Newsletter: 7/18/05 -- Rovian Re-Adjustment

[Patsy Stone]

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Tonight on Countdown
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President Bush said Monday that if anyone on his staff committed a crime in the CIA-leak case, that person will "no longer work in my administration." His statement represented a shift from a previous comment, when he said that he would fire anyone shown to have leaked information that exposed the identify of a CIA officer. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8605680/

Matthew Cooper, a reporter for Time magazine, said the White House senior adviser Karl Rove was the first person to tell him that the wife of former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV was a C.I.A. officer, according to a first-person account in this week's issue of the magazine. http://www.nytimes.com/

Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann broadcasts LIVE at 8 pm et, and the count is never complete without you. Join us.
President Bush, accelerating his search for a new Supreme Court justice, appears to have narrowed his list of candidates to no more than a few finalists and could announce his decision in the next few days, Republican strategists informed about White House plans said yesterday. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/18/AR2005071800017.html

Three of the four suspected suicide bombers in the July 7 attacks on London traveled to Karachi in 2004, but the purpose of their visit was unclear, the Pakistani immigration agency said on Monday. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8615237/

The attorney representing a youth baseball coach accused of paying a player to hurt an 8-year-old mentally disabled teammate last month says his client is innocent and the whole case is the result of a misunderstanding. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/2005-07-18-youth-coach-denies-charge_x.htm?POE=SPOISVA

That's some of what we're planning for tonight's show.

Finally,
They take the concept of resting in peace seriously at the Humenik Funeral Chapel. The chapel offers a bedroom-like setting - a bed and two end tables - instead of where the casket would usually be laid out. Owner Joe Humenik had observed at countless funerals how mourners awkwardly approach the casket, say their goodbyes then retreat to the seating area. But when his mom was laid out in a reposing bed, people stood nearby throughout the visitation. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/UNIQUE_WAKES?SITE=NWCN&TEMPLATE=STRANGEHEADS.html&SECTION=HOME
And when the set up the corpse with a martini in one hand and a stogy in the other, the fun really begins.

-- Carey Fox

Countdown Home: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/

Keith blogs: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/

More:
A nurse critically injured when Eric Rudolph detonated a bomb outside an abortion clinic described him Monday as "a monster" who should be put to death. "The full responsibility for this would have been the death sentence," said Emily Lyons. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8607591/

Hurricane Emily swept over the Yucatan peninsula early Monday, snapping concrete utility poles with punishing waves along the region's famous white-sand beaches and winds of 135 mph. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8547218/

The international partnership dependent on the U.S. shuttle fleet to complete the International Space Station is getting nervous as NASA pledges to take as much time as it needs to fix Discovery. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8608916/

Birth control patch linked to higher fatality rate. Report: Device has three times greater risk of stroke, blood clot than pill. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8565177/

The new Harry Potter book sold an astonishing 6.9 million copies in its first 24 hours, smashing the record held by the previous Potter release. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" averaged better than 250,000 sales per hour, more than the vast majority of books sell in a lifetime. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8608578/

Apple Computer recently held discussions with major recording companies, seeking to license music videos to sell through the company's iTunes Music Store, according to a report in Monday's edition of The Wall Street Journal. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8614723/

How much does Google know about you? Privacy advocates worry search engine's data a target for abuse. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8615654/

[crispini]

1. So Shrub's obviously clearing the way for Rove to stay on

all the way through the indictment, and all the way through the trial, come to that. What a complete and total wanker. IMO, he's #1, gone back on his word, and #2, doesn't have the balls and common sense to THINK FOR HIMSELF for once and get rid of the guy who is just going to bring his administration down. :mad:

[gkhouston]

2. I'm feeling positively bouncy, myself

which is pretty amazing, considering I got about three hours' worth of sleep last night. Yes, it's disgusting that blivet** is paving the way to keep Rove on until after he's been convicted of a crime, but isn't that extremely telling? Why bother shifting the goal post unless you're pretty certain that an indictment is coming? And really, I want Rove to hang around their necks like an albatross while he's on trial, so I'm good with this extremely bad decision.

[crispini]

3. Oh, gosh yes.

Shrub, if he had an ounce of sense, would drop Karl Rove like the albatross he is becoming and distance himself from his shady and morally questionable associate by any means possible. Shrub, however, has a loooong history of personal loyalty to his associates and so he's not going to do that. The more fool him; we will beat this horse and beat it and beat it and beat it all the way through the rest of the summer right up to the indictments and all the way through the trial!

This issue is so easy to explain, it's not even funny: Karl Rove put party over country and he trashed a valuable national security asset for REVENGE. And it's the flippin truth.

[gkhouston]

4. and the amazing thing is, I'm not sure they fully realize that yet.

I think they still believe they can ride this storm out. They're hoping to find the magic spin to put on things that will tide them over until some distraction comes along and this can all be swept under the carpet. I don't think they'll admit it's bigger than Watergate until they're all indicted, and perhaps not even then. They'll probably go to their graves convinced they were the innocent victims of partisan politics and not criminals.

[crispini]

5. Have you read "Why the Leak Probe Matters" by Jonathan Alter?

I practically passed out after reading this, I couldn't believe that this is going to be in FUCKING NEWSWEEK!!!!!!

July 25 issue - Like a lot of President Bush's critics, I supported the Iraq war at first. ....(snip)

I even think it's possible that 25 years from now, historians will conclude that the Iraq war helped accelerate the modernizing of the Middle East, even if it doesn't fully democratize it.

But if that happens, Bush might not get as much credit as he hopes, and not just because most historians, as Richard Nixon liked to say, are liberals. Bush may look bad because his leadership on Iraq has been a fiasco. He didn't plan for it: the early decisions that allowed the insurgency to get going were breathtakingly incompetent. He didn't pay for it: Bush is the first president in history to cut taxes during a war, this one now costing nearly $1 billion a week. And most important of all, he didn't tell the American people the truth about it: taking a nation to war is the most solemn duty of a president, and he'd better make certain there's no alternative and no doubt about the evidence.

(snip)
We got in because we "cooked" the intelligence, then hyped it. That's why the "Downing Street Memo" is not a smoking gun but a big "duh." For two years we've known that senior White House officials were determined to, in the words of the British intelligence memo, "fix" the intelligence to suit their policy decisions. When someone crossed them, they would "fix" him, too, as career ambassador Joseph Wilson found when he came back from Africa with a report that threw cold water on the story that Saddam Hussein sought yellowcake uranium from Niger.

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8598301/site/newsweek/

Great article. In NEWSWEEK, not on some flipping obscure left wing website. NEWSWEEK. Amen, Allelujah!

[gkhouston]

6. No, I hadn't seen it yet. I've been living in a salt mine.

Wow. :applause:

Can't wait to see Countdown. Keith's always loaded for snark after a vacation, but you know he's going to be in overdrive tonight with all the juicy stuff that's happened while he's been away.

[Berry Cool]

7. I read Alter, and I also read Alterman (different guy, many similar ideas)

I guess I had to do something to feed my head with no Keith around! He didn't even blog after the initial Rove blog...

I can't WAIT for Keith tonight!!!!

Good Lord, what will the bliv come up with next as a condition for firing someone? Before he fires someone, they'll not only have to be convicted of a crime, but also spin around holding onto one foot while eating 12 hot dogs and whistling "Dixie" at the same time????

[RevCheesehead]

8. I heard a reporter comment (somewhere)

that just as in Watergate, the crime may not be the criminal act itself, but rather, the cover-up of the crime that ends up indicting them all and sending people to prison.

Whatever works is fine with me. :)