2280 — Drawing: The White House Virtual Wall group

by Jack Brummet

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Photograph: Bros. (The surviving Kennedy Brothers at the White House)

by Jack Brummet

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White House folds on health care public option

By Pablo Fanque.
All This Is That National Affairs Editor



The White House let it be known today they are throwing in the towel on "the public option" in their health care "reform" plan. Between the hysteria on the right and the insanity of the town halls, they just couldn't pull it off. They hinted a possible compromise with Republicans might include health insurance cooperatives. You can read an AP story on the pullback here.

Change.
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The watermelon roll. . .

The mayor of the Orange Conty town of 12,000, Los Alamitos, is under heavy national under fire for an e-mail he sent out "No Easter egg hunt this year," showing the White House lawn planted with watermelons.

"I have had plenty of my share of chicken and watermelon and all those kinds of jokes," Keyanus Price, a local business owner told The Associated Press. "As a black person receiving something like this from the city-freakin'-mayor - come on." She wants a public apology.

The Orange County Register reported the email earlier this week.

the almost ex-mayor

Mayor Dean Grose confirmed to the AP that he sent the e-mail to Price and said he didn't mean to offend her. He said he was "unaware of the racial stereotype that black people like watermelons. "

On Thursday The Mayor announced he would resign at a City Council meeting on Monday.

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President's approval rating in the toilet. . .below the waterline

According to Wall Street Journal, the President's approval rating slipped to new lows in the most recent Harris Interactive survey. Of the 1,001 American adults polled online April 20-23, only 28% had a positive view of Mr. Bush's job performance, down from 32% in February and from a high of 88% in the aftermath of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. His approval is at an all-time low. Maybe it's time for a recall.

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Giuliani warns of a "new 9/11' if Democrats take the White House

Republican presidential wannabe, the Mayor of 9/11, Rudy Giuliani responded yesterday to a question at a campaign stop in Henniker, New Hampshire, saying that if a Democrat is elected president in 2008, America will be at risk for a terrorist attack on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001.

If a Republican is elected, however, especially if it is him, terrorist attacks can be anticipated and stopped.

“If any Republican is elected president—and I think obviously I would be the best at this—we will remain on offense and will anticipate what [the terrorists] will do and try to stop them before they do it,” Giuliani said.

Yet. . .yet. . .who WAS in charge on 9/11? As we've asked before, how does being the mayor of a city that was attacked give you credentials for preventing anything at all? I think what we did see is that Giuliani is capable of multiple photo-ops and press conferences, none of which—as far as I know—actually prevents anything.

Recent articles on Rudolph Giuliani in All This Is That:

Running on empty—Send in the clowns—Announced, probable, and possible candidates for President of the United States
Giuliani: The Candidate For 9/11—See The Onion
Republicans tied to the whipping post
Giuliani son: "I have problems with my father, but it doesn't mean he won't make a great President."
Rudy Backs Off
Photomontage: Presidential Contenders And Wild Cards
Front-runners Clinton and McCain losing ground fast/All This Is That's dark horses are mired in the back of the pack
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Hillary puts on her cracker accent for an African American audience in NYC

I knew she did this when she was in the hustings, way down south, but now she's using the southern twang in New York City. . .to a black audience. Here's the video:

The Scooter Libby Pardon

As soon as Scooter Libby was convicted of lying, the calls from Republicans for a pardon began. However, as the loyal fall guy, Libby is not ready for a pardon. His case needs to wend its way through the appellate courts now, which may take years. And it's not like the President has the political capital to pull this off right now. . .although, we have seen him pull other suicidal moves over the last 6+ years (such as nominating Harriet Meiers for ther Supreme Court, nominating Bolton as the U.N. delegate, deficit war financing, and plunging into his new "surge" in Iraq). If he does decide to pardon Libby, he would likely do it the morning of January 20, 2009. . .that blessed day so many of us are awaiting. If the pardon did come on that last day, we would see George Bush exit the Presidency as he entered it: under a massive firestorm of protest and anger. It would make a fitting bookend to this failed Presidency.

There are at least two impediments to a pardon for Libby:

1) George Bush's already tarnished "legacy." We know he thinks about this, and we also know not many Presidents have ever resurrected their legacy in their last 20 months in office. A pardon would only garner approval from the Neo-cons and the far right.

2) Perhaps even more importantly, there is the Dick Cheney problem. As Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald told the jury last month in his summations: ""There is a cloud over the vice president." We know that Libby painted Cheney, his former boss, as the puppeteer, pulling strings in a campaign to defend the administration's case for war in Iraq and discredit a critic. And yet, so far, he seems willing to be the scapegoat and fall guy for Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. As he begins facing serious jail time, you wonder if he won't take a scorched earth position.

Vice President Cheney's recent health problems have led to speculation that he might actually resign. Who knows what effect that would have on a possible pardon? Surely Condi Rice would become VP. She at least seems untarnished by this fracas. And with no one to bring down politically or legally, the President's counsel would tell Libby's lawyer to pound sound when they came calling for a pardon.

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