Just when you think the pails of water Patrick McIlheran carries for Republicans can’t get any fuller, he jumps to the defense of corrupt World Bank president and former Bush administration official Paul Wolfowitz.

Why would he just blindly jump to the defense of anyone associated with conservatives? Well, that’s just what he does as a crack columnist for Wisconsin’s largest daily, but that’s another story. No, this time, he’s actually got a reason!

“What he was guilty of was trying to crack down on bank corruption.”

Who says President Bush is alone in his “bubble”?

According to McIlheran, Wolfowitz wasn’t corrupt! It was the corrupt system that made him give his girlfriend a $60,000/year raise! And as everyone in la-la land with McIlheran knows, two corrupts make a not-corrupt! Or something!

And if Chewbacca lives on Endor, Wolfowitz is not corrupt!

When you’re trying to “save face” like former Bush administration official Paul Wolfowitz is with the board of the World Bank, where he now serves as President and is facing a scandal because he got his girlfriend a cushy job with high pay, so instead of just booting him out the door, they boot him out of the door with a piece of paper saying how no one’s at fault, is it really saving face?

I mean, it’s being constantly reported in the media that his main concern is that in light of his corruption and poor management, and hence his being asked to leave by the board, that he’s demanding a “no one’s at fault” statement from the board as a condition of his leaving voluntarily.

I can see when these kind of things happen behind closed doors how it might work, but when the story is all over the media, it’s kind of hard to save face, don’t you think?

Isn’t it telling that the biggest applause line in last night’s Republican debate was after this quip from former Gov. Mike Huckabee:

“We’ve had a Congress that’s spent money like John Edwards at a beauty shop”

Hey, if Ann Coulter can get some publicity out of it, why not get some mileage out of an otherwise stalled campaign?

Seriously though, maybe Gov. Huckabee was confused about who’s been in power the last seven years in Congress and is responsible for our huge budget deficit and generally disasterous fiscal policy? It wasn’t John Edwards, or his hair for that matter.

And if that’s the best the Republican candidates can do – resorting to silly personal jabs – they’re in more trouble than anyone gives them credit for.

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker now says when he told voters back in 2002 that he wouldn’t run beyond 2004. He said:

“To put in place reforms to insure these changes stay in place, I am open to a run for a full term in 2004, but will not run beyond that term” – Scott Walker, 2002.

Now that he is up for re-election however, Scott Walker is singing a different tune. See if you can guess which of the following excuses Walker is using as the reason he won’t keep his word on for office in 2008:

Turns out he was just joking.

It wasn’t a “pledge so it didn’t count!

He was thinking off the top of his mind.

It wasn’t a “serious promise”, whatever that is, anyways!

It wasn’t in his literature so it doesn’t count. (Only things that make it into literature count now?)

Well if you guessed all of the above, you’d be right! Walker used each of the excuses above to squirm out of what I think everyone at the time in 2002 assumed was a campaign pledge.

Of course those of us who know anything about Scott Walker beyond what gets written – usually in glowing terms – in the Milwaukee paper aren’t surprised by this. He’s been a political opportunist his entire career and going back on your word is hardly a ringing endorsement of a person’s character.

After all how can you trust anything someone says when they throw out ridiculous excuses like this? Personally I don’t have to make “pledges” or make “serious promises” because I keep my word. Too bad Walker can’t do the same.

No surprise, but apparently Fox news only seems to believe African American voters commit fraud at point with which I’m sure the Milwaukee right-wing radio noise machine would agree.

Democracy in action:

Iraq’s interior ministry has decided to bar news photographers and camera operators from the scenes of bomb attacks, operations director Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf said on Sunday.

His announcement was the latest in a series of attempts to curtail press coverage of the ongoing conflict, which has already attracted criticism from international human rights bodies.
ABC

Isn’t controlling the “free press” one of the things we hated about Saddam?

Thankfully the U.S. military has their own YouTube channel where they can put out their own propaganda showing the “good news” in Iraq that the media wouldn’t report on anyways if they weren’t being censored.

