Ellison Uses Thomas Jefferson's Quran
By FREDERIC J. FROMMER
The Associated Press
Thursday, January 4, 2007; 8:18 PM

Ellison approached Goode on the House floor Thursday, introducing himself and offering to meet for coffee. According to Ellison, Goode said he'd be interested in doing that. The subject of Goode's comments didn't come up, Ellison said.

"Look, we're trying to build bridges," Ellison said. "We're trying to help bring about understanding. We don't want issues of misunderstanding and division to exist if they don't have to."

Goode's office did not immediately return phone and e-mail messages for comment.

I wouldn't have done it. I would not turn down HIS offer to reconcile but Goode was the idiot here. There was no misunderstanding of his intent.

'Assassination' schedule announced for Congress
Radio-show host says leaders won't be allowed to 'betray' nation
Posted: December 6, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

A radio talk-show entertainer whose earlier statements that he "may" have to assassinate members of Congress if the wrong people were elected Nov. 7 now has set a timetable for those killings.

In a statement on his website, Hal Turner noted that a newspaper has reported that a bill granting amnesty to illegal aliens is expected to be enacted in January, when the Democratic Party takes control of the U.S. Senate and House.

"ANY MEMBER OF CONGRESS WHO INTRODUCES, CO-SPONSORS OR VOTES IN FAVOR OF ANY SUCH AMNESTY WILL BE DECLARED A DOMESTIC ENEMY AND WILL BE CONSIDERED A LEGITIMATE TARGET FOR ASSASSINATION," Turner posted on his website.

I'll never be a politician. You gotta wrap every word in a damn floral arrangement and set the whole mess on top of a bible, even when you're totally on point.

I just heard "our magnificent Senator" applauded for walking into the room.

That's the floral arrangement...and I understand it. I caught my nephew watching Oprah, when our magnificent Senator was on the show. His reaction? "I like this guy." My nephew's political interest is inversely proportional to mine.

But you know me...I got no respect for persons. 

I do not blame my critics for subscribing to a politics of scarcity and intolerance.

Choose Generosity, Not Exclusion

Somewhere in Minneapolis or Jackson or Baltimore, somewhere in America today, there is a young couple that is feeling vulnerable. Maybe one has been laid off due to outsourcing, and maybe, the other is working for something close to a minimum wage. They probably have no medical benefits. Today real income is lower for the typical family than in 2000, while the incomes of the wealthiest families have grown significantly. Things are tough for working people, but in America, we often turn to our faith in tough times.

But a dick nonetheless.

But wait. Ronald Blackwell, the AFL-CIO's chief economist, tells the New York Times that state minimum-wage differences entice companies to shift jobs to lower-wage states. So: States' rights are bad, after all, at least concerning -- let's use liberalism's highest encomium -- diversity of economic policies.

In The Right Minimum Wage he shows typical rich guy near-sightedness.

Democrats consider the minimum-wage increase a signature issue. So, consider what it says about them:

Most of the working poor earn more than the minimum wage, and most of the 0.6 percent (479,000 in 2005) of America's wage workers earning the minimum wage are not poor. Only one in five workers earning the federal minimum lives in families with earnings below the poverty line. Sixty percent work part time, and their average household income is well over $40,000. (The average and median household incomes are $63,344 and $46,326, respectively.)

This probably isn't the part of the article that makes their readers feel all warm inside. 

Segregation's mark is clear in his protective reserve. "He is guarded.... Emotionally you never throw that off," said Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.).

"I wasn't born this way," Mr. Clyburn says. "I taught myself to be as reserved as I am in order to survive."

Rep. Clyburn could not have said anything that I can relate to more. And you know that old saw about greatness being thrust upon you? It's true sometimes.

As a boy, Mr. Clyburn dreamed of being in politics, despite warnings from older blacks to keep his ambitions in check. The civil-rights movement thrust him forward in college, when he was arrested several times for demonstrations. In an early case, the late Rev. I. DeQuincey Newman, a mentor and South Carolina civil-rights activist, picked him to take the stand at the trial after Mr. Clyburn and other black students were arrested during an Orangeburg, S.C., demonstration.

