The National Journal‘s Ron Fournier, however, was not convinced by the internal review, calling it a “whitewash report.”

“We saw what happened with the IRS scandal with you have your own person investigate yourself, nobody believes it, it’s not credible,” he explained. “This was basically his attorney declaring his innocence, and the public trial is about to begin. And the public trial is going to be ugly.”

As host Chris Wallace tried to call on another panelist, Rove interrupted: “It’s a direct attack! I have a right to response!”

“How can it be a whitewash,” The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberly Strassel agreed.

“Because it’s done on his behalf,” Fournier said. “And it didn’t talk to half the people you have to talk to.”

Strassel argued that the law firm hired by Christie would not have whitewashed the report because “so many reputations” were at stake.

“That’s what attorneys do all the time,” Fournier insisted. “That is exactly what defense attorneys do when they defend clients.”

“I grant you that this does not exonerate him,” Rove remarked. “But I think you’re missing — this is part of a process. And now we have a third party that has looked at all this information and gushed it out!”

“It’s not a third party!” Fournier observed.

“Yes, it is a third party,” Rove shot back.

In conclusion, Wallace noted that Rove, Strassel and Fournier were the “least collegial panel I’ve ever seen.”


see video at:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/30/karl-rove-loses-it-after-fox-guest-calls-chris-christie-report-a-whitewash/

Darrell Issa held another faux hearing Wednesday to pretend he really wants Lois Lerner to testify, but this time Democrats were ready for him.

Rep. Gerry Connolly was magnificent. Watch the video, starting at about 4 minutes in to see him in action. He made it abundantly clear that he was deeply concerned about the IRS' unilateral decision to undermine the law establishing 501(c)(4) organizations by interpreting the word "exclusively" to mean "primarily," and he used a terrific analogy to make his point.

"Now if I said to my spouse, 'Honey, we have an exclusive relationship' and I mean by that 49 percent, I'd probably have problems in my relationship." Connolly circled in on that, saying "To her, and to me, exclusively means 'just you.' All the time. 100 percent." Then the zinger. "So how in the world did we get to a situation where the IRS, on its own, outside of statutory authority, decided to interpret this as primarily? Because to me, that's part of the problem."

snip.......

Then Connolly swoops in for the kill. "Because clearly some of these organizations are not exclusively social welfare agents. Clearly they're designed to be political. Partisanly political."



http://crooksandliars.com/2014/03/darrell-issa-irs-kangaroo-court-convened

Plouffe, who was Obama’s campaign manager in 2008 and oversaw the reelection bid as White House senior adviser, put the onus back on the Democrats. Democrats didn’t lose the special election because the Republicans had an insurmountable advantage in the district. They lost because they couldn’t get enough voters — the ones who backed Obama in 2012 — to the polls. Plouffe called the loss a “screaming siren” for the fall. As he put it, “We have a turnout issue.”


http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democrats-face-turnout-problem-dissatisfaction-in-ranks-leading-to-november-elections/2014/03/18/5133e28e-aeb2-11e3-b8b3-44b1d1cd4c1f_story.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpol

Which raises the question: why in the world was the Christie administration going to such lengths to obscure such basic facts about the selection process as which committee members awarded which sky-high scores to MWW? Morris, the head of Sigma Group, has a pretty good hunch: that the administration is doing anything it can to cover up the fact that the selection process had been essentially rigged from the get-go, which is the thought that came to her when she got to see the proposal from MWW.







http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117066/christies-stronger-storm-jersey-shore-post-sandy-ad-cover

No GOTV!

No winning. Goodbye Senate! No chance of winning the house!

From "Crooks and Liars . Com".

It's my fondest wish that Bernie runs in the Democratic primary -- or the general. We have to find a way to get a more populist message through the thick skulls of the Democratic leadership. Here's part of an interview he just did for The Nation's John Nichols:

Snip..........

What you seem to be saying is that, as a presidential candidate, you would try to make the very difficult combination of not just being a personality that people would like, or at least want to vote for, but also educate people about what is possible.

Sen. Bernie Sanders 'Prepared' To Run For President http://shar.es/RbkEF via @sharethis

President Obama seems to be out gunned and drowning under the intense GOP war being waged against him and his administration. Does his staff understand how to go on the offense? Playing defense does not win PR wars.

So what I wonder is why the president is pushing the T.P.P. at all. The economic case is weak, at best, and his own party doesn’t like it. Why waste time and political capital on this project?
My guess is that we’re looking at a combination of Beltway conventional wisdom — Very Serious People always support entitlement cuts and trade deals — and officials caught in a 1990s time warp, still living in the days when New Democrats tried to prove that they weren’t old-style liberals by going all in for globalization. Whatever the motivations, however, the push for T.P.P. seems almost weirdly out of touch with both economic and political reality.









http://crooksandliars.com/2014/03/krugman-gets-informed-changes-his-tune-tpp