Just before November's midterm elections, a piece called "Divide, Suppress and Conquer" described the two-pronged Republican campaign strategy of mobilizing its conservative base while driving down the Democratic and independent vote. When it comes to vote suppression, a new study has found that the Republican tactics have been quite successful, indeed.

Which is just what the doctor ordered for the Republican Party. As Perrspectives detailed in November, in recent years the GOP at the state and federal level has been moving to discourage voter participation outside its base. Through tougher voter registration processes, restrictive voter ID programs, unprecedented redistricting, and election day intimidation, the Republicans seek to produce reliably "red" outcomes at the ballot box. For black and Hispanic voters, who in 2006 voted for Democrats by 89% and 69% respectively, the new restrictions are operating just as the GOP intended. (For the details on these efforts, see "Divide, Suppress and Conquer.")

The new Eagleton Study also supported the findings of a 2006 report that concluded there was little evidence of voter fraud at polling places. That May 2006 study for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission definitely refuted the voter fraud myth perpetuated by Republicans. That report concluded, "There is widespread but not unanimous agreement that there is little polling place fraud, or at least much less than is claimed, including voter impersonation, 'dead' voters, noncitizen voting and felon voters."

It is worth noting that the Eagleton study on provisional voting and voter identification did not examine results from election 2006, which occurred after several states enacted new voter ID measures. (Not surprisingly, virtually all of the states featuring the most restrictive ID requirements voted for George W. Bush in 2004.) While Georgia and Missouri had their new ID card programs blocked by the courts, Indiana did move forward with its own and enjoyed a 2% increase in overall turnout. As Indiana Secretary of State Todd Rokita, a Republican, disingenuously put it, "we could not find one instance where a legitimate voter could not vote."

That is, after all, exactly the GOP strategy. In voting as in so many other areas of American life, the Republicans will tell us who is "legitimate."

"I welcome debate at a time of war and I hope you know that. Nor do I consider a belief that if you don't happen to agree with me, you don't share the same sense of patriotism I do. You can get that thought out of your mind if that's what some believe."

As it turns out, that is exactly what President Bush, his Republican Party and its amen corner appear to believe.

It was President Bush, after all, who lashed out at Democrats in the run-up to the mid-term elections, declaring them virtual traitors on October 31, 2006:

"However they put it, the Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win and America loses."

President Bush, of course, has had plenty of company among the leading lights of the Republican Party in questioning the patriotism of the Democratic opposition. In 2004, Vice President Dick Cheney described the significance of a John Kerry victory, "if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again." And just the day before President Bush's faux olive branch, White House press secretary Tony Snow got in the act. Snow, who had once branded now Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid "wheezy prophets of the Defeatocrat Party," tried to tar the Democrats with the traitors' brush:

"As you know, and I've said many times, Osama bin Laden thought the lack of American resolve was a key reason why he could inspire people to come after us on September 11th. I am not accusing members of the Senate of inviting carnage on the United States of America. I'm simply saying, you think about what impact it may have."

The President's now emasculated allies in Congress are among the most notorious - and frequent - violators of Bush's supposed call for bipartisanship on national security matters. In the wake of the debate over the Military Commissions Act and its gutting of habeas corpus rights, then House Speaker Dennis Hastert attacked the Democrats who would "would gingerly pamper the terrorists who plan to destroy innocent Americans' lives," adding, "surprise that the Democrats in the House put their liberal agenda ahead of the security of America." Hastert was joined by the mercifully former House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), who pronounced:

"The Democrats' partisan opposition to this program, at the urging of the radical leftist element of their Party, provides further proof that they continue to put politics ahead of addressing the security concerns of the American people...it underscores why the American people don't trust Democrats when it comes to national and homeland security."

In the 2006 elections, of course, the American people proved Boehner and his fellow GOP attack dogs wrong. The Republicans were overwhelmingly defeated and lost both their House and Senate majorities. By late January, a majority of American disapproved of President Bush's handling of terrorism, opposed his planned troop increases in Iraq and overwhelmingly preferred Democratic Congressional leadership in addressing Bush's Iraq debacle.

Addressing the new Democratic House majority on Saturday, a two-faced President Bush disingenuously claimed he sought to make peace with his Capitol Hill foes:

"I really hope that the members out there get a sense that I bear no ill will, I bring no animosity about the fact that we may not agree on every position, and that I am appreciative of the contributions they make."

We know he was lying, as the expression goes, because his lips were moving.

As 2006 comes to a close, the Top 10 GOP Sound Bites chart has been turned upside down. In the wake of the Republicans' midterm election nightmare and the battering of the Iraq Study Group report, a bevy of GOP favorites have fallen off the list.

Nowhere is the shake-up more evident than in the declining fortunes of the Republicans' Iraq Remix LP. Smash hits with a great beat you could dance to like George Bush's thumping "Stay the Course" and Tony Snow's haunting "Adapting to Win" are gone from the charts altogether. While the RNC classic "Cut and Run (No Surrender)" is still hanging on at #7, newer melancholy tunes from the President's team, including "New Way Forward" (#1), "Surge" (#2) and "Fresh Eyes" (#4) now top the charts.

The pre-election ditty from Dennis Hastert and his friends at Fox News, "San Francisco Values" remains a solid #3. But other Hastert classics from the short-lived You've Got Male FoleyGate Dance Mix, including "Ongoing Investigation" and "George Soros and the Democrats" quickly disappeared from the list.

For the archives of past Top 10 GOP Sound Bites lists, visit here.

With the midterms now in the rear view mirror, history will record that President Bush committed the defining gaffe of the 2006 campaign.

Try as they might, conservatives failed to turn John Kerry's clumsy "stuck in Iraq" stumble into the moment that snatched Democratic defeat from the jaws of victory. As it turns out, it was President Bush who sealed the fate of the GOP's congressional majority by offering job security for the "fantastic" Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during the final week of the campaign. No wonder Republicans nationwide are furious with Bush over his cynical, post-election sacking of Rumsfeld.

Just ask New Jersey Republican Senate candidate Tom Kean Jr. On September 2nd, Kean called for a "fresh face" to lead the Pentagon following Rumsfeld's disgraceful comments regarding the "moral and intellectual confusion" of Iraq war critics he compared to Nazi appeasers. "By engaging in that kind of rhetoric," Kean argued, "this secretary has stepped over the line." Throughout September, Kean enjoyed a surprising lead over the incumbent Democrat Bob Menendez. But ultimately, the son of the popular former New Jersey was swept away on November 7 53% to 45% by the anti-Bush, anti-Iraq tide.

