Scaife-Owned Newspaper Calls for Iraq Troop Withdrawal -- Questions Bush's 'Mental Stability'

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Editor & Publisher

The Pittsburgh newspaper owned by conservative billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife yesterday called the Bush administration's plans to stay the course in Iraq a "prescription for American suicide."

The editorial in the Tribune-Review added, "And quite frankly, during last Thursday's news conference, when George Bush started blathering about 'sometimes the decisions you make and the consequences don't enable you to be loved,' we had to question his mental stability."

It continued: "President Bush warns that U.S. withdrawal would risk 'mass killings on a horrific scale.' What do we have today, sir?

"If the president won't do the right thing and end this war, the people must. The House has voted to withdraw combat troops from Iraq by April. The Senate must follow suit.


Read more: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_di...

---

Link to the editorial: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/...

[still_one]

1. well, well, they don't like the monster they created /nt

[MindMatter]

44. Don't believe a word of it

The only think these people care about it maintaining power -- and therefore having their hands on the Treasury. How they feel about Bush and his policies is of absolutely no consequence. They know perfectly well he can run out the clock and keep sending billions to Scaife's friends until January 2009.

The issue they are facing now is how to keep the treasury looting going after January 2009. They have concluded, and it doesn't take a 3th grader with a triple digit IQ to figure that out, that their best stance now is distance from Bush. This is all about posturing.

It is no different from Lugar, Warner, and the other Republicans who are supposedly pressuring Bush. It is all part of a well scripted game. Read their words carefully. None of they are actually saying that anything should change in any tangible way. Not a single Republican will vote for any legislation that has a chance of changing Bush's war policies. These opinion leaders are simply playing a scripted role. They are to play the part of the renegades off the ranch, proving that the GOP isn't so bad after all and there isn't really any difference between Democrats and Republicans. They are all saying the war should be brought to a close.

This little dance allows every Republican who needs a boost to spout some anti-Bush rhetoric, but whtn the time comes, they will never be on board with any bill that requires real change and has a veto-proof majority. Those bastards talk real big when they know nothing will come of it.

[still_one]

61. I know and agree. scafaie is as bad as the rest of them /nt

[Cobalt-60]

66. I recommend a distance from Bush formula

I put this out one dark night in my Journal, and still feel it's a useful concept.
I hear of 'cons "distancing" themselves from Bush. How Far?!
I'm an engineer and cant tolerate vague measurements.
My formula counts only votes.
And I weight votes to over ride the Shrubs vetoes heaviest. On Veto over rides there's no room for crocodile tears. You're a Shrubber or you're not.
Distance = 1 - (pro shrub votes / total votes) + votes to over ride shrubs vetoes.
Its arbitrary, but I like Miles as the unit.
That way, when we hit the final election season, there will be a precise measurement of the distance any congress person is from the Shrub.
And the bigger the better!
As far as the Bush Lovers outside the congress are concerned, the only safe assumption until after the election is that they're goose stepping, seig hieling Cheny republicans. If they went along with his criminal crap this long, they're still in it with him.

[liberalmike27]

76. Just far enough

to get reelected?

[Maribelle]

78. I totally agree with you - - this stuff is not happening in a vacuum.

Scaife is as far right as you can get without falling off the edge - - and his hate-mongering strategic plans have been totally successful in the last two decades.

And isn't it an insulting irony that he spends the fortune scraped off the backs of the very blue collar workers his extremely rash and thoughtless political behavior hurts the most?

[Chemical Bill]

84. His type chews politicians up and spits them out.

Even his best buddy repukes.

Bill

[Donnachaidh]

86. AMEN!

I've been thinking the same exact thing for weeks. We keep hearing the *noise* of republicans bailing on bush, but it's never more than noise.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Whoa

it is getting verrrry interesting.

[IndianaGreen]

53. Whoa to your whoa! Did Scaife approve this editorial?

Let's get the popcorn out!

If Bush is mentally unstable, as the editorial said, then he should be declared incompetent and removed from office. Of course, we would have to impeach Cheney first.

