Hardball Thread 7/28/03. "Should Condi Take the Fall?"

[FlashHarry]

In tonight's "Hardball Debate," later in the programme.

[Bombtrack]

1. won't happen

the GOP will do whatever it takes to see that Condi has a high profile future, whether elected office(senate, governor, Veep, president) or an important cabinet member(seceratary of state or defense)

[FlashHarry]

2. I dunno... these guys are pretty ruthless.

I could see Condi taking the fall. The only reason she might not, wouldn't have to do with their wanting her to have a political career, it would have to do with them never wanting to admit to making a mistake in hiring her in the first place.

[devinsgram]

5. Probably

sucide, they're good at that.

[BuckeFushe]

3. Condi is gone before the weekend is over.

Bet the farm. What better way to get her out then when NO ONE is in Washington to talk to.

[FlashHarry]

4. "Spend more time with her family?"

Republi-speak for "sleeps with the fishes."

[Emboldened Chimp]

8. What family?

I'm fairly sure she has no kids. Now, she might leave because she wants to START a family...

[Imajika]

14. I don't have a farm...

...but I'll bet ya 100 bucks she doesn't go anywhere.

Imajika

[Qutzupalotl]

6. It's going to look like

the rich white guys kicked her out. And it won't take the heat off Bush or Cheney. Casual observers can tell that the people in the administration stick together, plan together, and think alike. Dropping Condi will be seen as trying to throw the dogs off the scent.

They need her more than she needs them, IMO. A prominent black woman in Bush's cabinet will be an asset in 2004. Not having a definite fall guy (or girl) will be a liability.

[FlashHarry]

7. I swear, Tweety wanks to 'Soldier of Fortune.'

He looooves military talk.

[grasswire]

9. Harry?

You might want to delete your post number two. It's a little too explicit, I think. We don't want DU to come under criticism.

[FlashHarry]

15. Huh? You mean, post number 7, surely.

"wank?" Is that the offending word?

[grasswire]

19. no, I meant number two

.....with the bullet word. I know you meant it figuratively, but this is the kind of thing that Drudge likes to pick up.

[FlashHarry]

20. LOL

I wasn't thinking. You're right, though. I don't want to end up in Gitmo.

[FlashHarry]

10. Up next (6:30 p.m. CST). Also, Bush poll numbers. N/T

[Kolesar]

11. Condi is not up to the task--as NSA head or as BFEE politico

She has blown it for the Bush administration on a few occasions. She may have a mastery of post-Tsarist Russia, but when it comes to ruthless imperial governance, she sure comes up short. She does not have the touch--she slips and lets the truth out.

[FlashHarry]

12. David Shuster nailing her!

Usually, he's very noncommittal.

He's playing Condi's greatest hits: "Mushroom cloud," "Nobody thought they'd use airplanes," etc.

[David Zephyr]

28. Condi's Greatest Hits! I Love It! Pass It On!

Condi Rice's Greatest Hits.

Beautiful!

[Cush]

13. aired the 9/11 comments

WHo knew they'ed use airplanes?

Former NSC Women: Not just Condi, it's the whole the team. They came into office wanting to finish the war. 9/11 gave them the chance

Chris gives a Third Option: It was the VP and the neocons in the Pentagon who wanted this, they said we're going to war no matter want, so just make it look good (the evidence)

[whoYaCallinAlib]

16. Condi has become a huge liability for this admin.

I expect her to "resign to pursue other interests".

[FlashHarry]

17. Tweety: "We're Lawrence of Arabia, here!"

Saying, the war was for geopolitical reasons--that the neocons won. Totally outmaneuvered the Reagan guy. Pretty funny.

[rasputin1952]

18. Some time in the very near future...

Codi is out of there.

But the reality is, bush made the statements in the SOFU address. He HAD to know what was in that speech; anything else is ludicrous. He made the statement, and he should own up to it.

Mo WMD's, no 9-11 Iraq connection, oil fields only thing in Iraq that is secure, No Saddam, no Osama. He got his war, and now the war has him. Condi will take the fall, but bush is the one that should take the responsibility.

[grasswire]

21. I was surprised at David Schuster's ...

....hard tack. He's usually pretty mild.

They pretty much nailed her with her own words. She lied. She can't be trusted.

[Pepperbelly]

22. Condi is a diversion ... the buck stops with Georgie and no one else.

Condi offers scant cover for her boss. He is not, after all, Ted Baxter who just sits and reads what he's handed. Of course, that may be exactly what he is but that is not the role of the President. He said the words, he owns the words but even more important, the words are serving as little more than feel-good fodder for the celeb "journalists" as they happily chase this irrelevency and leave lay the big issue, Bush's inexorible trudge to war fueled by exageration, cherry-picked information, hype and half-truths.

That is what they need to be looking at. Who gives a shit about that sentence? I am looking at the true crime in this ... use of twisted information to whip up enough public support to rob Iraq of the oilfields while simultaneously managing to keep a 200K standing army in the dead fucking center of the Gulf and the mideast.

[FlashHarry]

23. Absof#ckinglutely. N/T

[FlashHarry]

24. Alternately praising and slamming Dean.

Why do they keep saying Dean is too liberal? He's a moderate, fer Chrissakes. He's farther to the right than Kerry, that's for sure.

[CWebster]

25. Shut your trap, Tweety, your babbling piehole spews endless whining

"Dean is too Left"...His moderate record is there for all to see, yet they perpetrate this misconception non-stop.

[diplomats]

26. I think it's his opposition to the war

that accounts for that. No talking head has actually bothered to look at his record. Unfortunately, once you get tagged as a liberal, it's hard to shed that label. Perception counts for a lot in politics, I'm afraid.

[CWebster]

27. Hell, Tweety was against the war

Being against this war is turning out to have been the wisest decision.

[I Lean Left]

29. Can't have it both ways

Either you represent the Democrat wing of the Democrat Party or you are Republican Lite.