More great quotes from an article written on the eve of 2002 midterm elections.
October 31, 2002, Thursday, BC cycle
SECTION: Political News; Washington Dateline
LENGTH: 787 words
HEADLINE: Bush undertaking election-ending tour in search of history-making GOP wins
BYLINE: By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: SOUTH BEND, Ind..
"His final, grueling sprint, mapped out by political strategist Karl Rove, will have Bush stumping in 15 states in five days - with two visits to South Dakota - by the time he touches down at his Texas ranch after dinnertime Monday.
Aides said Bush was already complaining about the late nights expected of him, and his grumbling spilled into the open before his South Dakota audience.
"Next time you get me to come back, let's go pheasant hunting," Bush suggested to much approval. "I can't go today. I got to work. I'm traveling the country."
***Whiny, grumbler Bush. What a wuss.***
"Also Wednesday, Bush aides set up a white tent on the White House driveway, where conservative talk radio hosts opened their microphones to a stream of top administration officials who offered the president's election-season take on the issues.
Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri called it "appease-the-right-wing day" at the White House"
***Loven is so helpful in getting out the Dem talking points.***
*** Here some hope springs eternal language on the eve of elections. She cites how unlikely it is BUsh will gain seats and she notes how few seats the Dems must flip to take control. Guess that one did not work out for her...
"The party in power in the White House has lost House seats at every midterm election except three since Abraham Lincoln was president, and last gained Senate seats at a midterm election in 1982. Bush wants midterm gains that deliver full control of Congress to the GOP, knocking down Democratic roadblocks to his tax, homeland security, judicial and health care policies.
House Democrats, eight years out of power, need to gain seven seats to be assured of control. The Senate breakdown is 49 Republicans, 49 Democrats, one independent and one vacancy - created by Sen. Paul Wellstone's death in a plane crash in Minnesota."
-T
Bush not able to dispel questions
Intelligence critics just won’t go away.
By JENNIFER LOVEN Associated Press Writer
Published Monday, July 21, 2003
WASHINGTON The White House defense of President George W. Bush’s now-disavowed claim that Iraq was seeking uranium in Africa has evolved over the last two weeks: blame others, stonewall, bury questions in irrelevant information and, above all, hope it will go away.
So far, none has worked.
In question: Sixteen words in Bush’s Jan. 28 State of the Union speech: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
At issue: The credibility of the president’s allegation that Saddam was rebuilding a nuclear weapons program. The assertion that Iraq was trying to buy uranium was a key component of that claim — and a key piece of Bush’s justification for war.
The flap started on July 6, when an envoy sent by the CIA to Africa last year to investigate the uranium claim contended that the Bush administration ignored — and possibly manipulated — his findings.
In a New York Times op-ed article, Joseph Wilson, former U.S. ambassador to Gabon, said it was highly doubtful that any transaction took place.
The next day, the White House acknowledged that Bush should not have made the claim because of concerns about the intelligence behind it. The documents allegedly showing an Iraq-Niger uranium connection turned out to be forgeries. ...
The Loven hits just keep coming...
September 23, 2004, Thursday, BC cycle
SECTION: Washington Dateline
LENGTH: 790 words
HEADLINE: Bush hopes Allawi can reassure U.S. voters that progress being made in chaotic Iraq
BYLINE: By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
Iraq's visiting prime minister, Ayad Allawi, says he shares a hopeful view with President Bush that things are getting better in Allawi's tumultuous nation, a conviction the president is putting on full display to persuade doubting U.S. voters.
*** Some great lines***
"Allawi's visit comes as troop casualties and civilian kidnappings in Iraq have increased, large parts of the country have come under the control of insurgents and doubts have surfaced at the United Nations that democratic elections can be held in January as planned."
***Insurgents control several towns or "large part sof the country?" Anybody?
"...even some GOP senators have said there is a need for more candid talk from the White House."
"Bush continues to speak of the Iraq invasion primarily as a success story that is improving the lives of Iraqis and making the world safer, if only America does not shrink from the task.
"Freedom is finding a way in Iraq," he said in an address at the United Nations this week. "The proper response to difficulty is not to retreat, it is to prevail."
Allawi, too, has remained on message.
"It's very important for the people of the world really to know that we are winning, we are making progress in Iraq," he said in New York. "Unfortunately, the media have not been covering these significant gains."
*** Allawi, the faithful Bush campaigner stays "on message." I just love that one.
*** Here is what Loven wants to say, but cannot so she finds somebody to say it for her.
"Anthony Cordesman, a military analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, suggested that the administration should spend less time staging an attractive photo opportunity and more adopting a realistic view of the challenges ahead."
-T