Karl Rove, the Bush Administration, and hypocrisy

Karl Rove has been dancing as fast as he can, trying to explain why he really didn't ruin Valerie Plame's cover. Listen to what he says: "I never gave the woman's name."

That line should join, "I did not have sex with that woman" as notorious.

No, he may not have named her name, but there is no doubt, at least in the mind of the reporter who broke the story, that Karl Rove was telling him who the CIA agent was.

Let's turn now to President Bush. The man who ran on a platform in 2000 of restoring dignity to the White House. The man who said that anyone who compromises the identity of a CIA agent should be fired. Yet, when questioned about this, he talks about how he is loyal to his friends.

Loyalty! What about his duty to uphold the office of the President, as he swore to do so, not once, but twice?

In another decade, in another White House, aides to a president decided that it wasn't enough to win re-election with hard work and a convincing platform. A bungled break-in, an ill-handled coverup, a courageous although, perhaps, bitter high-ranking FBI official, and the president ultimately resigned.

Karl Rove was part of that GOP philosophy that dirty pool is good politics.

And the Bush White House is starting to resemble the Nixon White House.

Dignity and integrity, indeed. Ha! If George W. Bush were as ethical as he claims to be, he would fire Karl Rove.

Instead, he is loyal to his friends.

I would rather have a president put the good of the U.S. ahead of his friends.

Waylaid in Butte, Montana

Now, don't let the title make you think that I don't like Butte, because it's a nice town full of nice people. It's the "waylaid" part I want to talk about.

For our summer family vacation, we decided to take a cross-country driving trip from Seattle to Grand Fork, North Dakota (for a family reunion) and back. We planned our days so that we wouldn't drive too long on any given day. Although we considered taking our family station wagon, a sporty and comfortable Saab 9-5 Aero, we decided to rent an SUV for the space. So we started off in our rented Lincoln Navigator, with a deluxe package that included unnecessary options like air conditioned seats and an automatic rear gate.

We spent an enjoyable 4th of July in Missoula, our first stop. On the 5th we headed out toward Billings. About 50 miles outside of Butte, the car began to sputter, and lost a lot of power. We limped our way to Butte, to the Ford dealer, since Hertz seemed incapable of finding us a replacement in or near Butte. We checked into a hotel down the block, unloading EVERYTHING from the car that was packed for a two-week trip. Since our master plan was to keep everything in the car and take in only an overnight bag and a few other things, it was a lot more work than we had planned. When the car was finally emptied, we dropped the car at the dealer, who diagnosed the problem as two failed injectors.

Five hours and multiple phone calls to Hertz later, we were told that a car could be trucked to us from Salt Lake City. WHAT? This was an option, and it only took them five hours to mention it??

We stayed overnight in Butte, and the next morning another Navigator (this one without air conditioned seats and with a manual rear hatch) was dropped for us at the hotel. In record time we had the car packed and we headed out, ready to go over the Continental Divide and down out of the mountains. On the way down, the brakes shuddered and the transmission clunked. And it kept on clunking for the rest of our trip. In vain we tried to get another Navigator.

Fortunately, the car made it to Grand Forks and back to Seattle. But for the rest of that trip, we felt like Han Solo as we intermittently muttered, "Come on, baby, hold together."

Dan Bartlett gets it wrong

On Friday, Dan Bartlett, counselor to the president, defended Karl Rove. You may recall that Karl Rove claimed that liberals didn't want to fight the terrorists, they wanted to use understanding and therapy. Dan Bartlett pointed out that Karl Rove wasn't referring to Democrats when he used the word, he was referring to a petition that Moveon.org presented asking for restraint "against the war on terror. "His words were pretty clear -- liberals don't want to fight terror.

Well, he got part of it right.

But the rest of it is a lie. (*gasp* A member of the president's staff lying?)

There was not one loyal American who opposed effective and immediate action against al Qaeda. So how do we do that? By going to war against Iraq? Yeah, right. Instead of concentrating resources on finding bin Laden and dismantling al Qaeda, the geniuses behind the war on terror pulled resources from that to go to war in Iraq.

So far what has happened? Al Qaeda has increased in power, and we have lost thousands of American and innocent Iraqi lives in a war that doesn't appear to have a strategy.

No wonder the administration is dancing as fast as they can.

That petition that Dan Bartlett says was what Karl Rove was talking about? I signed it, because I didn't think going to war in Iraq was going to do anything to take care of bin Laden.

The administration continues to make a connection between Iraq and 9/11, even though there isn't. And they are going to continue to lie to suit their purposes. But, hey, it's for the good of the country, isn't it? That pesky Bill of Rights shouldn't have to apply to an administration that is right.

The tragedy of the University of Washington's athletic department

As the courtroom proceedings in the Neuheisel suit against the UW and the NCAA continues, it becomes more and more clear how likely it is that he will win.

And it's too bad.

It is clear that he acted unethically and perhaps even illegally. But it is also becoming clear that the misactions of UW officials gave him permission to act up, like a kid who knows that his parents may express disappointment but will do no more than frown.

The "wink wink nudge nudge" relationship between Barbara Hedges and Rick Neuheisel is only one indication of an organization out of control. Rick Neuheisel, coming from a program in serious trouble at Colorado, needed restrictions and close supervision.

It appears that the UW is taking steps to clean up its act. The tragedy, however, is that the two people most responsible for the mess, Barbara Hedges and Rick Neuheisel, will never have to face up to their responsibilities.

Rick Neuheisel vs. the University of Washington and the NCAA

You know, between the stupidity of Bush's privatization of Social Security proposal, and the Neuheisel suit, I am in a permanent state of annoyed these days.

For now I will spare you my thoughts on privatization.

But this is the thing I continue not to get about Dana Richardson. She's a lawyer who has a job as a compliance officer for an NCAA university. I infer (correctly or incorrectly?) that she would have some interest in sports and specifically collegiate sports and the NCAA rules to even want to apply for or take the job, which is basically lawyer to the athletic department. Theoretically it would follow that, as a lawyer and a compliance officer she would have knowledge of other NCAA matters that have taken place around the country.

Now given all that, I knew that it is wrong for a coach to place any kind of bet on any kind of collegiate sporting event. How could she not know that? Wasn't it her job as a lawyer to interpret lawyer speak? Wasn't it her job to say things like "To be on the safe side don't do it"?

Of course, one also has to wonder, what the heck was Barbara Hedges doing as the AD if she didn't read the memo completely? Wasn't it her job to have final say on those things? Or did she just trust the lawyer? Or did she (even more insidiously) purposely not read it to avoid that responsibility?

I still think she and Neuheisel had a weird connection like Condi Rice and Bush have. This lawsuit is more like a nasty divorce settlement than a job dispute.

And what is so stupid about this are two things:

1. Neuheisel, who improperly gambled, will win a big lawsuit because of the stupid way (no surprise of course) the NCAA handled the investigation and the stupid way the UW handled it.

2. Hedges is living on a fat retirement without accountability when she should have been fired and should be the center of all of this.

Of course, at least a court case gets out all that stuff a lot of people knew was going on but couldn't get to. I hope that THIS time around the UW can face its warts, clean up its act and finally put together an athletic department that is actually ethical.