Friday Night Live
Posted: Friday, January 26, 2007 8:04 PM by Countdown
javascript:msnvDwd('00','139bf049-ed6c-4b67-8e81-579a8215b0c6','us','News_Comment - Analysis','c1149','msnbc','','16833316','Rickshaw racing')Breaking News: Newsweek's Michael Isikoff reports deputy chief of staff Karl Rove and counselor Dan Bartlett have been subpoenaed to testify in the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
Isikoff joins Keith with the news.
The Electorate took the House of Representatives away from him.
The Electorate took the Senate away from him.
The Electorate returned every incumbent member of the party that opposes him.
A bi-partisan study group to which he acquiesced, told him to reverse course.
After his urgent speech to the nation, polling showed support for his position not only didn't increase, it actually dropped.
Yet, in our fifth story on the Countdown, as late news breaks tonight that two of his top advisors, including Karl Rove, have been subpoenaed to testify in the Scooter Libby trial, apparently the only change President Bush is truly willing to make about Iraq, is to stop calling himself "the decider," and to today start calling himself... "the decision-maker."
Richard Wolffe wonders why Bush needs to constantly drive that point home: "This is a man who has a Presidential Seal on his mountain bike."
Plus, John Dean joins Keith to talk about the idea expressed by HotSoup.com's Ron Fournier today:
"President Bush has lost the greatest commodity a president can possess: The public's trust."
And that the President, in part due to the virtue of his office, "never lost his relevancy, but that is little solace when the core value of his presidency has always been credibility. People trusted Bush to do what was right, even when they disagreed with him on policy. That bond has been broken. Nothing could be more damaging."
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Raise your right hand and repeat after me..."I Karl Rove"...
Our fourth story on the Countdown: Michael Isikoff reporting tonight for Newsweek.com, Rove and White House communications advisor Dan Bartlett have been subpoenaed to testify in the Scooter Libby trial.
Isikoff joined Keith to deliver the latest details.
ODDBALL Rickshaw racing and a long walk off a short catwalk.
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When Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel talks about senators who served in Vietnam, he draws a distinction between his friends John Kerry and John McCain -- who fought from the water and air, respectively -- and himself and Jim Webb, both of whom saw, participated in and were decorated for combat on the ground.
Hagel patrolled -- and fought among -- civilians and a native army that was supposed to bear the brunt of it.
Today, he wears the scars of America's mistake in Vietnam on his face; carries pieces of it in his chest.
In our third story tonight, how one of President Bush's staunchest supporters, has become one of his most dogged adversaries over the war in Iraq.
On issue after issue... tax cuts, societal concerns, Social Security, the environment... Hagel lines up with the right's right... not just President Bush, but the Christian Coalition.
That is one reason... but only one... that observers have found his dissent on the war so breath-taking, particularly with the rhetoric he used as he implored Congress to take a stand this week.
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The U.S. Military has been authorized to capture or kill Iranian operatives inside Iraq. Our second story on the Countdown: this may be the silver lining inside the Presidential disconnect.
When two weeks ago he told the American public he would "interrupt" any Iranian influence in Iraq's Civil War, this was widely interpreted as a threat to attack Iran.
But since the speech, journalistic and political sources have repeatedly said that the President was surprised that we all thought he meant another optional war.
Today, he repeated his claim that he is focused only on Irahnian agents inside Iraq.
The latest in the continuing saga known as "Weekend at Brownie's".
Where in the world is the body of the late James Brown?
We know where Michael Jackson is... Las Vegas.
Keith ties it all together with a special edition of "Michael Jackson Puppet Theater", followed by in-depth analysis from pal of the show Paul F. Tomkins.
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gn&gl
