President Bush has a new group of supporters raising money for his reelection-- Wealthy Arabs:

Wealthy Arab-Americans and foreign-born Muslims who strongly back President Bush's decision to invade Iraq are adding their names to the ranks of Pioneers and Rangers, the elite Bush supporters who have raised $100,000 or more for his re-election.

....the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the war in Iraq have been a catalyst for some wealthy Arab-Americans to become more involved in politics. And there are still others who have a more practical reason for opening their checkbooks: access to a business-friendly White House. Already, their efforts have brought them visits with the president at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., as well as White House dinners and meetings with top administration officials.

Liberal Oasis interviews Eric Alterman, co-author of The Book on Bush. Some highlights:

• It’s hard to fathom just what an extreme group of people [they] are, how little regard they have for what we think of as the public interest, until you examine the details. And in this case, the devil really is in the details.

• I think there’s a real healthy understanding among all sensible people right now that there is only one hope for the future of this country and that is to get rid of this man, no matter who replaces him. I would very happy to vote for Bob Dole or George Herbert Walker Bush. He is the most dangerous man ever to occupy the American presidency in the past 100 years.

• The one bright spot of the complete and total lack of responsible planning for the entirely predictable aftermath of the invasion of Iraq is that they’re not in a strong position to take this show on the road.

Over at American Prospect, Eric and Michael Tomasky have a new article up, Wake Up Time:

Yes, Bush has bullied the national media. But are they really powerless? Only if they play along. Herewith, five suggestions for how the Fourth Estate can stop the charade.

In honor of President's Day, SKBubba has a list of President Bush's accomplishments. It's a good list-- one to bookmark.

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We reported earlier on President Bush's curious pardon of convicted savings and loan fraud participant and former Plano, TX mayor David B. McCall, Jr. Here's a connection:

A prominent Republican Texas state legislator is Brian McCall of Plano, TX. In 1995, Brian McCall introduced H.R. 595--a bill to commemorate the 50th wedding anniversary of David B. McCall, Jr. and Nellie McCall. Brian McCall is the son of David B. McCall, Jr..

David McCall Jr.,'s other son is David McCall, III, a lawyer with the prominent Plano firm of Gay, McCall, Isaacks, Gordon & Roberts, P.C.

Last week, a Plano downtown plaza was renamed for Mr. McCall. It is now called the David McCall Jr. Sesquicentennial Plaza.

The Dallas Morning News says that the McCalls are not top contributors to President Bush's campaign.

Kevin Cooper, whose California execution was postponed last week, has written an article detailing his hours in the execution chamber not knowing if the Supreme Court would uphold or reverse the stay of execution granted by the 9th Circuit.

According to a new CBS Poll, the only Democrat who would beat George Bush is John Kerry:

Among the three top Democratic candidates still in the November race, only front-runner John Kerry leads in a head-to-head matchup with President Bush, says a poll released Monday.

In the CBS News poll, Kerry had a lead of 48 percent to 43 percent over Bush. The president led John Edwards, 50-41 percent, and Howard Dean, 54-37 percent, in other matchups.

Historian Arthur Schlesinger recently spoke at Swarthmore College:

Schlesinger, 86, said he believed that more debate was needed before the United States commits American lives to fighting on foreign soil, and that public dissent is essential to democracy.

"Going to war does not abrogate our freedoms of conscience, speech and thought," the prize-winning author and former foreign-policy adviser told those who attended the first in a series of American history lectures Tuesday.

"We have no obligation to bow down before an imperial presidency," he said.

[link via Instapundit.]

The DearMary.com campaign launched last week. It's highlighted in Newsweek.

President Bush has granted a pardon to a Texan who pleaded guilty to fraud in one of the 1980's Savings and Loan scandals. He is David B. McCall, Jr., former lawyer and mayor of Plano, Texas.

David B. McCall Jr., who is battling cancer, served six months in prison for his role in fraudulent loans at the Plano Savings and Loan Association, which failed in the mid-1980s.

Our ears perked up when we heard fraud and "1980's savings and loan" because that was what Neil Bush had been involved in. We checked on Lexis to see if there was a connection between McCall and Neil Bush and there wasn't. But, what we learned was that McCall's fraud was big. From the October 11, 1996 Dallas Morning News:

Former Plano Mayor David B. McCall Jr., one of the most prominent civic leaders in Plano's 115-year history, on Thursday pleaded guilty to bank fraud, federal prosecutors said. Mr. McCall, 72, is the second former mayor of the city to admit guilt in the case involving more than $ 25 million in fraudulent loans made in the mid-1980s.

Bump and Update: Grossman is gone from the Dean Campaign.

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Original Post 2/15 7 pm

Howard Dean won't say he's quitting the presidential race if he loses Wisconsin Tuesday. But his chief campaign aide, Steven Grossman, will be quitting Dean --to back Kerry--if Dean loses:

The chairman of Howard Dean's presidential campaign said today that he would leave and shift his support to Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts if Dr. Dean loses the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday, an outcome he sees as all but invevitable.

"If Howard Dean does not win the Wisconsin primary, I will reach out to John Kerry unless he reaches out to me first," said the chairman, Steven Grossman, who was chairman of Mr. Kerry's 1996 Senate race. "I will make it clear that I will do anything and everything I can to help him become the next president, and I will do anything and everything I can to build bridges with the Dean organization."

Dean is under a lot of pressure to quit now, as is Edwards. We bet Dean sees the light on Wednesday.

Dr. Dean has no events scheduled beyond Tuesday night, when he plans to fly home to Burlington, Vt., to regroup. He has not won in any of the 16 states that have voted. His bank account is dwindling. Many of his aides are planning vacations or seeking jobs with other candidates. "None of us are doing a whole lot right now, because there's not a whole lot to do," one top aide said Sunday, on the condition he not be named. "We've put one ad on the air in Wisconsin. We're not polling anymore. We're not going to have the money to run some full-fledged campaign for March 2."

Edwards will probably stay in longer. He sees it as a two person race between him and Kerry--and has made plans to visit New York, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota and Ohio next week.

Drudge's credibility takes a hit. The Kerry Rumor is over, done, finito, put out to pasture. It wasn't true. Good for John Kerry for sticking to his guns and aggressively denying it:

Breaking her silence four days after the allegations surfaced on the Internet, Alexandra Polier issued a statement to The Associated Press, saying, "I have never had a relationship with Senator Kerry, and the rumors in the press are completely false."

Kerry already has denied reports that he had an extramarital affair. On Monday, his campaign said he would have no further comment. Polier's statement was released to the AP in Nairobi, where the 27-year-old freelance journalist is visiting the parents of her fiance, Yaron Schwartzman, an Israeli who was raised in Kenya. She previously worked as an editorial assistant for the AP in New York.

"Whoever is spreading these rumors and allegations does not know me," Polier said, appealing to the media to respect her privacy and the privacy of her fiance and his family. Polier also took issue with reports that referred to her as a former Kerry intern. "I never interned or worked for John Kerry," she told AP over the phone.

This part's the best:

In a separate statement, Polier's parents, Terry and Donna Polier of Malvern, Pa., dismissed the "completely false and unsubstantiated" allegations about their daughter. "We love and support her 100 percent and these unfounded rumors are hurtful to our entire family," the statement said. "We appreciate the way Senator Kerry has handled the situation, and intend on voting for him for president of the United States."

[link via Counterspin.]

Bump and Update: CrimeLynx went down today and is being moved to a new server. The newsfeed will return when CrimeLynx is settled in its new home.

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original post

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