Kean was far from alone. Five-term Republican Congresswoman Ann Northup was undone by Bush's Rummy Curse. On October 25th, Northup rejected President Bush's description of Rumsfeld as a "smart, capable administrator," instead concluding "When things aren't going well, and they aren't going well, it's time to bring in some new ideas and have a different approach." Northup lost a tight race to Democrat John Yarmuth.

In Florida's 22nd congressional district, incumbent Clay Shaw was beaten 51% to 47% by Democrat Ronald Klein in a contest the Republican led until late October. Asked about what might have happened had Rumsfeld been dumped prior to Election Day, Shaw replied wistfully, "it could have made a difference in who is running the Congress."

As Perrspectives previously detailed, a discussion of who will be running Congress is exactly what President Bush hoped to avoid with last Wednesday's belated removal of Rumsfeld. With an almost papal belief in his own infallibility, Bush had stood by his man even as the disaster in Iraq unfolded. Needing to change the subject after election day, Bush simply changed his Defense Secretary.

All of which was too little, too late for livid Republicans betrayed by Bush. "If Rumsfeld had been out, you bet it would have made a difference," Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter griped. "I'd still be chairman of the Judiciary Committee."

With Wednesday's post-election sacking of Donald Rumsfeld, President Bush showed once again that he's more concerned about managing the news cycle than America's national security. Facing the prospect of explaining away his party's "thumping" at the hands of the Democrats, Bush instead hoped to change the topic.

The "blue wave" that swept the Republicans from Congress can in no small measure be attributed to Bush's failed presidency in general and the disaster in Iraq in particular. Exit polls revealed that 57% of voters disapproved of the war in Iraq and 58% of Bush himself, with a staggering 60% stating that national issues drove their choices on election day. The stench of George Bush tainted Republican candidates, especially in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. Just ask soon-to-be ex-Senators Rick Santorum.

But if victory has a thousand fathers, George W. Bush wanted to ensure that defeat would be an orphan. Using the always willing White House press corps as his accomplice, Bush sought to alter the news cycle with his transparently cynical move at the Pentagon. Swapping one disaster for another, the White House hoped to change the topic from Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid to Don Rumsfeld and Bob Gates.

The American people spoke clearly on Tuesday. But on Wednesday, the President wanted them to speak about something else. So just one week after steadfastly praising the "fantastic" performance and guaranteeing the future of his Defense Secretary, President Bush almost comically declared:

"Now, after a series of thoughtful conversations, Secretary Rumsfeld and I agreed that the timing is right for new leadership at the Pentagon."

There's an old saying that discretion is the better part of valor. The timing of President Bush's attempt at media misdirection with today's long overdue dumping of Donald Rumseld was just cowardice, pure and simple.

As Tuesday's vote approaches, Democrats are buoyantly optimistic about their prospects for retaking control of Congress. President Bush is wildly unpopular. His handling of Iraq, the election's dominant issue, is backed by less than a third of the electorate. On issue after issue, voters across the United States support Democratic positions. And in generic Congressional polls, a majority of Americans consistently prefer Democrats over Republicans.

Almost none of which matters for the Republican braintrust. For the GOP, 2006 isn't a popularity contest. The Republican strategy for victory hinges on turning out their base while ensuring potential Democratic voters stay home.

Call it "Divide, Suppress and Conquer."

Americans Heart Democrats

On Sunday, it was Vice President Cheney who best summed up the problem for Republicans' in 2006, "It may not be popular with the public." While Cheney was discussing Iraq, his conclusion could apply almost across the board for the GOP.

Republican woes start in the White House. President Bush's approval ratings remain mired in the 30's, with CNN on Monday reporting an abysmal 35%. Last week, the New York Times reported only 29% of Americans back the White House on Iraq, the single most important issue in the mid-term elections according to a host of recent opinion surveys. Democrats are now viewed by Americans as the party best able to handle both the chaos in Iraq and the overall terror threat.

The public's preference for Democrats extends across the gamut of domestic issues as well. On abortion, stem cell research, Social Security and health care, Americans (often by wide margins) endorse progressive positions generally held by Democrats. Even with strong GDP growth and recent declines in the unemployment rate, Americans prefer Democratic stewardship of the economy by 54% to 37%. 61% of Americans in a recent USA Today poll claimed the country was on "the wrong track." Throw in Jack Abramoff and the Mark Foley scandals and the result is an overwhelming preference for Democratic control of Congress that even Fox News surveyed at 49 to 36%.

The GOP 25% Strategy: An Overview

But none of that may matter on Tuesday. That's because Republicans only care about the "half of the half" that actually vote in mid-term elections. (While analysts predict heightened voter interest in 2006, it is worth remembering actual midterm turnout in 2002 was a dismal 39.5%; in 1998, a pathetic 38.1%.) That's where the GOP's 25% Strategy comes in.

The Republican 25% Strategy of divide, suppress and conquer is simple. First, fire up the base with red meat issues, while using the proven conservative "distribution" channel of churches and single issue advocacy groups to get them to the polls. Second, drive down the participation of potential Democratic and independent voters through curbs on registration, onerous new ID requirements, and polling place eligibility challenges. Last but certainly not least for the Republican party of Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman, when in doubt, just cheat.

Red Meat for Red Staters: Turning On, Turning Out the Base

The Rove strategy begins with mobilizing the conservative base with plentiful heapings of red meat. By defining the hated and the heathen, Rove, Ken Mehlman and the RNC will count on the intensity of the Christian conservatives to deliver for the GOP in 2006, just as they did in 2004.

The GOP's Congressional leadership did their part, unveiling their 2006 platform of "fags, flags and fetusus" last fall. A flag burning amendment, a same-sex marriage constitutional ban, and a fetal pain bill topped the supposed "American Values Agenda" of Dennis Hastert and Bill Frist. That each of the overwhelmingly unpopular measures failed to advance through Congress is beside the point; along with the 8 state ballot initiatives banning same-sex marriage and the ongoing war on "activist judges," they were designed precisely to motivate the hardest of the Republican hard core.

And the boy trouble of Mark Foley and Ted Haggard notwithstanding, Rove's base building bets seem like good ones. The Democrats simply have no "distribution channel" like the Republicans' network of churches and single issue groups to deliver voters to the polls. Rove delivered his much-touted four million new evangelical voters to the polls in 2004, voters who backed George Bush by 3 to 1 over John Kerry. For Rove and Mehlman, the religious right is both the medium and the message. And the GOP's unequaled "72 Hour Task Force" promises to deliver them on Election Day.

