Over at Josh Marshall's TPM Cafe:

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/jun/14/reid

three people who were actually in on the call are casting serious doubt on whether or not Reid actually said any such things. It seems that Politico (original source of the story):

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0607/4490.html

quoted sources who were "familiar with the interview" instead of saying that the people were actually there.

Gee, you know that something never happening might be a reason why Politico describes the quote as "a comment that was never reported." Ya' think?

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Dwight D. Eisenhower - 1961

We spend an amount on our military that equals the sum total of what the rest of the world spends on theirs, yet somehow it doesn't seem to help either or security or our liberty.

The potential that Ike warned about has been realized and yet Dem politicians are queuing up to feed the beast. They're all afraid that the Republicans will call them weak on security, so they try to spend their way out of the accusation using borrowed money - debt that our great-grandchildren will be trying to pay. When is someone who has the nation's ear going to have the guts to call this what it is - a welfare scheme for the "haves and have-mores".

I suspect that the money would be just as well spent if we cut the amount spent on the military in half and gave $500,000 each to 1,000 people chosen at random off the street.

The Administration flacks and W himself keep saying that they're warning the Iraqi government that the US commitment isn't endless. Frankly, I've seen absolutely no indication that this is actually the case and I'm pretty sure that the Iraqis have noticed as well.

It seems that the effectiveness of milestones without any accountability for missing them has been somewhat less than optimal. Gee, who'd of thunk?

Do you think that the Bush and McCain wings will set up rival militias? I mean other than Unca' Dick with a shotgun and a load on.

Why not let the states decide the issue? A monolithic Supreme Court ruling is clearly not tenable as a long-term solution, given how extraordinarily divisive the abortion issue is. Let the people vote on the issue at the local level.

Indeed, why not throw the whole Constitution and Bill of Rights to the states? I can think of a few things that people currently have the right to do that irritate the hell out of me. This would be a wonderful chance to shut down right-wing AM radio, certainly a divisive influence that irritates me no end.

Petey, I'm not particularly sure that I'm ready to have my rights determined by the whim of the electorate. I'm not too sure that you should be willing either. And the price of this is that I'm willing to put up with things that might be considered "divisive". In this case I happen to agree with the Court, a decision about a pregnancy should be ultimately left to a woman and her doctor. I could list a group of recent decisions I'd disagree with, but it's the Supremes who get to decide, not me.

I have long since given up on getting the truth on anything from this administration, but what really makes me feel insulted is that they can't even bother to lie well.

It almost makes me long for the days of Ari Fleischer. Ok, the man was a weasel, but at least he was a talented weasel. Perino just can't compete at that level. She should go back to whatever corporation they dredged her up from.

It's far more likely that Cheney will decide to dump Bush. And once that happens, Bush's days as Cheney's puppet in the Oval Office are numbered.

Interesting, Junior is exercising executive privilege to protect advice he never received on a subject that he did not participate in discussing.

Thank god he didn't receive any advice and didn't participate in any discussions, otherwise he'd have anyone who knew anything about this taken out and shot. After all, dead men (and women) tell no tales.

While in a sane world I'd agree with the previous comments about the vapidity of "election as a horse race" reporting, I think that in our one-dollar-one-vote system who has how much makes a difference. I know that it's at least six months before the first caucus and primary (at least as the schedule stands now), but it's going to take a fair chunk of cash for candidates to stay visible (and to help pay for the last year's worth of campaigning).

This is one of the best reasons I've seen to go to a European style election cycle, where candidates don't start running until six weeks before the actual election and have to STFU 48 hrs before the actual day. Of course, such a system would be found completely unconstitutional in our system where the courts regard corporations as people and money as speech.

That quote from the Chickenhawk-in-Chief still makes me see red. It can only have been uttered by a totally self-absorbed twerp who has never had to worry about getting shot at and knows damn well that nobody he knows will ever need to worry about it either.

It's the ultimate "What, Me worry?" quote and says volumes about this administration. I've never been big on the theory of "mass testosterone poisoning", but I may need to re-evaluate.