Theory on Cheney aide trip to Iraq. (Adjust tinfoil headgear.)

[Demoiselle]

Steve Schmidt (NOT SCOOTER!) is headed to Iraq until Oct 26 to "shore up communications " at request of Iraq. Could it be that he is also going to shut up the folks there who were going to take delivery on the planted WMD's before the plan went wrong?
I know, I know. There was a lot of fuss about this story here just now and some felt it was meaningless...but...ah hell...I haven't had as much fun since Watergate!

[ewagner]

1. No....I think this

has something to do with the New York Terror alert.....friends of Cheney and Rummy embarrassed them and Schmidt is over there to "shore up communications".....something like "You screw up again and you'll be taking a long dirt nap!"

[nashville_brook]

4. HA! "long dirt nap" -- that is funny

[YDogg]

9. Sounds like the "Dirt Road Map to Peace"

:P

[Demoiselle]

5. Agreed. "Long dirt nap" is a fine phrase.

But let me cling to my little theory a bit longer. (It makes me smile.)

[lovuian]

2. I think this is a good excuse for Steve to get away from being

Cheney's spokesman and is going to let Cheney talk for himself!!!

Iraq is looking better than the Whitehouse these days!!!

[kostya]

3. The most hilarious part of the story was that, he wrote, being a

communications whiz, in his out-of-office e-mail reply that he would be "VERY" limited in e-mail contacts. Do these people not have equipment to gain satellite access and VPNs, etc.? Gimme a break!

:)

[babylonsister]

6. Kind of like, don't call me, I'll call you? nt

[No Exit]

7. Could it be that Fitz was about to subpoena Schmidt, and

so they took Schmidt out of the jurisdiction to avoid the subpoena?

[SledDriver]

8. Does that qualify as "obstruction of justice"?

:shrug:

[chat_noir]

10. The White House Looks To Improve Iraq News

Posted Sunday, Oct. 02, 2005
The White House is embarking on a new effort to try to leaven the bleak accounts emerging from Iraq. Administration officials tell TIME that Steve Schmidt, counselor to Vice President Cheney and one of the White House's most aggressive strategists, will leave for Baghdad early this week to spend up to a month assessing media relations in the war zone. Back home, Cheney and President Bush will give major speeches this week on Iraq's Oct. 15 constitutional referendum. Administration officials say the addresses aim to define the terrorist insurgency as an enemy with a clear strategy, and to portray dire consequences if the U.S. were to withdraw. Vice President Cheney flies to Camp Lejeune, N.C., for a Monday rally with Marines, while President Bush motorcades to the Ronald Reagan Building on Thursday.

One of Schmidt's missions, administration officials say, is to determine whether the White House can take any logistical steps to help American reporters and other journalists to gather news at a time when it is often too dangerous for them to leave their compounds. (emphasis mine) The officials say Schmidt's trip is at the request of the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalizad, but is supported at the highest levels of the White House. "We want to see if there's a disconnect between what people in the United States are seeing on their televisions and in their newspapers, and the reality on the ground," a senior administration official said.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1112866,00.html

[gademocrat7]

11. What do we see now?? A disconnect between US news and the reality in Iraq?

This administration doesn't know the meaning of the word reality.