Life Among the Bushies: A Pot Pourri

The panel investigating the Abu Ghraib prison scandal yesterday issued a report that drew the lines of responsibility all the way to Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld: "The panel cited what it called major failures on the part of Mr. Rumsfeld and his aides in not anticipating and responding swiftly to the post-invasion insurgency in Iraq." (NYTimes story here.) Meanwhile, seven poor soldiers ALONE are being made to bear the punishment for Abu Ghraib, while their commanders get off scott-free. The American Way, under El Presidente!

The Bush campaign's top "outside lawyer," Benjamin L. Ginsberg, said Tuesday that he had given legal advice to the Swiftboat Veterans smearing Kerry, the group of veterans attacking the senator's Vietnam War record and antiwar activism in a book, television commercials and countless appearances on cable news programs. (NYTimes story here.) The web of deceit tightens around You Know Who.

Cheney disagrees with El Presidente on gay marriage, but does it matter? During a rally in Davenport, Iowa on Tuesday, Vice President Dick Cheney was asked by a woman, "What do you think about homosexual marriage?" His verbatim answer: "Lynne and I have a gay daughter, so it's an issue our family is very familiar with. With the respect to the question of relationships, my general view is freedom means freedom for everyone .... People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to. The question that comes up with the issue of marriage is what kind of official sanction or approval is going to be granted by government? Historically, that's been a relationship that has been handled by the states. The states have made that fundamental decision of what constitutes a marriage."

The resulting cognitive dissonance from Cheney's answer was said to have blown a megawatt transformer at Southern Baptist headquarters in Nashville. Workmen are on the scene. Cheney's comments also drew criticism from the conservative Family Research Council, with President Tony Perkins saying, "Ifind it hard to believe the vice president would stray from the administration's position on defense policy or tax policy. For many pro-family voters, protecting traditional marriage ranks ahead of the economy and job creation as a campaign issue."