to vote Republican in the 2008 presidential election. He »