It was common then for Southern newspapers to print the names of black student protesters on the front page, inviting retaliation against their families. Rev. Newman argued that in a white society the Clyburn family was safe from economic retribution: "Your daddy is a minister and he ain't preaching to no white people. Your mother is a beautician and she's fixing no white folks' hair. You're independent of the system. Nobody gets fired. So you're it."

Clyburn Leads Southern Blacks' Ascent To Top Posts in Congress
By DAVID ROGERS
January 3, 2007; Page A5

WASHINGTON -- In this time of change in Congress, Rep. James Clyburn, a minister's son from South Carolina, takes his place tomorrow as the House Majority Whip -- the No. 3 Democratic post and highest ever held by an African-American from a Southern district.

The 66-year-old Mr. Clyburn, who was 25 before the Voting Rights Act was enacted, symbolizes the rise of a set of Southern black lawmakers, shaped by the region and with a distinctive approach to politics separate from that of black leaders representing urban Northern districts.

Anne Kornblut of the New York Times asked McHenry if his complaint might come across as whining.

"I'm not whining," he whined.

In the House, Suddenly Righteous Republicans
By Dana Milbank
Thursday, January 4, 2007; A02

Thirty-one-year-old Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) is not a large man, standing perhaps 5 feet 3 inches tall in thick soles. But he packed a whole lot of chutzpah when he walked into the House TV gallery yesterday to demand that the new Democratic majority give the new Republican minority all the rights that Republicans had denied Democrats for years.

"The bill we offer today, the minority bill of rights, is crafted based on the exact text that then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi submitted in 2004 to then-Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert," declared McHenry, with 10 Republican colleagues arrayed around him. "We're submitting this minority bill of rights, which will ensure that all sides are protected, that fairness and openness is in fact granted by the new majority." [P6: Your Republican ass should get all the minority protection your American Solid Southern ass support for minorities in real life]

Bush Signals Budget Accord
New Plan to Mirror Democrats' Goals
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 4, 2007; A01

President Bush promised yesterday to produce a plan to balance the federal budget in five years and challenged lawmakers to slash their special pet projects in half next year, embracing priorities of the new Democratic leadership that will assume control of Congress today.

How about slashing YOUR pet project in half? Or even all the way to zero, the way the public wants? 

Rob Portman, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, made a point of calling Democratic leaders Tuesday night to preview the president's remarks. In an interview yesterday, he said the shared target was a powerful signal of progress.

Shut up.

Republicans, who were only too happy to strong-arm and ignore Democrats when the GOP was in the majority, are now, of course, moaning about being abused. In a nice bit of political theater, they plan to offer Ms. Pelosi's own "Minority Bill of Rights" from 2004, which would provide for, among other things, "open, full and fair debate consisting of a full amendment process."

Democrats say that they'll adhere to their previous promises once their first flurry of business is finished. We look forward to that. But if they don't reconsider, they will set an unfortunate precedent that fairness will be offered on sufferance, when the majority finds it convenient, and not as a matter of principle. That would not be a good start for the 110th Congress.

Letting Republicans succeed in derailing the Congress would be a worse start.

...get a serious answer.

The question is

At a time when the mainstream media was incapable of raising any alarm against Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, two men whose demonstrable hostility to Affirmative Action and equal opportunity threaten to destroy the flimsy fabric of racial reconciliation and reverse the gains of the last 50 years, why is Barack Obama necessary to heal the wounds and absolve the sins of a deeply racist and imperialist nation like America?

If you listed to the Senator's speeches you will see a common theme. He runs sequetially through the various sufferage movements the nation has endured as though each came to a clean, elegant closure. He tells mainstream folks the serious problems are over and it's all a matter of incremental adjustments.

Qusan:

I just love it when intelligence triumphs over stupidity. It's just a hunch but I think Mr. Ellison is going to make quite a name for himself in Congress. He's been a perfect gentleman despite the ungentlemanly attacks on his faith and intentions. He's also showing himself to be quite brilliant.
Conservatives have repeatedly argued that Muslim Rep.-elect Keith Ellison’s (D-MN) decision to take an unofficial swearing-in photograph with his hand on the Koran was un-American.

Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) warned last month that “if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran.” Talk show host Dennis Prager said Ellison’s act “undermines American civilization.”