But given the numbers, the GOP can't win in 2006 if Democrats and independents show up to vote. That's where the Republicans multi-pronged strategy of voter suppression comes in.

Registration Frustration

The first pillar of the Republican 25% Strategy has been to erect barriers to the registration of new voters. Less affluent, African-Americans and especially Hispanic voters represent an untapped pool of new Democratic supporters. Republicans aim to keep in that way.

GOP efforts to block a populist wave of new Democrats started with opposition to "motor voter" laws in the 1980's and 1990's. Designed to make voter registration as easy as getting a driver's license or registering a vehicle at your local DMV, motor voter laws were mandated by the 1993 National Voter Registration Act signed by President Clinton. Republicans at the national and state level, famously including GOP Governor Kirk Fordice in Mississippi, tried to block motor voter implementation. Even today, the Texas Republican party platform calls for the repeal of motor voter laws, a position shared with those frequenting arch-conservative watering holes such as Free Republic and Town Hall.

Down but not out, Republicans have turned to a new generation of more sophisticated – and insidious – tactics to blunt new voter registration. In Florida, the GOP in 2004 built on its successful voter roll purges of 2000 with a new approach. Simply put, Jeb Bush and the Republicans wanted to make registering voters too risky and too expensive for the parties and grassroots advocacy organizations. Signed registration forms not submitted within 10 days would generate a $250 fine. The fine would jump to $5,000 per person for each form lost, missing or otherwise not submitted. It's no wonder that Florida League of Women Voters, with its $16,000 program budget, was forced to cease voter registration efforts. It's also no wonder that a federal judge struck down the odious Florida law in August, agreeing with attorney Craig Siegel that "the law would have imposed a tax on democracy and a tax on democratic participation."

The GOP's ID Fraud

Not content to prevent the enfranchisement of new voters, the GOP is committed to blocking their exercise of the right to vote. At the both the state and federal level, the GOP in the name of battling fraud has put up a raft of new roadblocks and barriers to voting with burdensome voter identification requirements.

The fact that voter fraud in the United States is virtually non-existent doesn't derail Republicans in their quest to block access to the ballot box. Just this year, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission issued a report refuting the myth of fraud at polling places. "There is widespread but not unanimous agreement," the report concluded, "that there is little polling place fraud, or at least much less than is claimed, including voter impersonation, "dead" voters, noncitizen voting and felon voters."

The result is a host of new state laws advanced by Republicans with the transparent aim of suppressing the potential Democratic - and especially black - vote. As Perrspectives reported previously, Georgia's onerous new voter ID card program requiring voters to visit one of the state's limited number of offices, would have trimmed up to 150,000 people (primarily African-Americans and the elderly) from the rolls. (The bill's sponsor, Augusta Republican Sue Burmeister explained that when black voters in her black precincts "are not paid to vote, they don't go to the polls.") Versions of the Georgia law have been ruled unconstitutional twice by federal judge Harold Murphy. And while Indiana's new voter ID law and the milder version in Arizona have to date withstood judicial scrutiny, another measure in Missouri similar to that in Georgia has been blocked during the 2006 elections. In his rebuke to the state of Missouri, Judge Richard Callahan deemed the right to vote "a right and not a license."

Redistricting Attorneys

An added layer of electoral security for Republicans comes in the form of redistricting. Especially in the wake of the 2000 election, the GOP was quick to enshrine its Congressional majority by leveraging its new found control of state houses and legislatures nationwide.

Nowhere was this truer than in Texas, where Tom Delay successfully engineered an an unheard of mid-term redistricting in 2002. Coming only two years after a federal judge in 2001 ruled on a new district map reflecting the results of the 2000 U.S. Census, Tom Delay and the GOP-controlled Texas legislature took the unprecedented step of redrawing the boundaries to ensure a solid Republican Congressional delegation. The new map produced a 21-11 Republican majority in 2004, a sweeping change from the 17-15 Democratic edge previously. (In June, the Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision largely upheld the Texas redistricting plan.)

It is worth noting that Democrats have at times been their own worst enemies when it comes to redistricting. Eager to please African-American and Hispanic activists, Democrats have frequently supported the creation of "majority-minority" districts. While adding diversity to Congress, these boundary changes often drain Democratic voters from suburban districts and help to enable a Republican lock on many outlying metropolitan races. (In Shaw v. Reno and other cases in the 1990's, the Supreme Court took a dim view of "irregularly shaped voting districts drawn by legislatures to concentrate minority voters and to boost their political clout.")

Old Dog, New Dirty Tricks

When all else fails in suppressing the potential Democratic vote, Republicans do what they best: cheat.

In 2000, 2002 and 2004, the Republicans proved themselves worthy heirs to Richard Nixon when it comes to dirty tricks. Of course, there were the purged voter rolls in Florida. In 2002, an election day GOP phone jamming operation in New Hampshire apparently directed from the White House succeeded in propelling Republican John Sununu to the Senate. In Kenneth Blackwell's Ohio, predominantly minority voters in Cleveland and Columbus had their registrations challenged, were instructed to go to the wrong polling places, and ultimately faced long lines and too few voting machines. And in Wisconsin and South Carolina, minority residents were threatened with arrest if they showed up to vote. 2004 seemed like a new low for Republican electoral intimidation and fraud.

But in 2006, the GOP is already surpassing its past election deceptions in both kind and degree. And using methods both legal and illegal, the Republican machine may yet determine the outcome on Tuesday.

The growing "Robo-Calling" scandal shows the lengths to which a Republican party desperate to maintain its power will go. In state after state, automated calling systems phone voters with a message from someone claiming to speak on behalf of or even pretending to be a Democratic candidate. After the recipient hangs up, the machine dials again, often 8 to 10 times. The Robo efforts, which are angering and frustrating voters all over the country, have already been reported in 53 races so far across Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Kansas, Washington, Virginia, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, among other states. (The state of New Hampshire is investigating whether the GOP has broken the state's "Do Not Call" registry law.) Nationally, the senior House Democrats have asked for an investigation of the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) and its illegal robo-calling practices. But as Joshua Micah Marshall notes in Talking Points Memo, the GOP will be only too happy to pay whatever fines it faces.

