South Dakota Politics

High Plains Activism

As I've noted before, I'm working on an historical research project about Indian activism on the High Plains.  With that in mind, I'd like to note this article from The Washington Post:

Calvin Jumping Bull was away at college when the shootout at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation left three people dead and became part of the storied battle between federal agents and the American Indian Movement in the 1970s.

Jumping Bull, 75, now lives on the reservation where tension between the FBI and Indian activists escalated on June 26, 1975. That was the day agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler were shot in the head at point-blank range after being injured in a shootout.

Also killed in the shootout was AIM member Joseph Stuntz. The Justice Department concluded that an FBI sniper killed Stuntz, who was clad in Coler's FBI jacket when his body was found.

Three decades later, questions remain about the fatal shootout and about Leonard Peltier, who was convicted of murder for the agents' deaths. Peltier, 60, who is serving life in prison, has claimed the FBI framed him. The agency denies that. ...

Before President Clinton left office in January 2001, he considered granting Peltier clemency. Among those who urged Clinton to keep Peltier behind bars: then-FBI Director Louis Freeh, former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle and former Gov. Bill Janklow, who flew to Washington and had a lengthy meeting with Clinton at the White House.

Lately, there's been some developments in the Peltier case:

In April [15, 2005], a federal judge [Donovan W. Frank] in St. Paul, Minn., admonished the FBI for withholding documents on Peltier's case but denied a request by Peltier's lawyers for quicker access to information used to convict him.

And most recently, at a hearing this month in Fargo, Peltier's lawyer Barry Bachrach argued the government had no right to send Peltier to prison. Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Schneider said the claim is frivolous and the only way Peltier could get back in court. A ruling is expected within months.

Although it has been Peltier and his lawyers who have drawn the most attention to the case, federal prosecutors have introduced a possible link between Peltier and the 1975 slaying of another AIM member _ Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, whose body was found in February 1976 on the Pine Ridge reservation.

Tomorrow will be the 30th anniversary of the shootout.

Unrelated Footnote:  Readers may have noticed that posts have been light lately and that Profs. Schaff and Blanchard haven't been posting in a couple weeks.  Both are currently attending a conference, so this has left Quentin and I carrying the ball for a few more days.   Rest assured, both will be returning shortly.

Old Campaigns

SD War College is writing about old campaigns and their lessons:

If you're hellbent on looking for an issue that you're convinced is a silver bullet, you also might end up with an issue which is so offensive to the voter that they lash out at your campaign for bringing it up in the first place. I was watching Primary Colors on AMC the other night, and if you recall, they had discovered that an opponent was a bisexual cokehead in his past. Imagine that issue coming out in a South Dakota campaign. Aside from fatally smashing the opponent, you would end up fatally smashing yourself.

Take the lesson from the Kirby/Barnett/Rounds race. Of course you saw that ad noting that a company that Kirby's investment company had invested in was buying and selling skin cells from dead people for plastic surgery. And that burn victims were dying because they didn't have the skin that was going to people getting collagen injections.

When that ad aired, there was a collective statewide "Oh My God" uttered. If you've ever watched campaign commercials from other states, on the spectrum of campaign commercials, there are a lot worse ones. But for South Dakota where seldom is heard a critical word - it was a harsh introduction to big state political ads. And because of that ad, among other things, it put the voters in a punishing mood and the rest is history.

1,200 Words from South Dakota Blog Watch Man

BWM takes 1,200 words to say he refuses to reveal his identity.  He throws in lots of insults and even a predictable Nazi reference.  The irony is that he started his site to be a blog WATCHER, or critic/analyst, but he does it in hiding and doesn't appreciate criticism.  He often insults people personally, but he won't reveal his personal identity. 

The Mild West

The NYT has an interesting column today about historic Deadwood, SD headlined "The Mild, Mild West."  Excerpt:

But if you talk to some historians and economists about Deadwood and the rest of the West, you get a much different picture from what's on television - or what's been taught in history classes.

These revisionists' history, unlike the one now fashionable in academia, is not a grim saga of settlers exploiting one another, annihilating natives and despoiling nature. Nor is it like the previously fashionable history depicting the settlers as heroic individualists who tamed the frontier by developing the great American virtue of self-reliance.

The Westerners in this history survived by learning to get along, as Terry Anderson and Peter Hill document in their new book, "The Not So Wild, Wild West." These economists, both at the PERC think tank in Montana, argue that their Western ancestors were usually neither heroic enough to make it on their own nor strong enough to take it away from others.

Who Is South Dakota Blog Watch Man?

Sibby is still on BWM's trail:

Note how an anonymous chicken, who is afraid of disclosing his real name, can poke fun at another blogger’s real name.

And Todd Epp, who made a huge deal out of disclosure of paid bloggers…how are you going to tell that a blogger has been or is being paid if they remain anonymous? Why are you being a total hypocrite about this. If the anonymous chicken receives compensation from a politician, it certainly won't be listed as Blog Watch Man. Sounds like there is a loophole in your plan to regulate paid bloggers, isn't there.

Blog Watch Man offers a defense of his anonymity by linking to a Ryne McClaren post.  But it turns out Ryne doesn't think much of Blog Watch Man:

Actually, I should have made one more point in my post:

I really don't care if people have personal reasons for not disclosing their identities, unless they want to retain their anonymity only for chickenshit purposes.

And believe me, you definitely fall into that category.

Permanent Campaign

ABC News:

Politics:
Word came from Roll Call yesterday that a Democratic trio of hard-scrabble Senate race veterans — Jim Jordan, Joe Hansen, and Diana Rogalle — have joined up to form a new 527 called the Senate Majority Project (or "SMP," as opposed to "SSMP") with the apparent mission of generating opposition research and guerilla press and political operations against not-in-cycle Republican Senate incumbents and presumed future candidates.

