Iraq: Bush’s New Bubble

Under the Radar

MEDIA — RIGHT-WING PUNDITS SUGGEST VIRGINIA TECH VICTIMS LACKED ‘COURAGE’ IN STAYING ALIVE: In his initial comments responding to the tragedy at Virginia Tech, President Bush said that “our nation grieves with those who have lost loved ones at Virginia Tech. We hold the victims in our hearts, we lift them up in our prayers, and we ask a loving god to comfort those who are suffering today.” But not everyone in the political realm reacted with such empathy. “Where was the spirit of self-defense here?” mused John Derbyshire on the National Review’s blog yesterday. “Why didn’t anyone rush the guy? It’s not like this was Rambo, hosing the place down with automatic weapons. He had two handguns for goodness’ sake — one of them reportedly a .22.” Nathanael Blake, writing on Human Events’s The Right Angle, agreed. “Something is clearly wrong with the men in our culture,” wrote Blake. “Among the first rules of manliness are fighting bad guys and protecting others: in a word, courage. And not a one of the healthy young fellows in the classrooms seems to have done that.” Though both pundits admit that they don’t know if they “would live up to” their own notions of bravery, Blake says he would be “ashamed” of himself if he did not, suggesting that the innocent victims at Virginia Tech should feel embarrassed for “ducking, running and holding doors shut” to avoid the bullets of a killer. As MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann said when he awarded them his “Worst Person in the World” award last night, “[I]t is John Derbyshire and Nathanael Blake who should be ashamed today.”  

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS — BUSH TO DELIVER MAJOR SPEECH ON DARFUR AS VIOLENCE SPIRALS OUT OF CONTROL:  The situation in Darfur is as “desperate as ever.” Attacks in Darfur over the past four years have “left as many as 450,000 dead, thousands of villages burned, and about 2.5 million people living in camps. Although the Bush administration described the situation as ‘genocide’ nearly three years ago, the United States and other world powers have been unable to end either the conflict or the humanitarian crisis.” Yesterday, with resistance from the Sudanese government, the United Nations and African Union pledged to move “expeditiously” to deploy 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers into Chad, Sudan, and the Central African Republic, countries that have been “wracked by fighting” spilling over from Darfur. Even with the allowance of the peacekeepers, the Sudanese government may still be exacerbating the violence. A confidential U.N. report revealed that “the government of Sudan is flying arms and heavy military equipment into Darfur in violation of Security Council resolutions and painting Sudanese military planes white to disguise them as United Nations or African Union aircraft.” Furthermore, the Sudanese government’s accession for peacekeepers “seemed designed, at least in part, to head off coercive U.S. action,” as the “White House has for months been working on a ‘Plan B’ for Darfur, which contemplates tough financial sanctions and other measures to pressure the government.” President Bush today will deliver a major address presumably to “announce a new set of sanctions on Sudan.” Take action on Darfur at the Enough Project. 

ETHICS — GOODLING OFFERED IMMUNITY IN EXCHANGE FOR TESTIMONY: In an attempt to compel her testimony, the House Judiciary Committee “may grant limited-use immunity” to Monica Goodling, the former counsel to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) said yesterday, “As the White House Liaison in the Department while the US Attorney firings were planned and carried out, Ms. Goodling clearly has much to contribute to the Committee’s understanding of the surrounding circumstances.” Goodling — who resigned her post at the Justice Department as a result of the Judiciary Committee’s probe — previously refused to testify by invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. While Rep. Conyers hoped that Goodling’s testimony could “begin to clear up the many inconsistencies and gaps surrounding” the U.S. Attorney firings, committee member Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) said that “the immunity offer was ‘merely meant to fan the flames of speculation and grab headlines.'” “Goodling’s attorney, John Dowd, declined to comment on the offer.” To pass, the immunity offer would “require the approval of two-thirds of the nearly 40-member panel.” The vote — previously scheduled for today — was postponed for at least a week late yesterday “in order to take a better look at the facts,” according to a spokesperson for Ranking Committee member Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX). The spokesman added, “We want to make sure this is the best way to get the facts to the public.”

Think Fast

A CNN poll finds that most Americans (72%) say they are closely following the ongoing dispute over timetables for Iraq withdrawal. “Six in ten think that they would wind up siding with the Democrats in this dispute; 37% say they are more likely to take the President’s side.”

The New York Times writes that the selection of comedian Rich Little as headliner for the White House Correspondents Association dinner this weekend is seen as “a symbol in the liberal blogosphere for what its members consider the proclivity of Washington reporters to give Mr. Bush and his administration a pass.”

“The World Bank’s board of directors is scheduled to convene tomorrow and may try to figure out what to do about calls that the bank’s president, Paul Wolfowitz, resign because he gave a big raise and promotion to his girlfriend, Shaha Riza.”

Gov. Tim Kaine (D-VA) will name an independent panel to conduct “a very thorough after-action review” of the events surrounding Monday’s mass shooting at Virginia Tech. “The idea is to do this after any significant incident,” Kaine said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon. 

The House yesterday passed the Taxpayer Protection Act, to protect taxpayers against “identity theft, deceptive Web sites and loan sharks.” It also makes it “easier for taxpayers to retrieve property lost as a result of a wrongful Internal Revenue Service levy and directs the IRS to notify lower-income people that they qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit.”

Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq has requested changes that would break down that firewall between the military’s public affairs office and “Pentagon efforts that use deception, propaganda and other methods to influence foreign populations.”

“Under criticism for poor treatment of injured soldiers, the Pentagon announced new measures Tuesday to provide more health screenings, improve its record-keeping system and simplify an unwieldy disability claims system.”

And finally: Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) is “seriously thinking” about granting Doors singer Jim Morrison a posthumous pardon for his “1970 indecent exposure and profanity convictions stemming from a Miami concert the year before.” “He died when he was 27. That’s really a kid, when you think about it, and obviously he was having some challenges. There’s some dispute about how solid the case was,” Crist said.