[Mythsaje]

3. Oooh, look! Buyer's remorse! n/t

[PurpleChez]

17. Bwah-HA! But not really.....

[Vincardog]

4. STarting to wake up and realize that it is not just the little people paying for bush's follies?

[Junkdrawer]

5. What, did they cut Gulf Oil out of the Hydrocarbon Sharing arrangement?

[Junkdrawer]

11. He he he...looks like it....

IRAQ:

State companies:
The Oil Ministry oversees the nationalized oil industry through the Iraq National Oil Company (INOC). Autonomous companies under INOC include: State Company for Oil Projects (SCOP) - design and engineering of upstream and downstream projects; Oil Exploration Company (OEC) - exploration; Northern Oil Company (NOC) and Southern Oil Company (SOC) - upstream activities in northern/central and southern Iraq, respectively; State Organization for Oil Marketing (SOMO) - crude oil sales and OPEC relations; Iraqi Oil Tankers Company (IOTC)

Original Concession Holders:
Iraq Petroleum Company (Mosul Oil Company and Basrah Oil Company), Royal Dutch/Shell, Anglo-Persian, CFP, Exxon, Mobil, Atlantic Richfield, Gulf Oil Corporation, Standard Oil of Indiana , and Participations and Explorations Corp., under auspices of the Near East Development Company.

Recent Developments:
U.S. previously operating in Iraq include Haliburton, Howe-Baker Engineering Inc., Mobil Oil, and Pullman-Kellogg.

Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO), -- pending U.N. approval --is in discussions with: U.S. companies Coastal Corp., Phoenix, Chevron Corp. and Mobil Corp.

Iraq has current contracts with Coastal, Russian Sidanco and France's Total S.A.

The Oil Daily reports that Shell, BP, Chevron, and Coastal are among the companies interested in buying Iraqi crude

...

http://www.virginia.edu/igpr/APAG/apagoilcompany.html

[lisa58]

6. Scaife is still a jerk...

...but it is going to take the republicans to sign on to stop this war - hopefully opinions like this will give them "permission" to do the right thing.

[tblue]

27. Or embolden the hangers on to get off the train. Whatever works at this point, I'm for. nt

[rodeodance]

7. ho ho-----------questional bush mental status -PASS this around!

[autorank]

68. Yeah and like Scaife has room to talk;)

[whistle]

8. What about Dick Cheney's mental instability, isn't Richard Mellon Scaife

...an avid Darth Cheney supporter?

[cassiepriam]

15. Maybe that is his angle. Can't impeach Cheney if Bush is insane?

[calimary]

9. My, my, my. When it reeks too strongly even for richard mellon scaife,

you KNOW you've got a lox on your hands (with apologies to smoked salmon everywhere).

Buyer's remorse, indeed. Guess it's just not working out the way they'd planned. But for a beast like scaife, it's probably only because the oil money hasn't been secured quickly enough and there's too much bad press, or that he's merely disappointed that bushco hasn't managed to keep most of us hoodwinked as effectively as they used to. I'd suspect that he's WAY too much of a Dark Sider ever to discover true opposition to the war - for truly legitimate reasons. Besides, the more fervent the opposition to the war, the more people will resist the idea of spreading that war to Iran. And, of course, we can't have that...

[War Pigs]

10. Why does bush hate the republican party so much?? As mighty

as clinton's penis was, bush is the gift that will keep on giving for a generation or so. hurray!!

[pretzel4gore]

31. leave Bill outta this...

bush hates all of us...President Clinton tried to serve the people, yet he is casually mentioned in the crude terms that mediawhores have been encouraging for 15 plus years..... it's about time contempt was reserved for the contemptable, ie the rightwing assholes

[jhrobbins]

43. Right on - everytime someone mentions Bush's 'crimes' , invariably

Clinton is brought up as well - as if the two were remotely alike. Clinton was the best president in my memory and certainly in the all-time top ten.

[PurpleChez]

55. he was JOKING. What my 4-year-old calls "doing sarcasm"

We invoke the Clenis to make fun of the rethugs. All hail the mighty Clenis!

[War Pigs]

72. thanks for that, I like my sarcasm mixed with a little perspective...

as the war and it's costs grind on it's like taking candy from a baby (repug) when anyone is dumb enough to contrast the impeachment with the $1 trillion war started by this dipstick.

