ABC News Tonight, Biden, I think, tells Wolfie,

"Let me finish" when Wolf interrputs the Senator who is saying it is an issue of honesty, candor that the Pentagon will not say how much money they need for Iraq.

Wolfie says, "There will be a supplemental request" but they can't say now how much. Jennings said that Wolfie then said it was because the situation was changing so much.

Good news night on both CBS and ABC. Major stories on both were the 28 pages, Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon futures market on Iraq. I am beginning to believe the tide is turning.

...they won't let go. It's a double-edged sword, but now it seems to be working in our facor.

were happening closer to the election -- but something is better than the nothing we've been getting.

...but don't forget Watergate. The burglars were arrested in June of 1972 and Nixon didn't resign to nearly three years later. It took the media nearly six months to realize that there was a story, and then the spent the next two years unravelling all the nefarious schemes of the Nixon White House.

Be patient, but keep up the pressure by writing letters to the editor and to friendly (and waffling) members of Congress.

I remember we had to go shopping for bridesmaids dresses for my cousin's wedding that night. My aunt, the bride's mother, had to keep coming back to drag my other aunt and I out of the electronics department where we were watching TV. As she dragged us back to bridal my more politically aware aunt was screaming "This is the happiest night of my life, I want to enjoy it, not look at dresses."

I was in Japan on business when he announced his resignation. It took me a while to find an English language paper (the Asahi Shinbun, I believe) and doped out why everyone was so exercised. I went back to my hotel and sent a cable to my boss, a wingnut, saying something like "I told you so, O.W.!"
:D

..He was calling Wolfie out on his bullshit. Which is more than any of the Sunday morning media clones did recently.

How bout a little more of that, and a little less ass kissing, Joe?

got nasty with Wolfowtiz because he kept trying to talk
over each Senator and go off on long stories of how wonderful
things were . So did Boxer..saying 40 million for roads in
Iraq. My constituents need roads. 35 million for jobs in Iraq.
My constituents need jobs...why aren't we spending the money here
etc etc... a couple of other Dem senators really handd him his
head, while Chairman Lugar (R) like a jackass was smiling and telling
bullshitter Wofowtiz what a wonderful job he had done and how much
they appreciated it.

I think Wolfowitz got the message, but he's so arrogant and showed
his arrogance that I do believe he discounts their anger believeing
he'll get his way.

Is it 3 billion dollars that the Pentagon can't account for? ...it's lost. Lost in a slush fund that he can use anyway?

but i could be wrong

A billlion here a billion there, pretty soon your talking about real money.

Don't knock Biden...he's a really smart guy who doesn't suffer fools easily.

Pink Tutu Biden laid down and died for that Uncle Tom

It's not the tide. It's the volume. There is nothing but utter rubbish coming out of the Bush administration. If the media didn't report it they'd have to shut down their studios for lack of material.

The fact that "there is nothing but utter rubbish" to report and that the rubbish is damaging the administration is a lot better than the utterly depressing rubbish we have had to suffer through for two and a half years.

I won't be convinced we can wint until we do win. But these past couple of weeks have been encouraging. I'm still waiting for Bev and the black box story to hit CBS or ABC. The timing on that is critical and needs to happen, I think, by this fall.

Mean while I just keep on keepin' on the best I can.

I was listening to NPR this afternoon in the car and they played a clip of Chafee reaming Wolfowitz out. He basically asked Wolfie when they could expect some honesty. Wolfie feigned indignation about being accused of being dishonest (if the shoe fits, I say), and Chafee slightly toned it down to "candor", but was still pretty ticked off.

Chafee made a good point -- Wolfowitz claimed they had no idea how much the supplemental request would be, and Chafee jumped in, saying something like "Does anyone here think we'll have less than 100,000 troops there, raise your hand. That's at least 2.5 billion dollars a month right there."

The piece was followed up with Ted Stevens jumping all over DARPA for the terrorism betting pool. A lot of angry republicans today.

Senators Grill Administration Over Iraq Costs
By Vernon Loeb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 30, 2003; Page A11

When Bolten said that the administration did not plan to ask for funds in the fiscal 2004 budget for sustaining 150,000 troops in Iraq and rebuilding the country because it didn't know what the precise costs would be, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), the committee's ranking Democrat, erupted.

"Give me a break, will you?" he said. "When are you guys starting to be honest with us? Come on. I mean, this is ridiculous."

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said her constituents want to know how the administration squares spending $45 billion on Iraq in the current fiscal year with domestic spending of only $6.7 billion for Head Start, $27 billion for the National Institutes of Health and $31 billion for highways.

Boxer derided the Pentagon's description of the current fighting in Iraq as "low-intensity conflict." "I want you to know when your kid dies, it's not a low-intensity conflict," she said.

Sen. Jon S. Corzine (D-N.J.) said that while six service members from New Jersey have been killed, "I don't feel comfortable I have the information to be able to argue that we want that patience that I know we need to have."

He called the lack of budget information about Iraq "a travesty."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64796-2003Jul29.html