Fox News Invites Convicted Cover-Up Expert Oliver North To Comment On Alleged Benghazi Cover-Up

By Igor Volsky/Think Progress

On Wednesday, in a moment of rich irony, Fox News invited Oliver North, a military official who was convicted of covering up the government’s role in the Iran-Contra scandal, to discuss the Obama administration’s alleged cover-up of the Sep. 11, 2012 attacks on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi. North joined host Megyn Kelly to analyze the House Oversight Committee’s hearing featuring three witnesses who claim that the government could have done more on the night of the attack to save American lives.

During the segment, North explained that the administration “falsified talking points provided to people who were going to speak publicly about it” in the days following the incident and manipulated the Accountability Review Board report, which came out months later, to escape political blame.

North specifically singled out Ambassador Thomas Pickering and Admiral Mike Mullen, who headed the review, and accused them of lacking “integrity.” Watch it:

In 1987, while testifying before a joint Congressional committee, North admitted that he lied to Congress about his role in the Iran-Contra scandal — in which officials secretly sold arms to Iran to fund a resistance movement to the government in Nicaragua — and shred documents to cover-up the government’s actions. North was indicted on 16 counts and convicted of three: accepting an illegal gratuity, aiding and abetting in the obstruction of a congressional inquiry, and ordering the destruction of documents.

Throughout Wednesday’s hearing, Republicans sought to portray the lack of military response during the Benghazi attack as evidence of the administration’s negligence in protecting diplomats overseas and a resulting cover-up to avoid scrutiny. But they produced no evidence of a conspiracy and the military has repeatedly said that there were simply no air assets close enough to Benghazi that would have arrived in time to make a difference.

Republican Sponsor Of Bill To Require Drug Testing For Georgia Welfare Recipients Arrested For DUI

By Judd Legum/Think Progress

A Georgia Republican who wants all welfare reciepients subject to drug tests failed one himself after he ran a red light on Friday morning. The Atlanta Journal Constiution has the story on State Rep. Kip Smith (R):

Smith, whose given name is John Andrew Smith, first told the officer he had not consumed any alcoholic beverages.

“I asked him again, and he stated he had consumed a single beer at Hal’s. I noticed also that Mr. Smith’s eyes were watery, and I asked him to exit the vehicle, which he did,” Kramer said in the report.

Smith told the officer he’d had the beer 45 minutes earlier, and the officer asked him to blow into a hand-held “intoximeter”. The officer said the lawmaker refused, stating he would prefer to go to a clinic or the hospital to get tested.

The officer said Smith finally agreed to blow into the device. The report stated that Smith blew a .091., which is above the legal limit of .08.

Smith is a sponsor of Georgia House Bill 464, which would “require random drug testing” for citizens on public assistance. In response to Smith’s legislation, State Rep. Scott Holcomb introduced a bill last month that would require all state lawmakers to be subject to random drug testing.

Random drug tests for recipients of public assistance are very likely to be found unconsitutional.

The Donald: Gays marriage bad, gays in N.Y.C. 'great,' Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/49527.html#ixzz1E5HjNXFe

By JUANA SUMMERS

Donald Trump may have some New Yorkers doing a double-take, after he expressed his opposition to same-sex marriage while also saying he digs the city's robust gay population.

"New York is a place with lots of gays, and I think it's great. But I'm not in favor of gay marriage," Trump said in an interview that aired late MondayAsked about his positions on social issues by Greta Van Susteren, Trump said he doesn't support abortion rights or gay marriage, insisting he's in favor of "almost all conservative principles."

Trump entered into the gay marriage fray in 2009, when he defended Carrie Prejean's stated opposition to gay marriage. Trump, who owns the Miss USA pageant, defended Prejean for speaking out, comparing her views on gay marriage to President Barack Obama's.

The real estate mogul, who's mulling a presidential bid, spoke at CPAC last week after being invited by GOProud, the Republican pro-gay rights group.

GOProud organizers pushed a write-in campaign to boost Trump in the conservative conference's straw poll. That effort ultimately failed, but Trump's rousing, populist speech turned heads, and he's been eating up media oxygen ever since. With interviews that aired on CNN, Fox News and a TV station in New Hampshire, Trump was all over the place on Monday.

During his Fox News interview, Trump aimed to position himself as a strong conservative choice in the Republican field, saying he was as conservative as any guest Van Susteren has had. Sizing up his potential competitors for the GOP nomination, he didn't seem impressed.

"I know many of them and they're nice people," he said. "But, can they do the job? Perhaps not."

Matt Latimer Book: Bush Knocked Other Pols While President

The Huffington Post | Rachel Weiner

President Bush mocked other prominent politicians behind their backs while in office, according to a new book by former speechwriter Matt Latimer.

Last month, the Washington Post reported that ex-Bushies were feeling a "growing nervousness" over what might be in their old colleague's tome. The October issue of GQ includes some eye-opening excerpts from the book.

Of Obama, Latimer writes that Bush came in to rehearse a speech fuming. The New York Daily News reported:

This is a dangerous world," he said for no apparent reason, "and this cat isn't remotely qualified to handle it. This guy has no clue, I promise you."

Bush thought Hillary would be the Democratic nominee. "'Wait till her fat keister is sitting at this desk,' he once said (except he didn't say 'keister')," Latimer wrote.

But Bush was perhaps most critical of vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin:

"I'm trying to remember if I've met her before. I'm sure I must have." His eyes twinkled, then he asked, "What is she, the governor of Guam?" [...]

"This woman is being put into a position she is not even remotely prepared for," he said. "She hasn't spent one day on the national level. Neither has her family. Let's wait and see how she looks five days out." It was a rare dose of reality in a White House that liked to believe every decision was great, every Republican was a genius, and McCain was the hope of the world because, well, because he chose to be a member of our party.

A former aide to Palin and Bush disputed the account, saying the two were close.

"There is no air, no space between them," he told CNN. "Sarah Palin is a big fan of George Bush, and she has said publicly she was proud he was Commander-in-Chief when her son Track was in Iraq."

Latimer also writes that at one point, Bush appeared not to understand his own administration's proposal to deal with the economic crisis.

One of the president's staff members anxiously pulled a few of us aside. "The president is misunderstanding this proposal," he warned. "He has the wrong idea in his head. ... It wasn't that the president didn't understand what his administration wanted to do. It was that the treasury secretary didn't seem to know, changed his mind, had misled the president, or some combination of the three.