The Tuesday ‘BushWhack’ing

Returning to normalcy… or at least something resembling normalcy.

• Mitt Romney is leading in polls in Iowa and New Hampshire… which is important; what with them being the perfect cross-sections of America. (Sarcasm is fun…)
• We reminded you last week that Vice President Dick “President” Cheney went hunting this past weekend, and when we didn’t see any news items about it I’m sure the White House was relieved. Well, a NY Daily News photog snapped a picture of a small Confederate flag that was hanging inside a garage on the hunt club’s property…
• The fallout from the FEMA fake-reporter fiasco continues as FEMA Director David Paulison has publicly criticized FEMA public affairs department. And it’s also cost former FEMA public affairs director Pat Philbin a new job. He was scheduled to become the director of public affairs for the director of national intelligence this week, but yesterday National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell said Philbin will not be getting the job. (Refreshing to see government actually taking care of someone who did some that was not only incredibly stupid, but ethically wrong. Way to go…)
• Blackwater USA just can NOT stay out of the news. First, Iraq's parliament is considering a bill that would require security companies that operate in the country to obey Iraqi laws (which they should anyway) with no immunity. Second, a US investigator allegedly offered Blackwater guards immunity from the September incident in Baghdad that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. (Stay tuned… I have a feeling this story is just getting started…)
• And have we mentioned? That the dominoes are continuing to fall? Now it’s Rep. Tom Tancredo’s (r-CO) turn as he announced yesterday that he plans to retire from the House at the end of his term saying that he wants to spend time with his grandchildren (wow, how original). Having said that, he is continuing his bid for the gop presidential nomination. (Ok, I realize that he has little chance of winning the nomination, and he apparently knows it. Why else would you say you’re retiring in order to spend time with your grandchildren but continue to campaign for a job that, if you were to win, would keep you away from said grandchildren more than his current job… or am I putting too much thought into this?)