NEWS ABOUT: Bush administration
Bush administration stories: 469 news briefs
Obama DoJ renews Bush-era objections
to releasing details
Washington Post Jul 3, 09 1:30 PM CDT
(Newser Summary) -
The Obama Justice Department is continuing its efforts to maintain the Bush administration's secrecy over Dick Cheney's role in the Valerie Plame CIA leak scandal, the Washington Post reports. A filing this week, intended to bolster the current administration’s case for keeping secret details of the then-VP’s 2004 interview with special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, lists seven discussions Cheney recounted that were directly or indirectly related to Plame.
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Reuters Jun 30, 09 1:08 PM CDT
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The Environmental Protection Agency today granted California the right to set its own strict emissions standards, an about-face from Bush-era policies, Reuters reports. In a sly rebuke to the previous administration, the EPA said the move rested on a “traditional legal interpretation of the Clean Air Act.” California first requested permission to go beyond federal standards in 2005; the waiver was denied in 2008.
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Executive order echoes Bush approach, signals Gitmo impasse
Washington Post Jun 26, 09 5:14 PM CDT
(Newser Summary) -
In a move that echoes the Bush administration’s approach to terror suspects, the Obama White House has drafted an executive order that would allow for their indefinite detention, the Washington Post reports. The move is said to be motivated by growing concerns that President Obama won’t be able to strike a deal with Congress over closing the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
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OPINION
Sharon talks resulted in "understandings": Abrams
Wall Street Journal Jun 25, 09 8:35 AM CDT
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Hillary Clinton said last week that the Bush administration hadn’t made any “informal or oral agreements” on Israel settlements, but that’s simply not true, writes Bush adviser Elliott Abrams in the Wall Street Journal . In fact, talks between the administration and Israel’s then-PM resulted in Ariel Sharon’s agreement to “remove some West Bank settlements”—at his own political expense.
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Bush-era name ditched as administration seeks to overhaul education law
Washington Post Jun 23, 09 4:05 AM CDT
(Newser Summary) -
A model of a little red schoolhouse used to promote the launch of the federal policy "No Child Left Behind" is no more, the Washington Post reports. In a highly symbolic move, the structure at the entrance of the Department of Education and policy logos of the Bush administration education law are being stripped from the agency as the new administration moves to revamp the law and put its own stamp on education reform.
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analysis
Judge questions DoJ's claim about Cheney
Washington Post Jun 19, 09 4:51 PM CDT
(Newser Summary) -
A Justice Department lawyer argued in court yesterday—with a straight face—that releasing statements Dick Cheney made during the Valerie Plame investigation could cause future administration officials to hold back out of fear their statements would “get on The Daily Show .” The judge overseeing the hearing seemed skeptical, and had nothing on Dan Froomkin, who writes in the Washington Post, “This is not just wrong, it’s perversely wrong.”
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OPINION
Let Mousavi know the US is there for them, ex-Bush officials advise
Wall Street Journal Jun 17, 09 8:00 AM CDT
(Newser Summary) -
Whether or not Iran’s protests coalesce into a full-scale revolt, it seems clear that the Iranian people would like to change their totalitarian government. Barack Obama should help them do it, Bush administration officials Dan Senor and Christian Whiton write in the Wall Street Journal . He could start by calling Mir Hossein Mousavi and expressing his support, and issuing another video to the people, this time offering reformers whatever help they request.
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CNN Jun 15, 09 6:06 PM CDT
(Newser Summary) -
As the CIA scrambled to do damage control today in the wake of director Leon Panetta's New Yorker interview, Dick Cheney fired back. The former VP's office released a statement that reads in full: "I hope my old friend Leon was misquoted. The important thing is whether the Obama administration will continue the policies that have kept us safe for the past eight years."
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Politico Jun 10, 09 4:31 PM CDT
(Newser Summary) -
Karl Rove fired back today at Maureen Dowd for criticizing former President Bush’s frequent vacation time in Texas, Politico reports. “I think Maureen Dowd is a bitter, twisted, deranged columnist for the New York Times ,” Rove told Fox News, “who misses no opportunity to show her disdain for the conservative side of the aisle.” Rove added that he likes her writing.
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Politico Jun 10, 09 11:38 AM CDT
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Republicans think they’ve found one chink in President Obama’s armor: public fear over rising national debt. Some 51% of Americans disapprove of Obama’s efforts to control federal spending, according to a recent poll. In every other area, Obama enjoys positive ratings. “The president is still popular, but his policies are catching up with him,” Sen. Lamar Alexander told Politico. “When that happens, it helps us make our points.”
