How Can One Political Party Generate so Much Bad Publicity in One Day?

Plea Deal Near With 2nd Abramoff Associate
Kidan Has Agreed to Cooperate in Probes

Federal prosecutors have all but finalized a plea agreement with a second business partner of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff in exchange for cooperation in the ongoing criminal investigations of Abramoff, congressional aides and Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), lawyers in the case said yesterday.

Adam Kidan, a longtime confidant of Abramoff's, has agreed to testify against Abramoff in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., next month when he is to face trial on fraud and conspiracy charges in connection with their purchase of a fleet of Florida casino boats. A Kidan plea would tie Abramoff's legal troubles in Florida more closely to the Washington investigation into his lobbying practices, pressuring Abramoff to reach a deal of his own that could implicate members of Congress and other government officials, lawyers involved in the case said. See:
Plea Deal

Time Reporter Testifies in Leak Case
Rove Lawyer Was Deposed Last Week by Special Prosecutor
A special prosecutor questioned Time magazine reporter Viveca Novak under oath yesterday about a conversation she had with the attorney for presidential adviser Karl Rove that has become part of the CIA leak investigation, according to a top editor at the magazine. See:
Rove Lawyer

Qaeda-Iraq Link U.S. Cited Is Tied to Coercion Claim
WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 - The Bush administration based a crucial prewar assertion about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda on detailed statements made by a prisoner while in Egyptian custody who later said he had fabricated them to escape harsh treatment, according to current and former government officials. See:
Fabricated Qaeda Iraq Link

The Promiser in Chief
A few months after the invasion of Iraq, President Bush promised to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure and economy. He - or, at any rate, his speechwriters - understood that reconstruction was important not just for its own sake, but as a way to deprive the growing insurgency of support. In October 2003 he declared that "the more electricity is available, the more jobs are available, the more kids that are going to school, the more desperate these killers become."

Now we're losing another window of opportunity for reconstruction. But this time it's at home. See:
Promiser

Man for a Glass Booth
By Charles Krauthammer (former unequivocal Bush supporter)
Of all the mistakes that the Bush administration has committed in Iraq, none is as gratuitous and self-inflicted as the bungling of the trial of Saddam Hussein. See:
Krauthammer

Many Words, Little Clarity From Rice
I've been trying my best to follow the "clarifications" on kidnapping and torture that Condoleezza Rice has been offering to our European allies, and there seems to be only one clear message: Shut up and don't ask too many questions.

When Rice was in Kiev, Ukraine, the other day, I thought I heard her say that the United States government has never tortured people we suspect of being terrorists -- How could anyone even think such a thing? -- or maybe she said that, in any event, we promise to stop doing this awful thing we've never done. See: Eugene Robinson's column in the Washington Post.