Think Progress

Under the Radar

ADMINISTRATION -- RUMSFELD REMAINS DEFENSE DEPARTMENT 'CONSULTANT,' OPENS 'TRANSITION OFFICE' NEAR PENTAGON: Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "has left the Pentagon, but not the Defense Department." The Washington Times reports that on Jan. 4, Rumsfeld "opened a government-provided transition office in Arlington and has seven Pentagon-paid staffers working for him." Rumsfeld is listed as a “nonpaid consultant,” a status he needs "in order to review secret and top-secret documents, the official said." The Times reports that Rumsfeld has brought with him close adviser Stephen Cambone, a fierce advocate of the Iraq war and the chief planner of questionable interrogation tactics at military and CIA detention sites around the world. Though former secretaries "are entitled to a transition office to sort papers," Rumsfeld's transition office has raised eyebrows inside the Pentagon. "Some question the size of the staff, which includes two military officers and two enlisted men. They also ask why the sorting could not have been done from the time Mr. Rumsfeld resigned Nov. 8 to when he left the building Dec. 18." Rumsfeld’s predecessors, William Cohen and William Perry, both returned to private life immediately after leaving the Defense Department. Cohen had “two military personnel�€?sort through his papers for about six weeks,” while Perry had his papers mailed via compact disk to Stanford University.

IRAN -- HAGEL REVEALS WHITE HOUSE ORIGINALLY WANTED 2002 IRAQ WAR RESOLUTION TO COVER ENTIRE MIDDLE EAST: The Bush administration has taken a series of steps in recent weeks that appear to be setting the stage for a military confrontation with Iran. Congressional leaders have been raising red flags. "I'd like to be clear," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said last week. "The president does not have the authority to launch military action in Iran without first seeking congressional authorization." Recent comments made by Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) explain why Congress' resistance is so vital. In an interview in GQ Magazine, Hagel revealed that the Bush administration tried to get Congress to approve military action anywhere in the Middle East -- not just in Iraq -- in the fall of 2002. At the time, Hagel says, the Bush administration presented Congress with a resolution that would have authorized the use of force anywhere in the region. "They expected Congress to let them start a war anywhere in the Middle East?" the interviewer asked. Hagel responded, "Yes. Yes. Wide open."

VALUES -- SCHUMER LAYS OUT HIS IDEAS FOR A MIDDLE-CLASS AGENDA: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) recently released his first book, Positively American: Winning Back The Middle-Class Majority One Family At A Time. He argues that conservatives have spoken successfully in recent years to the middle class with eight words -- war in Iraq, cut taxes, no gay marriage. Schumer, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, says now that the State of the Union is over, it's time to develop an alternative agenda. As part of this effort, his new book lays out "The 50% Solution," which presents eleven concrete goals, to be achieved within ten years, that are a promise to the middle class. Schumer tells The Progress Report, "While the eleven goals are by no means a complete platform, I hope they serve as the beginning of a new discussion. Ambitious but practical ideas like these, designed to help regular people, have the power to push the conservative agenda -- which wants to take us back to the 1930’s or even the 1880’s -- away from the center of discourse. They can replace it with progressive ideals, built around the knowledge that in a world unsettlingly changed by technology, people are more and more looking to the government for security, stability and support."

Think Fast

Senate conservatives yesterday blocked legislation to raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25, "insisting it include new tax breaks for restaurants and other businesses."

The Congressional Budget Office reported yesterday that President Bush "can balance the budget within five years, or he can get Congress to extend his tax cuts beyond their scheduled expiration -- but he can't do both."

In the Scooter Libby trial yesterday, former Associate CIA Deputy Director Robert Grenier testified that -- pursuant to a request -- he told Libby that Valerie Plame worked at the CIA in June 2003, a month before Libby claimed to have learned that information from NBC's Tim Russert. Another CIA employee said he delivered a stark warning that the Bush administration's leak "could lead to the deaths of people who aided American intelligence gathering abroad."

"It's water over the deck -- get over it," Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said yesterday about the 2000 Bush v. Gore ruling, "drawing laughs from his audience" at Iona College in New York.

Christine Todd Whitman, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency under George W. Bush, said the president "missed the 'perfect opening' to call for a cap on greenhouse gas emissions in his State of the Union address Tuesday night." 

"After the bloodiest year in Afghanistan since the U.S. invasion," the Bush administration "will ask Congress for $7 billion to $8 billion in new funds for security, reconstruction and other projects in Afghanistan as part of the upcoming budget package."

"Authorities at Tarleton State University said they plan to investigate a Martin Luther King Jr. Day party that mocked black stereotypes by featuring fried chicken, malt liquor and faux gang apparel."

And finally: Senator, Dr. Frist will see you now. "The average age of members of the U.S. Senate is older than it has ever been," and for "many senators, advanced age is starting to show." Before his retirement from the Senate, former Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), "a noted heart surgeon, was being consulted for informal medical advice by two dozen of his colleagues -- more than 20 percent of the Senate." "They went to Frist complaining about a host of illnesses and chronic maladies, most related to aging."