State of Confusion

Early on Tuesday, the Bush House, the Bush government and the Republican party were all in multiple states of confusion and disarray.

On one front, the controversy over who was briefed about what and when, concerning possible terrorist attacks on the US in 2001. The story of the July 10 meeting gets even more complicated, with Condi Rice, John Ashcroft and members of the 9-11 Commission all caught in contradictions, if not lies. It now appears however that Tenet briefed not only Rice but Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General John Ashcroft. He warned of imminent and multiple attacks against the U.S. There are still contradictions about whether at this meeting or any other at that time, he included the possibility of attacks within the U.S. Woodward's book asserts that he did--that this was the purpose of the July 10 meeting.

Is it also not certain that all of the meetings were reported to the 9-11 Commission, or if one or more were kept secret and kept out of the report by a vote of Commission members. Rice initially denied she could remember the meeting, and later agreed that some meeting occurred. Ashcroft denied that he was briefed at all.

On the Foley front, the Washington Post reported that "Leaders from about six dozen socially conservative groups held a conference call late yesterday afternoon, and participants were described as livid with House GOP leaders."

The Post also quoted former Newt Gingrch adviser Joe Gaylord as saying that "the fallout from Foley's resignation comes "very close" to ensuring a Democratic victory in November. "The part that causes the greatest fallout is the obvious kind of pall that an incident like this would put on our hardest-core voters, who are evangelical Christians," he said. "The thing I have said almost since this cycle began is the real worry you have is that [Republicans] just won't turn out. This is one more nail in that coffin."

At least one member of the House leadership, the Post said, is in danger of not being re-elected in November. It seems more and more likely that Dennis Hastert will be forced to resign as Speaker of the House, and that when that happens, Republicans will try to change the subject. To what, though? 9-11? Iraq?

Well, Don Rumsfeld has started expressing alarm about the military buildup in Venezuela. That should do it.

UPDATE Tues. afternoon: Dennis Hastert is not going quietly. He's let it be known that he isn't resigning, and President Bush made a statement supporting him. Meanwhile, another House leader is struggling for his political life, and pointing the finger at Hastert. The AP reports: House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Tuesday that Hastert had told him last spring that a Louisiana page's complaint about Foley "had been taken care of.""It's in his corner. It's his responsibility..."

Hastert and the Bush House seem more eager to investigate who leaked the emails than anything else. One line of defense they are adopting is that the timing of the revelations was politically motivated, but information is coming out that other news organizations, including Fox News, had at least one email but didn't do the story, and that the FBI had copies of 2005 emails in July but didn't investigate.

ABC News, which broke the story, says it is getting information from other congressional pages implicating other Members of Congress. If they include Democrats, the Republicans may well change their strategy, sacrifice a few seats and try to get the pedophile label off their backs. It wouldn't surprise me if Karl Rove is busily writing such emails and telling whichever page accepts the duty that if he implicates a Democrat, he's the next new Bush House advisor.