Rothman

Coming to Newark

Barack Obama will be at the Prudential Center at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, NJ on October 22, 2007. Doors open at 4:15 pm. $25 General Admission, $15 Student Admission (with valid ID).

• New Jersey
• Barack Obama

Hiding in GITMO for Protection

Steve Rothman appeared on the Dan Abrams Show to discuss the statement that the Bush Administration is providing “historic protection” for the “unlawful combatants” storehoused at GITMO:

A Democratic plan to get out of Iraq?

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• President Bush

Fighting them where?

Mike Kelly at the Bergen Record is reporting that the FBI believes Al-Qaida associates are in New Jersey:

The FBI’s elite Joint Terrorism Task Force in Newark says it is not only monitoring a number of North Jersey residents with ties to al-Qaida, but that agents have quietly “disrupted” their activities and even deported a few.

These glimpses into North Jersey’s war on terrorism, from a series of interviews with task force leaders, come on the heels of revelations last summer that Bin Laden’s terror network had regained strength. But that rebuilding was thought to have taken place overseas.

This is the first time since the 9/11 attacks that FBI counterterror officials have revealed an al-Qaida presence in North Jersey.

So if we are “fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here” - then why are they over here? If our presence in Iraq isn’t keeping them “over there”; then what are we doing over there anyway?

• New Jersey

Get Out of Iraq

Steve Rothman appeared on the Dan Abrams Show on MSNBC last night to discuss a Democratic plan to get out of Iraq:

Take a look.

A Democratic plan to get out of Iraq?

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• Steve Rothman

Unhappy Anniversary

Five years ago today the US Congress voted to give President Bush the authority to use force in Iraq:

God help us. This has to end.

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• Barack Obama

Can Divisive Partisanship Heal Divisive Partisanship?

According to the Washington Post, Hillary Clinton is now claiming that she can heal the partisan rift in Washington. Why? I dunno - I guess because she is one of the most divisive figures in politics?

“I really think my experience uniquely equips me to be president at this time, both having gone through it, having been on the receiving end of it and — in campaigns that were hard-fought — maybe on the giving end of it . . .,” she said.

“The overall assessment, given all of the mistakes that I made and all of the lessons that I’ve learned, is that we’ve got to put an end to it, but you can’t just hope it goes away,” she said. “You can’t just wake up and say, ‘Let’s all just hold hands and be together.’ You’ve got to demonstrate that you’re not going to be cowed or intimidated or deterred by it, and then you can reach out and bring people who are of good faith together.”

So the way to end bickering is to first engage in it whole heartedly (to show that you aren’t afraid of it), then to magically rise above it and reach out to the people with whom you’ve been bickering.

Why am I not buying this?

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• Barack Obama

The GOP Looks at…the GOP

Dan Bartlett, former White House counsel for President Bush, is not impressed with the GOP Presidential hopefuls:

Bartlett was harshest in his judgment of Thompson, the former Tennessee senator who jumped into the contest a month ago and faces his first televised debate today. Thompson, Bartlett said, was the “biggest dud” because he peaked last spring when he first started talking about running and since then has yet to articulate a compelling vision for why he is running. “The biggest liability was whether he had the fire in the belly to run for office in the first place and be president,” Bartlett said. “So what does he do? He waits four months, fires a bunch of staff, has a big staff turnover, has a lot of backbiting, comes out with his big campaign launch and gives a very incoherent and not very concise stump speech for why he’s running for president.”

snip

His judgment of Romney was only somewhat less negative. While crediting the former Massachusetts governor with the “best strategy and organization” born out of his “business acumen,” Bartlett said “the flip-flopping on positions” stemmed from a miscalculation that the primary field would be more conservative than it proved to be.

snip

The only top-tier candidate Bartlett did not criticize was Rudy Giuliani, whom he credited with the “best message,” particularly because the former New York mayor has kept his focus on attacking Democrats, not fellow Republicans, which serves as an effective distraction from his own liberal positions on guns, gays and abortion.

So the best candidate is the one with the least to say? This is a good thing in what way?

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