Ah, the Permanent Campaign.

According to Jordan, they're simply filling a glaring hole in the Democratic Party machinery, and the goal is to harass and generate negative press in the years when incumbents generally operate out of the media spotlight. Jordan's speculation regarding the possibility of an expanded mission for the Senate Majority Project might intrigue some.

Hmm.  This seems vaguely familiar...

Flag Blogging

Our left-of-center friends of the blogosphere have been attacking Thune for favoring the flag amendment.  What they fail to mention, though, is that Tim Johnson and Stephanie Herseth also support it.  From the Rapid City Journal:

Rep. Stephanie Herseth, D-S.D., who missed the vote because she was in Rapid City for the regional hearing of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, said she supports the amendment.

"I would have voted for it had I been there," Herseth said Thursday.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said he is "optimistic that this Senate will find the handful of votes we've lacked in the past to protect the American flag."

"As our troops fight to defend the principles of the American flag around the world, Congress has a responsibility to defend the flag at home," Thune said.

Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., said he supports the amendment.

"For most of America's history, flag desecration has been illegal under state law and local ordinances. This constitutional amendment would simply allow the return of the law to its former state," Johnson said. "There are good, thoughtful and patriotic Americans on both sides of this contentious issue. Nonetheless, I am again a co-sponsor of Senate Joint Resolution 12, which would prohibit desecration of our nation's flag."

If you're going to attack one for supporting it, why not them all?

Another New Blog

It's been a big week for blogs---here's another new SD blog.

Helpers

South Dakota War College is noting the problem of "helper infestation" on political campaigns. 

The Revolution

One of the lefty blogs in South Dakota says "The Class War is On":

All hell is going to break loose if Bush doesn't stop this madness. I said good, it should have happened a long time ago. Let's hope the right-wingers and the corporations to whom they pledge allegiance push harder. I believe the backlash will be so extreme it will shake this god-damned Empire to its roots.

While I hope the Democrats put up a fight, I know they can not be counted on to stop Bush's corporate agenda. This is why there must be revolution. There is little in the American government worth saving; let us scrap it altogether and try something new.

At this point, the Bush Administration and the corporate interests it represents are doing so much damage to this country and the world that I encourage any dissenters to take direct action against the state and incorporated America. This madness can not go on for one minute longer. It must stop, by any means necessary.

Thune on CSPAN

From the AP News Wire:

Thune appeared on the C-SPAN cable network and fielded questions about the Defense Department's recommendation to close Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City.

Thune, a freshman senator, said he has made it clear from the start that he would do everything possible for Ellsworth.

"That obviously means using the tools that you have, the powers you have at your disposal as a United States senator," he said. "Clearly, I'm going to do what I think is in the best interest of my state of South Dakota as well as in the best interest of the country because I think that's our responsibility as senators."

Thune said he is making his argument with the administration, the Pentagon and his colleagues in Congress. "We're not going to go down without a fight, that's for sure." ...

It was Daschle who raised the Ellsworth issue during the campaign, Thune said, adding that his response was, "if, in fact, there was a political component that was part of this process, that yes, I would be able to make the case to this administration."

The Bush administration has taken a hands-off attitude and allowed the base closure process to work, Thune said. "They have not tried to influence the decisions that were made by the Pentagon."

Still, the Ellsworth decision is wrong, he said.

"I was surprised like a lot of people were" when it was announced, the senator said.

You can watch a video of the CSPAN broadcast here. 

WoT Hits Close to Home

The Sierra Times:

A Minneapolis man charged last year with conspiracy to provide material support to al Qaeda is facing additional terrorism-related charges brought by a federal grand jury. The suspect reportedly attended an Al-Qaeda terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. ...

According to the superseding indictment, [Mohammed Abdulla] Warsame provided false statements to the FBI when he claimed that since 1995 he had traveled only to Saudi Arabia and Somalia. However, from 2000 through 2001, Warsame actually traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan to attend military training camps and participate in combat. He also made false statements about his frequent contact with associates he met while attending military training camps in Afghanistan...[and a] false statement regarding his financial support of associates he met while attending military training camps, omitting his collection and transfer of about $2,000 to an associate in Pakistan.

If convicted, Warsame faces a maximum potential penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count of conspiracy and providing material support to al Qaeda, and up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count of making a false statement.

BWM II

As Quentin noted earlier, Sibby is asking some questions about our latest mystery blogger, South Dakota Blog Watch Man.  Sibby has more:

I also remember Todd Epp and I were on the same side of the argument regarding anonymous bloggers. So why isn’t Epp giving the SDBWM, the David Kranz of the South Dakota blogosphere, hell for not coming clean? What’s wrong with SDBWM?

South Dakota War College doesn't think much of working extremely hard to maintain blog anonymity.  The exciting new blog written by Gutzon Borglum (no kidding) also has some comments on BWM:

I would also like to thank the South Dakota Blog Watch Man for mentioning by work on his web site. He’s a rather moody fellow, but I do enjoy his web log and I feel fortunate that he hasn’t developed a moniker for me like the ones he uses for other writers, particularly the person he calls the Hillbilly. In my day, that sort of reference wasn’t looked upon kindly, even by actual hillbillies.

BWM does seem to be moody.  SDP readers think they have BWM figured out.  Will he step up?

Joe Barnett

SD War College blog is noting some interesting SD political history:

Back in the day, when Joe Barnett was in charge of the GOP in the State House of Representatives, he ruled the GOP Caucus with an iron fist (in a velvet glove). Joe laid down rules that there would be no intra-party caucuses. Period. No east river caucuses, west river caucuses, conservative, moderate, whatever. And it was a BY GOD rule. Nobody violated it.

