With the news that Mikal Watts will be ending his bid, does that make Lieutenant Colonel and State Representative Rick Noriega the sole Democratic candidate?
Last I heard, Emil Reichstadt was expected to drop out "soon" but I hadn't heard any formal word that he was definitely out. Also, former state senator and Texas Tech Chancellor John Montford was considering a bid - any further news there?
Cornyn Embraces Bush's Plan For Iraq, Earlier Criticized Warner's Same Proposal As 'Curious'
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) has released a statement praising President Bush's speech on Iraq last night, saying he is "pleased" that "troops will come home before the year's end":
Our commanding officer in Iraq, General Petraeus, came before the Congress this week and made clear that the surge is working; military progress is being made to the extent that some troop withdrawals can begin in the months ahead. I'm pleased that President Bush is listening to his commanders on the ground and with his announcement this evening that some troops will come home before the year's end.
Yet last month, Cornyn was adamantly opposed to this drawdown. On Aug. 23, Sen. John Warner (R-VA) called on Bush to announce on Sept. 15 that approximately 5,000 troops "could begin to redeploy and be home to their families and loved ones no later than Christmas of this year." Cornyn immediately put out a statement blasting Warner's proposal:
It's a little curious to me that people are proposing a change in strategy when in fact the current strategy appears now to be working.
Bush's announcement last night mirrors Warner's proposal. Yet all of a sudden - just a couple of weeks later - Cornyn thinks it's a great idea to "change" strategy even while he still believes the current strategy is working.
Cornyn's hypocrisy resembles that of Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), who called Bush's Iraq announcement "wise," after criticizing Warner's plan as "irresponsible."
When a highly regarded military expert like Senator John Warner suggests a small troop drawdown, Cornyn calls it "curious;" but, when the same proposal comes out of Bush's mouth, Cornyn gushes over it.
John Cornyn is not an independent voice for Texas' families. He is clearly a rubber stamp for the failed policies of the Bush administration. (For those keeping score, Bush's approve-disapprove in Texas last clocked in at a sorry 41-57.) And Iraq, to John Cornyn, is just a political calculation, nothing more.
Most of us know that, on Monday of this week, MoveOn.org took out an ad in the New York Times questioning the accuracy, veracity, and trustworthiness of General Petraeus' reporting on the status of violence in Iraq and the progress (or lack thereof) of the surge. You can see the ad for yourself here.
Well, questioning our leaders might be all well and good according to the Constitution, but it didn't sit well with Senator John Cornyn. So what did ole' Box Turtle do? He filed a resolution in the U.S. Senate condemning the MoveOn.org ad, saying:
"Even by the standards of the poisonous atmosphere in Washington, this ad is out of bounds," Cornyn said. "It is character assassination of the first order."
OK, so John doesn't like it when people call General Petraeus names - so much so that he's willing to file a Senate resolution over it.
So my question is: What will John Cornyn do in response to Petraeus' boss, CENTCOM Chief Admiral William Fallon, calling Petraeus out:
Fallon told Petraeus [in March] that he considered him to be "an ass-kissing little chickensh*t" and added, "I hate people like that", the sources say.
Surely, John Cornyn won't stand for that kind of "character assassination of the first order" by Admiral Fallon. So, when can we expect Cornyn to call for Admiral Fallon's resignation? (Or could Cornyn have just been doing some political grandstanding against MoveOn.org? Hmmmm...)
(The Republican Party has spend two decades talking about American values, problem is the Republican Party doesn't practice what it preaches. - promoted by Matt Glazer)
Does it seem like there's a new Republican scandal in the news every single week? Well, that may be because there is.
That seems like an awful lot of corruption, scandal, hypocrisy, impropriety, and jail-worthy crime, huh? A lot of corruption. One might say an entire Culture of Corruption.