Save Judeo-Christian values
By Virgil Goode
2 hours, 23 minutes ago

A letter I sent in early December was written in response to hundreds of e-mails from constituents upset about Rep.-elect Keith Ellison's decision to use the Quran in connection with his congressional swearing-in. Their communications followed media reports that Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat, had said that he would swear on the Quran. He repeated that at a gathering of Muslims in Detroit on Dec. 26.

My letter did not call for a religious test for prospective members of Congress, as some have charged. Americans have the right to elect any person of their choosing to represent them. I indicated to my constituents that I did not subscribe to the Quran in any way, and I intended to use the Bible in connection with my swearing-in. I also stated that the Ten Commandments and "In God We Trust" are on the wall of my office, and I have no intention of displaying the Quran in my office. That is my choice, and I stand by my position and do not apologize for it.

No one asked you to.

When the Republicans decided to end the last session without finishing up critical business just to support their political ambitions they left little choice. They have no time to change the rules Republicans set up. Me, I'd make them live under their own rules for at least a year while pursuing what folks actually need. 

Democrats To Start Without GOP Input
Quick Passage of First Bills Sought
By Lyndsey Layton and Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, January 2, 2007; A01

As they prepare to take control of Congress this week and face up to campaign pledges to restore bipartisanship and openness, Democrats are planning to largely sideline Republicans from the first burst of lawmaking.

Seriously. I meant to post this yesterday. It was on in the background and I decided to record it at the last minute (DVRs are cool like that...as long as the show is still in the buffer you can get the whole show). Presidential scholars can save this clip to have a convenient list of all the terms of art and rhetorical flourishes used to sucker the Flyover Folk.

Close your eyes, chant "Weapons of Mass Destruction Program Related Activities at Poison Factories" three times, then watch.

If so, hit this link and subscribe to NPR: African-American Roundtable.

Roundtable: Victimization, Bush on Iraq and Politics

News & Notes, December 21, 2006 · Today's roundtable panel discusses victimization, President Bush's latest public remarks about Iraq, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH) leadership of the House Ethics Committee and the Federal Election Commission's prediction that the 2008 presidential race could cost candidates $1 billion.

These are the references The NY Times provides

• “Iran’s Leader Condemns Saudi Attacks,” The Washington Post, May 15, 2003
  (Articles on The Washington Post are preview only. Full versions require purchase.)
• “Time to Deal With Iran,” The Washington Post, May 6, 2004
• “Foreign Minister Briefs MP’s on Talks With the United States,” BBC Monitoring, May 20, 2003
• “In 2003, U.S. Spurned Iran’s Offer of Dialogue: Some Officials Lament Lost Opportunity,” The Washington Post, June 18, 2006
• “U.S. Ready to Resume Talks With Iran, Armitage Says,” The Washington Post, Oct. 29, 2003
• “U.S. Eyes Pressing Uprising in Iran: Officials Cite Al Qaeda’s Link, Nuclear Program,” The Washington Post, May 25, 2003
• “Iran, Afghanistan Juggle Hot Potato Hekmatyar,” Time, Feb. 23, 2002
• “The Gulf Between Us,” The New York Times, Jan. 24, 2006
• “Dealing with Tehran: Assessing U.S. Diplomatic Options Toward Iran,” (PDF) Century Foundation, Dec. 4, 2006
• “Iran, U.S. Holding Talks in Geneva,” USA Today, May 11, 2003
• “Mutual Terror Accusations Halt U.S.-Iran Talks,” USA Today, May 21, 2003
• “Press Briefing on Board Plane, En Route Moscow,” State Department Web site, Dec. 9, 2001

...with this op-ed.

What We Wanted to Tell You About Iran
By FLYNT LEVERETT and HILLARY MANN
Washington

HERE is the redacted version of a draft Op-Ed article we wrote for The Times, as blacked out by the Central Intelligence Agency’s Publication Review Board after the White House intervened in the normal prepublication review process and demanded substantial deletions. Agency officials told us that they had concluded on their own that the original draft included no classified material, but that they had to bow to the White House.

Indeed, the deleted portions of the original draft reveal no classified material. These passages go into aspects of American-Iranian relations during the Bush administration’s first term that have been publicly discussed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; former Secretary of State Colin Powell; former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage; a former State Department policy planning director, Richard Haass; and a former special envoy to Afghanistan, James Dobbins.