I was visiting the legislature when Joe Barnett's name was included in the memorial to the legislators who had passed the previous year. At the mention of his name, I was taken aback at how many grown men openly wept out of loss and respect for their departed colleague.

Joe Barnett was in the legislature for 19 years, and was majority leader from 1979, until his death in 1985. For better or worse, with term limits, I think we've lost a little of that cohesiveness and authority to keep the troops in line on both sides of the aisle. I don't want to call it a free for all, but it seems there is more jockeying for position than before term limits.

Durbin v. Rove

In response to another blog's request that SDP address the Durbin/Rove issue, please see Powerline:

Dems Try To Change the Subject

The Democrats, apparently hoping to stop the bleeding resulting from Dick Durbin's faux pas and Howard Dean's many miscues, went into coordinated attack mode when Karl Rove drew this distinction between the liberal and conservative reactions to the September 11 attacks:

Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers. Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war.

That's a pretty accurate, if slightly hyperbolic, characterization of the opposing camps; any number of liberals have called for "understanding" the terrorists' grievances against us. The Democrats apparently thought the shoe fit, and went ballistic, demanding a tit-for-tat apology from Rove to balance out Durbin's tearful recantation. Needless to say, it won't be forthcoming. And I don't know that the Democrats gain anything by highlighting, once more, the charge that they are soft on terror.

The Permanent Campaign Continues

SDP has noted before how the Daschle campaign rolls on in a new form and has become a permanent campaign.  The national Democrats are now openly targeting Senators like Thune who aren't up for re-election for many years.  In addition to the Daschle campaign and PAC continuing to pay Daschle's former campaign manager Steve Hildebrand, several former Daschle staffers (some of whom now work for Hildebrand) are running anti-Thune blogs.  One anti-Thune blogger says openly that his efforts are based on "revenge" for Daschle's defeat and designed to "soften up" Thune for future races.  One former Daschle staffer/Hildebrand employee/anti-Thune blogger promotes "F--- John Thune" t-shirts on his website, which is the basic theme of their effort.  In the following article about the wider permanent campaign by national Democrats which mentions Thune, note that Jim Jordan was Tim Johnson's press secretary in the 1996 Senate race in South Dakota and that Joe Hansen was Johnson's and Daschle's campaign manager in 1996 and 1998 (this article also has lots about Joe Hansen and many former Daschle political advisors and is written by a former Daschle staffer who isn't a Hansen fan).  From today's Roll Call:

527 Aims for Six-Year Drumbeat on Senate GOP

A handful of Democratic operatives have formed a 527 group aimed at keeping steady pressure on Republican Senators throughout their six-year terms rather than focusing solely on the two years before they face re-election.

The Senate Majority Project is the brainchild of Jim Jordan, a former executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and now a member of Westhill Partners, a Democratic consulting firm.

Joining Jordan in the venture are Diana Rogalle, a veteran party fundraiser, and Joe Hansen, a partner in the Democratic direct-mail firm Ambrosino, Muir and Hansen.

“My hope is to simply fill a fairly glaring hole in the party’s machinery,” said Jordan, adding: “It’s conceivable that our mission will morph and expand over the cycle.”

A fundraising prospectus for the group obtained by Roll Call notes that “with an eye to the long run, Republicans have done a much more effective job than have Democrats in erecting political barriers and affecting media coverage of Senators in the opposing party ... to their credit.”

The Senate Majority Project aims to “close that gap by closely reviewing the public actions and positions of Republican Senators — votes, statements, fundraising, outside-of-Washington activities, gossip, etc.,” according to the prospectus.

Jordan would not discuss specific budgetary details for SMP, saying only the group would run on “several hundred thousand” dollars a year.

“Since this is primarily a research, free press and policy organization, the budget is relatively modest,” he added. “Diana and I have had initial conversations with generous Democratic donors and we have received a positive reception.”

Under tax law, 527s can accept unlimited contributions but they must report the identities of their donors on a quarterly basis.

The brief history of House- and Senate-focused 527s is — at best — mixed.

Following the passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act in 2002, which banned national parties from raising and spending nonfederal, or soft, money, several Democratic 527s cropped up to serve as a conduit for the $246 million in soft dollars collected by the party in the 2002 cycle.  ...

Phil Singer, communications director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, called the organization “hugely important.”

“With any luck [it] will hopefully force some of these Republicans to be more responsible in the way they conduct themselves in office,” Singer said. He added he was not previously aware of the existence of the group prior to a reporter’s call.

Singer said that the DSCC was itself already doing some of the same kinds of longer-term work, noting releases sent out by the committee this year targeting Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.), Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) — none of whom are up for re-election in 2006.

The SMP memo points out that while the DSCC does an “able job with opposition research and communications related to in-cycle races ... it lacks the staff and the resources to challenge votes and public actions of Republican Senators who are not yet up for re-election.”

Daschle's New Post

John Podesta, President Clinton's one-time chief-of-staff, has announced that former Senator Tom Daschle is joining the Center for American Progress, which Podesta founded during the last campaign.  Podesta said: "Senator Daschle has been a friend and mentor to me for nearly twenty years. It is a real honor to have the benefit of his leadership at the Center."  Podesta, along with current Daschle staffer and former campaign manager Steve Hildebrand, helped to plan and would have worked for Daschle's Presidential campaign, which Daschle pulled the plug on in 2003.  One writer described the beginning of the Center for American Progress:

Al Franken was becoming agitated. The comedian and conservative-basher was at a Washington party for the new liberal think tank, the Center for American Progress, when he was asked to say a few words to the crowd. As he often does, Franken began riffing on the subject of the Fox News Channel, and in no time at all had worked himself into a fit of anger.

