Remember the discussion of the significance of a number of "present" votes in Barack Obama's Illinois State Senate voting record? The Clinton campaign, including Sen. Clinton herself during one of the debates, pointed to these as evidence that Sen. Obama was somehow afraid to take a tough stand or tried to duck issues. Well, a pretty impressive source has now spoken up with his take on the meaning of those much-discussed "present" votes, and I don't think the Clinton campaign can be too happy at what he has to say -- although they'll find it pretty difficult to impeach his credibility.
Abner Mikva was President Clinton's White House Counsel. And today he has an op-ed piece in the New York Times. Here's the link: Mikva's NYT op-ed
First, let me just say that many of Maine's caucuses have not yet started or are still underway, so any of you planning on going or working or helping out in any way: do it! Every vote counts.
But, having said that, here's what happened in the caucus in Gardiner, Maine today.
Gardiner is a small city, which means that it is kind of a medium-sized municipality by Maine standards. (We only have three "cities" of any real size: Portland, Bangor, and Lewiston/Auburn). Gardiner is relatively blue-collar with some state workers because it is near the state capitol of Augusta. Somewhat "Clinton country" ordinarily, I would think. High school football is the biggest thing in town. Different Maine towns are holding their caucuses at different times this afternoon. We started our caucus at 1:00 p.m., which was among the earliest that any towns voted. And here's what happened...
CNN is reporting that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has dropped his appeal of his federal convictions of perjury, false statement and obstruction of justice. Libby was convicted of the multiple felonies in the course of leaking to the press the name and CIA identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, an undercover CIA agent working to stop the proliferation of "weapons of mass destruction," and the husband of administration critic and former Ambassador Joseph Wilson.
Keep your fingers crossed. Believe it or not, the situation in Iraq might actually be about to get even worse. The country has been teetering on the brink of open, full-scale civil war for some time now -- as many characterized it, staring into the abyss of all-out sectarian slaughter. And today the nation was shoved a step closer.
Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit struck down several provisions of the gun control laws of the District of Columbia on the grounds that these laws violate the Second Amendment. This sets up a probable appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, and quite possibly a politically significant fight in about a year before the Supreme Court about the meaning of the Second Amendment's right to keep and bear arms -- right in the midst of a presidential campaign.
At some point over the last few days you've probably heard the administration talking points on Scooter Libby being spouted by some conservative pundit or talking head: no one was prosecuted for the leak itself, so we should all just ignore it. The next time you hear some administration apologist whining that this prosecution was somehow unjust, unimportant or unwarranted because there was no prosecution on the underlying leak --
(1) ask them if they acknowledge then that the impeachment of Clinton was really unjust, unimportant and unwarranted, and (2) remind them what Patrick Fitzgerald, the prosecutor, said when he announced Libby's indictment:
7 bombs rocked commuter trains and train stations in Mumbai, India between 6:00 and 6:30 p.m. local time. Latest casualty figures from MSNBC reporter in Mumbai was 100 dead and 300 injured. Apparently initial reports (which are often, of course, incorrect) attribute responsibility to Lashkar-i-Taibbi (not sure of the spelling), a Pakistani-based Islamic group devoted to Pakistani control over the disputed Kashmir region that has conducted train bombings in India before. An expert also speculated that it may be linked to financing by a wealthy Indian Muslim drug dealer with suspected ties to Al Qaeda, currently believed to be based in Dubai.
According to CNN, a man who was until recently a U.S. soldier has been charged in the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and the murder of three members of her family last March in Mahmoudiyah, Iraq. Steven Green, 21, was arrested recently and charged in federal court in Charlotte, N.C., and the case is expected to be tried in Kentucky, near the Fort Campbell base of the 101st Airborne Division. Green, who was recently discharged from the Army, served with the 502nd Infantry Regiment in Iraq. CNN has also reported that four other members of the regiment have had their weapons taken away and have been confined to their base near Mahmoudiyah in connection with the investigation. They are from the same platoon as two soldiers who were recently captured, tortured and killed by insurgents. Apparently one member of the platoon disclosed his knowledge of the March rape and murders during counseling after the killings of his comrades.
Today the Senate will debate a resolution, proposed by Democrats, urging the President to set a timetable and begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of this year. The Republicans, led by Majority Leader Bill Frist, will oppose the resolution and charge that Democrats are choosing to "cut and run" from Iraq. I called both of my Senators this morning, Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, to urge them to vote in favor of the resolution, and I suggest that you call yours and urge them to do the same.
Today Republican Senator Arlen Specter, Chair of the Judiciary Committee, called on the President to step forward publicly and explain his actions and his role in the CIA leak case: what they said and did that led Scooter Libby to leak selected portions from a highly-classified National Intelligence Estimate, and the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson (an undercover CIA operative on WMD), to a few reporters starting with Judy Miller of the New York Times.
Like O.J. still hunting for his ex-wife's real killers, our President has been searching in vain for the real leaker within his administration for two and a half years since he launched his investigation into who leaked classified information to reporters in connection with the outing of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson.
A full week after the story of Dick Cheney accidentally shooting a fellow hunter broke, there are still some important, fundamental aspects of the story that remain unanswered -- which I find remarkable. The Vice President of the United States (VPOTUS) is hardly an unimportant figure. He's the Number Two, a heartbeat away, and all that. He regularly disappears to "secure, undisclosed locations" (which, as it turns out, are often hunting sites). Last week he shot a man severely enough to put a piece of birdshot through his chest and to his heart and put him into the hospital for six days. Yet Cheney has only answered a few very general questions (and that only reluctantly after days of silence), and the others involved have said almost nothing about it. Why haven't we learned more about this serious incident?
