Thursday Night Debate: Pombo in a "State of Denial" (too)

State of Denial: Bush at War - Amazon.com Book Description:

""Insurgents and terrorists retain the resources and capabilities to sustain and even increase current level of violence through the next year." This was the secret Pentagon assessment sent to the White House in May 2006. The forecast of a more violent 2007 in Iraq contradicted the repeated optimistic statements of President Bush, including one, two days earlier, when he said we were at a "turning point" that history would mark as the time "the forces of terror began their long retreat."

State of Denial examines how the Bush administration avoided telling the truth about Iraq to the public, to Congress, and often to themselves. Two days after the May report, the Pentagon told Congress, in a report required by law, that the "appeal and motivation for continued violent action will begin to wane in early 2007."

In this detailed inside story of a war-torn White House, Bob Woodward reveals how White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, with the indirect support of other high officials, tried for 18 months to get Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld replaced. The president and Vice President Cheney refused. At the beginning of Bush's second term, Stephen Hadley, who replaced Condoleezza Rice as national security adviser, gave the administration a "D minus" on implementing its policies. A SECRET report to the new Secretary of State Rice from her counselor stated that, nearly two years after the invasion, Iraq was a "failed state."

State of Denial reveals that at the urging of Vice President Cheney and Rumsfeld, the most frequent outside visitor and Iraq adviser to President Bush is former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who, haunted still by the loss in Vietnam, emerges as a hidden and potent voice. Woodward reveals that the secretary of defense himself believes that the system of coordination among departments and agencies is broken, and in a SECRET May 1, 2006, memo, Rumsfeld stated, "the current system of government makes competence next to impossible."" (source)

McNerney vs. Pombo Debate



AP: "The war in Iraq dominated a debate between Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo and Democratic challenger Jerry McNerney on Thursday, as the candidates sparred over when to bring soldiers home.

McNerney, a wind engineer, said he favored a nine- to 12-month timetable for withdrawing troops as a way to force the Iraqi government to take seriously its efforts to govern itself and to show Iraqi citizens that the United States is not occupying the country for oil.

"Our troops are in a quagmire, and we need to find a smart and a tough way to end this war," McNerney said to a packed audience of about 300 in a Tracy gymnasium. He added that attacking Iraq was a distraction from the hunt for Osama bin Laden." (source)

CC Times: "Pombo, 45, referring to a recent intelligence report that claims the Iraq war has fueled the terrorist threat, was unwavering in his support for the Bush policy, saying he didn't believe the war has "strengthened or weakened" Iran..

"I believe if we don't continue to fight and have a stable Iraq, that the terrorists will follow our troops home," said Pombo, later adding, "I would rather take the war there than fight it here."" (source)

CC Times: "Pombo again dismissed the idea that he and Abramoff were close, and noted that he gave money he received from Abramoff to charity.

"There were guys who did things wrong. I wasn't one of them," he said.

The differences between the two candidates are starkly partisan. McNerney opposes opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling; Pombo is a champion. Pombo supports the Bush administration plan to open Social Security to private investment accounts. McNerney sees it as too risky." (source)

Tracy Press: "Talk briefly turned to the political scandal du jour: former Republican Rep. Mark’s Foley’s unwanted advances toward teenage congressional pages and allegations that congressional leadership willfully ignored the issue.

Pombo said that the first time he heard about accusations that Foley had sent sexual messages to underage boys was last week after reading about it in media. He did not say whether he would support Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, who appeared at a Pombo fundraiser earlier in the year and publicly apologized Thursday for how he handled the Foley affair." (source)

CC Times: Pombo, McNerney spar in debate (source)

Tracy Press: Congressional contenders tackle global issues (source)

AP: Pombo, McNerney spar over Iraq war in congressional debate (source)

Record: Pombo, McNerney debate war, energy, immigration (source)

(Update)

ABC News10 has a video news report & an article too.

SNTP has a Report From The Tracy Forum