"Basically, what there is, is there's a right-wing media in this country," Franken told the group. He recounted the story of Fox's lawsuit against him — "a f***ing complaint against me, thank you very F***ING much," he said, as the audience roared with laughter — and then moved on to the network's coverage of the war in Iraq, which he said showed "how shameless, how shameless, how SHAMELESS these people on the right can be."

The crowd, made up mostly of left-leaning activist, political, and media types, loved it. "We have to fight back," Franken exhorted them. Looking at John Podesta, the former Clinton White House chief of staff who is heading the new think tank, Franken said, "Thank God you're doing this. We have to fight back."

BRAC

The Argus is reporting that 11,000 people turned out to cheer for Ellsworth Air Force Base yesterday.  The Rapid City Journal says 7,000 and notes the important testimony from a former general:

"The Pentagon, in its zeal to consolidate and reach some perceived quota for base closures, picked the wrong base by putting Ellsworth on the list," retired Air Force Gen. John Loh told three members of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission.

The BRAC Commission held a hearing at the civic center arena Tuesday afternoon.

Loh had sharp words for the Pentagon's plan to close Ellsworth and move its B-1B Lancer bombers to Dyess AFB in Texas. "It's a recipe for unmanageable congestion and never-ending chaos that spells inefficiency, waste and degraded operational readiness for the B-1s," he said. ...

As commander of Air Combat Command in the 1990s, Loh was in charge of all the Air Force's bombers and bomber bases. He said one of his "guiding principles" was to never base more than 36 long-range bombers at a single base.

"Putting more than 36 bombers at one base results in a very inefficient operation," he said. "Operational readiness suffers because too many crews share too few training ranges and air space."

Loh was followed by his former deputy ACC commander, Lt. Gen. Thad Wolfe (Ret.), who told the commissioners, "Ellsworth has been a well-kept secret. Perhaps too well kept."

Wolfe said he believed the Air Force had underestimated intangible benefits of Ellsworth, including its quality of life for airmen, which he said affected performance. He quoted Napoleon, who once said, "The moral is to the physical as 3 is to 1," or in other words, morale is important.

Wolfe also cited Ellsworth's "remarkable access to uncrowded airspace" and a series of construction projects over the past 20 years that have converted Ellsworth into a virtually new base.

The BRAC commissioners toured Ellsworth on Tuesday morning, and after the hearing, Commissioner James Bilbray said he was impressed with the new buildings at the base. But Bilbray said, "Whatever we close, we'll lose hundreds of millions of dollars of infrastructure."

All three members of the state's congressional delegation spoke at the hearing.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. - a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a strong ally of the Bush administration on most issues - probably has the most political capital to lose from Ellsworth closing. But Thune also earned one of the longest standing ovations of the afternoon.

"We need to increase our flexibility, not decrease it," Thune said.

Citing the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and emerging threats from Iran, North Korea and China, Thune, like almost every speaker Tuesday, argued against consolidating the B-1s at a single base "where a single terrorist attack could wipe out our entire fleet."

Political Temperature

One of SDP's frequent readers is wondering why the political temperature keeps rising, in the nation at large and even in SD, even though the election should have given us a reprieve.  Not sure, but the AP has a new story about the hot political summer (wait until there's a Supreme Court fight). 

Third Call

From a reader out in the James River Valley:

Made my third call today to Johnson's DC office, and no statement on Durbins comments.

SDWC

In case you missed it, South Dakota War College is commenting on the influence of incumbency in South Dakota politics: "What does it take to dump an incumbent? If it’s purely head-to-head, it’s a major undertaking. Not just your run of the mill campaign in this state, it has to be a well planned, tightly executed effort. And despite all that, you still might not win."

BWM

South Dakota Blog Watch Man has been shopping for the editor of the Argus.  He's also ranking SD newspapers.  BWM has come alive of late and SDP needs to pay better attention.  One thing BWM might want to rethink, however, is his claim that Senator Johnson "didn't promise South Dakota that he'd protect Ellsworth last fall."  During his last race in 2002, BWM should note, Johnson's television advertising said quite boldly that "Clearly the best thing we can do to protect Ellsworth is to keep Tim Johnson in the United States Senate."

So who is Blog Watch Man, anyway? 

BWM responds:

Johnson did claim to have enough influence to keep Ellsworth open, but I'm sure that the senior senator never expected the leader of the senate Democrats -- Daschle -- to be beaten in an election. It's like the kid with the tough older brother a couple years older than him shoving class bully and saying, "you'll be sorry if you keep this up." ...

No matter how much finger pointing the Apple Dumpling Gang does, it's going to be very hard for them to advance the notion that Johnson -- in the minority party and in the party without White House ties -- can be blamed for the Ellsworth closing.

Nobody blames Johnson for closing, as BWM asserts, but it's worth noting that Johnson ran TV ads saying he could keep the base open.  Thune never ran TV ads on Ellsworth, but Daschle ran at least a few.  And Thune never guaranteed that the base would stay open.  He simply said something very close to what BWM says about it being better to be in the GOP than in the "minority party and in the party without White House ties," i.e. that it would be better to have some compatibility with the President instead of constantly blocking everything he wanted to do.  The closure process was de-politicized in the end and everyone took lumps, unfortunately for Ellsworth.  In any event, this string started with a question about why Johnson doesn't get more calls to discuss BRAC when he ran TV ads saying he could save Ellsworth, a question worth considering.  Maybe the answer tells us more about the press than anything.

Again, who is BWM?  Some readers have interesting theories, which SDPers enjoy reading.

