Daily News Roundup, 12/05/07: No Nuclear Weapons = Latent Threat

Europe loves it. Bush hates it. And Huckabee hasn't heard of it. What are we talking about? The National Intelligence Estimate's conclusion that Iran hasn't had a nuclear weapons program since 2003, of course!

Josh mentioned the NIE assessment in yesterday's roundup, and the administration spent a good part of yesterday spinning the ever-living daylights out of it. The executive branch was on full-court press, as Bush joined his diplomatic corps in picking up the phone to reach out and touch the allies in the coalition against Iran. U.N. Security Council members agreed to continue with sanctions against Iran, but it hardly needs to be said that the members all recall the Iraq debacle, and the administration's lack of credibility because of that is going to limit how far it can go in proclaiming how dangerous Iran is. Not that it stops them:

Bush defended his approach during a televised session in the White House briefing room, saying "our policy remains the same" regardless of the new intelligence.

"Look, Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous, and Iran will be dangerous if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon," he said. "The NIE says that Iran had a hidden -- a covert nuclear weapons program. That's what it said. What's to say they couldn't start another covert nuclear weapons program?"

So the fact that they don't have a nuclear program any more means they're dangerous, because now they could start another one. Well, that's trouble, isn't it? A note to our loyal readers: If you don't have a nuclear weapons program going on, make sure the Bush administration doesn't find out, or you'll be branded a national security threat. And you thought your wait in airport check-in lines was long now. What can we say — we look out for our readers.

Democrats, of course, had a field day with the news. With memories of President Bush's declaration that Iran's nuclear energy program could lead to "World War III" fresh in the minds of many, the NIE makes the administration look inept and hasty, and very willing to repeat precisely the same mistakes that led us to the quagmire in Iraq. It's an easy opportunity to pile onto the President:

President Bush’s “credibility is absolutely zero,” [Rep. Jim] McDermott said in an interview. “We are dealing with a president who has no shame. Anyone who can turn down $10 million for children’s [health insurance] is not going to be turned off by a report,” he added.

Yes, you read that right — he did indeed throw the SCHIP veto in there. When it rains, it pours.

As we mentioned before, the next Democratic candidate debate will be held on the 13th of this month. If you're curious as to how that's going to go, an Iowa radio forum yesterday may be some indication. Predictably, Hillary Clinton got quite a bit of flak for her vote for the resolution naming Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group, as she has been getting from the other candidates while campaigning in Iowa. As has appeared to be the case from news reports over the last few days, it's now Obama taking potshots at Clinton, and Clinton sniping back, and Edwards stepping out of the way and taking the high ground. He still differentiated himself from Clinton, as he has, but didn't come out aggressive or belligerent. Time ranked him as the winner, with Clinton and Obama tied for second and Biden close behind; Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post, whose opinion I tend to think is usually pretty solid, named Edwards, Biden and Dodd as the winners, and Clinton and Gravel as the losers.

Congressional judiciary committees kept themselves pretty busy yesterday. In the Senate, Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy officially put the committee's resolutions to hold White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former political director Sara Taylor in contempt of Congress onto the committee agenda. The Hill says that he wants to consider the resolutions "as soon as possible;" the resolutions are scheduled to come up tomorrow.

And on the House side, Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman has put in a request for transcripts of interviews with senior administration officials for the Valerie Plame CIA leak investigation, including those of President Bush and Vice President Cheney, with Attorney General Michael Mukasey. The documents had previously been denied to the Oversight Committee because of the claim that it would interfere with the ongoing investigation. As that investigation is now over, it should be interesting to see whether Mukasey orders the documents turned over or plays to the administration and finds some new reason to withhold them.

Finally today, it looks like Houston is finally getting something out of their contract with EarthLink to provide citywide wireless Internet — though not quite how it was originally planned. EarthLink had to pay the city $5 million as a penalty fee for not starting the project on time, which the city plans on using to fulfill the "digital inclusion" part of that project which would create free WiFi hotspots in ten low-income neighborhoods. Considering that word on the street is that EarthLink may opt not to do the project after all, it is good that some of the money returned from that venture is going to its original intent.