Fantasy Politics USA

John Edwards has purchased two minutes of ad time on MSNBC tonight to rebut President Bush’s speech on Iraq. Bush will speak tonight at 9 p.m. to ask for more time in Iraq to let the surge work. Edwards has timed the ad to show between Bush’s speech and the Democratic response. “Unfortunately, the president is pressing on with the only strategy he’s ever had, more time, more troops, and more war,” Edwards says in the ad, according to excerpts provided to the media by his campaign. Edwards argues that Bush was wrong to ask for more troops, and wants a “firm timeline for withdrawal.” “In May, he vetoed a plan to end the war, demanded more time to show the surge could work, and Congress gave it to him,” Edwards says. “Now, after General Petraeus reports the surge has produced no progress toward a political solution, what does the president want? More time for the surge to work, when all of us know it won’t.” Then Edwards drops in a little shot towards some of his political rivals by saying, “But Congress must answer to the American people. Tell Congress you know the truth, they have the power to end this war and you expect them to use it. When the president asks for more money and more time, Congress needs to tell him he only gets one choice: a firm timeline for withdrawal.”
Alan Cosgrove

During a radio interview today on the Randy and Spiff Radio Show, Rudy Giuliani called the MoveOn.org newspaper ad “one of the more disgusting things that has happened in American politics.” Giuliani then said “it’s unfortunate” more Democratic candidates haven’t spoken out against MoveOn.org. “I think the failure of the Democratic candidates to really condemn that, given how much money Moveon.org spends on behalf of Democratic candidates, which is millions if not hundreds of millions, is really, I really think it’s very, very unfortunate,” he said. He also saved some extra criticism for Hillary Clinton because of her remarks at the Petraeus’ testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “I really do think to accuse a general of the ‘willing suspension of disbelief,’ particularly in the atmosphere that Moveon.org has created with these terrible attacks, I think that’s not the way in a responsible way to go about forging the foreign policy of the United States and the military policy of the United States, Giuliani said. Giuliani added, “What we need right now is a reasoned account, we need statesmanship not political venom.” I think one of the most disgusting things that has happened in American politics is the way Giuliani is using 9/11 as the reason to vote for him. The MoveOn.org ad has caused quite a commotion, which is what they wanted. If you go to the website, they back up all the claims. The surge is not working according to all other reports, but President Bush and General Petraeus are pointing the other way. Do all those that condemn this ad suggest we back up and let them continue down the wrong road? Since when is dissent un-American?
Support our troops, bring them home.
Alan Cosgrove

An anti-Fred Thompson website was up for a while, but when connections to Mitt Romney were found the website went down. The website was called PhoneyFred.org. The website called Thompson a number of things including, “Fancy Fred, Five O’Clock Fred, Flip-Flop Fred, McCain Fred, Moron Fred, Playboy Fred, Pro-Choice Fred, Son-of-a-Fred and Trial Lawyer Fred.” According to the site, “You’re probably in the same boat, you can’t get the theme to Law and Order out of your head, but can you name one thing that Fred did during his eight years in the United States Senate?” At one point the website asks, “Once a Pro-Choice Skirt Chaser, Now Standard Bearer of the Religious Right?” They all seem like legitimate questions to me. Through research it was discovered that the site was hosted by Bluehost.com. On the same server as this Anti-Fred site is TTS Strategies which is a political consulting firm where Warren Tompkins is a partner. Tompkins works for Romney as a political consultant in the state of South Carolina. According to Romney’s campaign as soon as this was discovered they did what they could to shut down the site. “Once we received inquiries about the site, we discovered it was created by an individual who works at an Internet firm who parked the site temporarily on the company server space of a firm whose financial partner is a consultant to the campaign, Mr. Tompkins,” according to Romney’s campaign. “Mr. Tompkins did not know about the development of the site.” Tompkins didn’t know because it was his mischievous partner Wesley Donehue that created the site. So freedom of speech is squashed to keep the integrity of Romney from being blemished.
Alan Cosgrove

Fred Thompson has been working on his position on Osama bin Laden the last few days. In Iowa on Friday Thompson told reporters that bin Laden was, “more symbolism than anything else.” Thompson then added that bin Laden’s presence in the “mountains of Pakistan or Afghanistan is not as important as there are probably al-Qaida operatives inside the United States of America.” Of course this comment drew criticism from opposing candidates, so later in the day Thompson clarified and said that bin Laden, “ought to be caught and killed.” Today Thompson had to clarify that and said he didn’t mean kill bin Laden immediately. “No, no, no, we’ve got due process to go through. I’m not suggesting those things happen simultaneously,” Thompson said. Besides there is the possibility bin Laden might provide valuable intelligence. A spokesman for the campaign had to explain what Thompson was saying. The spokesman said, “the same rules ought to apply to him as to everyone at Guantanamo Bay, and there ought to be due process thru a special military court or commission.” “For anyone to suggest that we shouldn’t squeeze out every last bit of intelligence information has absolutely no understanding how to fight a long term global war on terrorism,” spokesman Todd Harris said. “It would be very dangerous for the long-term security of our country to not try to milk bin Laden for every ounce of information he has.” So it really isn’t about due process, but about what kind of information we can “squeeze” and “milk” out of bin Laden. Sounds painful, but I bet it is not torture. Thompson also explained that bin Laden can be replaced. “But we also need to understand that there will be people who can replace him. You know, that top dog in Iraq that we killed a while back, you know, that was a great big deal, too. But how much changed after that?” Thompson said.
Thompson also took some time out to talk about same sex marriages while in South Carolina. He blamed the whole mess on judges saying there are laws against same sex marriage but judges allow it to happen because judges, “more often than not are the main violators of the rule of law.” Thompson said the “same sex marriage business” is a “judicially created thing and needs to be addressed by a constitutional amendment.” Did I hear Karl Rove? Then he explained immigration by saying absolutely nothing, “This is their home, this is our home. And together, we get to decide who comes into our home.”
Alan Cosgrove