UPDATE:  Sibby is calling BWM an "anonymous chicken."  Why the anonymity, BWM?  While BWM apparently finds it amusing to take jabs at Sibby, it should be noted that Sibby is willing to openly express his opinions and sign his name to his posts.

BRAC Hearing

Readers who attended today's BRAC hearing note that Senator Thune received a standing ovation, that the generals were impressive speakers, that South Dakota and its Congressional delegation generally presented a very focused and persuasive case, and that the BRAC members seemed receptive to the arguments.  Here's some thoughts from the AP:

John Thune and Tim Johnson, Rep. Stephanie Herseth and Gov. Mike Rounds were among those scheduled to address the commissioners at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. Organizers hoped 9,500 people would attend.

Hills Materials Co., a construction firm, parked some of its cement mixers and other vehicles downtown and along the road to Ellsworth. They contained banners saying, "Save Ellsworth. Our 300 families depend on it."

Outside the center before the hearing, a couple dozen disabled people who work at Ellsworth held signs and waved flags on the street to show their support for keeping the base open.

Durbin Apology

Senator Durbin apologizes (again):

Under fire from Republicans and some fellow Democrats, Sen. Dick Durbin apologized Tuesday for comparing American interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to Nazis and other historically infamous figures.

"Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line," the Illinois Democrat said. "To them I extend my heartfelt apologies."

His voice quaking and tears welling in his eyes, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate also apologized to any soldiers who felt insulted by his remarks.

"They're the best. I never, ever intended any disrespect for them," he said. ...

Durbin said in his apology: "I made reference to Nazis, to Soviets, and other repressive regimes. Mr. President, I've come to understand that's a very poor choice of words."

A poor choice of words indeed.  However, like John Hinderacker and Captain Ed, I'm not satisfied.  Captain Ed put it best:

However tearfully delivered, though, it still contains qualifiers that shift the responsibility to everyone but Durbin.  "Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line, and to them I extend my heartfelt apologies."

No, no, no. 

Your remarks did cross the line, Senator. Why can't you just admit that, without qualification? This is yet another halfway dodge in putting the onus onto those whom you offended instead of taking responsibility for your own actions and comments.

Color me unimpressed. His fellow party members will now ask us all to move along. I'll consider doing that if they now will admit that Durbin's original statement slandered the military and debased the memories of those millions of victims that truly experienced what genocidal maniacs do with their innocent captives. If not, then they are just playing word games until they discover the right combination to climb out of the box in which Durbin has put them.

Kerry Blogging

Power Line has John Kerry's Form 180s.

John Hinderacker brings up a good point:

This is a very weird procedure--authorizing the records to be released, but only to specified reporters. It raises obvious questions: did the reporters discuss their role with Kerry or his representative before they were designated to receive the records? Were they required to agree not to make the records public, but only to report on them? What other discussions did they have with Kerry or his representatives? Are they willing to release the records, or at a minimum give us an inventory of what they received so that we can assess the completeness of the disclosure? I have phone calls in to two of the reporters, and will attempt to interview them.

Thune in Wall Street Journal

*update* Thune is on FOX News discussing today's BRAC hearing and will be on tonight's NBC Nightly News too talking about BRAC (does anyone ever bother to call the "senior" Senator?). 

Senator Thune has a piece in today's Wall Street Journal.  Excerpt:

Redundancy Is Good for National Security

We all want to eliminate waste and reduce redundancy in the government. But our national security needs have changed since Congress launched the current Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) round in 2001 -- and the BRAC process should change accordingly.

Now we are engaged in a protracted war with large overseas rotational deployments. Put simply, it is the worst possible time to launch a new round of domestic base closures and massive relocations of manpower and equipment.

Regardless of the outcome for my state's Ellsworth Air Force Base, the current BRAC round will have serious implications -- both in the short term, when we are engaged in war, and in the longer term, as we preserve critical infrastructure for an uncertain future. In addition to cutting costs, the BRAC process should maximize our nation's war fighting capability. If we fail to follow that principle, the BRAC process will put the country at risk.

Unfortunately, that is exactly what could happen if we discard "strategic redundancy," a tenet of military doctrine we have lived by for the past 60 years. Reflecting the lessons of Pearl Harbor, the doctrine disperses high-value assets at different locations to prevent their destruction in a single attack. In its March 2005 National Defense Strategy the Department of Defense reiterated its goal of "developing greater flexibility to contend with uncertainty by emphasizing agility and by not overly concentrating military forces in a few locations." But the Pentagon's recent BRAC recommendations do the opposite -- consolidating some of the nation's most valuable air and naval platforms at single installations.

Hopefully, we have not forgotten the lessons of history -- from the surprise attacks at Pearl Harbor to 9/11. And hopefully, the independent BRAC commission will reject any recommendations that put our armed forces or this nation at risk.

Our national defense posture should come back to the intuitive logic possessed by most Americans: We simply cannot allow analytical cost models to trump sound -- and proven -- security precautions.

The Permanent Campaign and the Revenge of the Left

Jason mentioned this article by Paul Weyrich about the national Left's orchestrated effort to undermine Senator Thune, which is worth a read.  Here are the most important paragraphs:

The Left is as outraged at Daschle's defeat as it was with [Senator Dick] Clark's defeat [in 1978]. Daschle was the Left's guy. He could be relied upon to deliver the Left's viewpoint in very soft and believable terms.  When the Left wanted one of President Bush's nominees blocked, it could count on Daschle. Like Clark, Daschle believed in what he did. In contrast to Senator Harry M. Reid (D-NV), who really doesn't understand hard Left politics and makes many errors, Daschle knew exactly what to do and when to do it. The Left lost a great deal when Daschle was defeated.  They are avenging this loss by viciously attacking Thune. ...

