THE DAILY BLADE: The Night Of The Long Knives
By the second year of a President’s second term people always want change. After six years, there’s some reason to throw the bums out: an economy that’s lagging, a war that’s dragging, a scandal that’s revolting, a tax burden that’s jolting.
Voters just wanted change, else they wouldn’t have handed control of Congress to a party that never articulated their plans on what they would do differently – what they would do, period – if they were in charge. Washington Post columnist Michael Kinsley, for one, was underwhelmed by the Dems' 31-page "A New Direction for America."
Voters just wanted change, else they would have voted their self-interest and kept the folks who brought them a booming economy, a low unemployment rate and a reduced tax burden in power.Voters just wanted change, else a slew of liberal and moderate Republicans like Charlie Bass (NH), Jeb Bradley (NH), Lincoln Chafee (RI), Nancy Johnson (CT), Sue Kelly (NY), Jim Leach (IA) and Clay Shaw (FL) wouldn’t have been voted out – even as a slew of conservative Democrats like Joe Donnelly (IN), Brad Ellsworth (IN) and Heath Shuler (NC) were voted in.
Conservatives did not lose this election. Republicans did. And if the conservative Dems who just got elected ally themselves with the Pelosi crowd, voters will punish them for the bait-and-switch in 2008.
The Morning Of The Long Knives
Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation was all-but inevitable on November 4th, the day Military Times Media ran its editorial, "Time For Rumsfeld To Go," simultaneously in the Army Times, Navy Times, Marine Corps Times, the Air Force Times, Defense News, Federal Times, and Armed Forces Journal.
Americans do not want to "cut and run" – or to "stay the course." They want a third option: Win the war.
Rumsfeld’s downfall wasn’t so much mission creep as mission morph. Killing as many insurgents as possible will win the war. Using our highly trained fighting force to build schools and soccer stadiums has won us little or nothing.
Similarly, keeping Sunnis and Shiites from killing each other has won us little or nothing (and has proven futile, in any case). Cold-blooded as it sounds, allowing sectarian violence to run its course - while we concentrate on killing insurgents - will eventually leave survivors who are willing to transcend religious and tribal loyalties to come together as a unified nation, and without the destabilizing effects of an ongoing insurgency.
Rumsfeld fell on his sword as an act of contrition. Had he done so three months ago as an act of political calculation, Republicans might well have hung on to the Senate - and maybe even the House - albeit by razor-thin margins.
Fat, Bald and Incompetent?
Government gumshoes may not have the training necessary to gather and analyze the evidence needed to convict suspected terrorists and jihadists. A new report by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University reveals that federal prosecutors declined to bring charges in 131 of 150 of international terrorist case referrals from the FBI between October 2005 and June 2006. In 2001, the Department of Justice refused to prosecute 33 percent of FBI cases involving suspected international terrorists; five years later, that figure skyrocketed to 87 percent.
The report suggests that, even as the FBI shifted resources from narcotics cases, white collar crime and organized crime, the quality of its investigative work may not be up to snuff: "So with more special agents, many more intelligence analysts, and many fewer prosecutions the question must be asked: What is the FBI doing?"
The FBI disputes the report’s conclusions.
Abortionists Go After Bill O’Reilly Instead Of Child Rapists
The Kansas Supreme Court has been asked to appoint a special counsel to investigate soon-to-be-ex Attorney General Phill Kline and Fox News’ Bill O'Reilly.
In last Friday’s edition of "The O'Reilly Factor," the Fox commentator claimed that "an inside source" gave him information that Dr. George Tiller performed late-term abortions ("executing babies," as he put it) because patients were depressed. O'Reilly also said he had evidence that Tiller was covering up evidence of sex crimes against children by not reporting abortions performed on minor girls to the authorities.
Tiller and Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri made the request, alleging that Kline turned over to O’Reilly redacted abortion records of 90 patients from Tiller’s clinic originally obtained to investigate cases of statutory rape and impregnation of girls as young as 10-years old.
The state’s highest court acts in an appellate, not investigative, capacity and has never before appointed a special prosecutor. Kline denies feeding abortion records to O’Reilly or his staff. For his part, O'Reilly is keeping mum about how and from whom he got his information, or whether he or his staff had read any abortion records from Tiller’s clinic.
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