God’s Still Up There

* josh has a new baby. congratulations.

* laura:

"One thing you may not know about Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tx), now being considered as a compromise candidate to chair the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), is that he joined his friend and colleague, outgoing congressman Curt Weldon at a meeting with infamous Iran Contra arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar, against the advice of the Agency, and without informing the U.S. ambassador in Paris, as is proper protocol. "

* digby:

"This could be the most fertile time for investigative reporting since Watergate --- Republicans are talking out of school for the first time in six long years. And the Democrats have the investigative tools to get to information that's been hidden. It should be great moment for DC journalism if DC journalism actually existed. Instead we are already back in the truthiness and fake news business, which they do very badly (particularly since we now have professional comedians who do truthiness and fake news far more entertainingly than these witless bores could ever hope to.)"

* pincus:

"Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) spelled out his agenda for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence yesterday, promising not only to look back at issues such as the surveillance of overseas phone calls, CIA detention activities and the use of prewar Iraq intelligence but also to look ahead at emerging global terrorist threats. Rockefeller will become chairman of the committee in January."

* TP:

"Inhofe: Don’t Worry About Global Warming Because ‘God’s Still Up There’

In an interview with Fox and Friends this morning, outgoing Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works James Inhofe (R-OK) argued that the current wave of unprecedented warming is due to “natural changes.” “God’s still up there,” Inhofe said, and to the extent there is warming going on, it is “due to the sun.” He added, “George Soros, the Hollywood elitists, the far left environmentalists on the committee that I chair — all of them want us to believe the science is settled and it’s not.” "

* gilliard:

"Junior and Rove are a team, they have been for years. But Poppy never much liked him. Something about him was off. He had his uses, but if Junior is to be saved, things must change. While Bush doesn't want Rove to take credit for everything, Poppy Bush wants him gone.

And Poppy Bush is the decider here.

So while Atrios may doubt it, I think Rove and Cheney are not long for the WH. Why? Poppy's men want them out of the way. They are in crisis mode, desperate to save Junior. Because someone just realized that the house committees are unfriendly ground for them.

Junior wants to fight, but he's got no cards left. None.

And if you think Bush is gonna fight for Rove, think again. He'll fight to save his mommies, but Rove? Nope. He'll let him take all the blame. Because that's what he does. Other people fail. Not Junior. This time, it's Rove.

Why? Because between Poppy's friends and his mommies, Rove is his Falstaff. Fun when things are easy, but disposed of when things are hard. Junior is going to avoid blame as long as he can.

It won't work, of course, Junior's likely to collapse in a bundle of bourbon fueled rage any day now, in tears, crying in Condi's lap. But this is the last ditch effort."