The Left will continue to attack Thune, thinking Thune can be defeated in 2010. That hope will not come to pass if Thune adopts an offensive strategy and if conservative groups in South Dakota understand what is happening and fervently defend Thune. Thune did what no other Republican or Democrat candidate has done in half a century.  He defeated a Member of the Senate Leadership. Conservatives had better wake up and start giving Thune a hand.

The Left operates on Lenin's principle. Lenin told his disciples that you take your bayonet and probe. If you encounter mush you advance. If you encounter steel you retreat. If conservatives help Senator Thune construct a band of steel in South Dakota the Left will take its operations elsewhere. That would help Thune and conservatives everywhere.

Of course, what is not mentioned is that much of this anti-Thune effort is paid for by the money in former Senator Daschle's PAC and campaign account.  Nobody is saying that the Left can't organize a constant attack against Thune---it's a free country.  But who is behind it--the old Daschle machine--and who is paying for it should be reported in detail by the press. 

Weyrich explained how the Left was "avenging" Daschle's defeat, which they have acknowledged--it's about revenge.  Note the following about Todd Epp, one of the main Thune attackers/Daschle supporters:

Where Hildebrand insists his criticism is policy-driven [ha!], Epp acknowledges a component of revenge in his own.

"I think there was considerable bitterness about what happened to Tom," Epp says. "I think as Democratic activists have looked at ways to try to do something about it, this has been one of their outlets. I think it is for me."

Epp also says Thune should expect more of the same throughout his term in the Senate.

"To be frank with you, this is to hold John (Thune) accountable and to soften him up for a future election," Epp says. "And it's good sport, it's fun."

Award/Honor

The Argus Leader reports today that Tom Daschle has been named a trustee of the Freedom Forum, but they still haven't mentioned his major award given by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance for "putting a dagger through the heart" of the Federal Marriage Amendment.  The Aberdeen newspaper mentioned it, but not the Argus.  Excerpt:

At its 16th annual Leadership Awards, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the nation’s oldest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights and advocacy organization, honored former U.S. Senate Minority Leader Thomas Daschle—who was defeated for reelection in South Dakota last fall—for his role earlier last year in beating back the Federal Marriage Amendment. The amendment would have defined marriage throughout the U.S. as only the union between a man and a woman.

The Task Force event was held Monday evening at New York University.

Democrat Charles Schumer, New York’s senior senator who was a featured speaker at the event, heralded Daschle’s efforts, saying that he not only defeated the amendment but “put a dagger through its heart.” Democrats needed only 34 votes to block the amendment last July, but the measure’s Republican supporters were unable to muster even a simple majority.

Apparently, awards and honors are only newsworthy when they make Daschle look good, not when they involve major pieces of legislation which Daschle killed.  Meanwhile, Dave Kranz of the Argus spends almost all of his column today on who bought a house in Sioux Falls.  Who cares? 

How Parts of the Left View the World

Chris Britt is a "cartoonist" for the Copley newspaper in Springfield, Illinois and he represents the views of parts of the American left in this "cartoon."

BRAC Hearings Tomorrow

Duluth News Tribune:  Midwestern lawmakers make case to keep military bases open.

The next regional hearing is Tuesday in Rapid City, S.D., and concerns plans for South Dakota and Wyoming. Hearings are also scheduled this week for Thursday in Grand Forks, N.D. (North Dakota and Minnesota) and Friday in Clovis, N.M. (New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada).

Oops

From Jay Reding:

Captain’s Quarters notes that the infamous Downing Street Memos cannot be authenticated because the Times reporter destroyed the originals. If the memos cannot be authenticated, they’re worthless - while they may very well be accurate, we’ve no way of knowing.

The whole issue of the Downing Street memos positively reeks of desperation on the part of the left. Far from being some kind of smoking gun, they indicate that the British had fears that Saddam Hussein would use WMDs against Israel, Kuwait, or advancing coalition troops. There’s nothing in the memos that supports the contention that Bush lied about WMDs, and the line about intelligence being “fixed” around the policy is ambiguous at best, and in context clearly doesn’t indicate what the left thinks that it does. Indeed, the memos contain nothing that was not well known at the time.

Indeed.  You can read more on this from Ryne, Hinderacker, LGF (here, here, and here), and Insty.

Godwin's Law (and the SD Corollary)

Ryne:  Everybody's A Nazi, Or Acts Like One

Weyrich on Thune

Paul Weyrich:

The reporter who questioned me [Paul M. Weyrich ] about the Senate races became hostile. He argued that Thune could not win in South Dakota, that South Dakotans recognized Daschle as a good Senator and that they knew that Daschle could protect their interests. Small states, this reporter arrogantly explained, seldom have Senators in top leadership posts. They weren't about to lose that influence for a freshman Senator who had little influence.

The reporter's intensity reminded me of that television reporter in 1978. Each reporter obviously had a stake in the outcome of the elections.

What happened to Senator [Roger W. ] Jepsen [(R-IA)] is happening to Senator Thune. He is being attacked daily by the organized Left. Thune is stunned by these attacks. Politics in South Dakota is seldom vicious, regardless of which side is power. When Rep. James Abdnor (R-SD) defeated Senator George S. McGovern (D-SD) in 1980 he was not subjected to the daily attacks that Thune is experiencing. Senator Abdnor lost his re-election bid because he was challenged in the GOP primary by Governor William J. ("Bill") Janklow. (Janklow narrowly lost the election and took his marbles and his people and went home. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 2002 but resigned and was jailed for causing a death in a traffic accident.)

