The Friday Political Grab Bag

If it's Friday, it's time to take a look at what's been floating around the political world this week and that might have slipped under your radar or just flat-out been too stupid to notice…

Bush: Of course, I lied about Rumsfeld last week!

Saying last week that both Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "…are doing fantastic jobs and I strongly support them,” George W. Bush brushed aside any notion of getting rid of Rumsfeld and told members of the press that both men would be in his administration until the end of his presidency.

Of course, Rumsfeld was given the boot this week and, when asked about it at his press conference on Wednesday, Bush essentially admitted that he lied so reporters would drop the subject. Said Bush when asked about the contradiction: “The only way to answer that question, and get it on to another question, was to give you [the reporters] that answer.” Here's the clip:



Well, at least he's honest about not being honest.

* * * * *Hypocrites r' Us: The Republican Superstore -- Is it just me or is it both ridiculous and hypocritical that George Felix Allen, before conceding to Jim Webb in the Virginia Senate race yesterday, seemed so incredibly concerned about every vote cast by Virginians being counted? After all, this is the same guy whose campaign set the slime-standard for voter-suppression attempts in the days before Tuesday's election, including Democratic voters being called and told their registration was illegal and they would be arrested if they showed up at the polls.

Amazing.

* * * * *So are we liberals or conservatives? It's a bizarre thing to have watched Republicans spending the last three months trying to scare voters with how liberal our Congressional candidates are and, now that most of those same candidates torched them on Tuesday, the GOP is saying Democrats won because they appealed to conservative constituents.

Huh? Of course, it could just be that on the majority of issues, more Americans think like Democrats.

* * * * *

Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake had one of the best leads in her post after the election results were becoming obvious: "The most powerful woman in US history. Two words guaranteed to reduce any wingnut to a puddle of piss -- Speaker Pelosi."

* * * * *Bush at Wednesday's press conference, while mouthing words about bipartisan cooperation:

"To our enemies: Do not be joyful" and "to those in Iraq, do not be fearful."

Uh, are you saying the terrorists would be filled with glee because Democrats won, Mr. Bush?

* * * * *Bush sure seemed cozy and respectful with new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday… I couldn't help but wonder if, face-to-face, he would tell her how victory by the Democrats means the terrorists win.

At an Arkansas rally on November 6, Bush referred to Pelosi as "the lady who thinks she's going to be the speaker -- but she's not -- (applause)."

Ouch.

While it may not have been appropriate in their first meeting, I'm sure Bush would have babbled like a fool if Pelosi called him on the lie he told every day the last two weeks about the Democrats having no plan for Iraq. Just a few days ago he said this:

"You can't win a war unless you're willing to fight the war. (Applause.) They've taken a calculated gamble. They believe the only way they can win this election is to criticize and not offer a plan. You know there's 24 hours left; they still have an opportunity to step up and tell the American people what they intend to do to prevail in this war against these terrorists."

So he's either so dumb and out of touch, that he doesn’t know about the Democratic plan or he was lying every day. Boy, there's a toss-up.

* * * * *Here's White House Press Secretary Tony Snow when asked how Bush can now honestly say he wants to work in a bipartisan way after weeks and months of saying Democrats really don't want to defeat the terrorists and that "the party of FDR and Harry Truman has become the party of cut and run."

"The President also made it clear that we do have opportunities now to work with Democrats on a lot of these issues," said Snow yesterday.

Now? Didn’t you guys have the opportunity to work with Democrats every day for the last six years? Oh, I get it: Now you have to.

* * * * *I'll end with Bush, who always likes to pepper his press conferences with goofy jokes and, I've got to admit, really connects with this rib-tickler about the tone in Washington:

"When I first came to Washington nearly six years ago, I was hopeful I could help change the tone here in the capital... While we made some progress on changing the tone, I'm disappointed we haven't made more. I'm confident that we can work together. I'm confident we can overcome the temptation to divide this country between red and blue."

He did mean it as a joke, didn’t he?

Have a Democratic-Majority weekend!