Bush's Plea for Attention

Swift Kick

The Associated Press reported on Sunday: "The Navy lawyer who led a successful Supreme Court challenge of the Bush administration's military tribunals for Guantanamo detainees has been passed over for promotion and will have to leave the military.

"Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, 44, will retire in March or April under the military's 'up or out' promotion system."

From a New York Times editorial this morning: "With his defense of Mr. Hamdan and his testimony before Congress starting in July 2003, Commander Swift did as much as any single individual to expose the awful wrongs of Guantánamo Bay and Mr. Bush's lawless military commissions. It was a valuable public service and a brave act of conscience, and his treatment is deeply troubling. . . .

"The law creating military tribunals for terror suspects, passed by Congress in a pre-election panic, leaves enormous room for the continued abuse of prisoners and for the continued detention of scores of men who committed no crime. If their military lawyers are afraid to represent them vigorously, their hopes for justice dim even further."

Olbermann Watch

MSNBC's Keith Olberman on the military commissions bill and the death of Habeas Corpus:

"[T]he president said it was urgent that Congress send him this bill as quickly as possible, not for the politics of next month's elections, but for America. . . .

"He has not signed it yet, almost two weeks later because, of course, he has been swamped by a series of campaign swings at which he has made up quotes from unnamed Democratic leaders and because when he is actually at work he's been signing so many other important bills, such as the Credit Rating Agency Reform Act, the Third Higher Education Extension Act, ratification requests for extradition treaties with Malta, Estonia, and Latvia; his proclamation of German-American Day, the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Act; and his proclamation of Leif Erickson Day.

"Still, getting the Military Commission's Act to the president so he could immediately mull it over for two weeks was so important, some members of Congress did not even read the bill before voting on it. Thus, as some of its minutia escaped scrutiny.

"One bit of trivia that caught our eye was the elimination of habeas corpus, which apparently use to be the right of anyone who's tossed in prison to appear in court and say 'Hey, why am in prison?'"

And just why hasn't Bush signed the bill yet? Is he waiting for the best moment, politically? Or maybe it's taking Vice President Cheney's staff this long to compose the appropriate signing statement.

Rove Watch

Alexander Bolton writes in The Hill: "White House politico Karl Rove, whose legacy as a strategist hinges on Republicans' fate at the polls on Nov. 7, has raised more than $12 million for GOP candidates this election cycle.

"The total is remarkable for a White House staffer, more than any aide has been known to raise before, and confirms Rove's place among the most celebrated strategists in American political history."

But Bolton writes that some political experts don't think Rove's prospects are rosy.

"'Rove has lost the golden touch: he didn't deliver on Social Security reform and the president's party has an uphill battle in this midterm. He's going to be lucky if this doesn't become a debacle for this party,' said Darrell West, a political science professor at Brown University who said Rove's legacy is at stake. 'If they lose control of one or both chambers, nobody is going to think Rove is such a genius.'"

Joshua Green , writing in New York Magazine, also sees signs of Rove's downfall: "Today he is confronting the very real possibility that for all his endeavors, he could wind up as the architect of a crushing defeat.

"The story of what went wrong for the Republicans is largely the story of what went wrong for Rove--it is Washington's Icarus tale, repeated again and again throughout the decades, of brilliance gradually succumbing to hubris. It first took shape in Rove in the early days of the second term, when he claimed a victory trophy of sorts: an official title that recognized him as not just the White House political guru but the policy chief as well.

"As the philosopher-boss of Bush's second term, Rove put policy at the service of politics to a degree that has hastened his own downfall and the president's."

Helen Thomas Watch

Ann McFeatters profiles Helen Thomas in Ms. Magazine: "'I respect the office of the presidency,' [Thomas] says, 'but I never worship at the shrines of our public servants. They owe us the truth. They owe us peace. America should never be a country that starts wars; Iraq has reminded Americans of that. We do not have the right to attack anyone we think is a potential enemy.

"'The Washington press corps has the privilege of asking the president of the United States what he is doing and why,' she continues. 'We don't go into journalism to be popular. It is our job to seek the truth and put constant pressure on our leaders until we get answers. We threw in the towel after 9/11. But I think--I hope--we're more skeptical now. The press is coming out of its coma.'"

Poll Story, Revisited

Reader Paul Popejoy e-mailed me about yesterday's column : "I noticed that the article you mentioned by David Broder and Dan Balz said, 'President Bush's approval rating, which rose to 42 percent in September after an anti-terrorism offensive marking the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, registered 39 percent in the latest poll.'

"What anti-terrorism offensive?

"Did they mean, 'public relations offensive'? The difference between 'anti-terrorism' and 'public relations' to me is that the former goes after terrorists while leaving Americans alone, while the latter goes after Americans while leaving terrorists alone. By my definition, it was 'public relations' not 'anti-terrorism.'"

British Humor

Monty Python member Terry Jones writes in The Guardian:

"Dear President Bush,

"I write to you in my capacity as secretary of the World League of Despots.

"It is with great pleasure that I am finally able to extend an official invitation to you to join our ranks. . . .

"[Y]our unstinting efforts to make torture an internationally accepted aspect of human life have surpassed everything we could have ever hoped for. I don't think there is a single member of the league who could have imagined, six short years ago, that our activities in tormenting our fellow creatures would once again be recognised as acceptable, civilised behaviour, as it once was in the middle ages.

"Despite these achievements, we had, until now, felt unable to extend our invitation to you because you had been unable to fulfil one of our basic requirements: the ability to carry out arbitrary arrests, imprisonment without trial, secret torture and executions at will."