[pretzel4gore]

87. some of us older people are shamed by talk of 'penis'

etc. I notice that the same thuggees who would act horrified by a exposed breast re Janet Jackson/super bowl, like to force the 'consumers' of media to wallow in talk about Bill Clinton and Monica (or JFK and his ladies, or the royals like prince charles, or hollywood types like Rosie O'donnel, or so on)...the idea being to atttack liberal america through our supposed idols. The entire Clinton impeachment episode wasn't just an effort to hurt Bill, who has a thick skin and knows the score, but to mock EVERY SINGLE PERSON who prefers Clinton's politics to say a bush or reagans! Have you ever watched 'The Great Gatsby'? The Tom Buchanon character is your classic freeper, your phony rightwinger-the story opens with Buchanon (whose wife Daisy is Jay Gatsby's obsessive love, years earlier when Gatsby first loved Daisy and was too poor for her, she married wealthy Buchanon, who avoided military service, unlike Jay, instead of Jay, who then went and got rich, mainly to win her heart!) ...anyway the story opens with Buchanon saying the white race has to have more babies or the non whites take power away from us yada yada yada. He's a drunk and a bully who has affairs and yet pretends to be a family man with 'conservative' values ...he actually causes Gatsby's death by telling his mistress's maddened husband (who was killed by hitrun driver) that the car which killed her belonged to Gatsby, when his wife Daisy was the actual driver, and Jay tried protect her by taking blame for the accident! This kinda phoniness is almost a virtue to the rightwing, it seems- and believe me, i was embarrassed by all the 'blow jobs' and blue dress stains talk that went on in late 90's, even though i knew exactly what mr pig was doing! I understand that you are being sarcastic and appreciate the jest, personally, but again, why not mock bush's filthy mind or the mediawhores' sexual perversity rather then keeping alive their creepy achievements in ridiculing the Clintons, and through them the rest of us?
btw, in The Great Gatsby, the bastards get away with it, just like in the Clinton impeachment!

[ProudDad]

12. He's just pissed

'cause bush is giving right-wing wackjob republicans a bad name...

[Bitwit1234]

13. I think the reason the republicans promoted bush as the presidential candidate

is because he was mentality unstable. That as long as they stroked his ego he would do anything. They wanted cheney, because he was a ruthless war-mongering S.O.B. They put him in as VP so he could push bush's buttons. And it didn't take much to make him go. AS LONG AS THEY KEPT HIM INSULATED FROM THE PUBLIC AND WHAT THE PEOPLE REALLY THOUGHT OF HIM, he could be managed, but now it is leaking thru and he's got the giggles and his medicine does not work.

[ProudDad]

34. The reason the repukes pushed bush

is because he was "electable"...

Same reason some here push Hillary...

[Ernest Partridge]

46. Who's "pushing Hillary?"

Half of the voters say that they will never vote for Hillary.

Hillary Clinton: The GOP's favorite Democratic candidate.

"Please don't throw me into that briar patch," said B'rer Rabbit.

[ProudDad]

47. Yeah, there is that

I'm not sure Hillary is electable either although the odds are that after 7 1/2 years of bush, anyone with a D after their name has a damn good shot in '08.

But a lot of corporations, PACs and rich folks think she is...

[PurpleChez]

59. Even tho Hillary is FAR from my favorite candidate

I would still gladly vote for her if she were the dem on the ballot in Nov '08. I just worry that her presence will draw every last knuckle dragger out of the woodwork, every swift-boater, and we'll have a year of RW hate radio claiming that she bathes in the blood of Make-a-Wish children. I was in Atlanta yesterday and saw a huge Hannity "Stop Hillary Now!" billboard. Sure, Bush is as popular as clymidia right now, but there are millions of middle-of-the-road'ers out there who think they're disenchanted with the rethugs, but after a year of "Jesus wants you to vote Republican" they'll go back to basing their votes on who's for the gay marriage ammendment.