In comparison with the criminal fraud of the Republican Robo Calling scandal, the GOP's other election 2006 skullduggery seems almost pedestrian. In Orange County, California, House candidate Tan Nguyen sent a mailing to Hispanic voters threatening them with deportation if they showed up at the polls. In Colorado, Republican 7th congressional district candidate Rick O'Donnell sent a mailing designed to look like a sex offender notice to smear his Democratic opponent. Across the country, Republican push polls lie to voters about the positions, biographies and records of Democratic candidates. In Maryland, Ohio and states around the nation, Republicans are planning to aggressively challenge voter eligibility at the polls. And in Houston, Mayor Bill White cancelled planned free flu shots at the polls after complaints from Republican officials worried about increased minority (read "Democratic") turnout.

And those Republicans in Houston are not alone. In 2006, Americans just aren't very keen the GOP. But for all the Democrats' optimism, they shouldn't pronounce last rites for the Republicans in Congress just yet.

That's because on Wednesday morning, November 8th, there may still be more of them around than we would have thought.

As election day nears, the rhetorical woes of the conservative chattering classes continue unabated. From President Bush's ill-conceived Rumsfeld endorsement to Ted Haggard's boy trouble, the Republican leadership and its amen corner are providing plenty of fodder for voters.

"I am a deceiver and a liar. There's a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring with it all of my adult life."
Ted Haggard, November 5, 2006.

"We don't have to debate about what we should think about homosexual activity, it's written in the Bible."
Ted Haggard, from the film "Jesus Camp," 2006.

"Just think of what we could accomplish...if we spent less time on our soapboxes and more time on our knees."
Tom Delay, May 5, 2006.

"Both men [Rumsfeld and Cheney] are doing fantastic jobs."
President Bush, November 2, 2006.

"Donald Rumsfeld must go."
The Army Times, November 4, 2006.

"It may not be popular with the public...it's full speed ahead [in Iraq]."
Dick Cheney, November 5, 2006.

"I have no idea that I'm going to be subpoenaed."
Dick Cheney, November 5, 2006.

"I haven't had no ethical problems."
Tom Delay, October 31, 2006.

For a complete catalog of the verbal violations from the mouthpieces of the right, see "Today's Mantra."

John Kerry's failed "stuck in Iraq" joke once again highlighted the Massachusetts Senator's uncanny ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. But as George Bush, Dick Cheney and their amen corner try to make hay at Kerry's expense to help the GOP's flagging midterm prospects, they should take care that Americans not be reminded of the President's own sick sense of humor. After all, Bush's jokes usually come at our expense.

A sense of humor has always been an invaluable tool for presidents. Self-deprecating humor helped endear John F. Kennedy to the press and allowed Ronald Reagan to disarm his critics. But for George W. Bush, humor provides only a occasional glimpse of the truth and a rare window into the dark soul of a man who apparently views his fellow citizens with disdain.

President Bush's performance in March at the Gridiron Club was no exception. Bush used the roast that night to poke fun at his Vice President. Bush delighted in Cheney's friendly fire quail hunting accident, declaring of Cheney's middle initial (Richard B. Cheney) that "B. stands for bulls eye." The light-hearted Bush also jokingly scolded the press "Good Lord, you'd thought he shot somebody or something."

The President's ribbing of Cheney, the supposed man behind the throne, extended to Bush's own disastrous mishandling of the Dubai ports deal and his calamitous response to Hurricane Katrina. Bush claimed that it is in fact Lynne Cheney who is the woman behind the man behind the man. Bush went on to the punchline:

"Lynne, I think you're doing a heck of a job. Although I have to say you dropped the ball big time on that Dubai deal."

Bush's attempts at comedy might actually be funny if there weren't so, well, tragic. Only in mirth does Bush seem to speak the truth. For example, Bush used the October 2000 Al Smith dinner in New York to shed light on the constituency for his first-term agenda:

"This is an impressive crowd - the haves and the have-mores. Some people call you the elites; I call you my base."

Bush's presentation at the 2004 Radio and Television Correspondents Association Dinner showed his contempt for the truth and the suffering of the American people. His tasteless White House slideshow made light of the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Coming one year and hundreds of American dead and wounded after the invasion of Iraq, President Bush the cut-up hoped to regale the audience with his White House hijinx. As David Corn of The Nation reported:

Bush notes he spends "a lot of time on the phone listening to our European allies." Then we see a photo of him on the phone with a finger in his ear. But at one point, Bush showed a photo of himself looking for something out a window in the Oval Office, and he said, "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere." The audience laughed. I grimaced. But that wasn't the end of it. After a few more slides, there was a shot of Bush looking under furniture in the Oval Office. "Nope," he said. "No weapons over there." More laughter. Then another picture of Bush searching in his office: "Maybe under here." Laughter again.

President Bush seems almost physiologically incapable of telling the truth. The Bush White House just can't come clean about pre-war intelligence, the NSA spying program, the cost of the Medicare prescription drug plan, his relationships with Ken Lay and Jack Abramoff, global warming, the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, the Dubai ports deal or virtually anything else. Only when he's telling a joke does President Bush shed light on reality.

Unfortunately, the joke's on us.

While all eyes have been focused on the collateral damage from the FoleyGate scandal on Republicans' midterm prospects, convicted GOP uber lobbyist Jack Abramoff continues to be the gift that keeps on giving for Democrats.

A flurry of stories over the past two weeks highlighted the Abramoff taint that keeps spreading across Republican ranks in Congress and the White House. GOP nerves no doubt grew more agitated with the news that Jack will be ensconced in the nearby federal prison in Cumberland, Maryland while he cooperates with the Justice Department.

On Capitol Hill, Ohio Representative Bob Ney pleaded guilty to conspiracy and making false statements after receiving gifts and golf trips in exchange for favors for Abramoff clients. Meanwhile, California Congressman Richard Pombo, best known for his intent to gut the Endangered Species Act, held a dozen meetings with Abramoff's team in the 1990's, pocketing over $35,000 in contributions for his work on behalf of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe of Massachusetts. And in the Senate, Montana's Conrad Burns is fighting for his political life amidst allegations that his staff would have "starved to death" without free meals at Abramoff's trendy DC restaurant.

