Bush Teleconference With Soldiers Staged

The tide has truly turned. The news is not that Bush held a news- conference where the questions were staged, after all, there's a history of this, most notably on the 2004 campaign trail with the carefully screened crowds and such. (read the whole thing, it's short and pretty funny.)

Bush Teleconference With Soldiers Staged

It was billed as a conversation with U.S. troops, but the questions President Bush asked on a teleconference call Thursday were choreographed to match his goals for the war in Iraq and Saturday's vote on a new Iraqi constitution.

The real news is that this made the AP's third top story. I think this shows kind of what I was talking about here, as to the possible broader implications of the Plame investigation reaching the upper echelons of the whitehouse.(check the first update. Even if Cheney's not directly implicated, I believe the premise of a weakened whitehouse being besieged by score-settlers will play out.)

There seems to be no more fear of this administration, which had previously wielded it's powers of intimidation so very, very well. This article is reversed from almost all the coverage that came previously. The information the administration wanted to get out is all buried at the bottom, while all the unflattering context is presented as the lead. (and headline)

Don't believe me? Look at the shot the CIA fired yesterday in their long running vendetta with the Bush administration after being blamed for the pre war intelligence.

WASHINGTON — A newly released report published by the CIA rebukes the Bush administration for not paying enough attention to prewar intelligence that predicted the factional rivalries now threatening to split Iraq.

Policymakers worried more about making the case for the war, particularly the claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, than planning for the aftermath, the report says. The report was written by a team of four former CIA analysts led by former deputy CIA director Richard Kerr.

"In an ironic twist, the policy community was receptive to technical intelligence (the weapons program), where the analysis was wrong, but apparently paid little attention to intelligence on cultural and political issues (post-Saddam Iraq), where the analysis was right," they write.

I don't think the Bush administration has much time to right this ship. And I think the Mier's nomination grumbling is the start of their complete loss of control.

Watch the politics around the torture provision the senate attached to the defense appropriations bill. Bush threatened to veto the whole bill if it was attached, but it passed 90-9 (see this post to see the senators who voted to continue the current practices.) Early indications were that the House leadership would not support it and would get it removed in conference, but as the Bush political fortunes fade, as well as their ability to do favors, raise funds, and offer protection, I would bet that the House leadership may have a hard time killing this. Is standing for Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo really the platform you want to run on for reelection, Mr. Congressman?

To quote so many others, get out the popcorn, the show is just about to begin.

UPDATE: Check this out from Atrios.

CNN just showed a bit of the pre-interview clip. Rough transcript of Pentagon flunky addressing the troops:

The president's going to ask some questions and he may ask all 6 of them, all 3 of them. He might have such a great time talking to you. He might come up with some new questions. So what we want to be prepared for is to not stutter. If there's a question that the president comes up with that we haven't drilled through today I expect the microphone to go through to you Captain Kennedy.

It's all coming apart, Rove is out, and there is no more fear.

Update 2: If you're a debater or a political nerd like me and like reading, or watching the McClellan press gaggles, the one today was an absolute doozie. We've got questions on the staged teleconference listed above, a sharp exchange on Plame indictments, and some pretty pointed questions on just what the president means when he says "a free and democratic Iraq."

Excerpts, and a link to the video, from Holden here.

Update 3: check out the DoD press release assuring us that we did not see what we saw, and that we don't love the troops if we think it was staged.