[Skittles]

70. the g.d. Greedy Old Pig party is worried about ALL Dem candidates

because a lot of people would vote for a ham sandwich over a piece of shit repuke at this point

[MannyGoldstein]

14. Who Wants To Start An Impeachment Pool?

The right, far right, and crazy right are abandoning him. This can't last long if the Rethugs want to have a shot at remaining somewhat intact in next year's elections.

Perhaps we can have some sort of prize for whoever guesses the day The Chimperor leaves office.

[Amonester]

45. maybe the chimperor is insane enuf to declare himself dictatortot 'n

to cancel all elections 'til he'll get rapturized...

the rest of us, payers of taxes, be damned.

perhaps that's how much insane he is?

[DeSwiss]

16. Pot calling the kettle black???

Wonders will never cease....

K&R

[DBoon]

18. too bad

You guys created this monster, now live with it.

Where did you think your deceptive propaganda machine would end? You idolize brutality and deception, you get this war.

[I Have A Dream]

19. I *NEVER* thought that I'd see the day where this would happen!

You could knock me over with a feather!

[peace13]

20. Good morning!

Welcome to our world!

[Malva Zebrina]

21. Next, Scaife will contribute to Hillary's campaign. LOL

Nt

[rkc3]

23. Cool sig photo - orchard or baltimore (northern)?

[RamboLiberal]

38. He might - wouldn't that be wild?

Snippet from NY Times article in Feb of this year.

But now, as Mrs. Clinton is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, Mr. Scaife’s checkbook is staying in his pocket.

Christopher Ruddy, who once worked full-time for Mr. Scaife investigating the Clintons and now runs a conservative online publication he co-owns with Mr. Scaife, said, “Both of us have had a rethinking.”

“Clinton wasn’t such a bad president,” Mr. Ruddy said. “In fact, he was a pretty good president in a lot of ways, and Dick feels that way today.”

As for the conservative response to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, Mr. Ruddy said, “The level of intensity and anger toward Hillary is not getting to the level that it was toward Bill Clinton when he was president.” He added, “She has moderated and developed a separate image.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/19/us/politics/19clinton...

[PurpleChez]

60. Believe it or not, even after sixteen years or so,

I still don't really understand the source of the Far Rite's loathing of Hillary, and none of the reasons others have suggested are satisfying, at least in isolation: that she is a strong, independent woman, that she tried to Socialize health care, that she can be abrasive. I'm not her biggest fan either, but I've just never understood the people who make out that she is just like Satan, only a million times worse.

[connecticut yankee]

82. That why they hate her

because she's "a strong, independent woman."

They like their women barefoot and pregnant. Preferably walking five paces behind -- unless there are land mines.

[yardwork]

22. I sense that the goal is to blame Bush and continue with Republican tactics

The Republican Party will now do a 180 and pretend that Bush never existed. He will become a non-person like Stalin to them.

[Ishoutandscream2]

28. Yep, and they'll say they opposed the war from day 1

Methinks I smell a strategy for 2008 and beyond.

[BornagainDUer]

39. Ding, ding! Please see my post below. This has to be it.

[Richardo]

24. Recommended and bookmarked

Thanks!

[PurpleChez]

62. I love that Will Rogers quote

Billy Graham once said that if, in Heaven, God is going to see to his perfect happiness then his dogs will be there. For me, the idea of heaven being a sunny meadow and I've got my dogs back is much better than clouds and harps and white robes.

[AlinPA]

25. I don't read that paper, but it is simply amazing that Scaife said that. (It is

one of the two major papers in S.W. PA) Totally unbelieveable. The guy is a big-time right wing republican and that is a complete 180 for that paper.

[jedr]

30. yep , all form the man who spent millions on whitewater;

and came up with nothing. When Dicky Cougar Mellon-Scaife is on the band wagon it means that the Heritage foundation has abandon ole' W. ....Would love to know what's up? Could impeachment be far away? One can only hope.

[cui bono]

26. I missed the love-in news conference. Was it funny? n/t

[MrPrax]

29. Some Ruling class types are number crunching

and running scared.

In their heady effort to smite evil, they didn't look at the fine print in Fascism.

In order to sustain total war, the state has to have total control. Maybe they forgot the part about how ruling class businesses in Germany were either liquidated or sold out right to pay off the brown shirts.