Over at the White House, the fetid stench of Abramoff continues to fester. Hot on the heels of a House Government Reform Committee report detailing 400 visits between Bush and Abramoff staffers came the resignation of Karl Rove's assistant Susan Ralston. Ralston, Abramoff's former admin at Greenberg Traurig LP, scheduled dozens of meetings between White House personnel and friends of Jack. The House report also detailed the critical role of former White House player and current RNC chairman Ken Mehlman in currying favors for Abramoff. Among Mehlman's hatchet jobs was the firing of Allen Stayman, the State Department's point person urging labor regulations for the Northern Marianas islands opposed by Abramoff clients. And just last week, former Bush GSA administrator David Safavian cried like a baby after a judge sentenced him to 18 months in prison for lying to federal investigators regarding his role in Abramoff procurement scandals.

For more of the latest news, reports and documents in the Abramoff affair, see the Abramoff/Delay Scandal Resource Center.

The RNC effort to help its candidate Bob Corker is no doubt designed to conjure up memories of Lily Belle in Neil Young's "Southern Man" for white voters in the Volunteer state. Even more certain, as I wrote back in September, is that the RNC ad is just the latest sign that racial bigotry is not the exception in the GOP, but perhaps the rule itself.

Reprinted in full below is "The Amazing Race Card."

As it turns out, poorly crafted, soft-core pornography seems to be quite the cottage industry among America's conservative chattering classes. For example, Second Lady Lynne Cheney, who offered viewers an on-screen meltdown on CNN on Friday over the Webb novels, showed she could write - as well as talk - trash with her 1981 novel of lesbian love in the old West, "Sisters." (It is worth noting that Mrs. Cheney's White House biography omits any mention of "Sisters" among her writing credits.)

But Cheney is far from the only peddler of soft core among the hard liners of the right. As the New Yorker describes at length, PlameGate villain Scooter Libby, the right-hand man for staunchly conservative Vice President Dick Cheney, seemed quite comfortable writing about prostitution, deviant sexual acts and bestiality in his bizarre 2001 coming of age tale ("The Apprentice") set in 1903 Japan. No doubt Libby's "man-on-deer" and "bear-on-girl" forbidden love scenes would make Rick Santorum and friends cringe.

Much to the dismay of the family values merchants in the American Taliban, Fox News commentator and culture warrior Bill O'Reilly offers generous heapings of adultery and pre-marital sex in his 1998 trashfest, "Those Who Trespass." And speaking of conservative...um...mouthpieces, who could forget male escort turned White House press stooge turned blogger, Jeff Gannon?

With the looming midterm elections and the imminent report from James Baker's Iraq Study Group facing them like a double-barreled shotgun, Congressional Republicans are beginning to cut and run on President Bush's failed Iraq strategy. In recent days, Senators Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and John Warner (R-VA) have garnered most of the attention with their critiques of a "stay the course" policy that has left Iraq "drifting sideways."

But it is Kay Bailey Hutchison from the President's home state of Texas who is now performing the greatest pre-election turnabout. And in seeking cover from the woes of President Bush, Senator Hutchison has paradoxically lauded President Clinton's intervention in the Balkans, a policy she once vehemently opposed.

Hutchison completed her desperate flip-flop with her endorsement of a plan to decentralize Iraq into distinct Shia, Sunni and Kurdish zones. In essence endorsing proposals such as those from Joe Biden (D-DE) and other to create a de facto, federated Iraq along religious and communitarian lines, Hutchison rejected the views of both the President and long time Bush family consigliere James Baker:

"We have to step back and stop trying to put our American ideas onto this problem and start trying to get an understanding of their views and strong-held prejudices and biases and ethnic preferences...Yes, it would be hard to do, but it would be worth trying. People say, 'Well, that would balkanize the country.' Well, things are pretty stable in the Balkans right now. It's looking better than Iraq."

For that, Kay Bailey Hutchison has Bill Clinton to thank. After all, it was President Clinton's determination in the face of staunch GOP opposition to end the ethnic cleansing and slaughter in Bosnia (and later, Kosovo) that made stability in the Balkans anything more than a pipedream.

Heading up the Republican opposition to Clinton's efforts to save Bosnia was none other than Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. On September 26, 1995, Hutchison proclaimed:

"I don't support the mission and I don't think the American people do. This is not where we should be taking the leadership role."

Just weeks later on November 30, 1995, Hutchison reiterated her opposition to the Dayton Accords plans for a federated Bosnia and the American presence needed to implement it:

"I think it is very important that we have an alternative because many of us feel that this is the wrong decision and that for us to exercise our responsibility as members of the Senate that we must speak out against deploying troops to Bosnia."

In December 1995, Hutchison sponsored a resolution stating the Senate's opposition to the Bosnia intervention. Defeated by a slim 52-47 margin, Hutchison's resolution expressed support for the 20,000 U.S. troops headed to the former Yugoslav republics while condemning their mission.

Hutchison's fierce opposition to Commander-in-Chief Clinton's Balkans policy did not end there. With the U.S. presence in Bosnia was reduced to 8,500 troops by May of 1998, Hutchison again called for their withdrawal following a tour of American forces there:

"The biggest picture that we saw is that we've got to take care of our troops [...] And speaking only for myself, I believe we're going to have to be more capable and more sure that when we send our troops out, it is for United States security interest or a commitment that we have to our allies."

While Hutchison's partitioning plan for Iraq is a non-starter at this late date, her born-again conversion to Bill Clinton's Balkans policy is long overdue. What a difference 10 years, a different commander-in-chief and the prospect of electoral annihilation make.

The Republican implosion over Iraq, the Foley scandal and the North Korean nuclear crisis has produced yet anothe bumper crop of conservative quotes, quips and catastrophes. A small sampling from the talking heads of the right:

"He [Rumsfeld] leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country."
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Peter Pace, October 19, 2006.

"House Democrats plot to establish a Department of Peace, raise your taxes, and minimize penalties for crack dealers."
House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO), October 18, 2006.

"If you look at the general overall situation [in Iraq], they're doing remarkably well."
Vice President Dick Cheney, October 17, 2006.

"As we go through the city of Baghdad, it was like being in Manhattan."
Rep. Peter King (R-NY), October 17, 2006.

"The stakes are too high for that kind of illogical behavior."
President Bush, regarding Iraq war criticism, October 17, 2006.

"Dennis Hastert didn't kill anybody."
Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT), October 13, 2006.

"I am, you know, amazed that this [Iraq] is a society which so wants to be free that they're willing to - you know, that there's a level of violence that they tolerate."
President Bush, October 11, 2006.

"To link me to George Bush is like linking me to an Oscar."
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, October 11, 2006.

