Post Fitzmas Funk

You know the feeling. The day after. The presents are open, and...while you pretty much got what you asked for, you'd hoped for more. Fitzmas never quite lives up to the pre-Fitzmas hype, now does it?

If you're wondering what the hell I'm talking about, I'm of course referring to Patrick Fitzgerald's Friday afternoon press conference, and the Libby indictments.
bad: Rove escaped indictment.
good: Multiple indictments came down.
bad: All indictments came after the crime for which no one was indicted.
good: The indictments go all the way to the Vice President's office.

Fitzgerald came across at the press conference as straighter than straight. I got the feeling that he was there to do the peoples' bidness, and if crimes were comitted, he was going to prosecute, regardless of the party or who was being investigated. That should give us solace that perhaps he'll find something for which Rove needs to be indicted, and will then do so.

Clearly Libby lied about having heard the Plame news from Tim Russert. Clearly that information originated in the Republican realm, and clearly Novak, Miller and Cooper were told in an attempt to shut up Joseph Wilson. While intent is harder to prove, has anyone suggested Libby told these folks to cause Wilson anything but pain? The former ambassador was publicly suggesting the President was a liar, and he needed to be shut down.

There are a few untold stories here, but here's the one that seems the most massive of them all: this is so stupid! Allowing columnist Novak to publish the name of an undercover CIA operative, and the fact that two high administrative officials had verified Plame's identity...doesn't that just say to law officials: "You want me? Come and get me!!" It reminds me of Gary Hart's catch me if you can scenario about a decades and a half ago.

If outing Plame was not a crime, it was oh-so-very-close to one. And that a pair of high-ranking administration officials are giving out a CIA operative's name because her husband disagrees with the President is an instant national scandal!

And herein lies the interesting point to me: there is such hubris...such a blatant example of pride getting in the way of common sense. Answer me this: after the Novak column, why in hell would there not be an investigation? Why in hell would that investigation not uncover that everyone points fingers in a couple of directions only, and that their stories all match up?

The old saying applies: Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. And when your party is controlling the house and the senate and the presidency and the supreme court, you dine on hubris with garlic, and vanity under glass.

Why else would anyone make such an idiot decision as to out the CIA operative wife of the man who's been on Meet the Press to tell everyone your President lied in the State of the Nation address? The untold story in this matter is how stupid a decision it was in the first place.

What kind of stain does this put on the Bush administration? They swept into office early in 2001 claiming they would bring back honor and dignity to the White House. It appears that after nearly bankrupting the nation, taking us into and unnecessary war and turning most of the world against us, they didn't find time to work on that honor and dignity thing. Here's an interesting new poll, an excerpt from which follows:

The poll, conducted Friday night and yesterday, found that 55 percent of the public believes the Libby case indicates wider problems "with ethical wrongdoing" in the White House, while 41 percent believes it was an "isolated incident." And by a 3 to 1 ratio, 46 percent to 15 percent, Americans say the level of honesty and ethics in the government has declined rather than risen under Bush.

The man and the party who had an opportunity to do good things and to put a shine back on politics and dirtied it more than a stained blue dress ever could.

It's....beginning to look at lot...like...Fitz-mas...

If you're looking for a prescient examination of up-to-the-minute details in Prosecutor Fitzgerald's investigation, with informed detail-oriented observations, you've stumbled onto the wrong blog. I just thought it was time to post a few thoughts about what's going on.

The Grand Jury clock is ticking down. It's defacate, or get off the pot time. I haven't anticipated anything so much since that time I spent 4 months in another time zone and flew back to Texas to see the wife.

I have an Austin friend who calls me at least once daily to check in and see if there's anything I've heard that he hasn't. Being in the news bidness, I have the Associated Press on my desktop and if there's anything fabulously newsworthy my computer will ding at me. Suffice it to say I'm longing for the dinging.

This part-time political observer thinks the Republican party is l-o-o-o-o-o-n-g overdue for a hard slap across their collective face. After years of them talking God, guns and gays instead of jobs, peace and security, the Republican leadership needs to be humbled. I'm talking drawing and quartering! They should be tarred and feathered, then run out on the rail, and let the bums deal with them! They're a sorry bunch, the whole lot of them.

But rather than just listen to me rant and rave, you should do something else...go here and take a look at a six-minute video. It's crooksandliars.com--an excellent site--and the video is a CNN interview with former CIA operative and Valerie Plame classmate Larry Johnson. He meets head-on and debunks many of the Novak-disseminated disinformation that's become lore of right wing world of late. Once you go to the site, page down. If you see Bill O'Reilly's splotchy face you've gone too far. It's right above that.

Good viewing...and it'll whet your appetite so that tomorrow--let's hope--you'll have a very merry Fitzmas!

Getting Kinky at the Library

Shame on you! Get your mind out of the gutter. I'm talking about Kinky Friedman. He spoke tonight at my small town Texas Library. This is the Kinkster's 2nd visit to the library, ostensibly to talk about his books and about writing. But things have changed since his first visit nearly 3 years ago. This time he's running for governor.

