by Frank James
A quick guided tour of some of the morning's most important, most interesting, or both, Washington-related stories.
Pakistani strongman, President Pervez Musharraf, continued to tighten his grip on power by arresting his political opponents and delaying elections, all during the same weekend in which he declared emergency rule and sacked the chief justice of the nation's Supreme Court which appeared about to deliver an anti-Musharraf ruling .
The Bush Administration indicated that it would continue its aid to the Pakistani government despite Musharraf's anti-democratic actions.
Experts said no conclusive evidence exists that Iran has a nuclear-weapons development program despite President Bush's and Vice President Cheney's claims to the contrary, and there are even disagreements within the administration about the status of Iranian efforts.
For the first time in 30 years, Republicans don't have a clea,r far-and-away frontrunner for the party's presidential nomination and voters on the GOP side continue to be less satisfied with their choices than Democrats.
Robert Rubin, the former Clinton Administration Treasury Secretary, was named acting chairman of Citigroup, the large financial services company whose chairman Charles O. Prince III stepped down after the company's financial situation was seriously harmed by huge investments in securities affected by the subprime-mortgage crash.
Missteps by Democratic congressional leaders and President Bush left the popular and bipartisan state children's health insurance program vulnerable to not just a presidential veto but also to an inability of its sponsors to override the veto.
Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson defended his friend Philip Martin, an important fundraiser, who was twice convicted more than two decades ago for selling drugs and bookmaking, with Thompson saying Martin would remain his friend, but leaving open the possibility he might distance his campaign from Martin, whose private jet Thompson has frequently used for campaigning.
Sen. Hillary Clinton's gender has created a novel issue in a presidential campaign as attacks on her have caused some supporters to charge her opponents with sexism while her critics have accused her campaign of anti-feminism by playing the gender card.
Reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind legislation, one of President Bush's few significant domestic policy achievements, has fallen victim to the strained relations between the White House and the Democratic Congress as well as opposition from ideologues on the political right and left.
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Comments
Meanwhile, from the latest circulation figures, more news that ordinary people are abandoning the mainstream newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune. From Editor and Publisher:
"For The New York Times, daily circulation fell 4.51% to 1,037,828 and Sunday plunged 7.59% to 1,500,394, at least partly due to a price increase.
Daily circulation at The Washington Post was down 3.2% to 635,087 and Sunday was down 3.9% to 894,428.
Daily circulation at The Boston Globe tumbled 6.6% to 360,695 and Sunday fell about the same, 6.5% to 548,906.
....
Chicago Tribune - daily circulation slipped 2.9% to 559,404 and Sunday fell 2% to 917,868."
Posted by: bruce | November 5, 2007 9:24 AM
Of course, we are going to continue aid to Pakistan. When was that ever in doubt. And Musharraf when he's at home likely describes Condi as a complete idiot for even pretending that was in doubt. Or maybe that statement was for the idiots at home in the US.
The fact is that the US will probably end up giving even more billions to Pakistan (on top of, for example, the 3/4 trillion we have already spent in Iraz). Every time Musharraf
says "Osama bin Laden" the Bush administration will send over more billions. The guy has Bush and Clueless Condi completely
roped. Just as Maliki does.
Americans are so, so, so gullible to pay for this.
Does anybody think Hillary (or even the feckless Obama) will stop this money grap. And we know under a Prez Giuliani the entire national Treasury will be going over to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq et al.
Posted by: Helena | November 5, 2007 9:33 AM
[quote]
Pakistani strongman, President Pervez Musharraf, continued to tighten his grip on power by arresting his political opponents and delaying elections, all during the same weekend in which he declared emergency rule and sacked the chief justice of the nation's Supreme Court
[/quote]
pResident Doogie Howser is jealous because he didn't think of doing this first!
Posted by: BC | November 5, 2007 10:39 AM