Where is our War Czar?

Just an question. Is he doing anything? Anybody seen or heard from him recently?

He was still trying to push "transitioning to Iraqi control" in January of 2008:

Hey, look! It's the War Czar!

I wondered where he had gone. So he's popped up to say that staying in Iraq in permanent bases is sorta ok and the process will skip Senate ratification because it's not a treaty:

Spencer Ackerman of TPMmuckraker:

Could Congress stop a Bush administration-brokered deal to garrison U.S. troops in Iraq indefinitely? Not according to General Douglas Lute, the so-called "war czar." Here's Lute at today's gaggle:

Q General, will the White House seek any congressional input on this?

GENERAL LUTE: In the course of negotiations like this, it's not -- it is typical that there will be a dialogue between congressional leaders at the negotiating table, which will be run out of the Department of State. We don't anticipate now that these negotiations will lead to the status of a formal treaty which would then bring us to formal negotiations or formal inputs from the Congress.

Q Is the purpose of avoiding the treaty avoiding congressional input?

GENERAL LUTE: No, as I said, we have about a hundred agreements similar to the one envisioned for the U.S. and Iraq already in place, and the vast majority of those are below the level of a treaty.

Lute said the White House intends to conclude negotiations on an enduring security guarantee with the Maliki government in July. Permanent military bases and residual troop levels will be specified in the final accord, he said.

Interesting how Georgie is really trying to sink our feet into cement shoes in Iraq. Kinda like making sure the inevitable mess and retreat will be blamed on someone years down the line...

Hey!! There he is!

The War Czar! I wondered where he'd been hiding!:

In an interview with NPR, the White House’s “war czar” Gen. Doug Lute said that “it makes sense to certainly consider” a military draft. “I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table, but ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation’s security by one means or another.”

Well... I bet that's going over well with your superiors, War Czar guy!

Update 8/11:

Has he gone into hiding?

Has anyone noticed what has happened to our shiny new War Czar?

Attaturk predicts the future

Concerning the Deciderer and his War Czar....

Now:

* Bush appoints "War Czar", says we must give the Iraq plan time into the end of the year because his "War Czar" has just come on the job.

December 2007:

* Bush appoints "War Pope", the spiritual adviser to the "War Czar" who has been brought on board to instill withing the office of the "War Czar" the fighting spirit observed in the most loyal of Bush enabling bloggers. Bush makes recess appointment of FoxNews' John Gibson. Bush says we need to give this new arrangement time to work, at least until the Spring of 2008.

You need to go read the rest.... it's right on the money!

Really well thought out there, Newt

You've been sanctified by Dobson so that while you were blasting Clinton for screwing around your own screwing around will no longer count; you talked on the open airwaves about how you'd bomb Iran for the British hostages to show how big we are and how little Iran is (project much?). Now we find out that the idiotic idea of a 'War Czar' is yours:

A few weeks ago, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich sent a memo to the White House advocating the creation of a high-powered “czar” to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as part of an 18-point plan. At least five retired generals have turned down the job.

Any other great ideas that you want to share with us now so we can make doubly sure we will never ever vote you in as president?



Like... are you in the market for your fourth wife?

Georgie looks for someone .... anyone...

Ready to be willing to take the blame. But you'd get a really cool title! WAR CZAR!!! oOoooooo!

Steve at Crooks and Liars:

Increasingly anxious to appear competent and in control, the Bush gang is reportedly looking for a “war czar” who would oversee the United States’ role in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are, of course, a few problems with this, not the least of which is the fact that no one actually wants the job.

[snip]

Except he really isn’t. Even if Bush could find someone for this very bizarre job, what, exactly, would the person do? As Kevin Drum explained, “We already have Secretaries of State and Defense, we already have a military chain of command, and we already have an NSC that’s supposed to coordinate all this stuff. Does anyone truly think that a shiny new White House staffer with no budgetary authority, no bureaucratic support, and little in the way of institutional levers of control is going to be able to magically get everyone on the same page sometime in the next few months? It’s a suicide mission.”

Georgie is demanding to know why no one is lining up for this clearly suicidal mission:

Kurt Campbell, a Clinton administration Pentagon official who heads the Center for a New American Security, said the difficulty in finding someone to take the job shows that Bush has exhausted his ability to sign up top people to help salvage a disastrous war. "Who's sitting on the bench?" he asked. "Who is there to turn to? And who would want to take the job?"

Update: Maybe if he let the War Czar pick his own super duper cool uniform.....