We wondered yesterday who would play this guy in HBO’s upcoming movie “Recount” …

One loyal reader suggests the answer is obvious: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who has the added benefit of not only deciding the Florida 2000 result, but also already has an IMDB entry set up.

Great to see President Bush is in Romania.
It gives us an opportunity to point out one of the coolest facts about the Iraq war: Romania has a military presence in Iraq. And where are Romania’s troops based? Camp Dracula.

Here’s a good article from The Cheers:

Romania has soldiers and paratroopers in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, Romania’s largest presence is at Camp Dracula in near the ancient Sumerian City of Ur and the Ziggurat. Currently, Romania’s 495th Infantry Battalion called “Capt. Stefan Soverth” patrols the area and guards a strategic bridge.

CAMP DRACULA, Iraq¡ - Romanian paratroopers in 495th Infantry Battalion patrol 200 km daily in the Dhi Qar province of Iraq. The 495th is named after “Capt. Stefan Soverth,” a Romanian paratrooper who did not accept the Russia suppression of Romanian paratroopers in 1945.

Camp Dracula, a walled compound inside Logistical Support Area (LSA) Adder, is very close to the ancient city of Ur. Nasariyah is the Iraqi City that closest to the base.

Romania is supporter of the war on terror and also has a large presence in Kandahar, Afghanistan. In Iraq, the Romanian Area of Operations (AO) is the entire Dhi Qar province - over 12,900 square kilometers, of which they patrol daily.

“We secure, patrol and do reconnaissance missions,” said Lt. Col. George Constantin, the Battalion Commander.
….

Political junkies and Hollywood junkies alike should get quite a kick out of watching the HBO film “Recount,” debuting Sunday, May 25 on HBO.

Shot on location in Jacksonville and Tallahassee, “Recount” portrays the turmoil of the 2000 presidential election in Florida, following the Florida recount from Election Day in November 2000 through the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of George W. Bush over Al Gore five weeks later.

Check out who’s playing whom — a delightful mix of political and entertainment bold-faced names:

• Kevin Spacey plays Ron Klain, Vice President Al Gore’s former Chief of Staff
• Tom Wilkinson portrays James Baker III, who was previously Secretary of State to President George H. W. Bush
• Denis Leary plays Michael Whouley, national field director during the Gore campaign
• Laura Dern portrays Katherine Harris, Secretary of State of Florida
• Bob Balaban portrays Ben Ginsberg, national counsel to the Bush-Cheney campaign in the 2000 election
• John Hurt plays Warren Christopher, former Secretary of State to President Bill Clinton
• Bruce McGill plays Republican lobbyist Mac Stipanovich
• Ed Begley, Jr. portrays attorney David Boies, who represented the Gore campaign before the Supreme Court

Of course, we can’t wait to find out who plays this guy …

An all-too-rare item from Extreme Mortman’s intrepid real estate reporter:

With nice weather expected this weekend, TIVO the NCAAs, load the kiddies in the minivan, and hit the presidential homes tour, previously detailed by Extreme Mortman last September.

Here’s a look at newly-elected Congressman Richard Nixon’s temporary digs from 1947:

“Richard Nixon lived here briefly in 1947 while house hunting.”

Also, “Senator Huey Long lived here from 1934 - 1935. It was also home to locally prominent business families, for example, the Hechingers, the Mazors, and the Zlotnicks.”

(Source)

Here are two photos about the Cathedral Avenue NW home of both GWB 41 and 43.

(Source)

The 2nd photo is a snapshot of page 99 of Barbara Bush’s memoirs, courtesy of Google books.

It’s the location of the infamous “mano a mano” challenge that Bush 43 issued to 41 after a night of frolic with his younger brother Marvin, described by the WashPost here:

“By the end of 1972, Bush’s father was mulling over a new job offer from Nixon – to be chairman of the Republican National Committee. With his parents back in Washington, Bush went to stay with them for the holidays and was involved in one of the most notorious incidents of his “nomadic” years. He took his 16-year-old brother Marvin out drinking, ran over a neighbor’s garbage cans on the way home, and when his father confronted him, challenged him to go “mano a mano” outside.”

“Bush maintained a Washington residence at 4429 Lowell Street during his 1980 campaign for Vice President”

(Source)

That’s it.  Happy trails.

Interesting to see the Barack Obama/Rev. Jeremiah Wright saga play out with this development:

In a letter to the Huffington Post Web site Friday afternoon — and in a later interview on MSNBC — Obama went further than he has previously gone to distance himself from Wright’s comments, while urging voters to judge him “on the basis of who I am and what I believe in.”

“All of the statements that have been the subject of controversy are ones that I vehemently condemn,” Obama wrote. “They in no way reflect my attitudes and directly contradict my profound love for this country.”

Obama said in the MSNBC interview that he did not “repudiate the man.”

Contrast how Obama is handling this incident with something equally destructive that occurred to a presidential campaign 20 years ago.

Here’s the September 9, 1988 New York Times:

The campaign of Vice President Bush dismissed a member of a panel formed to enlist support among ethnically diverse groupings late today amid allegations by Jewish and Nazi-hunting organizations that he was one of three panelists with anti-Semitic involvements or links to fascist groups.

