Friday Potpourri: 2008 Election, Abramoff, Iraq

On the 2008 election front, Deborah White believes that the decision not to run for president makes former Virginia Governor Mark Warner "one of two leading candidates for the 2008 Democratic vice-presidential nomination." The other, she believes, is retired Army General Wesley Clark.

More on the Jack Abramoff scandal. A Senate Finance Committee report, written by the Democratic staff, documents questionable activities between Abramoff and five conservative non-profit organizations. (pdf) The activities range from paid services (editorial writing and placement, like this one) to "laundering" money.

The groups are Americans for Tax Reform, run by long-time Abramoff associate Grover Norquist, founded in 1985; Citizens Against Government Waste, founded in 1984; the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy (co-founded in 1998 by Norquist and Gale Norton before she became Secretary of the Interior); the National Center for Public Policy Research, founded in 1982; and Toward Tradition, founded in 1991.

What I want to know: why did the Republicans have no official statement -- one way or the other -- on this report?

The Senate Finance Chair, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-IA), reportedly "authorized" the report but remains mum. A staffer said he "did not co-write the report because he had hoped it would include a broader range of groups that he believes also breached their tax status. A [Sen. Max] Baucus [MT] aide said the Democratic staff did not object to a broader review." Were there any liberal nonprofits in a position to help Abramoff politically? If so, I concur. If not, it seems a strawman argument.

America's number one ally in Iraq criticizes the war. UK Chief of the General Staff Sir Richard Dannatt says British soliders in Iraq "exacerbates the security problems." He told the Daily Mail that post-war planning was "poor, probably based more on optimism than sound planning."

These criticisms are not new. What's new is the source, Britain. Dannatt assumed this leadership role in August.

In a followup TV interview, Dannatt said he "stood by the comments in the Mail, though some of his remarks were taken out of context." See the Mail story; you be the judge. The Mail also reported:

"The original intention was that we put in place a liberal democracy that was an exemplar for the region, was pro-West and might have a beneficial effect on the balance within the Middle East,'' he said, according to the Mail report. "That was the hope, whether that was a sensible or naïve hope history will judge. I don't think we are going to do that. I think we should aim for a lower ambition."

One poll shows that "54 percent of Britons interviewed said the troops should be withdrawn from Iraq this year."