Once the fires of purification start cleansing the nation for the cause of war, anyone can catch a spark as fascism is the great equalizer; The State and YOU.

Maybe Scaife and his ilk just realized that just because they gave at the office, don't mean they won't be coming round knocking on the door.

[harun]

80. It was all fun and games until they did the accounting

now they know that continuing this Iraq nonsense will bankrupt the U.S. government.

I just watched the movie Downfall about the last days of the Third Reich, when all of Hitlers advisor's and Generals knew that his course of action would lead to the complete destruction of the country yet he went and did it anyway as a punishment to the German people for being too weak. That he felt the people gave him a mandate and if they didn't like the results it was their fault.

It seemed scarily like the path Bush is on. That he feels he had this mandate and if it results in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi's, thousands of U.S. troops, a trillion U.S. dollars, the collapse of the U.S. dollar, the collapse of our economy and the bankruptcy of our Nation, too bad. People should have been tougher.

[MrPrax]

85. Superb Movie!! Downfall...

Agree totally...well said.

It's that fatalism that I fear most...that 'fuck the sinners, here I come Jesus' moment as one of the zealots hit the big button.

[TexasLawyer]

32. Mr. Scaife

Look around you-- at who holds power, at the Iraq war, at our economy, at our national security, at our dwindling international relevance.

This is the world that all your money and influence has wrought. Are you happy?

[ooglymoogly]

33. My god, if the jerk has lost a far right nazi supporter like

Sc@ife the sky is indeed falling on idiotworld.

[pinto]

35. Ha!

[thereismore]

36. He is right. Nothing will convince bush* that what he is doing is BAD, because

he is on a mission from God, therefore, must take all the hatred and criticism without flinching. Bush* will only stop when the money runs out. Congress, HALLO!?

[BornagainDUer]

37. Whaaaat? Scaife funded the supposedly non-partisan Judicial Watch?

Just look at this lunacy, more like a conspiracy to befuddle. And he's a with christian reconstructionism.
This means he was pro-Bush and is now just trying to distance himself for political reasons.

Political donations
According to campaignmoney.com, from 1999 through 2006, Scaife has, under the name "R. Scaife," made 10 contributions of over $200 to political campaigns, for a total of $19,000. Under the name "R.M. Scaife" he made 4 donations, for a total of $22,000. Under the name Richard Scaife, he made 23 donations over this period, for a total of $142,904. Besides donations to the Republican National Committee and various political campaigns such as Santorum 2000 and the Santorum Victory Committee for Rick Santorum, he has also supported Political Action Committees such as the Pro-Growth Action Team, the Free Congress PAC (formerly: Committee For the Survival Of a Free Congress), and the Club For Growth Inc. PAC.

Scaife also funded the Western Journalism Center, headed by Joseph Farah. Farah has been connected to reconstructionism, a movement to replace judicial law with Christian Old Testament law. The organization is antigay, and would move to punish "practicing homosexuals" by sentencing them to death. <14>


Management of the Scaife family foundations
When Scaife refocused his political giving away from individuals and toward anti-communist research groups, legal defense funds, and publications, the first among these was the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford University.

Through contacts made at Hoover and elsewhere, Scaife became a major, early supporter of the Heritage Foundation, which has since become one of Washington's most influential public policy research institutes. Later, he supported such varied conservative and libertarian organizations as:

American Enterprise Institute
Atlas Economic Research Foundation
Center for the Study of Popular Culture (headed by David Horowitz)
Federalist Society
Foundation for Economic Education
Free Congress Foundation (headed by Paul Weyrich)
Freedom House
GOPAC (headed by Newt Gingrich)
Independent Women's Forum
Intercollegiate Studies Institute (which operates the Collegiate Network)
Judicial Watch
Landmark Legal Foundation
Media Research Center (headed by Brent Bozell)
Pacific Legal Foundation
Pittsburgh World Affairs Council
Reason Foundation

The "Reason Foundation".

[yardwork]

81. Yep. We weren't born yesterday.

They're looking around for the next Jesus-Prezdent.

[Hekate]

40. My jaw just hit my keyboard, hard.

Hekate

[TrogL]

41. The terrarists have one

The wurm has turned.