The first time he was here there were lots of sexual references...I can recall a number of audience gasps...and I distinctly remember the word sphincter being used. That was then. This was now.

Tonight Kinky talked a lot of common sense, a lot of humor, and the one edible he knew that any Texan worth his salt would eat heartily: Texana. He referenced Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Sam Houston...all the legendary icons of Texas which were nostalgic, and vote-getting safe bets.

But I have to give him kudos: as he made the audience comfortable, wrapping them in this blanket of Texana, he threw a few curve balls. He said that politicians tried to get everybody worked up over issues that meant absolutely nothing. The issue he cited: gay marriage. He said it wouldn't hurt anybody. That same statement coming from me would have raised the possibility of my being physically attacked. Coming from the cigar-chomping, goateed, black-hatted cowboy-looking Kinky, it was warmly received.

And there was also the idea of naming Willie Nelson as his energy secretary. Or Czar. Or something (I thought ol' Willie should have been drug Czar. Lord knows he's done plenty of research on the subject). He thought we all should be using biodiesel instead of gasoline. He's right.

Something that came through, without a doubt, is that Kinky is serious about being governor. He's not too fond of the political process and his anti-politician leanings seem quite sincere. He hopes as governor to charm the pants off those who want to continue politics as they are.

Is it the cynic in me who thinks there's something further here? Yes, I do think Kinky would love to do Texas good, to turn the place around to start doing some of what it should but isn't, and stop doing some of what it shouldn't, but is. I think there's something more though. I think that as a mondo-bizarro country/western singer, an award-winning widely-read author, a saver of stray animals, I think he wants to be able to put Governor on his lack of resume (surely the Kinkster doesn't actually have one, does he?). I think he wants to lend his name an immortality that will put it up there with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jenning and Sam Houston.

I've read several of his books and can highly recommend him. I've seen him work the crowd twice now, and am cognizant of his talents as a humorist. And you should know that he has a gentle, artistic, poetic and world-weary streak that comes out only occasionally in his writing that's really exceptional. He gets my vote for one of the top five most interesting Texas artists. What remains to be seen though, is whether he'll get my vote for governor.

Pardon the Interruption...

For various reasons I've abandoned this blog for the past month. I've missed the heck out of it and intend to begin feeding the blog with regularity again.

For the dozen or two of you who come here often looking for real-life examples of how not to write, my apologies. I've been off being who I am when I'm not a blogger. I've been doing really fun things, and this is perhaps the most fun: I went to Washington DC, amongst other reasons, to let the President know I'm not fond of how he's been conducting himself. 250,000 of my closest friends showed up as well, and it was both quite somber, and quite a party. And sometimes those two elements were in close proximity to one another.

Another odd fact about that trip to DC: I took my 16 year-old daughter. My sister-in-law found out about this and e-mailed my wife questioning why we'd allow our baby to go to "that communist freak show." I didn't have the heart to tell her that nearly everyone I met there was further away from a freak show than she is.

But to the main business here: My fellow Americans, let me entreat upon you this...you're aware of, and perhaps have often made the claim yourself that America's the land of the free. To which I ask, how do you know? Let me guess that your first reaction is surprise.

"What do you mean how do I know?? This is America!"

Right you are. But all those things in the constitution about free speech...if you never challenge the prevailing paradigm, you're not being free. If you play along as you always have, and as nearly everyone does, then you're not making your country live up to its claims.

So that's what we did. Just hundreds of yards from the White House, a quarter million of us gathered to tell the President that we in no way, shape or form supported what he was doing in Iraq. I can report that our nation did not fall to its knees. Cats and dogs were not fornicating in the streets. The sun rose in the east, and set in the west after a day of very civil disobedience.

My daughter had a great time, too. Against my better judgment, she got onstage after Cindy Sheehan spoke and greeted her. Ms. Sheehan gave her a long, warm hug, then signed my daughter's Code Pink sweatshirt. I don't know as much about Code Pink as I might, but I love their slogan"

Stop the Next War Now

Such wisdom there! The idea that being anti-war is not an affectation you put on in the lead-up to the war, but a climate for dialogue and action that your create year round, year-in, year-out.

During the visit we also went to the Kennedy Center for a play, did a couple of Smithsonian Museums, some of the monuments, and rode the Metro like pros. It was a fabulous father/daughter time.

I'd like to urge all of you who are seriously thinking about getting old: while that's a viable option, you might consider methods to keep you younger. Heading off to the nation's capitol with your teenager, galavanting around town, and joining a 1/4 million-person anti-war march can take 2 or 3 years off of you.

And more importantly, there's something so patriotic about measuring your country's claims about itself...and finding out that on that day and in that place it measured up. It made the forefathers proud of what they'd created.

But just like the Code Pink ladies who work hard year 'round to keep us from going to war, we Americans need to fight year 'round to be sure the land of the free really is free. Your participation, however can help, would be most appreciated.