Mark Goodin, a campaign spokesman, said the panel member, Jerome A. Brentar, was dismissed after it was learned that he had been active in efforts to defend John Demjanjuk, who is appealing a sentence of death imposed in April by an Israeli court. It found that he had committed atrocities as a guard at the Treblinka camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.

Mr. Goodin said Mr. Brentar’s ‘’association with John Demjanjuk put him at odds with Vice President Bush.'’ As for the two other members in question, he added, ‘’We have absolutely no substantiation at this point of any of these charges.'’…
The panel in question, Mr. Bush’s Coalition of American Nationalities, is a volunteer group intended to build support for the campaign among ethnic groups….
‘’There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that these three individuals have expressed sympathies with Nazism, with fascism,'’ said Michael S. Miller, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council.

In addition to Mr. Brentar, a Croatian-American who has also been active in groups that deny the existence of the Holocaust, Mr. Miller and Mr. Cooper supported Jewish Week’s descriptions of the other two men, Florian Galdau and Philip Guarino….

Mr. Goodin said the campaign organization was ‘’shocked by the allegations,'’ but that it should not have been expected to ascertain every detail about prospective panel members in the screening process.

…
Early today, before Mr. Brentar was dismissed, James A. Baker 3d, the Bush campaign chairman, said at a news conference that ‘’there is absolutely no room for anti-Semitism or bigotry of any sort in our campaign.'’

I remember that story vividly.  I worked in the Bush ‘88 campaign, doing outreach to the Jewish community. I can tell you first-hand how damaging the whole incident was, specifically to our efforts among Jews.  And for good reason.  But the Bush ‘88 campaign handled it right by dismissing him — and Baker’s statement against anti-Semitism and bigotry in the campaign was forceful.

Much more so than something like “Obama said in the MSNBC interview that he did not ‘repudiate the man.’”

Pity.  Sometimes repudiation is the right thing to do.  Obama’s pronounced eloquence could really be put to good use.

Vermont is the only state in the Union that President Bush hasn’t visited.

No wonder.  Check out what’s on the ballot today in the enlightened town of Brattleboro (from WPTZ):

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — Voters in Brattleboro are heading to the polls Tuesday facing a novel proposition — an article calling for the indictment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for violating the Constitution.

The item is more symbolic than substantive, according to officials. It seeks to have police arrest Bush and Cheney if they ever visit Brattleboro or to extradite them for prosecution elsewhere — if they’re not impeached first.

Town Clerk Annette Cappy said the town attorney has no legal authority to draw up any papers to allow police officers to arrest Bush or Cheney.

Organizers of the indictment campaign were frustrated that Bush-Cheney indictment article to the back side of the ballot, which they said would cause some people to miss it.

Ah — must be why they felt compelled to produce these helpful signs:

Associated Press photographer Charles Tasnadi has died.
He gave us this …

… years before we’d see this:

We had forgotten this part of recent American history, and alas live links to primary sources are impossible to find (any whiz sleuths out there?), but it’s certainly worth revisiting Salon’s September 2003 coverage of massive Oregon fires:

Portland’s daily newspaper, the Oregonian, and Oregon Public Broadcasting have given serious coverage to the argument that Bush allies may have set the fire. But larger environmental groups such as the Oregon Natural Resources Council have shied away from it, perhaps for fear of appearing paranoid, and so the conspiracy theory may never get a full hearing outside of a few funky cafes.

Well, consider us to be your modern-day funky cafe.  We love conspiracy theories.  If you’ve got your hands on a refresher course explaining how President Bush caused that fire, please share.

What was Dan Bartlett recalling when he said this about President Bush?

I’m not sure if it’s a stomach virus yet, or something like that, but is not feeling well to the stomach. And I guess he didn’t want to follow in the footsteps of his father in Asia.

When President Bush visited Japan in January 1992, he reacted to the arrival of Japanese beef steak with a projectile vomit into the lap of Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa.  Then he slumped under the table.  Then he said he felt great.  Take a look:

Of course, not everyone at the time thought he was doing great.

This Progressive.org story, “Is Martial Law Coming?” gets this response from Extreme Mortman senior historian Richard Andrews:

Have you looked at the latest heavy-breathing Left obsession/urban myth?

All about some recent National Security Directive which the usual ignoramuses take as Evil W somehow giving himself power to declare an emergency, take over the entire U. S. Gov’t. in case of natural or mad-made disaster, and (this is the callers, not the Directive) cancel the ‘08 election so he can hold on to power.

I started hearing this called in to C-SPAN, et all, early this week, then received a link to Progressive.org from a lib cousin of mine.

Shades of the early ’70s, and Tricky Dick.  (Recall, he HAD to cancel the election, because with Youth in Revolt, he couldn’t possibly win!)  Of course, back then they had to use mimeographed flyers illegally posted on telephone poles.

Upon review, I find it to be a painfully bureaucratic missive about everyone getting their act together about having a comprehensive ‘continuity of government’ plan, when and if.   The Dept. of Homeland Security has been putting out similar stuff for years.  I had to write one for my tiny unit of MD State gov’t.

If we have such an event in DC, the POTUS certainly will have to coordinate routine matters for the other two Branches, if only because only military planes would be flying (remember?), he fills judicial vacancies & GSA operates the couthouses, and it would take forever to elect a new House leadership if they were all lost at once, especially if large numbers of Members were gone, too, as the Constitution requires that they can only be replaced by special election (Even the WashPost has nagged Congress on doing something about this last).