Wall Street Journal – CIA Says It Briefed Congressional Leaders
There would be no reason for Speaker Nancy Pelosi not to at least threaten a probe of Bush-era interrogation practices. But rather than using the it as a chance to placate her grumbling base, Pelosi has stood against truth commissions, hearings, etc.
Using CIA documents prepared at the request of GOP lawmakers, writer Siobhan Gorman explains that Pelosi may have more skin in the game than previously believed. Pelosi, whose story has evolved over recent weeks, said she had heard about waterboarding at her CIA briefings, but not that it actually had been done.
“The document lists 40 briefings provided to lawmakers on intelligence, judiciary and other panels, the first of which was provided to then-House intelligence committee chairman Porter Goss, a Florida Republican, and Ms. Pelosi of California on Sept. 4, 2002. That briefing is described as covering ‘enhanced interrogation techniques.’ It included the use of the techniques on detainee Abu Zubaydah, background on legal authority, and ‘a description of the particular [enhanced interrogation techniques] that had been employed.’
A recently declassified Justice Department memo on the CIA program dated May 30, 2005, states the CIA used waterboarding to interrogate Mr. Zubaydah ‘at least 83 times during August 2002.’”
USA Today — Stimulus aided programs Obama wants cut
Members of the Obama administration have taken great umbridge at the suggestions that the president’s proposal to trim waste equal to a half percent of the $3.6 trillion federal budget (mostly in defense programs) is laughably small or insincere.
But writers Matt Kelley and Seung Min Kim point out that some of the programs the president wants to hack for being wasteful are among those he just showered with half-a-billion-dollars in stimulus funds.
“In his $3.6 trillion budget released Thursday, Obama identified 121 programs that he wants to eliminate or reduce to save $17 billion. That includes eliminating an Army Corps of Engineers program that funds wastewater treatment projects and a U.S. Department of Agriculture flood control program — two programs that less than three months ago received a combined $490 million in the $787 billion economic stimulus bill.”
Washington Post — Major Banks Negotiate, Spin, Chafe at Stress-Test Results
The bad news from the baking stress tests – struggling banks need another $75 billion and face losses of another $600 billion in the year to come if the economy doesn’t improve.
The good news is that many banks are very sound and if the economy remains stable or improves, the financial sector looks to be well positioned for a rebound.
But the goodness of the good news was a negotiated conclusion, as writers David Cho, Tomoeh Murakami and Brady Dennis point out. The Treasury picked winners and losers after hearing pleas for leniency and deciding to favor one similarly situated bank over another.
Citigroup got the mot concession in the massive audit while Wells Fargo got the shaft.
“Richard Bove, an analyst with Rochdale Securities, said Wells Fargo got an especially rough deal, considering that it stepped in to take a struggling Wachovia off the government’s hands last year. Wells Fargo raised more than $11 billion so that it could buy Wachovia. “They did the government a massive favor,” Bove said. “And the government returned it by saying: ‘Screw you. Go out and raise more capital.’ “
New York Times – Souter’s Exit Opens Door for a More Influential Justice
The early line on President Barack Obama’s choice for a replacement for David Souter was someone who appeared moderate but who embraced the idea of the Supreme Court as a tool for social engineering.
As writer Adam Liptak observes, the list of requirements also includes the ability to not just be a reliable liberal but the ability to be a pied piper.
“‘The replacement to Souter is not going to make an ideological majority for progressives,’ said Abner J. Mikva, a former federal judge who taught with Mr. Obama at the University of Chicago. ‘The new justice has got to be someone who can persuade Kennedy and maybe even Alito.’ Justice Anthony M. Kennedy is the court’s swing justice; Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., a conservative, is its newest member.
Mr. Mikva said the other members of the court’s liberal wing — it includes Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Ruth Bade Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens — had not been up to the task. ‘Justice Breyer and Justice Ginsburg are good justices,’ he said, ‘but they can’t lead. They can’t bring people with them.’”
Politico — Cheney to GOP: ‘It would be a mistake for us to moderate’
Former Vice President Dick Cheney gave an interview to Fargo, N.D. radio host Scott Hennen in which he advised Republicans not to panic and not to become more like Democrats because of Democratic success.
Cheney indicated that he still had a job to because of national security issues, but thought that he and George W. Bush passing from the stage would be a good thing.
“I remember campaigning across the country with Gerald Ford in 1974 when I was his Chief of Staff. This was the Watergate Election, the first one since Nixon had to resign. It was a train wreck; I mean, we got blown away in every part of the country. In 1976 we lost the presidency. By 1980 Ronald Reagan was president, we’d had a major resurgence in the party and we’d captured control of the Senate, and obviously embarked upon the Reagan Era in American politics. So I think periodically we have to go through one these sessions. It helps clear away some of the underbrush…some of the older folks who’ve been around a long time (like yours truly) need to move on, and make room for that young talent that’s coming along. But I think it’s basically healthy. I don’t spend a lot of time or lose a lot of sleep over it.”
