I reached the following article through Tim McGivern’s blog. McGivern wrote: “[A]nywhere there is need for sensible, competent U.S. leadership … what we get is Dubya, Dick and Rummy, and it just ain’t even worth the sarcasm anymore.” mjh

‘Unit’s’ military expert has fighting words for Bush By David Kronke, TV Critic

Eric Haney, a retired command sergeant major of the U.S. Army, was a founding member of Delta Force, the military’s elite covert counter-terrorist unit.

Q: What’s your assessment of the war in Iraq?

A: “Utter debacle. But it had to be from the very first. The reasons were wrong. The reasons of this administration for taking this nation to war were not what they stated. (Army Gen.) Tommy Franks was brow-beaten and … pursued warfare that he knew strategically was wrong in the long term. That’s why he retired immediately afterward. His own staff could tell him what was going to happen afterward.

“We have fomented civil war in Iraq. We have probably fomented internecine war in the Muslim world between the Shias and the Sunnis, and I think Bush may well have started the third world war, all for their own personal policies. …

“For the first thing, our credibility is utterly zero. So we destroyed whatever credibility we had. … And I say “we,” because the American public went along with this. They voted for a second Bush administration out of fear, so fear is what they’re going to have from now on.

“Our military is completely consumed, so were there a real threat – thankfully, there is no real threat to the U.S. in the world, but were there one, we couldn’t confront it. Right now, that may not be a bad thing, because that keeps Bush from trying something with Iran or with Venezuela.

“The harm that has been done is irreparable. … Their lies are coming home to roost now, and it’s gonna fall apart. …

“The only reason anyone tortures is because they like to do it. It’s about vengeance, it’s about revenge, or it’s about cover-up. You don’t gain intelligence that way. Everyone in the world knows that. It’s worse than small-minded, and look what it does. …

“This administration has been masters of diverting attention away from real issues and debating the silly. Debating what constitutes torture: Mistreatment of helpless people in your power is torture, period. And (I’m saying this as) a man who has been involved in the most pointed of our activities. I know it, and all of my mates know it. You don’t do it. It’s an act of cowardice. I hear apologists for torture say, “Well, they do it to us.” Which is a ludicrous argument. … The Saddam Husseins of the world are not our teachers. Christ almighty, we wrote a Constitution saying what’s legal and what we believed in. Now we’re going to throw it away.“

In a sense, it’s no surprise what John Dean of the Nixon Administration thinks of the Bush Administration; he wrote Worse Than Watergate a couple of years ago. But now he is speaking with even more evidence at hand and more people are listening.

I have to say I’m impressed by Arlen Spector (again). Of course, his fellow Republicans dispise him. mjh

John Dean says to censure Bush By Maeve Reston, Post-Gazette National Bureau

Former White House Counsel John Dean, a central figure in the Watergate scandal who served time for his involvement in the Nixon administration cover-up, told a panel of senators yesterday that President Bush should be censured for authorizing the government to eavesdrop on Americans’ international phone conversations. …

“I think I have probably more experience first-hand than anybody might want in what can go wrong and how a president can get on the other side of the law,” Mr. Dean said. “Had a censure resolution been issued about some of Nixon’s conduct long before it erupted to the degree and the problem that came, it would have been a godsend.”

Mr. Dean said wiretapping by the Bush White House was “a part of a very consistent, long-term, early-announced policy of this presidency that they are seeking to build presidential power for the sake of presidential power.” And he said censure was appropriate to restore the balance of power.

Rolling Stone : John Dean on Censure

No presidency that I can find in history has adopted a policy of expanding presidential powers merely for the sake of expanding presidential powers…. It has been the announced policy of the Bush/Cheney presidency, however, from its outset, to expand presidential power for its own sake, and it continually searched for avenues to do just that, while constantly testing to see how far it can push the limits. I must add that never before have I felt the slightest reason to fear our government. Nor do I frighten easily. But I do fear the Bush/Cheney government (and the precedents they are creating) because this administration is caught up in the rectitude of its own self-righteousness, and for all practical purposes this presidency has remained largely unchecked by its constitutional coequals….

DeLay’s righthand man was on the take. So, was DeLay oblivious or involved. Which do you like better: inept or corrupt? mjh

A Force Behind the Power By Juliet Eilperin and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, Washington Post Staff Writers

When Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was working his way up the leadership ladder in the 1990s, he often turned to an athletic assistant named Tony C. Rudy.

Rudy, now 39, was known as a bare-knuckle political operator who was trusted explicitly by his ambitious boss. … With Rudy’s help, DeLay rose to the No. 2 position in the House Republican leadership.

Key events in the Tony Rudy investigation