Condi bailing out?

From Thomas M. DeFrank, Washington Bureau Chief, New York Daily News:

WASHINGTON – Condoleezza Rice is supposed to be a slam dunk for secretary of state in a second Bush administration. But she may do the unthinkable and just say no. Friends and colleagues of the national security adviser report that the 49-year-old Rice is exhausted, approaching burnout and aching to return to her idyllic previous life as a tenured professor at Stanford.

“I would be surprised if she stays in government at all,” one well-placed source told the Daily News. “From a personal standpoint, she wants her life back.”

Rice’s departure would be a personal as well as professional blow to the President. She spends more time with him than any other subordinate, including frequent weekends at Camp David, where she and Bush play tennis and work out in the gym. … read more

The question that comes to mind is: If Condi jumps ship now, will it be in time to absolve her of blame for this preemptive war against Iraq and the lies which the Bush administration used to lead America into it? I surely hope not! If I had my druthers, they would all spend the rest of their natural lives basking in the striped sunshine shimmering through the bars of their cells.

The Real Voice of America

In his opinion column for the Toronto Sun, Eric Margolis, although admitting that this is not necessarily a reliable nor scientific method of assessment, shares his observations on the changing tenor of his incoming mail which may be a harbinger of real changes in American attitudes toward Bush and the war.

I’ve received a huge e-mail response from around the globe in reply to my last Sunday Sun column. In it, I contended that George Bush’s fabricated war against Iraq was a far worse crime than Watergate, and said the president and his men were either liars or unbelievably inept.

These messages do not represent a reliable cross-section of U.S. public opinion, of course. They are simply what was known as a “convenience sample” when I worked in market research. But they reveal much about the changing mood in America.

Most were well-written messages from intelligent, educated people appalled by what their government had done.

I was stunned by the volume of bitterly anti-Bush mail from his home state, Texas.

In response to last week’s shocking admission by Bush’s arms hunter, David Kay, that “We were all wrong,” a Chicago reader wrote: “No, David. You were wrong. Do not include me in your idiocy.”

…read more

Glenn Reynolds Responds

From: Glenn Reynolds pundit@instapundit.com

I’ve been following that story for a long time. Just search “zeyad”
in my search engine.

Antiwar either knows this, and is trolling, or is a bunch of idiots.
Or both.

My reply:

You have not commented on the post linked to, in which Zeyad complains about the reception of such news in America. I put a link to your earlier post, and a link to a Google cache of all your posts on Zeyad. By the way, Professor, I don’t recall any mention on your site of Zeyad’s rape-all-the-Sunnis diatribe. Perhaps you could point me to it.

Best,
Matt Barganier

Update/Note: By “put a link,” I mean to say that those links were included in the original post. I did NOT add them after the response from Reynolds.

Possible Motive Behind Ricin Letters?

In my years of politics, I have heard from many Capitol Hill staffers that Congressmembers hate constituent mail.

Is it possible that someone has found a solution? I tend not to be much of a conspiracy theorist, but I had been wondering about possible motives behind the ricin letters.

Whatever the motive, it appears that writing letters to your congressional representative may soon become a thing of the past. Of course, there is still email, although most of Congress has been ignoring email for years.