Biting the Little Apple and Ending up in Sin City

We have a couple of reports from MLW correspondents around the country. But first some fun facts from this week's election.

Number of women now in the House of Representatives: 70
Number of women now in the Senate: 16
Percent of women voters: 51
Percent of women who voted Democrat: 55

To paraphrase, Emily's List, when women vote, we all win.

The Little Apple Report
Let's head over to the Little Apple where Micaela Johnson and classmates were refused entry to the Landon Lecture series where deposed Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld spoke to a very small crowd. Despite some difficulties with entry, Micaela was undeterred - she went back to her room and watched on KSU TV. She reports that Mr. Rumsfeld was low-key, didn't say much of anything, and when asked what advice he would give to a college student, he answered, "Study history."

Hello pot -kettle here.

After the sparsely-attended lecture, Mr. Rumsfeld, sporting his usual non-reality based perspective of events, insisted his speech was putting the Little Apple on the map.

Perhaps, you'll also put Germany on the map when its top prosecutor file charges against you for war crimes for your alleged role in abuses committed at LIEraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Tom Bednar, wins our Landon Lecture Series trivia question by identifying Senator Robert Kennedy, D-New York, as the speaker in March, 1968. Sen. Kennedy, not the architect of a failed war based on lies, didn't find it necessary to disparage the Little Apple after his speech.

More Revisionist History
I am always annoyed when W is compared to HW, his father. Somehow, 41 has become this revered saint of diplomacy and progressive foreign policy. From the Wimp Factor to Mission Accomplished - seems to me the apple didn't fall too far from the tree.

As King Spook, HW served during the reign of America's most famous war criminal, Henry Kissinger. Mr. Kissinger's latest war advice to to W and Dick-I-had-other-priorities-Cheney was, "Victory over the insurgency is the only meaningful exit strategy."

Kinda like our victory in Vietnam over the North Vietnamese insurgency.

HW gets all kinds of props for the victorious Gulf War: a war we were fighting on behalf of a country, Kuwait, in which women were not allowed to vote, against a country to whose dictator, Sadam Hussein, we had supplied arms. Just like LIEraq, the justification for the Gulf War changed over the course of the build-up to invasion. From freedom fighting to stopping Saddam's potential invasion of Saudi Arabia (now there's a country with a spotless human rights record) to the original, weapons of mass destruction.

How quickly we forget.

James Baker, Secretary of State under HW, gets all sorts of platitudes for being King Diplomat. As former senior counsel to the Carlyle Group, Mr. Baker certainly has an interesting background as does his former employer.

Nothing unseemly, of course, just a lot of old, white men from the Reagan, Bush 41, and Bush 43 administrations (including King Spook HW) making a whole lot of money off war. And per usual, a scant few of them or their spawn have ever actually fought in a war.

Imagine if Hillary Clinton had these same business associations. Ken Starr would whip out that same checkbook that allowed $70 million dollars for the Whitewater investigation. Compare that to the $12 million allocated to investigate the worst attack in U.S. history, September 11.

And what was the verdict in Whitewater? Anyone, anyone, anyone? Bueller?

Final Stop: Sin City
Now let's head over to Sin City where our MLW correspondent, Paul Bednar, had a political sighting. As he looked up from his game of craps at the Mirage (so did you win, dude?) he recognized the guy at the table next to him as none other than, Ray Nagin, Republican-turned-Democrat and former Bush supporter, Mayor of NOLA.

Ray got his share of blame for Katrina - some of it deserved. Ray didn't do himself any favors in Spike Lee's When the Levees Broke when he recounts taking his time showering on Air Force One before he meets W. As Paulie said, "Dude should've met W and the national media just as he was -let everyone see and smell Katrina up close."


On the other hand, his radio interview sounded the alarm in a way that no politician ever has. Between this and Anderson Cooper's emotional report, everyone finally understood how bad it was and that it couldn't be ignored any longer. And finally, it was General Honore, that "John Wayne dude" to the temporary rescue.

Fact check: John Wayne, like so many of Republicans, never served a single day in the Armed Forces, even though he was a part of the Greatest Generation (a term I can't stand - used to romanticize war - but that's another post.)