"There must be no question among the administration, the Congress and the Iraqi unity government that staying the course is neither an option nor a plan."
Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), October 10, 2006.

"I don't care if we offend our allies in the Middle East."
Senator Rick Santorum, October 10, 2006.

"It's a silly question."
Tony Snow, asked whether President Bush had many any mistakes in handling the North Korea crisis, October 10, 2006.

"Why should I care about North Korea?"
Candidate George W. Bush, to advisor Saudi Prince Bandar, 1999.

"We will not tolerate nuclear weapons in North Korea."
President Bush, May 23, 2006.

"I got paid in stock options which were worthless."
Senator George Allen (R-VA), regarding undisclosed Xybernaut stock options once worth $1.1 million, October 10, 2006.

"My first sin each night is the failure to forgive the [San Diego Union Tribune]."
Convicted Republican Congressman Duke Cunningham, October 6, 2006.

"It seems to me that the situation [in Iraq] is simply drifting sideways."
Senator John Warner (R-VA), October 5, 2006.

"A submarine could take this place out."
President Bush, at the dedication of the Clinton Presidential Library, November 2004.

"I change constitutions, I put churches in schools."
Karl Rove, November 2004.

"Just get me a f**king faith based-thing."
Karl Rove, as reported on October 15, 2006.

The last two weeks have produced a dramatic shake-up in the Top 10 GOP Sound Bite list. The exploding Mark Foley scandal, the disintegration of Iraq and the new terrorist detainee legislation sent a bevy of Republican ditties racing up the charts. Meanwhile, some old conservative standards have fallen by the way side.

Soon-to-be former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert now has three smash hits at the top of the charts. Hastert's hard-rocking cut "(Democrats) Pamper the Terrorists" from the GOP's pre-election Geneva Convention Blues release is this week's new #1. Two singles from the House Republicans' You've Got Male ode to Mark Foley follow close behind. Hastert's dance remix of Scott McClellan's 2005 smash hit "Ongoing Investigation," performed with Ken Mehlman, Tony Snow, Tom Reynolds and John Shimkus, catapulted to #2. Meanwhile, the haunting ballad "Democrats and Soros" comes in at #3.

The carnage in Iraq and the coming Iraq Study Group report from Bush family consigliere James Baker III have sent three GOP favorites plummeting down the rankings. Last week's #1, "Cut and Run," dropped to #4, while "Stay the Course" dipped to fifth place. The nonsensical Bush-Cheney rap "Adapting to Win," with backing vocals from Donald Rumsfeld and Condi Rice, fell to number 10. Other past monster hits from President Bush's Iraq Remix, including "Better to Fight Them There Than Here" and "We're Making Progress," have disappeared from the Top 10 altogether.

You can see the archives of the Top 10 GOP Sound Bites list in the Perrspectives Image Gallery here.

My email in-box this morning contained one of the more surprising political developments of recent weeks. Former Virginia Governor Mark Warner, one of the early front-runners in the 2008 Democratic White House race, has decided not to run for president. The unanswered question is: why?

The email missive from Warner's Forward Together PAC offered only platitudes and pablum for the Governor's premature withdrawal:

I have decided not to run for President.

This past weekend, my family and I went to Connecticut to celebrate my Dad's 81st birthday, and then we took my oldest daughter Madison to start looking at colleges.

I know these moments are never going to come again. This weekend made clear what I'd been thinking about for many weeks - that while politically this appears to be the right time for me to take the plunge - at this point, I want to have a real life.

After raising $9 million for Democratic candidates and making 67 trips to 28 states and five countries, Warner was well-positioned for a competitive if not certain 2008 presidential bid. While Warner's statement does not rule out other future electoral efforts, it only serves to raise more questions than it answers regarding today's decision.

In the wake of the Mark Foley imbroglio, one can only hope that there is less here than meets the eye.

To help the Republicans extricate themselves from their current quandary, here some ads for the GOP we'd like to see:

• "The GOP: Turning Over a New Page in '06"
• "The Republicans: Standing Behind Our Children"
• "The GOP: Rewriting American History, One Page at a Time"
• "The Republicans: Stopping Mark Foley from Getting Married"
• "The Republicans: Do We Make You Horny?"
• "Republicans: The Other White Meat"
• "The RCCC: Putting the Pork Back in Politics"
• "The GOP: The Children Are Our Future"
• "The GOP '06: Jail Bait, Not Jail Time"
• "The Republicans: You've Got Male"

For reader suggestions on what "GOP" now stands for, visit the Perrspectives "Define GOP Contest."

Two new reports this week served to highlight the central role of the housing market in the U.S. economy and in driving the living standards of Americans. Coming on the same day the Dow reached an all-time high, the housing data is not good.

"It is now much more difficult for first-time homebuyers to get into the market, and for existing homeowners to trade up. This decline in affordability is the catalyst for the current sharp decline in housing activity. Until incomes catch up, the housing market is going to remain flat."

All of which brings us to the second gloomy forecast for the American housing market. The AP announced that Moody's will issue a report on Wednesday painting a bleak picture for the future. After five years of explosive growth, Moody's projects housing prices will tumble in over 100 of the nation's largest metropolitan areas, especially those in the Northeast, Florida and California. The report, "Housing at the Tipping Point," predicts a 3.7% drop in home values for 2007, the worst performance for an entire year since the Great Depression.

The growing dysfunction in the housing sector is just another of the defining characteristics of the "Bush League Economy." While the White House touts strong GDP, productivity and unemployment levels, Americans' standards of living decline in the face of stagnant wages, falling median household incomes, stratospheric home, health care and energy costs, as well as a mountain of personal debt. With the U.S. Insecurity Index disturbingly high, the Bush economy is just a house of cards.

Like the spotted owl or the Pacific sea otter, Black Republicans are something of an endangered species. This week, a select group of African-American conservatives and their GOP allies showed why.

On Monday, the National Black Republican Association (NBRA) debuted ads declaring that Democrats started the Ku Klux Klan and that Martin Luther King Junior was a member of the GOP. While no evidence apparently supports the group's claim that King was a Republican, the Klan's roots in the post-Civil War Democratic south are pretty clear. What is also quite clear, however, is that since the civil rights movement of the mid-1960's, Southern racists have happily found in a new home in the Republican Party. It's no wonder that Michael Steele, the African-American Republican Senate candidate, declared the NBRA spots "insulting to Marylanders" and asked the group to stop running them in his state.

