July 5, 2007 – Capitol Hill Blue

Lieberman may back Republican

July 5, 2007

U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an independent who supports Democrats in Congress despite his backing of the Iraq war, said on Thursday he was not ruling out endorsing a Republican in the White House race.

The 2000 Democratic vice presidential candidate said he also wants to see if an independent enters the crowded field of 2008 presidential hopefuls.

“I’m going to chose whichever candidate that I think will do the best job for our country, regardless of the party affiliation of that candidate,” the Connecticut senator told reporters in the state capital Hartford.

3,591 American soldiers dead in Iraq

July 5, 2007

As of Thursday, July 5, 2007, at least 3,591 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,951 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military’s numbers.

The AP count is four higher than the Defense Department’s tally, last updated Thursday at 10 a.m. EDT.

Another GOP Senator breaks with Bush

July 5, 2007

Another veteran Republican senator Thursday broke with President George W. Bush over Iraq, days before a new war powers tussle was due to start in Congress.

New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici, a senator for more than three decades, up for reelection in 2008, was the third Republican elder statesman to publicly turn against the president’s troop ‘surge’ policy within 10 days.

“I am unwilling to continue our current strategy,” Domenici said at a news conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, blaming the Iraqi government for not making sufficient progress to merit the sacrifices of US troops.

Edward R. Murrow would be ashamed

July 5, 2007

At least once a day some reader passes on a link to a Keith Olbermann commentary about George W. Bush.

Olbermann hosts Countdown on MSNBC, a fast-paced hour that is part news, part tabloid, part Entertainment Tonight and a lot of his outsized ego.

Waving the political red, white & blue

July 5, 2007

Presidential politics spiced up Independence Day celebrations across Iowa on Wednesday, as Bill and Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney competed for attention in the same parade and four other 2008 candidates blanketed the state.

Crowds jammed front lawns, porches and sidewalks in Clear Lake for a chance to see Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton and her husband, the former president, as well as Republican Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts.

Bush pleads for patience for failed war

July 5, 2007

President George W. Bush, trying to tap into Independence Day patriotism to rally support for an unpopular war, appealed on Wednesday for American patience and resolve in Iraq.

In a Fourth of July holiday speech at a West Virginia Air National Guard base, Bush said “we all long for the day” when there are fewer U.S. troops in Iraq but insisted that more time is needed for his Iraq strategy to work.

For GOP, payback will be a bitch

July 5, 2007

Long after President George W. Bush has retired to his Texas ranch, his fellow Republicans may have to deal with Hispanic voter backlash over his failed immigration reform.

In 2008, in presidential and congressional elections, Latino voters, an increasingly important demographic in US politics, will get their first chance to hand out blame for the collapse of the sweeping immigration bill last week.

Lots of flash, little substance

July 5, 2007

Fred Thompson’s easygoing, no-nonsense style is clearly his strength and undoubtedly has helped him soar in presidential polls. It may only get him so far. Sooner or later, the all-but-declared candidate will have to answer the question: What else do you offer?

“Smooth is good, but sometimes nitty gritty is essential,” says Tucker Eskew, a Republican strategist unaligned in the race. “He’ll be tested (but) he has a little time.”

Love & marriage? No kidding around

July 5, 2007

First comes love, then comes marriage — but these two things are no longer inextricably linked to nor necessarily followed by “the baby carriage.”

A new poll by the Pew Research Center finds that Americans are de-linking children as the sine qua non of successful marriages. In fact, they now tell pollsters they rate “having children” as the ninth most important out of 10 markers of successful marriages.

Land of the unfree

July 5, 2007

America is about slavery. It was this grotesque, anti-human institution that shaped our Constitution, and it was slavery that formed some of our most basic attitudes about government, producing destructive political behavior to this very day.

You can believe that story if you choose this Fourth of July week, or you can believe something else: that the historians who give vent to it are bunkum artists whose sensational revisionism achieves the double objective of getting them noticed and of debasing this remarkable land in which we live.