Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal (2004)

The way his retraction was worded sounds alot like the DiLulio retraction. Perhaps they were written by the same person.

It sounds like DiLulio indeed. More worrying to this physicist with experience of unlamented USSR is the ex post facto hewing to the Party Line.

What is the difference between this and Clarke's explanation of his testimony when he was part of Bush's team? Sound like the same sort of explanation. Bremer was talking only a month after the current admin took power. And I am no fan at all of this admin, and certainly not of Iraq war, now, or then, or last fall.

This sounds fishy, though:
"Criticism of the new administration, however, was unfair. President Bush had just been sworn into office and could not reasonably be held responsible for the Federal Government's inaction over the preceding 7 months," Bremer's Sunday statement said.

Sounds like another blame it on Clinton move, and that might have been scripted. But what would you expect him to say?

I would guess that the White House was well aware of this comment prior to letting Bremer in. Politics above all else for this lot. The "oops, my bad" was probably scripted long ago, but waited till somebody waved Bremer's accusatory text around.

Bremer is what he is - we all knew that. At least this statement is evidence that he was paying close attention and putting his professional, rather than political, views on the line when it reasonably could have done some good. As to Bremer's performance in Iraq - c'mon, you knew he was toast the day he agreed to take the job.

The continued race-to-the-bottom!

Man that kool-aid must be damn powerful stuff.

This seems to me a very peculiar story: Who had dug up the original Bremer speech? Had anyone? Or is Bremer now taking the opporunity to draw attention to it, perhaps to curry favor with the incoming Democrats?

I noted this as well. Horse head in the bed? Angry Bear had the best take on it I've seen so far: is there anyone other than Richard Clarke (and, I'd add, Joe Wilson) this administration doesn't have compromising photographs of?

February 26, 2001. Transititon delayed a month thanks to Gore's lawsuits. Yeah, shame on Bush.

I liked Ezra Klein's summary: "I'm sorry for what I said. I was right but saying so was wrong. George W. Bush is a magnificent man and any criticisms against him, no matter how totally validated by successive events, were tasteless and unfair. I apologize."

Patrick: BUSH vs. Gore. Not Gore vs. BUSH.

The ballots could all have been counted in December, and we could have had a legitimate president in office, Bush or Gore.

Instead one side chose to import operatvies to stage riots at county counting houses and pose as locals. One side initiated the lawsuits, and used the Florida Secretary of State's office as a partisan war room. What side was that?

Thanks, indeed.

Don't bother to quote CNS here, Adrian. That ultra-extreme right-wing house organ has no relationship to anything remotely resembling actual facts, or news reporting.

Kerry unfit to be CinC, Bush unfit to be dogcatcher, ? Nader. Maybe Michael Moore is your best bet. If HC doesn't want the job.

As far as I can tell, both sides bear about equal blame in the Florida fight -- both sides tried to steal the state, using different techniques, and in the end Bush's thieves won the legal battle by the skin of their teeth.

Judging from my own appraisal of the final count by the press in late 2001, Gore would have won had the statewide votes been counted in any genuinely fair and defensible way. But Gore himself opposed that, because he underestimated the number of clearly valid votes he got from new black voters in rural pro-Bush counties, and so focused instead on trying to allow a recount only of urban Florida votes, and including the infamous "dimpled chads" in the vote.

Not that this makes any difference. Bremer -- before he wimped out -- certainly thought that the (very slightly) delayed advent of the Bush Administration didn't excuse their negligence on terorism.

Per Juan Cole, Bremer is considerably worse than a wimp:

Abdul Basit Turki, Iraq's first Minister of Human Rights, had his resignation accepted on Sunday. He had tendered it in response to the way the US dealt with the situation in Fallujah, among other issues. He maintained that he had heard horror stories about abuses at Abu Ghuraib last fall and had briefed American civil administratrator Paul Bremer about them, but that Bremer took no action:

' In November I talked to Mr Bremer about human rights violations in general and in jails in particular. He listened but there was no answer. At the first meeting, I asked to be allowed to visit the security prisoners, but I failed," he said. "I told him the news. He didn't take care about the information I gave him." '

The original switch-back story doesn't bother me so much. Bremer is a Washington denizen and, seen in that light, did what needed to be done before recanting. Pretty normal stuff. Nadezhda's post is far more damning.

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Mea mihi conscientia pluris est quam omnium sermo - My conscience means more to me than all speech. (Cicero)

Serva me, servabo te - Save me and I will save you. (Petronius Arbiter)

A fronte praecipitium a tergo lupi - A precipice in front, wolves behind (between a rock and a hard place)

Diem perdidi - I have lost a day (another day wasted) (Titus)

Una voce - With one voice, unanimously

Ex nihilo nihil - Out of nothing, nothing comes / is made

interesting discussion guys

nice