The most frightening thing Kerry did today was ride in Lance Armstrong's chase car at the Tour de France. I was certain he was there to share his losing ways and jinx Lance but it didn't happen.

It really is time for Kerry to get off the national stage and say "Au Revoir," but voters in Massassachutts have no shame when they elect senators.

The news just keeps getting better!

1) This morning Al Gonzalez told Schieffer on Lie to the Nation that he (as then-White House Legal Counsel) was notified by Ashcroft (as then-AG) that a formal criminal investigation was being initiated, at 8:30PM on 9/29/03. He was asked about the unprecedented 12 hour "gap", which covered the time from original notification (8:30PM) to "official notification" (the next morning). The White House has never explained by they requested, or more importantly, why the Justice Dept. allowed them 12 hours notice before making the "official" request that all WH staff protect and hold for DOJ any/all documents pertaining to Wilson and/or Plame. Did they use the 12 hours to destroy documents, since they hadn't been formally requested not to do so? Today he admitted after hearing from Ashcroft he immediately called WH Chief of Staff Andy Card, before calling Ashcroft back to ask for a 12 hour delay! Schieffer couldn't get him to explain why they needed the 12 hours! (Oh, and if the AG can answer questions about an ongoing criminal investigation, why can't the White House???)

2) Many pundits now think Gonzalez's involvement in this may well have finished his USSC chances, as he'd be grilled by Dems over the missing 12 hours and what exactly happened in them!

3) GOPer Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS), head of the Senate Intel Committee, today claimed Plame couldn't be an undercover agent because she worked a desk at Langley. First, we know this is false. She worked at a cover firm in D.C. called Brewster-Jennings & Assoc. CIA agents only work for cover employers if they are undercover. Second, we have comments from CIA and DIA personnel attacking this canard. Example: career CIA-operative and life-long Republican Larry Johnson who said "...there is no excuse for this level of incompetence. There are thousands of undercover CIA employees who drive through the three gates at CIA Headquarters in McLean, Virginia everyday. And this Senator from Kansas who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee has the audacity to blame CIA for intelligence failures? How can he recognize failures when he does not even understand the very simple basics about people who work undercover at CIA. He should spend more time reading up on the CIA and less time memorizing Ken Mehlman talking points."

4) Last Tuesday a group of 11 senior ex-CIA and DIA analysts and agents (including a full-bird Colonel who ran DIA's Defense Humint Services) delivered a letter to the heads of the GOP and Dem Senate and House, pointing out Plame WAS an undercover agent at the time of the outing, and those who are proclaiming now she was not are either liars or ignorant!

5) We now know there is some sort of John Bolton connection. Seems NBC was discovered he was questioned by Fitzgerald (exactly over what is unknown). But most interesting...apparently Bolton failed to inform anyone in the Senate on his hearings' forms of the questioning! Why? What was he covering up? Why was he afraid to mention it? It could be construed a criminal matter if he deliberately mislead or lied to the Senate (not verbally, but on the forms...they are tantamount to being under oath; any false statement on them is a crime).

6) We know Bush wanted to announce his SC nomination on Friday, July 29th, but moved it up more than a week in an effort to drive Rove out of the headlines. Thus far, it seems to have failed, especially since no one seems to have any serious objections to Roberts (a few on the extreme right and on the left are complaining, but no moderate groups).

7) Finally, on a totally different issue - anyone here catch the not one but two separate stories that if Bush had been doing his job, its possible the London bombings might not have happened?
a) In 2002 in Seattle, Fed prosecutors sought to indict Haroon Aswat concerning his attempts in 2000 to setup a Muslim terrorist-training camp in Bly, Oregan. Had the indictment been delivered, British authorities could (then) have easily arrested him and delivered him to US authorities. Except, for reasons no one has ever supplied to the Seattle Fed prosecutors, word came down from DOJ in D.C. do NOT indict him! Today, Aswat is wanted by the Brits, believe directly involved in the London bombings on 7/7/05!
b) Back in 2003, Pakistanis captured Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan, an al-Qaeda planner. They kept it secret because he agreed to flip on al-Qaeda. All was going fine, until Bush named him (with no advance notice to the Pakistanis) by name, in an effort to prove one of his innumerable terror alerts that never went anywhere actually had a valid basis in fact (more evidence Bush compromises national security for political gain). With no advance notice, dozens of people the Pakistanis were following and tracking just vanished overnight. Months of work gone for nothing! Well, it turns out some of the people believed involved in the London bombings were part of this group!
And remember, Bush had THREE separate chances to take out al-Zaqawi between August 2002 and March 2003! And all three times he ordered the US Navy NOT to take him out!

Absolutely worst President in the history of the United States of America!!!

Worse than Warren G. Harding?