The Left is as outraged at Daschle's defeat as it was with [Richard C.] Clark's [(D-IA)] defeat. Daschle was the Left's guy. He could be relied upon to deliver the Left's viewpoint in very soft and believable terms. When the Left wanted one of President Bush's nominees blocked, it could count on Daschle. Like Clark, Daschle believed in what he did. In contrast to Senator Harry M. Reid (D-NV), who really doesn't understand hard Left politics and makes many errors, Daschle knew exactly what to do and when to do it. The Left lost a great deal when Daschle was defeated. They are avenging this loss by viciously attacking Thune.

Senator Thune is the poster boy for how to defeat incumbents. Republicans looking to the future planned to use the Thune victory to encourage other potential candidates to challenge incumbents who would be difficult to defeat. Thune's victory was the only 2004 GOP victory over an incumbent. The other three GOP Senators won open seats.

 

Gingrich & Durbin

PowerLine:  Newt Says:  Censure Durbin

Newt Gingrich (Ph.D. in history, I might add) makes an incredible argument in this letter.  Senator Durbin's "historical parallel" was contemptuous to say the least.  I have no qualms against Dick Durbin for voicing his opinion about the war in Iraq or the Bush Administration, but to compare our men and women of the military to the likes of Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot is lower than low.  These men are known for their genocide, the mass-murder of millions of individuals.   How many deaths have there been at Guantanamo?  None.  No evidence of genocide and no evidence of torture.  This whole ordeal is victimology at its best.      

By the way, this is a prison, not a Hilton Hotel.  I wouldn't expect life to be perfect for criminals (although they do get fed rice pilaf...)

John Hinderacker sums it up well:

Gingrich puts the case very well, I think. The argument is a compelling one: if the Senate censures Durbin, it will largely undo the damage that he has done by demonstrating to the terrorists and their allies that Durbin's misguided attack on the U.S. military was an aberration. Moreover, the American people deserve to know who, if anyone, agrees with Durbin's slander of our armed forces, so that when those Senators run for re-election, they can be defeated. Senators should not be able to hide behind a discreet "no comment," as Hillary Clinton has done. This is not a time for our elected officials to be neutral as between the terrorists and the armed forces of the United States.   

UPDATE I:  David Gelernter--We Are Our History--Don't Forget It

Ignorance of history destroys our judgment. Consider Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill), who just compared the Guantanamo Bay detention center to Stalin's gulag and to the death camps of Hitler and Pol Pot — an astonishing, obscene piece of ignorance. Between 15 million and 30 million people died from 1918 through 1956 in the prisons and labor camps of the Soviet gulag. Historian Robert Conquest gives some facts. A prisoner at the Kholodnaya Gora prison had to stuff his ears with bread before sleeping on account of the shrieks of women being interrogated. At the Kolyma in Siberia, inmates labored through 12-hour days in cheap canvas shoes, on almost no food, in temperatures that could go to minus-58. At one camp, 1,300 of 3,000 inmates died in one year.

"Gulag" must not go the way of "Nazi" and become virtually meaningless. Europeans love calling Israelis "Nazis" — a transparent attempt to slough off their guilt like rattlesnakes shedding skin. ("See, the Jews are as bad as we were!") I'd like to ban the word "Nazi" except when applied to … Nazis. Lawbreakers would be ordered to learn what Nazi actually means.

I recommend reading the whole Gelernter article (don't worry, it deals with more than just Durbin). 

Hitler Comparisons and SD Politics

In addition to Democratic Senator Richard Durbin's recent use of the Hitler comparison, don't forget former Democratic Senate leader Robert Byrd's camparison of Republicans to Hitler (message discipline!).  Speaking of Byrd, his new book, according to the Washington Post, explains his early involvement with the KKK:

In the early 1940s, a politically ambitious butcher from West Virginia named Bob Byrd recruited 150 of his friends and associates to form a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. After Byrd had collected the $10 joining fee and $3 charge for a robe and hood from every applicant, the "Grand Dragon" for the mid-Atlantic states came down to tiny Crab Orchard, W.Va., to officially organize the chapter.

As Byrd recalls now, the Klan official, Joel L. Baskin of Arlington, Va., was so impressed with the young Byrd's organizational skills that he urged him to go into politics. "The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation," Baskin said.

The young Klan leader went on to become one of the most powerful and enduring figures in modern Senate history.

Here's more on Byrd, Nazi comparisons, and South Dakota politics from early March:

There's a little blurb in today's Argus Leader entitled "Byrd criticized for Nazi comment."  Apparently, long-serving Democratic Senator Robert Byrd said Republican strategy to confirm judicial appointments was how Hitler would have acted.  Jewish groups are not impressed (and, as Insty notes, Byrd broke Godwin's law).  Byrd's comments might find some support in SD, where some lefty blogs call the Bush administration "fascist" and "Stalinist."  Another lefty SD blog, not to be outdone, is today calling SD state legislator John Koskan "a Taliban Theocrat Republican," following his party's leader Tim Johnson, who denounced the Republicans as the "Taliban" in May.  Also, note this from last summer's Boston Herald:

WASHINGTON - Former Vice President Al Gore yesterday unleashed another verbal assault on President Bush, comparing him to Richard Nixon and his staff to Nazi ``Brown Shirts.''

Some say that the Democratic Party should not be held responsible for some of the radical positions advanced by the Democratic base.  What these people fail to realize is that the Nazi/Hitler references have come from the top, i.e. VP Gore and Senator Byrd, as did the Taliban reference, which came from Senator Johnson.  That doesn't make the Democratic Party leadership responsible for the absurd statements from their base.  But it surely doesn't make them innocent either.  And such extremisim will probably hurt them politically.  Note the following from MSNBC:

Democrats must shore up their standing on national security, say the folks at the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, who urge the party to "reject Michael Moore and the MoveOn crowd" and focus on ideas and becoming the party of reform again.  They also caution Democrats that blogosphere is "not representative of most of the American people" and that it could actually have a "pernicious effect" on how the party is viewed because it's polarizing and getting too much media attention. 