Saxby Chambliss, Steele's would-be Senate colleague from Georgia, didn't make matters any easier for black Republicans this week. During a closed door session of the Senate Armed Services Committee discussing American intelligence capabilities, Chambliss reportedly declared that the South would have won the Civil War if it had better intelligence, adding "We'd be quoting Jefferson Davis, not Lincoln." Chambliss, who defeated incumbent and triple Vietnam War amputee Max Cleland by comparing him to Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, defended his longing for Southern victory by claiming that his actual words were "if General J.E.B. Stuart had had better intelligence, we'd all be meeting in Richmond right now." (Note to the NBRA: the Ku Klux Klan was founded by Stuart's fellow Confederate legend Nathan Bedford Forrest.)

Chambliss' Confederate nostalgia (widely shared among leading Republicans, by the way), is only the latest bizarre Republican linkage of the American Civil War and the war in Iraq. The Chambliss gaffe came within days of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's disturbing historical revisionism, "I know there were people who said, 'Why don't we get out of this now, take a peace with the South, but leave the South with slaves?'"

And so it goes for that loneliest of politicians, the black Republican. Even as the NBRA runs its ill-conceived ads, the GOP continues to play the race card for the 2006 mid-terms. George Allen has his Macaca and Arnold Schwarzenegger his preferred "hot" mix of black and Latino blood. And while President Bush proclaims the track, the lottery and dice games the primary economic activities of African-Americans, RNC chairman Ken Mehlman confused victim and villain in the brutal hate crime killing of James Byrd.

Meanwhile, Michael Steele trails in Maryland, while Lynn Swann and Ken Blackwell are getting drubbed in the gubernatorial races in Pennsylvania and Ohio, respectively. Black Republicans not only have the past wrong; their future isn't looking too bright, either.

Virginia Senator George Allen has once again confirmed the wisdom of the old aphorism that when stuck in a hole, stop digging. Just days after the "Macacagate" episode highlighted Allen's neo-Confederate proclivities, his ham-handed response to revelations of his Jewish ancestry put Allen in hot water.

During his September 18 debate with Democrat Jim Webb, a bitter Allen reacted angrily to reporter Peggy Fox's question about his Jewish roots. Perhaps sensing that stories of his grandfather (and namesake) Felix' Jewish faith might alienate his conservative Christian base, Allen raged that Fox was "making aspersions."

Seeking to deflate the ballooning controversy over his angry reaction, Allen proclaimed on Tuesday:

"I was raised as a Christian and my mother was raised as a Christian. And I embrace and take great pride in every aspect of my diverse heritage, including my Lumbroso family line's Jewish heritage, which I learned about from a recent magazine article and my mother confirmed."

But just to be on the safe side, Allen had the chutzpah to reassure the religious right by joking:

"I still had a ham sandwich for lunch. And my mother made great pork chops."

George Allen seems perfectly comfortable in dissembling to the people of Virginia. Apparently, he does not feel the need, as the Hebrew National hot dog ad proclaims, "to answer to a higher authority."

There's an old saying that a gaffe is what results when a politician inadvertently tells the truth. By that standard, then, the Republican Party must be confessing its deeply held beliefs when it comes to race. After all, despicable racial slurs like Arnold Schwarzenegger's lecture on black and Latino blood and George Allen's MacacaGate are only the latest signs that racial bigotry is not the exception in the GOP, but perhaps the rule itself.

Bush League Racism

The rot starts at the top. During his disastrous 2005 road show to sell his Social Security privatization scheme, President Bush revealed his own not-so-subtle stereotypes about African-Americans. Pitching his plan to a black audience during a January 2005 town hall meeting, Bush reassured the African-American attendees, "Another interesting idea...is a personal savings account...which can't be used to bet on the lottery, or a dice game, or the track."

In George W. Bush's defense, it can be said that racism, like charity, begins at home. It was his father George H.W. Bush, after all, who famously referred to his Mexican-American grandchildren as "the little brown ones." And it was Dubya's mother Barbara Bush who unwittingly offered the American people a glimpse into her own views on race and class while visiting with Hurricane Katrina refugees in Houston:

"Almost everyone I've talked to says we're going to move to Houston. What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."

But for President Bush, casual bigotry is not merely a family affair. His closest advisors in the White House and the Republican Party seem more than comfortable trafficking in racial epithets. In his first week on the job, Fox News host turned White House Press Secretary Tony Snow reintroduced the slur "tar baby" back into the vernacular. Former Bush Attorney General John Ashcroft was a distinguished neo-con (in this case, Neo-Confederate). In 1998, Ashcroft granted a long interview to the Southern Partisan, in which he stated, "Your magazine helps set the record straight. You've got a heritage of doing that, of defending Southern patriots like [Robert E.] Lee, [Stonewall] Jackson and [Jefferson] Davis. Traditionalists must do more. I've got to do more. We've all got to stand up and speak in this respect or else we'll be taught that these people were giving their lives, subscribing their sacred fortunes and their honor to some perverted agenda."

Like the President himself, RNC chairman Ken Mehlman similarly displayed a staggering lack of sensitivity and common sense while pandering to an African-American audience. During a July 2005 speech to the NAACP, he confused victim and villain in the dragging death of James Byrd, one of the worst hate crimes in recent history. Mehlman described Byrd as "a racist killer in east Texas, who the president brought to justice." Mehlman's error was sadly ironic, as it was Bush's bizarre, smirking comment about the Byrd case and hate crime legislation during his second debate with Al Gore in 2000 ("The three men who murdered James Byrd, guess what's going to happen to them? They're going to be put to death!") that so unnerved so many American voters.

Capitol Hill GOP in Black and White

The racial insensitivity at the White House pales in comparison to current Republican practice in Congress. Ironically, some of the most skilled GOP race card players are among its leading hopefuls for the Party's 2008 presidential nomination.

That discussion begins but most certainly does not end with Virginia Senator George Allen. Allen's "macaca" slur directed at opposition Webb campaign volunteer S.R. Sidarth was the latest chapter in Allen's lifelong romance with the Confederacy and the ante bellum South. Allen, who in 2005 co-sponsored a resolution apologizing for the Senate's past use of the filibuster against anti-lynching legislation in the 1920's, displayed a Confederate flag and a noose at his home. During the 1996 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a smiling Allen appeared in a photograph with the leadership of the Council of Conservative Citizens, the successor to the White Citizens' Councils of the Jim Crow South. While governor of Virginia, Allen declared "Confederate Heritage Month" and branded the NAACP an "extremist group." Sadly for the son of the old football coach, his ham-handed attempt to atone for MacacaGate backfired with his campaign's transparently cynical "Ethnic Day."

