Seditionist Roundup

"[L]efty literary luminary" Kurt Vonnegut used his address at Ohio State University last week to call George W. Bush "the syphilis president" and assert that "The only difference between Bush and Hitler is that Hitler was elected."

Meanwhile, one of Vonnegut's elected fellow travelers, Wisconsin Donk Senator Russ Feingold, said on ABC's This Week yesterday that Congress needs to censure Bush as a possible first step towards impeachment for authorizing the wiretapping of terrorists based in America, adding that Bush's alleged lawbreaking was "much more serious, clearly, than anything Bill Clinton ever did."

In an unusually ungentlemanly riposte, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist fired back:

"Russ is just wrong. He is flat wrong. He is dead wrong," Frist fumed....minutes after Feingold announced his censure plan on the same show.

The top Republican complained: "As I was listening to it, I was hoping deep inside that the leadership in Iran and other people who really have the U.S. not in their best interests, were not listening because of the terrible, terrible signal it sends."

Asked if he thought Feingold's censure resolution "actually weakened America abroad," Frist told This Week host George Stephanopoulos, "Yes."

"We are right now in a war, in an unprecedented war - where we do have people who really want to take us down . . . So the signal that is sends, that there is in any way a lack of support for our Commander-in-Chief, who is leading us with a bold vision in a way that we know is making our homeland safer, is wrong."

Mark Levin was even less gentlemanly in his response to Feingold's proposed coup de 'tat today. But then, unlike Fristy, that's in his job description. Which, of course, is what makes it such a must-read.

I'd only toss in the observation that if we're hit again, a la 9/11 or worse, it'll be people like Vonnegut and Feingold who'll be the first to blame George W. Bush for letting it happen. Heck, remember the public 9/11 commission hearings? It's not like they haven't done so before.

UPDATE: Blogs for Bush is calling for the censure of Senator Feingold himself; I'll certainly drink to that.

But only if Feingold is first in a very comprehensive line....

UPDATE II: If Feingold's were a Broadway show, it would already have shut its doors:

Democrats distanced themselves Monday from Wisconsin Senator Russell Feingold's effort to censure President Bush over domestic spying....

Feingold's fellow Democrats [feld for the tall grass] Monday, with several saying they wanted first to see the Senate Intelligence Committee finish an investigation of the warrantless wiretapping program that Bush authorized as part of his war on terrorism.

Asked at a news conference whether he would vote for the censure resolution, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada declined to endorse it and said he hadn't read it.

Senator Joe Lieberman, D-CT, said he had not read it either and wasn't inclined simply to scold the President.

"I'd prefer to see us solve the problem," Lieberman told reporters.

Across the Capitol, reaction was similar. Feingold's resolution drew empathy but no outright support from [House Minority] Leader Nancy Pelosi.

And so on. According to Double-H, Arlen Specter made himself useful for a change and challenged Feingold on his censure/impeachment gambit right there on the Senate floor, and Feingold {snicker} cut & ran.

Say, isn't Feingold thinking of running for president in 2008? Ditto Slow Joe Biden, who yesterday debuted his Jack Murtha impersonation.

Hmmmm.....

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As another ignominous postscript to the blessedly averted DPW deal, Dr. Demented said something quasi-intelligent about the GWOT in the Dem response to the President's weekly radio address.

And Dubaifiles wonder why congressional Republicans "panicked"?

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Here's another entry in the Dave Berry Memorial "I Swear I'm Not Making This Up" file: CBS' Bob Schieffer used his Face The Nation commentary to demand that U.S. military leaders "stop blaming the media for negative coverage of the Iraq war."

It seems that last week on Meet The Press, JCS Chairman General Pace said the reason the public's support for the war seems to be waning is because the Extreme Media is only reporting the negative news. Like that's some kind of new revelation.

"What they’re seeing is the same bomb going off every 15 minutes on television, as opposed to having an opportunity to see all of what’s happening in Iraq," Pace complained. "I believe that the American people who are able to see all that is happening in Iraq would understand much better that progress is being made."

This - a balanced, unbiased reporting of the Iraq reconstruction - is what Schieffer dismissed as "sugar-coating." Well, at least Schieffer isn't bothering to "sugar-coat" the EM's anti-Ameican agenda.

Meanwhile, "Newly translated Iraqi documents from Saddam Hussein's regime show that President Bush was factually accurate when he told the nation in his 2003 State of the Union Address that Iraq had recently sought uranium from Africa." But don't expect Bob Schieffer's deep-seeded leanings toward press hypoglycemia to allow him to make mention of this little revisionist detail.

UPDATE 3/14: Ralph Peters explodes more Extreme Media myths about the new Iraq.

STILL ANOTHER UPDATE: The President has finally authorized the public release of the vast treasure trove of Saddamite documents and audio tapes his Administration has been sitting on for nearly three years. "Treasure trove" since the pittance that has been released thus far significantly vindicates the invasion, and by implication bolsters the case for additional invasions that need desperately to be undertaken.

Better late than never, I suppose. But what in the blue hell was he waiting for? Saddam's permission?

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While Darth Queeg continues his efforts to get back behind his Supreme Chancellor McCain mask, Paul Krugman is doing his part to aid "Sailor's" efforts by trying to out him as [*GASP*] a conservative!

D'ya think the libs don't want to see the "Arizona maverick"'s presidential pretentions tear the GOP apart? I'd wager Krugman is already salting away his "President McCain a pleasant surprise, under assault from the Extreme Right" columns for future reference.

UPDATE 3/14: Jed Babbin didn't fail to notice Krugman's efforts to sell McCain to the GOP base, either.

ONE MORE UPDATE: Was McCain sucking up to Bush because he feared he was going to get skunked in that SRLC straw poll?