what happened to the WH counteroffensive?

[nixonwasbetterthanW]

At msnbc.com, it was reported early yesterday that "WH officials" (Rove & Co.) were promising exciting new information that would take the wind out of the sails of Bush foes by early today. What exactly is new, that they're calling Democrats hypocrites and traitors? THAT'S the plan?!

I don't see WH respinning this gyroscope to its advantage before the Sunday morning talk shows. Loyal opposition has Big Mo thru the weekend.

[diplomats]

Maybe Tony Blair's speech???

eom

[ShaneGR]

12. ANSWER: We pre-emptively and unillaterally destroyed them

If Tony Blair is all they've got then they're dead in the water. Their counter-offensive is dead and we are launching our counter-counter offensive, with help from the repugs themselves:

Another soldier died today. :-(

Capitol Hill Police called by Repugs in perhaps most fascist move on behalf of a majority party in the House since, well, ever.

British Scientist turns up dead. He just happened to be the whistleblower, what a surprise.

[dragonquest8]

tons of WMDs and a prototype of thermonuclear type weapon

have been found......somewhere on earth....

[MidwestTransplant]

I think it was that the CIA didn't see the docs. till after the SOTU

Didn't fool anybody because the CIA had already discredited it w/out seeing the docs as they had kept the Niger Uranium phrase out of earlier speeches.

[diplomats]

Maybe Tony Blair's speech???

eom

[papau]

1. The W/H Offensive is to control the Media - Sunday Talk is "Dems

trying to use for Presidential Campaign .......fill in the blank

There will be little or nothing on Grapham and whether he has a strong point about impeachment (the ABCNote has multiple times said to the media that real Dem leaders want Impeachment talk killed).

And the context will not be on Bush - but spread on a dozen other names.

Likewise the Sunday papers will report the improvements in water and power and the planned improvements in the future - and the new hire the former military into a private contractor that we then hire to provide police in Iraq - that way we did not put Saddam's friend's back on the street with authority and guns.

And military folks comments will be in the area of how hard it is to be in the military and how much we owe those folks (which I agree with) but with nothing about how they feel they are being treated poorly and did not hire on to be unpaid guards for Brown and Root and Halliburton.

Oh, the Rove Counteroffensive is occuring as we speak - only it is under the radar - and the media will lead the change the subject from Bush lies charge!

:-(

[fertilizeonarbusto]

as long as people keep dying

they can spin all they want, it won't work. Not even Rove is that good. Speaking of death, Dr. Kelly's death will keep this alive for quite a bit now. The British press is not the lapdogs we have here.

[nixonwasbetterthanW]

4. you may be right, but ...

i think they've overplayed their hand, at least the last day or so, in media manipulation. first, outing the gay/Canadian journalist who found dissent among the troops, then trying to tie kerry, levin, etc. to their '98 statements on saddam.

even a supine media eventually pushes back and stands up.

[Bandit]

"real Dem leaders want Impeachment talk killed"

Real Dem Leaders. Names, I want names of Real Dem leaders. Corporate whores want to kill anything negative about boy king not Real Democrats. Real Democrats represent the people not the corporations.

[htuttle]

Well, David Kelly turned up dead...

I'm just saying...:shrug:

[htuttle]

Well, David Kelly turned up dead...

I'm just saying...:shrug:

[LuminousX]

You are right

If they wanted to take this off the table, they would have needed to crank up terror alerts an Thursday, found a sack of moldy bread in Iraq (possible biological weapons stash found), and released reports that Gary Condit once watched the movie Jagged Edge which is about a man who commits murder and gets away with it, all the while the Jaws theme plays in the background.

[htuttle]

Well, David Kelly turned up dead...

I'm just saying...:shrug:

[BurtWorm]

2. They went after the Canadian ABC reporter

and had Blair speak to Congress.

They didn't count on David Kelly's death, probably, overshadowing all their hard work.

[htuttle]

3. Well, David Kelly turned up dead...

I'm just saying...:shrug:

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. From yesterday's appearances, two things:

1. Dems playing politics
2. 16 little words

[cspiguy]

6. they always do this just after markets close arpimd 5ish

to make sure the analysts do not have time to deconstruct it too quickly before the evening news that carries til sunday.

[ObaMania]

7. Just like every time..

.. the shitbag drunk's cartel is busted, they drag it out over weeks, send out their pundits with their talking points memo (16 words) and let the DEMs put themselves in a bad light the more they talk about it.

Also during that time, FAUX and CNN run stories like the CA outdoor market thing and the Clinton's diet into the ground like there's really no "there there" in the SOTU controversy.

At a certain point over the several weeks the 'Pubs shift gears and start saying " America is tired of hearing about this". Then Americans say to themselves, "I'm tired of hearing about this" and the issue is dead.

It's sad.. very sad.

[Lexingtonian]

8. you're seeing it: Operation Nixonian Shock And Awe

Record levels of lying, bullshit, bluster, bravado, irrelevant documents, dirty backroom massacres, triumphant pronouncements. The hope is to totally confuse the Washington news reporting monkeys, getting them to go over to faith-based reporting of all the stuff that's overwhelming them.

The guess in the White House seems to be that there's still an untapped reservoir of good will and benefit of the doubt out there. I don't know whether that is a good gamble or not, but I'm quite happy that they're franticly shoveling all the reserves of political capital that they have onto the bonfire. Burn, baby, burn.

Maybe they will succeed in quelling this outbreak. But chances are the mainstream media will admit it's the abused spouse in their relationship with the WH now.

[lisafromstlouie]

9. Game over.

Bush will resign very soon.

[West Coast Democrat]

10. I Believe it was this PR Release................

Is this the best they can come up with?

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=1&u=/ap/20030718/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_uranium_15

U.S. Releases Part of Spy Report on Iraq
By JOHN J. LUMPKIN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - An intelligence assessment last October cites "compelling evidence" that Saddam Hussein was attempting to reconstitute a nuclear-weapons program, according to documents released Friday by the White House. Mounting a campaign to counter criticism that it used flawed intelligence to justify war with Iraq, the White House made public excerpts of the intelligence community's October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate. That report helped shaped now-challenged comments by President Bush in his State of the Union address that Iraq was attempting to buy uranium in Africa.


The report asserts that Baghdad "if left unchecked...probably will have a nuclear weapon during this decade." It also cites unsubstantiated reports that Iraq was trying to buy uranium from three African countries: Niger, Somalia and "possibly" Congo.


The White House sought to bolster its case as U.S. officials said that documents alleging Iraq sought uranium from Africa were obtained months before Bush cited them in making his case for war. But intelligence analysts did not look at them closely enough to know they were forgeries until after Bush had made the claim, U.S. officials say.



more....

[sandnsea]

11. Yes, that all intelligence agencies agreed

that Iraq continued to seek nuclear weapons... and might get them in a decade if nobody paid any attention. geesh. And the intelligence to back that up is still pretty sketchy.

My question continues to be, isn't the President supposed to know what a rogue nation is doing? If Iraq was truly trying to get Uranium from Africa, isn't that something the President would be told? If this info suddenly popped up in his SOTUA, wouldn't a thinking President ask what that was all about? He's accountable and needs to stop blaming everybody else for this rogue nation nuclear intelligence.

[Robbien]

13. This was the imminent threat?

This was what they told us to buy duct tape for? In ten years the duct tape will have turned into a gummy mess. Laughable!