Allen, of course, is not the only born-again Confederate among the GOP's Congressional ranks. Mississippi Senator Trent Lott was a speaker in 1992 at an event of the Council of Conservative Citizens. Among its offerings in seething racial hatred is a "Wanted" poster of Abraham Lincoln. Lott's also offered his rebel yell in the virulently neo-Confederate Southern Partisan, where in 1984 he called the Civil War "the war of aggression." Lott's tenure as Senate Majority Leader only came to an end after he crossed the line with his 2002 tribute to legendary segregationist Strom Thurmond:

"I want to say this about my state: when Strom Thurmond ran for President, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."

Lott and Allen are not the Senate's only stewards of Confederate memorabilia and other symbols of bigotry. South Carolina freshman Republican GOP Jim Demint has been a staunch defender of the CSA flag, declaring during his 2004 campaign that "it should stay right where it is and I don't think the state legislature or governor should spend any more time on it." During his 1994 campaign, current Senate Majority leader Bill Frist found himself in hot water for an aide's concern over a visit to predominantly black Jackson, Tennessee, "We're getting deeper and deeper into the jungle here." And Montana Senator Conrad Burns, already facing a tough reelection fight, used a campaign event to belittle the immigration status of the "nice little Guatemalan man" who does work on the Burns' house.

Meanwhile in the House, Colorado Representative and 2008 GOP presidential aspirant Tom Tancredo has taken his anti-immigrant hard line directly to fringe hate groups. While most of the nation observed a solemn fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Tancredo used 9/11 to speak to the League of the South (LOS), a neo-Confederate hate group. (According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Tancredo may have gotten more than he bargained for, as the close of his remarks were met by "several men in confederate-themed clothing [who] stood up and bellowed the first notes of 'Dixie,' the Confederate anthem.")

Not to be left out, Tramm Hudson, the GOP hopeful in Florida's 13th district, became just another Republican race baiter to run afoul of public opinion. During a recent campaign event, the former Alabaman Hudson declared "I know from experience, that blacks are not the greatest swimmers." Unlike Katherine Harris, whose seat he seeks to fill, Hudson at least realized "I said something stupid."

States of Disgrace

Back in the states, Republican race merchants are hard at work as well.

Just weeks after Tony Snow's "tar baby" disgrace, Massachusetts Governor and GOP White House hopeful Mitt Romney offered up the same term to describe Boston's Big Dig project. In so doing, Romney found himself in good company with Missouri chief executive Matt Blunt, who in 2005 ordered the flag to be flown for a day during a memorial service attended at the Confederate Memorial State Historic Site in Higginsville.

Neither Romney nor Blunt, however, can compare to their Mississippi colleague Haley Barbour. The Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and former Republican National Committee Chairman wore a lapel pin with the image of the CSA flag during his campaign and attended a Council of Conservative Citizens barbeque in 2003. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Barbour referred to the overwhelmingly African-African looters in New Orleans as "subhuman."

The Republicans' truest practitioners of plantation politics may well in Georgia. As Perrspectives previously detailed, the GOP-controlled Georgia legislature in March 2005 passed a voter identification law. Nominally aimed at countering voter fraud, the transparent aim of this virtual poll tax is to suppress the African-American vote - and Democratic prospects - in the state, especially in Atlanta. The bill's sponsor, Augusta Republican Sue Burmeister explained that when black voters in her black precincts "are not paid to vote, they don't go to the polls."

Clearly, today's Republicans have no claim to the mantle of the "Party of Lincoln." As Joe Klein described it, the race card in Karl Rove's hands is no accident, but key to the GOP strategy for the 2006 mid-term elections: "if things get really desperate, he will play the race card, as Republicans have ever since they sided against the civil rights movement in the 1960s."

The fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks and primary politics have helped to once again bring out the worst from the mouths of the right. Featuring fear-mongering, the politics of the pulpit and outright racism, here are the latest mantras from the leading lights of the Republican Party.

"I wonder if [Democrats] they're more interested in protecting the terrorists than protecting the American people."
House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), September 12, 2006.

"I know Iraq is a mess and we have screwed up seven ways from Sunday."
Senator Lindsey Graham, (R-SC), September 10, 2006.

"One of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror."
President Bush, September 6, 2006.

"They [Cuban and Puerto Rican women] are all very hot. They have the, you know, part of the black blood in them and part of the Latino blood in them that together makes it."
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, (R-CA), March 3, 2006.

"I know there were people who said, 'Why don't we get out of this now, take a peace with the South, but leave the South with slaves?'"
Secretary of State Condi Rice, September 4, 2006.

"I'm not going to have a philosophical debate over politics."
President Bush to Maine war widow, August 25, 2006.

"God is the one who chooses our rulers."
Florida Congresswoman and Senate candidate Katherine Harris, August 24, 2006.

With this weekend's upcoming mockumentary "The Path to 9/11," Disney and ABC are breaking dangerous new ground in the conservative propaganda war. Even as the ABC network follows in the footsteps of Mel Gibson and The Passion of the Christ in "mobilizing the base," ABC News on Sunday declared Robert Greenwald's new documentary "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers" a left-wing hatchet job "produced like a political campaign."

A pre-election salvo designed to pin the blame for the September 11 attacks on Bill Clinton and the Democrats, the "Path to 9/11" is right-wing revisionist history packaged as fact. Laughably billed as "based on the 9/11 Commission report", ABC's "Path" is the work of conservative activist Cyrus Nowrasteh. Nowrasteh, who Rush Limbaugh deemed "a friend of mine," was featured in a panel in 2005 titled "How Conservatives Can Lead Hollywood's Next Paradigm Shift."

According to early reports, the distortions, smears and inventions in "The Path to 9/11" are legion. "The Path" features a CIA agent blaming the Washington Post for revealing that the U.S. was intercepting Bin Laden's calls, when the disclosure actually came from reliable conservative mouthpiece, the Washington Times. A critical scene showing Clinton National Security Advisor Sandy Berger blocking a 1998 CIA assault on Osama Bin Laden is made up out of whole cloth. Berger labeled Nowrasteh's fiction "a total fabrication. It did not happen." He was seconded by Richard Clarke, former counterrorism chief for Presidents Bush I, Clinton and Bush II, confirmed this scene never happened and was completely