These aspects have been extensively reported in the news media, and one of us, Mr. Leverett, has written about them in The Times and other publications with the explicit permission of the review board. We provided the following citations to the board to demonstrate that all of the material the White House objected to is already in the public domain. Unfortunately, to make sense of much of our Op-Ed article, readers will have to read the citations for themselves.

Me, I got video of Mr. Leverett explaining what's going on.

Court Overturns Limits on Political Ads, Part of the Campaign Finance Law

...This case has been closely watched for several reasons. For one, organizations with quite disparate interests, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Rifle Association, the Chamber of Commerce and the conservative Club for Growth, have argued that they have a right to petition the government.

But political advertisements do not petition the government.

You want to know the truth, I'd like to see two new TV channels exclusively for political ads...one for national campaigns, one for state and local campaigns. Maybe one especially for issues advertising. We need some easily reversible way of isolating the crap.

This is the first question from today's year end press conference.

Check the body language. And check when he reads from the teleprompter. It's all Bushit.

At the risk of being told I have no life:

Obama's Future, Free of an American Past? by Steven Barnes

All Things Considered, December 11, 2006 · Commentator Steven Barnes argues that one of the reasons Sen. Barack Obama could be such an appealing candidate is that he doesn't carry the cultural baggage of slavery, since his father was an immigrant to the United States.

To be honest, I got issues with the good Senator. Consider:

When Ronald Reagan announced his Presidential run in 1980, he did it in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the town where three Civil Rights workers were killed. He faced Jimmy Carter in the general, a conservative white evangelical who had built up the military budget, deregulated the airlines and was set on more deregulatory moves, and engaged in a program of fiscal austerity in non-military areas. It was in this election though that Reagan pulled working class whites into the Republican camp, and solidified the Southern block so fully he did not have to run as a full-blown Dixiecrat. Reagan, a genial and sunny Californian, could have it both ways because he had proved to the base that he was 'with them'. Opening his campaign on a site that fully repudiated equal rights for blacks, that in a very real sense murdered liberals, was a way of saying to the emergent right-wing Confederate base that 'I am with you, I hate who you hate'. It was a more mature form of Goldwaterite racism and anti-dirty fucking hippy-ness. It was a statement that Reagan would play the role of President, but in a bar fight, in a close vote, where it really mattered, in all those small appointments, his sympathies would instinctively lean towards his base.

They trusted him, and they were rewarded. And the first thing Reagan did as President was to smash the Air Traffic Controllers union, a way of saying that he ran on a hopeful and sunny vision of America, unions not included. In other ways, like with the appointment of insane AG Ed Meese, a guy who brought us folks like Alito and really elevated the Federalist Society, Reagan stood with his base. He was the President of all the people, sure, but his political path was set upon removing liberals from positions of power and putting in place right-wing conservatives to replace them. But this did not just happen. Reagan ran on goring liberals, blacks, union members, and gays. He didn't do so overtly, but he spoke loud and clear if you were listening. And then he governed with this awful mandate that the people had given him.

We need our own anti-Reagan, our own leader to show that the right-wing turn of the last 30 years is over....

The way to gain my support in 2008 is to show that in a bar fight, your sympathies are with liberals and are set against the bullies that have been running the country for so long. You can run on anything you want, you can talk of unifying the country or any sort of conventional wisdom chatter. You don't have to speak to me directly all the time with everything you say. You can pander on video games or ethanol, or whatever you need. But you have to speak on some critical point, some piece of entrenched power, and promise that you are going to gore that conservative ox.

The key point about the progressive movement that has emerged over the past eight years is that we are a group of people that feel deeply betrayed by our elites. We feel that bullies have run roughshod over our country, and many of us bought your line that compromise with these bullies was the right strategy, until it became clear that you can't do business with these people. In order to unify the country, these bullies need to be pushed out of the way, corrected for, and only then can the healing start. Just as Reagan said he'd unify the country by pushing the liberals out of the way, we need someone who will unify the country by pushing irresponsible right-wing power centers out of the way. They crushed our unions, we need to crush their talk radio, you know, that kind of thinking.

