It has been an extremely productive week for the Avenging Angel, punisher of the evil-doers of the conservative crusade. With the right on the run over its mismanagement of Iraq, dubious dealings with Iran, Congressional corruption and sordid personal meltdowns, the Republican locomotive is falling off the rails of public opinion.
The Republican rot, as usual, starts with Iraq. Doug Feith, the former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, was savaged this week for his political manipulation of intelligence in the run-up to the war in Iraq. A report by the Penatgon inspector general found that Feith's "inappropriate" briefings to White House decision makers failed to note the strong disagreement of the CIA over the nonexistent Saddam-Al Qaeda link, among other issues. An angry Feith took the pages of the Washington Post to defend his bad name. It's no wonder, the Angel notes, that Colin Powell aide Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson said of Feith "seldom in my life have I met a dumber man" and fellow Iraq architect Tommy Franks deemed him simply "the f**king stupidest guy on the face of the earth."
Speaking of which, General Tommy Franks, the former CentComm commander and Republican wannabe, displayed staggering incompetence newly declassified documents this week. The materials showed a wildly optimistic Centcomm war plan that predicted 5,000 U.S. troops in Iraq by the end of 2006. It's no wonder Franks was at the center of Thomas Rick's defining book on Iraq, Fiasco.
Frank Gaffney, another Bush Iraq war apologist, was bitch-slapped this week. The neo-con columnist and security hardliner was smited this week for misappropriating Abraham Lincoln in defense of George W. Bush. In a bizarre Washington Times column attacking congressional foes of Bush's surge in Iraq, Gaffney claimed to quote an admonition from Lincoln that such opponents "are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged." As it turns out, the words were not Lincoln's, but belonged to J. Michael Waller, who penned them in 2003 for another Moonie rag, Insight. On this as in everything else about Iraq, the Angel sighs, Gaffney had it wrong.
In Congress, Darrell Issa lived up to his reputation as a GOP hatchet man. The California Republican reached a new low last week during committee hearings discussing the role of Iraq contractor Blackwater. After the widows of the four contractors slaughtered in Fallujah read their prepared statement, Issa asked "who wrote it?" Just another sad chapter, the Angel notes, for the man who cried like a baby in 2003 when he realized that Arnold would be the next governor of California.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week once again did what she does best - play dumb. As the war of words over Iranian involvement in Iraq heated up, Condi denied revelations that she received a 2003 peace proposal from the Tehran regime. Despite evidence from Richard Armitage and Flynt Leverett that the White House rejected the Iranian offer, Rice claims she does not recall ever seeing it. The memo, the Angel laughs, was probably called, "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S."
On the subject of bad intelligence, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, Porter Goss' one-time #3 man at the CIA, was indicted this week on corruption charges involving his close friend and Duke Cunningham bag man Brent Wilkes. The 11 counts against Foggo and Wilkes that include conspiracy, wire fraud, conflict of interest and money laundering. This latest black eye for the CIA and its GOP allies in the House includes lurid tales of bribes, payoffs and prostitutes. It's no wonder, the Angel muses, Porter Goss decided to head for the hills.
J. Steven Griles, the former Interior Department deputy secretary , also found himself in a deeper hole this week. Already under investigation over allegations he assisted Jack Abramoff in milking tribal casino clients, Griles was revealed to have jointly purchased a home with his girlfriend (a former Justice Department official) with an oil industry lobbyist. Republican politics, the Angel grins, makes strange bedfellows indeed.
Last but not least, American Taliban stalwart Pat Robertson is back in the news for making another death threat. Back in August 2005, Robertson famously called for the U.S. to kill Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Now, facing a lawsuit copyright lawsuit, Robertson threatened bodybuilder Philip Busch, saying "I am going to kill you and your family." Robertson's God, the Angel ponders, works in mysterious ways.
For the history of conservative misceants smote by the Avenging Angel, visit here.