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David Plouffe: Let The Eagle Soar 

Barack Obama campaign wizard David Plouffe appears to be following the well worn path of other political advisers: make your name in America, then make a killing advising foreign tyrants on prettying up.

Plouffe is traveling to Azerbaijan to meet second generation oil despot and President Ilham Aliyev.    Poppy was a Brezhnev crony and KGB general reborn after the Soviet Union’s dissolution as maximum leader of the Caspian kleptocracy, and sonny Aliyev currently presides, with his fetching wife Mehriban.

It’s a land of enchantment.  At home the Azerbaijanis enjoy      a cult of personality built around former President Heydar Aliyev and fixed elections,  while abroad the Aliyev’s enjoy collecting pictures of themselves with world leaders from Bushes             to Clinton   to  Belorussian Strongman    Alexancer Lukashenko.

Hiring Plouffe would be a step up for the Aliyevs.   A previous thrust for swankiness entailed renting out Mount Vernon to try and link the Father Of Their Country to George Washington, an event graced by the presence of Bush family Consiliari James Baker.

 I Ever Tell You The One…

Proud Libra and Ramallahh resident, Palestinian-American blogger Sam Bahour is doing his part to bridge the gap, bringing the two [or more!] sides together by recycling yet again a Bush Library Classic Joke we’ve all so enjoyed over the years.

Taking time from the “Territories” day to day occupation grind, EPalestine can’t resist the musty rib-tickler which begins…

“The George W. Bush Presidential Library is now in the planning stages and accepting donations.”

I get 34,000 Google hits for this one. Your results may very.

Desert Foxy   

There is a special moment in every president’s life when the Saudi check for his presidential library arrives. But Ronald Reagan did better than that.

New Mideast tell-all A World of Trouble is packed with important revelations, but for our purposes the story that matters is about a man and a horse.  Or several. And a briefcase full of diamonds.

Author Patrick Tyler shows Ronald Reagan scheming to keep two horses given him by our gallant Saudi allies,  plotting with then [and current Bush] White House Counsel Fred Fielding to hide them on a neighbor’s ranch.  The law required the president to donate the horses to the public.

Tyler points to a previously published excerpt from Reagan’s diaries confirming the scheme:

Nancy  got $2 million dollars of diamonds, stashed at Harry Winston.

Reagan was endlessly photographed with his horse  “El Alamein,” which Reagan received while in office from distinguished side-burn wearer  and  Mexican President Jose Lopez Portillo.

  How the horse was snuck past the lawyers is not known.

How all this squared with Reagan’s legendary rules to live by is also unknown.

“Reagan kept several horses at the ranch stable. He made sure that the Secret Service horses ate from separate hay troughs, because he did not want American taxpayers paying for his own horses feed. “

Got It Covered  

Fantasies of George W.Bush finally answering the numerous suits, inquiries and subpoenas pending against his administration after he leaves office received a cold shower Thursday from the New York Times, which reports a crackpot Harry Truman legal theory may have empowered presidents to tell Congress, the courts and polite society generally to screw off.

Comic Genius   

Mr Plain Speaking was freshly out of power and interested in dodging congressional subpoenas, so his lawyers cooked up a theory giving presidents executive privilege even when no longer executiving.  Edward M. Cramer was a junior attorney on the scheme, and told the Times  “I think, legally, we were wrong.”

This Truman Doctrine returned in the 70s when Richard Nixon cited it as precedent to not answer questions about Watergate.

“Mr. Cramer recalled, “Nixon used it, and we said ‘Oh, Jesus, what have we done?’ ”

We can only imagine how far Bush will run with this notion. He has already played with the law on Presidential Archives, issuing an executive order which may delay document release into perpetuity.  Bush invented new rights for ex-presidents and their heirs to mess with the release of presidential papers, potentially giving crack head  Noelle Bush or legendary whore-hound Neil Bush say in the release of their father’s, uncle’s, grandfather’s or brother’s history.
Gettin’ ‘Er Done, Hope-Style!  

Democrat’s appetite for the truth may fade with time. Barack Obama has already invited the opposition to whine about any under-rock peering, saying:

“I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt, because I think we’ve got too many problems we’ve got to solve.”

Our best hopes for justice, or at least messing with, may lie abroad.
No Time Like The Present! 

George Bush famously barely traveled overseas, but others in his Administration traveled widely. Everything may change after January,  when mischievous foreign prosecutors may launch investigations and indictments of war crimes accusations against Bush and armies of lesser administration figures.

We’ve all enjoyed the spectacle of Henry Kissinger dodging investigators looking into his Chilean adventures.

Imagine the fun to be had next time Donald Rumsfeld visits the chocolate makers!

Baath Waters Run Deep 

Former Iraqi Strongman Saddam Hussein’s yacht Ocean Breeze was for sale by these guys, but the current Iraqi government  spoiled the party, snatching back the ship as ill-gotten loot. The Ocean Breeze was to have gone on sale in Nice, where it showed up after spending twenty years holed up in Saudi Arabia.

Now Iraq is putting this remnant of the eighties  on sale at last!

It’s reported to be super-swanky throughout, with all the gilded table legs a kleptocracy could need.

Saddam appears to have opted for defense in depth with yachts as he did palaces.         This one did not survive the American invasion.

Ship Shape! 

In further Dictator Chic News, The Sunday Times reports great progress on the Tikrit area Saddam Presidential Library & Tomb.  

The grave itself is looking sharp, and his tribesman have added that special Presidential Library touch, the “recreation” of the great man’s office.