December 13, 2007

Cheney’s Holiday Party: The CIA Chief’s View

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The WP reports:

After being grilled by the Senate intelligence committee for more than an hour Tuesday, CIA Director Michael Hayden went to Vice President Cheney’s annual holiday party, where he endured more interrogation for a full 20 minutes from the Fourth Estate.

Ensnared in a scandal over the destruction of waterboarding videotapes, Hayden fielded questions — off the record — from eggnog-lubed reporters. He withstood the friendly Q and A with smiles and a relaxed air (aided by a nice, cold beer) until he spotted someone who could stop the torture: Cheney chief of staff David Addington. “David, save me!” Hayden jokingly shouted.

Addington obliged and physically pulled the Air Force general from the scrum of reporters. (Hayden received no assists from three Iraq war architects who also attended the party: former deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, former defense undersecretary Doug Feith and their boss, former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld.) CIA chief spokesman Mark Mansfield told On the Hill that it was all in good fun. “He was just kidding around,” Mansfield said. Hayden, who took his wife, Jeanine, to the vice president’s party, was in “good spirits” all day, Mansfield said.

Hayden used Addington’s helping hand to break away from the Fourth Estate interrogators because, Mansfield said, he “was out of Schlitz.”

That sounds about right.

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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