If your typical mainstream progressive feels that way, I'd say Black folks are entitled to the same feeling, only an order of magnitude stronger.

BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHahahaha! I love it! Stole WAY too much of it... 

A few things came clear to me last night while I was cooking with my wife. I do enjoy bouncing ideas off her and it seems that having conversation with her, sharing ideas and experiences, is something that was missing from my long demonic life. As I was chopping langoustines in preparation for their saute it dawned on me exactly why so many people have been Googling the breasts of Nancy Pelosi. Carol's eyes twinkled as the seafood sizzled in the oil with four cloves of astac, the Hellac variation of garlic. "People want to see the breasts of government," I said triumphantly sending my very pregnant wife into convulsions of laughter that I thought would certainly cause her water to break. Gaining control of her breathing she was finally able to compose herself enough to speak.

W. James Antle: Speak truth to power
Conservative media are a disservice to their cause and other Republicans when they hide from reality and echo the party line
10:52 AM CST on Sunday, December 17, 2006

Plenty of spin and recriminations filled the air following the midterm elections, but Rush Limbaugh could still be heard above the din. Conservative talk radio's most powerful voice caused a minor stir by declaring he felt "liberated" by the Democratic victories. Mr. Limbaugh explained to his listeners, "I no longer am going to have to carry the water for people who I don't think deserve having their water carried."

Protest at SMU Targets Bush Library

The likelihood that the George W. Bush presidential library will be located at SMU has not been welcome news for at least one segment of the university community. A letter, dated December 16, from "Faculty, Administrators, & Staff" of the Perkins School of Theology to R. Gerald Turner, president of the Board of Trustees, is now circulating not only on the SMU campus but also among a wider academic community, urging the board to "reconsider and to rescind SMU's pursuit of the presidential library."

Texas Monthly has obtained a copy of this letter, which, as you might expect, focuses heavily on objections to Bush's policies: "We count ourselves among those who would regret to see SMU enshrine attitudes and actions widely deemed as ethically egregious: degradation of habeas corpus, outright denial of global warming, flagrant disregard for international treaties, alienation of long-term U.S. allies, environmental predation, shameful disrespect for gay persons and their rights, a pre-emptive war based on false and misleading premises, and a host of other erosions of respect for the global human community and for this good Earth on which our flourishing depends."

The Field Negro on Sen. Johnson's health problem.

honestly, I must confess, that when I first heard about this, I immediately thought of that poor former Russian spy, Alexander Litvinenko. This poor man was given a healthy serving of a radioactive isotope called Polonium 210, which ate away at all of his vital organs until he died a slow painful death. Of course every one immediately thought that the "evil" Russian Premier Putin and the people running the Kremlin were behind it. So now the field is thinking....no field say it ain't so, you are not thinking what I am thinking you are thinking are you? Hey, all I am saying is that I sure hope Karl Rove can give an accounting of himself over the past 24 hours. Because if not......

Son. Your best bet is to declare you're not running and get drafted for VP. That way they only have a couple of months to gut your reputation like a fish.

Is this Dickerson clown related to Debra "The End of Blackness" Dickerson? 

Slate.com's article on "Obama's Shady Real Estate Deal" found nothing shady

Slate.com teased a December 14 article by Slate chief political correspondent John Dickerson by suggesting that the article exposed a "Shady Real Estate Deal" involving Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL). In fact, the article explained there is "no evidence" that Obama did anything wrong.

Golden State Fence's attorney, Richard Hirsch, admits his client broke the law. But he says the case proves that construction companies need a guest-worker program.

Border Fence Firm Snared for Hiring Illegal Workers
by Scott Horsley 

All Things Considered, December 14, 2006 · A fence-building company in Southern California agrees to pay nearly $5 million in fines for hiring illegal immigrants. Two executives from the company may also serve jail time. The Golden State Fence Company's work includes some of the border fence between San Diego and Mexico.

After an immigration check in 1999 found undocumented workers on its payroll, Golden State promised to clean house. But when followup checks were made in 2004 and 2005, some of those same illegal workers were still on the job. In fact, U-S Attorney Carol Lam says as many as a third of the company's 750 workers may have been in the country illegally.

Mr. McCain said personal ambition would not guide his Iraq policy.