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Analysis
New York Times Jun 10, 09 9:24 AM CDT
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President Obama’s agenda plays a very small role in the massive deficits facing the country, but it won't do anything to correct them, wither the New York Times reports. After reviewing a decade’s worth of Congressional Budget Office reports, the paper explains how the government turned a $800 billion surplus into a $1.2 trillion deficit:
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OPINION
Ex-Bushie: Media won't call White House on its unmeasurable metric
Wall Street Journal Jun 9, 09 8:46 AM CDT
(Newser Summary) -
President Obama confidently declared yesterday that the stimulus plan had already “saved or created” 150,000 American jobs and would “save or create” another 600,000 by this summer. Which is pretty surprising, former Bush official William McGurn writes in the Wall Street Journal , because the economy’s lost nearly 1.6 million jobs since the stimulus passed. But that’s the magic of the “saved or created” metric, which doesn’t actually measure anything.
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Interview
Former first lady says hubby is too gracious
to attack Obama
ABC News Jun 8, 09 11:51 AM CDT
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George and Laura Bush aren’t interested in criticizing the new administration, Laura Bush tells ABC News, and she actually supports Sonia Sotomayor. The former first lady called Sotomayor “a very interesting and good nominee,” adding, “As a woman, I’m proud that there might be another woman on the court.” She also said that, while it was Dick Cheney’s “right as a citizen” to attack Obama, George Bush feels he “owes President Obama his silence.”
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ANALYSIS
Lack of high-profile women hampers credibility on Sotomayor
Boston Phoenix Jun 5, 09 3:44 PM CDT
(Newser Summary) -
Since Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court, something has been missing from the ranks of her GOP detractors: women. The departure of Sarah Palin and President Bush’s estrogen-packed Cabinet from the national spotlight has exposed the dearth of Republican women, David Bernstein writes for the Boston Phoenix . “It's shocking to me that they're not in crisis mode,” said an academic.
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Associated Press Jun 3, 09 2:17 PM CDT
(AP Summary) -
A federal judge has tossed out more than three dozen lawsuits filed against the nation's telecommunications companies for allegedly taking part in the government's email and telephone eavesdropping program that was done without court approval. The dismissals were widely expected after Congress in July agreed on new surveillance rules that include immunity from lawsuits for telecommunications companies that allegedly helped the US spy on Americans.
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Veep intervened when legislators got twitchy
Washington Post Jun 3, 09 4:18 AM CDT
(Newser Summary) -
Dick Cheney personally led at least four briefings with senior House and Senate members about harsh interrogation techniques, reports the Washington Post . The former vice president's interventions took place at critical moments when Congress was threatening to investigate or even outlaw techniques, such as waterboarding, that are widely considered torture. Although Cheney was a vocal advocate for the Bush administration's policies in public, his role in defending the program to Congress was previously unknown.
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CNN Jun 1, 09 2:03 PM CDT
(Newser Summary) -
Jimmy Carter politely disagrees with the current president’s move to block photos depicting prisoner torture in Iraq and Afghanistan from public view. “I don't agree with him,” the former president said of Barack Obama. “But I certainly don't criticize him for making that decision,” he tells CNN's Campbell Brown in an interview airing tonight. Still, Carter is disappointed. “Most of his supporters were hoping that he would be much more open in the revelation of what we've done in the past.”
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OPINION
Prez slammed W's national security policy; now he's following it
Financial Times (UK) May 25, 09 12:54 PM CDT
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President Obama’s national security policy has been surprisingly close to his predecessor’s—a policy he hammered on the campaign trail. For that, he “owes George W. Bush an apology,” writes Clive Crook in the Financial Times . But his supporters also deserve an apology. His election rhetoric “misled” them: “In office he has found that the issue is more complicated” than he presented it.
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Former veep selling story as a look at Republicanism from Nixon onwards
New York Times May 23, 09 6:07 AM CDT
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Dick Cheney is seeking as much as $2 million from publishers for a book on his life in politics, the New York Times reports. Insiders say the former vice president, who served in four Republican administrations, is selling the book as not just a look inside the Bush administration, but as a history of "the entire Republican ascendancy going back to Nixon.”
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Bush policy protected business interests in the states
Washington Post May 22, 09 8:03 AM CDT
(Newser Summary) -
President Obama is rewriting another set of rules inherited from his predecessor. This time, the Washington Post reports, it’s President Bush’s policy of overriding state laws with federal regulations, known as “preemption.” Says an activist, “It's environmental law, it's drug law, it's mortgage law, it's a whole host of areas where the Bush administration was really aggressive about using regulatory action to clear state and local laws that businesses and corporations didn't like.”
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