This hit the news yesterday, but apparently CBS has fired retired Gen. John Batiste, and Iraq veteran, for doing an advertisement for votevets.org – a political group made up of Iraq/Afghanistan veterans – that criticized the Iraq war.

Isn’t that liberal media just crazy for firing those against the Iraq war while having no problem keeping those who support it onboard? DAN RATHERGATE!*@!@#

At any rate, watch Gen. Batiste on last night’s Keith Olberman show for yourself:

The American people want out of Iraq, the Congress wants out of Iraq, the Iraqi people want us out of Iraq, and now it’s elected officials agree:

On Tuesday, without note in the U.S. media, more than half of the members of Iraq’s parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country. 144 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal, according to Nassar Al-Rubaie, a spokesman for the Al Sadr movement, the nationalist Shia group that sponsored the petition. – Think Progress

The only groups that want American soldiers in Iraq anymore are the Republican party and the terrorists.

Yikes:

Asked if they are satisfied with the current field of GOP candidates, 49% of Republican likely voters said no and only 21% said yes. Among Democratic likely voters, only 18% said they were not satisfied with their party’s presidential field, while 59% said they were satisfied. – JSonline

Wisconsin Republicans are mirroring what the national trends are reporting as well regarding the satisfaction of the two parties with their candidates, and although it’s a long way out, every “major” Democratic candidate beats every “major” Republican one at this point in the race.

One other question: Why does the media still name Mitt Romney as a “top tier” candidate when he continually polls in the single digits behind people like Fred Thompson who haven’t even declared their intent to run?

Ahh the good old days of gasoline at $3.15/gallon.

The local gas station is now at $3.29/gallon as of today just for the record. No hurricanes to speak of, no threats from the middle east, no supply problems to speak of this time around, so what’s the excuse now for outrageous gas prices?

Refinery capacity of course!

For some odd reason, all the refineries decided that the month before the beginning of the driving season would be a great time to run “maintenance” on their equipment, which in turn would decrease the amount of gasoline they could refine. But why on earth would they pick the peak time of year to bring their equipment offline??

After all, it’s not like they were gaming the system! Who could have imagined that decreasing supply in a period of increased demand would raise the price of their product – or any product for that matter!! – and lead to another quarter of record breaking profits?!

Following the devastating tornado in Kansas last week, the cleanup is proceeding slowly due to National Guard resources being diverted to Iraq:

“I don’t think there is any question if you are missing trucks, Humvees and helicopters that the response is going to be slower,” she said Monday. “The real victims here will be the residents of Greensburg, because the recovery will be at a slower pace.”

Sebelius said about half the state’s National Guard trucks are in Iraq, equipment that would be helpful in removing debris, and that the state is also missing a number of well-trained personnel.

Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting, the state’s adjutant general, said the Kansas National Guard was equipped at only about 40 percent of its required levels, down from the 60 percent that it had at the start of the war. – AP

40%. The scenerio of an ill prepared and under-equiped National Guard continues to play itself out whenever large scale natural disasters strike in States around the Country. The first responsibility of the National Guard and Army Reserves are to the states they hail from, and it will be interesting whether or not we see any Governor’s demand the withdrawl of their state’s troops from Iraq to maintain preparedness back home.

One a side note, it’s so encouraging to see the White House continue to play the blame-everyone-else-first game when it comes to the federal response:

“As far as we know, the only thing the governor has requested are FM radios,” (Tony) Snow said. “There have been no requests to the National Guard for heavy equipment.”

He went on to say that the president’s disaster declaration for Kansas, issued Sunday, immediately made funding available to get heavy equipment through private contractors.

“We are eager to provide what Kansas needs,” Snow said. “But again there are also — you also have to go through the process of making the request first.”

There have been no requests for heavy equipment?

“Heavy equipment from the Kansas National Guard moves in to aid with clean up efforts in Greensburg, Kan. on Monday, May 7, 2007.”

Sometimes I wonder if this administration botches things so badly on purpose just so they can turn around and recite the tired Republican talking point about “big government” not being able to deal with issues like this.