Military Considers Sending as Many as 35,000 More U.S. Troops to Iraq, McCain Says
By JOHN F. BURNS

BAGHDAD, Dec. 14 — Senator John McCain said Thursday that American military commanders were discussing the possibility of adding as many as 10 more combat brigades — a maximum of about 35,000 troops — to “bring the situation under control” while Iraq’s divided political leaders seek solutions to the worsening bloodshed here.

After talks in Baghdad with Gen. George W. Casey Jr. and other top American generals, Mr. McCain, an Arizona Republican, said a substantial United States troop increase was one of the strategy changes the generals were considering as they reviewed what he called “a steadily deteriorating situation.”

You know what this means?

In January 2004, domestic security officials began fingerprint scanning for arriving visitors. The program has screened more than 64 million travelers and prevented more than 1,300 criminals and immigration violators from entering, officials said.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and other officials often call the program a singular achievement in making the country safer. U.S. Visit fingerprints and photographs 2 percent of the people entering the country, because Americans and most Canadians and Mexicans are exempt.

It means most of the criminals caught were Europeans.

U.S. Is Dropping Effort to Track if Visitors Leave
By RACHEL L. SWARNS and ERIC LIPTON

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 — In a major blow to the Bush administration’s efforts to secure borders, domestic security officials have for now given up on plans to develop a facial or fingerprint recognition system to determine whether a vast majority of foreign visitors leave the country, officials say.

Domestic security officials had described the system, known as U.S. Visit, as critical to security and important in efforts to curb illegal immigration. Similarly, one-third of the overall total of illegal immigrants are believed to have overstayed their visas, a Congressional report says.

Tracking visitors took on particular urgency after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when it became clear that some of the hijackers had remained in the country after their visas had expired.

Update: I talked to David Donnelly, the director of Campaign Money Watch, who knows a lot about this sort of thing, and he said that these fines (and the ones rumored to follow soon), probably will have a significant deterring effect in the '08 elections.

I don't beieve it. I think a guy that throws 5-10 million bucks to spread lies won't cavil over paying a couple hundred grand for the fines. 

FEC Fines Swift Boat Vets $300K
By Paul Kiel - December 13, 2006, 11:52 AM

Is the era of the millionaire-backed attack group coming to an end?

The Federal Election Commission hit the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth with a $299,500 fine today for playing too fast with election rules. The Swift Boat Vets were a "527" organization, which has no limits on contributions, but were acting like federal political committees, the FEC charged. 527s are allowed to work for or against certain candidates, but if they have no other "major purpose," according to FEC spokesman Bob Biersack, then they should register as a committee.

A lawsuit over similar records revealed in September that Republican activists Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed — key figures in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal — landed more than 100 meetings inside the Bush White House.

Administration asks to keep Cheney logs secret
Justice Department seeks to reverse order to reveal vice president’s visitors
The Associated Press
Updated: 7:56 p.m. ET Dec 13, 2006

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration asked an appeals court Wednesday to overrule a federal judge and allow the White House to keep secret any records of visitors to Vice President Dick Cheney's residence and office.

To make the visitor records public would be an "unprecedented intrusion into the daily operations of the vice presidency," the Justice Department argued in a 57-page brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia.

The government was responding to an October order, by U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina, to release two years of White House visitor logs to The Washington Post. The newspaper, researching the access lobbyists and others had on the White House, sought Secret Service records for anyone visiting Cheney, his legal counsel, chief spokesman and other top aides and advisers.

In his ruling, Urbina questioned the government's primary argument against releasing the records — that the logs are protected by Cheney's right to executive privilege.

"I think we'll see less of him than ever," says the associate. "Iraq is now Bush's baby, and Cheney doesn't want to be tarred with it in the eyes of historians."

Cheney Burrows as Bush Ponders Iraq
By Kenneth T. Walsh
Posted 12/12/06

What's become of Dick Cheney?

Washington insiders are buzzing over the fact that the vice president has been publicly silent and mostly out of sight since the Iraq Study Group issued its long-awaited report last week. White House insiders say Cheney is playing an inside game, advising President Bush privately not to change course too much in Iraq, not to withdraw U.S. troops anytime soon, and not to talk directly with the hard-line regimes in Iran and Syria about the situation.