The MountainGoat Report

Turd Blossom Resigns

Hey, you've got to be really good friends for "Turd Blossom" to be a term of endearment, but that's what George W. Bush and Karl Rove are, making this news especially interesting.  Presidential adviser Karl Rove plans to resign at the end of August. 

From an AP article in the Idaho Press-Tribune:

[Karl Rove] disclosed his departure in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.  He said he decided to leave after White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten told senior aides that if they stayed past Labor Day they would be obliged to remain through the end of the president's term in January 2009.

"I just think it's time," Rove said in an interview at this home on Saturday. He first floated the idea of leaving to Bush a year ago, the newspaper said, and friends confirmed he'd been talking about it even earlier. However, he said he didn't want to depart right after the Democrats regained control of Congress and then got drawn into policy battles over the Iraq war and immigration.

Speculation would be that Rove's resignation is somehow connected to the recent battle over the firings of U.S. attorneys and his ignoring subpoenas to testify before Congress on the matter.  That on the heels of the criminal investigation in the outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame, for which he ultimately was never indicted, weakening Rove's effectiveness during this time.  He is expected to write a book, although it's unlikely to be a tell-all, so the speculation will likely remain just that.

Rove has been Bush's political adviser since running for the Texas governorship in '94 and was credited with being "the architect" of Bush's second term presidential victory. 

Things haven't been so sunny in the White House though, since the Democrats took control of Congress in November despite Rove's prediction of a Republican victory.  Perhaps the bloom is off the blossom.

Scooter Skates

MSNBC is reporting that Scooter Libby, former Chief of Staff for V.Pres. Dick Cheney, will serve no jail time.

WASHINGTON - President Bush commuted the sentence of former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby on Monday, sparing him from a 2½-year prison term that Bush said was excessive.

Bush’s move came hours after a federal appeals panel ruled Libby could not delay his prison term in the CIA leak case. That meant Libby was likely to have to report to prison soon and put new pressure on the president, who had been sidestepping calls by Libby’s allies to pardon the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.

I'm having a hard time writing a coherent post; this is disgusting news.

Gladys and the President

Few things in life are more optimistic than a ninety-seven year old woman planting a tree.  I met Gladys (not her real name since I didn't get permission to publish her story) in my work several years ago.  She lives alone on a homestead in rural Idaho, not far from where she was born and raised, with a half-acre garden—part flower, part fruit and veggie—which she tends by herself and which every year produces more than enough to share with family and neighbors. 

Gladys lives alone but she's far from lonely; there is too much work to be done.  In her spare time she bowls on a league, plays cards with the girls and is a regular at the senior center.  Although she still drives, I'm told the girls have eliminated her from the rotation in the church carpool but she just shrugs that off.

A Sign?

You'll never guess what our neighbors to the south are up to.  A Utah blogger snapped some interesting photos along Wasatch Blvd last night which may surprise you.  You may be even more surprised at the reaction from passing motorists.  Check it out here.   

Return To Sender

Wondering what President Bush was doing while we were all caught up in the spirit of the holiday season?  New York Daily News has learned that in a Dec. 20 signing statement, Bush has claimed authority to open domestic mail without a warrant.  This was news to Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine who was co-author of the postal reform bill being signed by the President.

"It is my hope that the administration will clarify its intent with this recent statement," said Collins, a GOP moderate.

Also surprised were Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton of New York,

[Sen. Schumer] called it a "last-minute, irregular and unauthorized reinterpretation of a duly passed law."

[Sen. Clinton] said Bush's latest power grab shows he's "willing to circumvent those legal protections intended to safeguard both our citizens' privacy and our national security."

Of course White House spokesman, Tony Snow, says there is nothing unusual here.  Yeah Tony, nothing unusual about Bush using signing statements to claim authority to circumvent the law [at least 750 times] and nothing unusual about the President attempting a power grab.   Let's see...NSA spying including phone and internet, detainee torture and tribunal, rendition, preemptive war based on misuse of intelligence...hmmm...maybe we should stop there.

No evidence that Bush will stop until he's out of office.  Now word is that Dubya's new, new Iraq plan is a troop surge and something about sacrifice? which he'll announce sometime...soon...or whenever he feels like it's politically expedient.

Where is that "return to sender" stamp?