Given that Scaife has bought and paid for this entire mess, now what's he gonna do?

[JerseygirlCT]

42. A sure sign of the apocalypse. nt

[ProudDad]

48. I think I see the holy fire now

The rapture, the rapture....

[roamer65]

49. Choke on it, Scaife. You got it into office, so now choke on it.

[nealmhughes]

50. Good Lord! That is like saying the John Birch Society came out for Hugo Chavez!

Scaife and Koch are the rightwing "think tanks" largest benefactors, what with their fancy "senior fellows," "junior fellows" and assorted Poobahs and Grand Klingons, et al.

[MissWaverly]

51. Kiss it Goodbye as Bob Prince used to say in Pirates baseball

games, Bush can kiss his base goodbye, it is going, going, gone.

[OwnedByFerrets]

52. The rats are only abandoning the ship............

because they are now seeing how this disaster is going to hurt their pocketbooks.
America is going down and they finally are seeing the light. It has nothing to do with patriotism, only the ching-ching, or lack thereof.
I have a idea for Scafie.....invest in Blackwater. I wish there was a joke there. but there is nothing but crickets chirping.

[PurpleChez]

63. Exactly. I get really tired of people making a big fuss about how so many right-wingers

are angry at Bush. They're angry at Bush because Bush makes them look bad. They're gonna fall right in line behind the next neo-fascist who promises to govern according to Baptist dogma, to fight gay marriage, to require store owners to say "Merry Christmas", etc.

[TheCowsCameHome]

54. Does this mean the marriage will be annulled?

Bwahahahahahahahaha.

[libertypirate]

56. Rats are starting to jump ship.... /nt

[tjwash]

57. I hope whoever wrote that editorial doesn't have a close relative in the CIA, FBI, or military.

This was very brave, considering these ruthless bastards have already shown what they are willing to do to those who speak out.

[madrchsod]

58. turn off the lights folks

one of the founding members of the no longer have use for the boy toy...

[Doctor_J]

64. The wing nuts have cut * loose (except Kristol)

they're hoping he doesn't melt down on camera, and will hardly be mentioned from here on out. By October 2008 the MSM will be saying "George who?"

[lovuian]

65. I agree Bush is mad failing

and a totally loser
Corporatists usually bet on winners

[autorank]

67. Whoa is right...this is the guy who tore down Clinton.

Watch for some awful stuff to come out about *.

I'm stunned.

This is like Goebbles deserting Hitler.

[RobertSeattle]

69. But in typlical right wing fashion, I bet they'll say...

...W may really really really really really really really really suck, but Kerry or Gore would have been worse!

Right Wing idiots.

[steve2470]

71. I wonder if any RW idiots will go after Scaife

or is Scaife too powerful ?

[MessiahRp]

73. This is political posturing for their paper.

Not unlike Republicans up for re-election in 2008 backing away from Bush. When 2008 comes and they predictably endorse a Republican candidate, they can claim independence by writing a single critical article. Right Wing newspapers across the country are doing this to reclaim their credibility so when they throw their support behind the Republicans in the '08 election, it has more weight to it.

Bush is going to be in office the rest of his term and cannot run again. They do no disservice to their party by backing away and gaining credibility with Republicans that are sick of Bush. This allows those gullible Republican voters to believe the opinion that is fed to them by this paper again and clears their conscience for believing them before on Bush.

This puts Republican candidates and propoganda machines back in the mainstream just long enough to continue their constitutional coup de tat with wins in 2008.

Rp

[wageslave71]

74. I think you're right

The Shrub presidency has been a fiasco in the eyes of too many voters. Anyone hoping to have the least bit of credibility, including the GOP candidates, have to abandon Bush. There is simply no way to defend his actions, and that's not likely to improve between now and the election.

[focusfan]

75. i sure hope congress does something

it's probably killing repukes to throw in the towel to end the
war because there probably making money too.

[samsingh]

77. where was their mental stability when they supported him in the first place?

[npincus]

79. put a monkey in the office and expect more than monkey-business?

[redqueen]

83. Eh, just preparing to switch horses in 09 is all.

Nothing meaningful to see here.