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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MSI who wrote (262527)	6/10/2002 4:35:55 AM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

IT'S WAR KIDDIES, GET OUT YOUR SQUIRT GUNS mediawhoresonline.com WHITE HOUSE DECLARES WAR ON PRESS Dubya Tries to Spike the Truth Smear of Esquire Reporter Where Are Fineman, Whores? An MWO Commentary In the wake of continuing embarrassing revelations about Enron, September 11, and the inner workings of the administration, the Bush White House has declared war on the American press. [[RD: Let's see, U2's Bono lines up with Treasury, and the B-52s line up with the yellow press.]] George W. Bush made the war an open one during his speech last Thursday night on homeland security. In that speech, Bush flatly declared that "ased on everything I have seen, I do not believe anyone could have prevented the horror of September the 11th." The remark directly challenged numerous press reports over recent weeks that show exactly the contrary. So powerful have those reports been that even F.B.I. Director Robert Mueller and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) have admitted that the attacks could have been prevented, had federal intelligence officials done their jobs effectively. But Dubya, on Thursday night, slapped down those reports and dared the press to continue its reporting -- all the while hoping to distract both the press and the public from paying attention to any further revelations. Bush's not-so-subtle declaration of war on the press came on the heels of White House efforts to smear Pulitzer-Prize winner and former Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind, over Suskind's blockbuster article in Esquire revealing the duplicity, fraudulence and bitter in-fighting that mark Bush's behind-the-scenes political operation. White House Communications Director Dan Barlett, in remarks to the New York Times, denounced Suskind as a deluded man with "a hyperactive imagination." Bartlett did not challenge the accuracy any of the damning quotations in Suskind's article -- including his own extensive remarks about how departed adviser Karen Hughes "literally" manufactured George W. Bush. But Bartlett, alarmed at the political shockwaves caused by Suskind's report, thought nothing of smearing the reporter. The war is on. But where are the whores? Supine as ever, mostly. Take Howard "The Duck" Fineman, MWO Whore of the Year 2001. Fineman reports lovingly, to the point of obsession, on every tiny gyration within the Bush White House. Yet on the Esquire article and the White House smearing of Ron Suskind and Dubya's effort to spike the 9/11 stories? Nada from "The Duck." Too interested in defending his crown, he won't even stand up for one of his fellow journalists under attack! Will the White House succeed in its war on the press? Much will depend on how the press handles the new shocking revelations about the National Security Agency's foreknowledge about the September 11 plot, and about Bush's foreknowledge about the Enron collapse -- revelations that have only just broken, and that MWO reports on below. But make no mistake: the war is on, a war the provoked Bush White House will try to fight to the finish. [[RD: Or his hoped for demise, whichever comes first....]]

To: MSI who wrote (262527)	6/10/2002 4:43:00 AM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

GITTIN' OUT WHILE THE GITTIN'S GOOD: HUGHES TO DOUBLE-HUGH, HASTA HOMBRE.... esquire.com Mrs. Hughes Takes Her Leave By Ron Suskind July 2002, Volume 138, Issue 1 Editor's note: In an extraordinary piece of reporting begun months before the surprising announcement of Hughes's resignation in late April, Ron Suskind takes us into the inner circle of the White House and reveals an administration staggered by the loss of the president's most trusted aide and struggling to maintain its internal balance. In addition, Suskind, in a dramatic interview with White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, details the ideological balance between Hughes and presidential advisor Karl Rove which had been struck and has now been upset. The following is an excerpt from the story, which is available now in the July Esquire. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ANDREW CARD, THE WHITE HOUSE chief of staff, is sitting on the couch in his squash-court-sized office looking grim. It's been six days since Hughes informed the public of her departure, and Card is just beginning to reckon with the fact that Hughes's departure "could be a turning point for this administration. Going forward, it will be different. I have to make sure it is good different and not bad different." I had talked with Card a few weeks before about how integral—how utterly indispensable—Karen Hughes was to everything that works, each day and year to year, for this president. As someone who knows history and who has served under every Republican chief of staff since 1983, he was definitive in highlighting the peculiarity of the whole situation. "It's really odd for the most trusted old hand from back home to also be just about the most naturally talented, forceful, brilliant person in the whole building," he said then. "You almost never get that." What are the chances that just about the first person he hooks up with nearly a decade ago, "his closest friend, turns out to be someone who can't be matched by anyone, anywhere? It's a fluke! It's amazing." Now he nods ruefully. "Lot happened since last we spoke. . . ." he mutters. He holds all calls. We sit on the couch. "How to put this . . . We have a serious problem of replacement costs. She's irreplaceable. The cost of her absence will be huge. I don't want to make this sound like a eulogy, but I'm deeply disappointed. "Listen, the president's in a state of denial about what Karen's departure will mean, so is the First Lady, and so is Karen herself." I laugh. We both do—a hollow gallows laugh. Andy impatiently smacks the mustard-colored couch with his meaty hand, his cuff links with the presidential seal picking up the afternoon sun. I run through some of the "family first" narrative, and he smirks. There's a White House to be run in a time of war. "The whole balance of the place, the balance of what has worked up to now for George Bush, is gone, simply gone. My biggest concern? Want to know what it is? That the president will lose confidence in the White House staff. Because without her, we'll no longer be able to provide the president what he needs, what he demands. Karen and her family will be fine," he says. "It's the president I'm concerned about." He's a wide fire hydrant of a man with a Boston accent—more Southie than Harvard—who has watched the departure of key aides like Mike Deaver in one era and Jim Baker in another, but he senses this is different. "My job is to make sure that the president is well served, and it is incumbent upon me to know which people who serve the president are part of that solution. Karen was a huge part of that solution." He pauses, recognizing the past tense. "I know this sounds like a eulogy," he says, "but I don't think we've really grasped yet what she'll be able to actually do for the president once she leaves the staff in July." He starts ticking off issues like conflict of interest, security clearance, how Hughes might be compensated for any work she does, considering that "she will not receive her salary" (which is now $140,000 a year). "It's very complicated, and we're checking with our ethics people as to what is and is not possible." He's right; the "post-employment restrictions" placed on former White House staff are smothering. <Continues.......>