The Iraqi prisoner torture isn't all that bad for Bush....

[Wetzelbill]

Why? Because, it takes the focus off of a number of other issues. It has largely overwhelmed the release of Joseph Wilson's book and the seditious outing of his CIA agent wife Valerie Plame. Bush gets to stand up and pretend to be "abhorred" and act like a strong leader, in the face of these actions. Meanwhile nobody is asking anything else about his military records. The reverberations over his Kerry attack ads and his underling hitmen has been quelled significantly. When questions regarding pre-war intelligence manipulations and the Fallujah debacle should be getting hammered home, we get Bush giving out a soundbite forcefully stating that "we will get to the bottom of this."

Sure, Abu Grhaib is another ugly facet of Bush and his think-tank warriors's war gone wrong, but he is able to spin it to take attention off of other more damaging and more important problems.

[KharmaTrain]

1. It's A Book, Not Indictments

Let's see what Fitzgerald comes out with...right now this story deserves all the attention it can get. We need to break the logjam surrounding this regime's actions in Iraq and their inability to assume ANY responsibility. Right now forcing them to confront the torture of Iraqis, the exposure of their hypocrisies about how they operate and how Hussein did, the wrath of the Arab world and so on. Right now, this regime is doing its best to fan the flames on this issue, which, I hope, will call into question a lot of others.

We both agree that the Wilson/Plame situation is a major scandal and those who broke laws need to be exposed, indicted and then tried. But while we're at it, there's profiteers, chickenhawks and lots of others we need to pull in front of grand juries, too.

Joe Wilson is out publicizing a book...and keep in mind how Clarke was eaten alive and the distortion on his profits detracted from his messages. In due time I expect we'll find out the entire Affaire L'Plame...as Joe has said, there's not that many people involved here.

[Squeech]

2. Except that it confirms his criminal tendencies

I've been arguing on DU as long as I've been here that the crimes of this administration and its corporate collaborators are the key issue.

Americans do appreciate boldness, directness, simplicity, and all those other virtues Rove has taught Smirkboy how to simulate. But they (we) don't approve of conniving, backstabbing or cheating. (Not everybody yet agrees that Florida 2000 was cheating, but most people will accept that skipping out on National Guard duty wasn't cool.)

I think Kerry needs to tie together a pattern of behavior that shows how the Bush gang really have no respect for the rule of law or basic tenets of fairness. Enron, Valerie Plame, gagging the Medicare actuary, reallocating money and materiel from Afghanistan to Iraq without bothering to mention it to Congress, changing the original source review rules so power plants can pollute endlessly-- it's all part of the pattern.

[Bandit]

3. Meanwhile nobody is asking anything else about his military records.

There is still time and believe me the Democrats are not through with Bush*'s military record. It is something the whole Bush* Cabal is very weak on and we won't let up on it until the last vote is counted.