This story is guaranteed to put a big, fat, red, white and blue smile on your face.
Storming Pretty Bad Here
No more posting for tonight possibly, as it appears we are having the mother of all thunderstorms. That red stuff in this animated radar– that is no good.
I just love turning everything off and sitting in the dark for five hours. Fabulous.
Time to unplug the electrical appliances.
Rino Roundup
The Countertop Chronicles hosts this weeks RINO Round-up, aka RINO sightings, aka Carnival of the RINO’s.
Plameless?
Surprisingly enough, it is Monday, and the press appears to have taken a break from the ‘flood the zone’ Plame/Rove coverage. No front page stories in the WaPo, NY Times, or LA Times.
Tom Maguire plays mop-up with the stories from this week-end, including this WaPo piece datelined today but not on the front page.
More on Lt. Gov. Knoll
Still no verification of the accuracy of Rhonda Goodrich’s claims (as discussed here yesterday) regarding Lt. Gov. Knoll attending the funeral of a a Marine and behaving inappropriately, but Gov. Rendell is issuing an apology:
Written apologies will be sent to a fallen Marine’s relatives angered by Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll’s uninvited appearance at the soldier’s funeral and her criticism of the war in Iraq, Gov. Ed Rendell said Sunday.
Rendell said he will send a personal letter to the family of the late Marine Staff Sgt. Joseph Goodrich, of Westwood, and will ask Knoll to do the same. Goodrich, 32, a police officer and infantry unit leader, died July 10 in a mortar attack in Hit, Iraq.
Rendell said he hadn’t spoken with Knoll about the incident, but was disturbed by the family’s charge that she made a political statement against the war.
“It’s not the business of state government to support the war, but our state supports the men and women who are fighting this war,” Rendell said during an appearance in Mt. Washington.
If this was just a political attack, it appears to have worked, although Rendell’s apology would seem to invalidate that theory:
Knoll’s actions and words offended Goodrich’s family and friends, along with others.
“I’ll never vote for her,” said Lynn Profeta, of Collier, who took her two sons to watch the military and police tribute paid to Goodrich outside St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church in Carnegie. “That family is grieving.”
Rendell said he thinks Knoll, 74, of McKees Rocks, meant no harm by attending the memorial service last Tuesday. He believes Knoll gave her business card to a family member so that Goodrich’s family would have a contact within state government if they later needed help securing benefits.
“She goes to so many funerals because she cares so deeply,” Rendell said. “I don’t go to funerals unless I’m invited. I go to wakes because they’re public.”
Goodrich’s sister-in-law, Rhonda Goodrich, of Indiana County, said Knoll sat next to Goodrich’s aunt, Linda Kubiak of Bethel Park, in the church and gave her a business card, explaining that she “attends 90 percent of these ‘functions’ across the state.”
Rhonda Goodrich said Knoll also told Kubiak “that the (state) government was against the war.”
I will try to remember on stay on top of this and report developments as they happen. I want more confirmation than just the word of Rhonda Goodrich.
The First Bump In The Road
It appears that we have our first bump in the road regarding the Judge Roberts confirmation:
Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. has repeatedly said that he has no memory of belonging to the Federalist Society, but his name appears in the influential, conservative legal organization’s 1997-1998 leadership directory.
Having served only two years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after a long career as a government and private-sector lawyer, Roberts has not amassed much of a public paper record that would show his judicial philosophy. Working with the Federalist Society would provide some clue of his sympathies. The organization keeps its membership rolls secret, but many key policymakers in the Bush administration are acknowledged current or former members.
Roberts has burnished his legal image carefully. When news organizations have reported his membership in the society, he or others speaking on his behalf have sought corrections. Last week, the White House told news organizations that had reported his membership in the group that he had no memory of belonging. The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and the Associated Press printed corrections.
Over the weekend, The Post obtained a copy of the Federalist Society Lawyers’ Division Leadership Directory, 1997-1998. It lists Roberts, then a partner at the law firm Hogan & Hartson, as a member of the steering committee of the organization’s Washington chapter and includes his firm’s address and telephone number.
Yesterday, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Roberts “has no recollection of being a member of the Federalist Society, or its steering committee.” Roberts has acknowledged taking part in some Federalist Society activities, Perino said.
Tempest in a teapot. And then there is this:
Federalist Society Executive Vice President Leonard A. Leo said that either he or another official of the organization recruited Roberts for the committee. Roberts’s task was to serve “as a point of contact within the firm to let people know what is going on” with the organization. “It doesn’t meet, it doesn’t do a whole lot. The only thing we expect of them is to make sure people in the firm know about us,” Leo said.
Membership in the sense of paying dues was not required as a condition of inclusion in a listing of the society’s leadership, Leo said. He declined to say whether Roberts had ever paid dues, citing a policy of keeping membership information confidential.
Whelan, who has been a member of the Federalist Society but said he had no recollection of his own membership on the steering committee, said the society is tolerant of those who come to its meetings or serve on committees without paying dues.
Assuming this was just a mistake on Robert’s part, I really don’t know why this is a big deal, even if he was a member of the Federalist Society since it was started in 1982. For goodness sakes, you all do remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s resume, don’t you:
In 1971, Ginsburg was instrumental in launching the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, and served as the ACLU’s General Counsel from 1973-1980, and on the National Board of Directors from 1974-1980. In this position, Ginsburg successfully argued several women’s rights cases before the Supreme Court, including 1973’s Frontiero v. Richardson.
Big deal.
Kevin Drum agrees:
Look, I’m always up for a spirited round of conservative scandal-mongering, but this is about the lamest excuse for a nano-scandal that I’ve seen in a long time. Why is the Washington Post wasting its time with this?
Idiots In Our Midst
You don’t need a finely honed sense of outrage to have this ruffle your feathers:
American flags, lining the lawn of the mother- and father-in-law of fallen U.S. Army Pfc. Timothy Hines Jr., were heaped in a pile early Saturday and burned under a car parked in front of the home – less than 24 hours after Hines was buried in Cincinnati’s Spring Grove Cemetery.
Jim Wessel, Hines’ father-in-law, said he thinks that the fire was a random act of vandalism.
The flames totaled Sara Wessel’s car.
Sara is Hines’ sister-in-law and Jim Wessel’s oldest daughter. She had been staying at the house on Sando Drive since the family returned last week from Washington, D.C., where they were visiting Hines at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Hines, 21, was buried Friday after more than 400 people mourned his passing and celebrated his life at the Vineyard Community Church in Springdale. He was buried with full military honors, leaving behind a pregnant widow who expects to give birth in about two weeks and a 2-year-old daughter.
Again, the story reports that this was more than likely a random act of violence, so let’s try to keep that in mind before jumping to conclusions about the anti-war left (and right). Still, this pisses me off. And no, it is not a sign we need a Flag Burning amendment, so let’s nip that in the bud, too.