Ryne:

Extra credit assignment: another shining example of what I've dubbed the South Dakota corollary to Godwin's Law.

I think maybe we need to amend the SD corollary thusly: If the subject amongst South Dakota Democrats is George Bush or John Thune, Republicans or conservatives, the probability of a Hitler/Nazi/fascism comparison becomes equal to one.

Here's even more on the Hitler analogy front from some in South Dakota:

From a Dakota blog:

Is there any chance that the next president will be able or willing to repair the damage done by 8 years of Bushist facsism? [sic]

Did you also know the Republicans are led by a "fuehrer," Iraq was a "war of atrocity," that Hitler, like Republican statements on reforming Social Security, "probably referred to his gas ovens as a 'reform,'" and that "If Hitler were alive today, he'd have his own blog"?  If not, you haven't been keeping up on your Dakota reading.  From another Dakota blogger of the left:

The Republicans need a fuehrer to lead their party. They like to be led into wars of atrocity based upon false pretenses. They like to be given easy-to-remember cant to dully repeat in the face of facts.

You know, that "war of atrocity" which allowed 8 million Iraqis, or 60% of those registered, to freely vote a few weeks ago.  That "war of atrocity" which toppled an authoritarian regime which had killed a million people.  Last weekend, this fellow's town welcomed home South Dakota National Guard troops from Iraq.  I wonder if he asked the troops about their "war of atrocity."  Also, see this from yet another Dakota lefty blogger:

Republicans like to “frame” there [sic] destruction of programs as “reform” and refer to Democrats [sic] evil agenda. Hitler probably referred to his gas ovens as a “reform”.

For more on the left's constant use of comparisons to fascism, see this, which notes how the editor of Harper's compared Trent Lott to "Reichsmarschall Hermann Goring" and thinks the war in Iraq was a "test market for a reconfigured American political idea matched to Benito Mussolini's definition of fascism."  Still another Dakota blog featured a "cartoon" comparing Senator Thune to not only Hitler, but also to a KKK leader to boot.  And you can't forget this gem from the editor of South Dakota's biggest newspaper:

"If Hitler were alive today, he'd have his own blog."

Also, note the current controversy over the University of Colorado professor's comments about the "little Eichmanns" who died in the twin towers on 9/11.  With all this talk about fascism and Hitler, it seems that parts of the left have gone mad. 

House and Johnson

Charley House is wondering about Senator Johnson's voting record, which the SD MSM largely ignores:

What do the following folks have in common? ... They are the only ones to vote against Thomas Griffith to sit on the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia. Harry Reid voted for this guy's nomination for Chrissakes! Dodd, Dorgan, Biden, Feinstein, and Schumer all voted for this guy. But not Tim.

Remember that next time Tim starts bleating about how "bipartisan" he his.

The simple fact is, Tim can call himself whatever he wants. But, based on his votes, he is as left, or left of, Daschle.

THIS is Torture

New York Times:

Marines on an operation to eliminate insurgents that began Friday broke through the outside wall of a building in this small rural village to find a torture center equipped with electric wires, a noose, handcuffs, a 574-page jihad manual - and four beaten and shackled Iraqis.

The American military has found torture houses after invading towns heavily populated by insurgents - like Falluja, where the anti-insurgent assault last fall uncovered almost 20 such sites. ...

The men said they told the marines, from Company K, Third Marines, Second Division, that they had been tortured with shocks and flogged with a strip of rubber for more than two weeks, unseen behind the windows of black glass. One of them, Ahmed Isa Fathil, 19, a former member of the new Iraqi Army, said he had been held and tortured there for 22 days. All the while, he said, his face was almost entirely taped over and his hands were cuffed. ...

The manual recovered - a fat, well-thumbed Arabic paperback - listed itself as the 2005 First Edition of "The Principles of Jihadist Philosophy," by Abdel Rahman al-Ali. Its chapters included "How to Select the Best Hostage," and "The Legitimacy of Cutting the Infidels' Heads." [emphasis mine]

Somebody inform the kind Senator Durbin that nothing like this has happened or been seen at Guantánamo.

Continue with the Durbin Bashing!

As usual, Mark Steyn has it about right.  Read the whole thing here (and try to find the obscure Marx Brothers reference):

The senator from Illinois' comparisons are as tired as they're grotesque. They add nothing useful to the debate. But around the planet, folks naturally figure that, if only 100 people out of nearly 300 million get to be senators, the position must be a big deal. Hence, headlines in the Arab world like "U.S. Senator Stands By Nazi Remark." That's al-Jazeera, where the senator from al-Inois is now a big hero -- for slandering his own country, for confirming the lurid propaganda of his country's enemies. Yes, folks, American soldiers are Nazis and American prison camps are gulags: don't take our word for it, Senator Bigshot says so.

This isn't a Republican vs Democrat thing; it's about senior Democrats who are so over-invested in their hatred of a passing administration that they've signed on to the nuttiest slurs of the lunatic fringe. It would be heartening to think that Durbin will himself now be subjected to some serious torture. Not real torture, of course; I don't mean using Pol Pot techniques and playing the Celine Dion Christmas album really loud to him. But he should at least be made a little uncomfortable over what he's done -- in a time of war, make an inflammatory libel against his country's military that has no value whatsoever except to America's enemies. Shame on him, and shame on those fellow senators and Democrats who by their refusal to condemn him endorse his slander.