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One of President Bush's closest advisers has a brutally candid analysis of the Republican nomination battle: Fred Thompson is the campaign's "biggest dud," Mitt Romney has "a real problem in the South" because people will not vote for a Mormon, Mike Huckabee's last name is too hick and John McCain could end up repeating 2000 by winning New Hampshire but losing the nomination... ...Bartlett was harshest in his judgment of Thompson, the former Tennessee senator who jumped into the contest a month ago and faces his first televised debate today.

The president's political guru—and counselor Dan Bartlett—have been subpoenaed by Scooter Libby's lawyers. What it means for the most-watched trial in Washington—and who's next on the witness stand. - White House anxiety is mounting over the prospect that top officials—including deputy chief of staff Karl Rove and counselor Dan Bartlett-may be forced to provide potentially awkward testimony in the perjury and obstruction trial of Lewis (Scooter) Libby. Both Rove and Bartlett have already received trial subpoenas from Libby’s defense lawyers, according to lawyers close to the case who asked not to be identified talking about sensitive matters. While that is...

Preview and analysis for Weekend Talk Shows, 9-30 and 10-1-06 It's week four (or 297, depending on how you figure it) of the WOB (war on Bush) and all things "Republi-fascist," as the drive by media might style what they're doing.  We've had a week of spin like we haven't seen since... well, since Clinton was in office.  All the old hateful and hate filled faces were back on the screaming head shows pulling their electrically powered rapid fire mouths back out of storage and plugging them in for one more go around of lies, screaming lies and videotape.  And...

I'm trying yet another format change this week.  I have left the background links on the entry for each guest for each show, like last week, but I've broken the Sunday shows out into separate posts to try to make each one more easy to read and discuss.  The Saturday shows will still be posted as one message, then I'll do the ping.  Please me know if this works.And I've put my (expanded) witty commentary here instead of in the ping...The most interesting guest this week should be Secretary Rice, who is on Fox, CBS and ABC, but she probably...

by Mark Finkelstein June 21, 2006 In a chock-filled first half-hour of Today, the family of one the soldiers murdered in Iraq shared their grief and pride, Andrea Mitchell got it all wrong about conservative discontent, and White House spokesman Dan Bartlett declined to rise to Matt Lauer's bait. Although the appropriateness of publicizing the grief of bereaved families is often debated, their dignity is a frequent source of inspiration. Here, the father of PFC Thomas Tucker of Oregon, reportedly tortured and murdered by the new al-Qaeda leader in Iraq in retaliation for the killing of Zarqawi, made this impressive...

by Mark Finkelstein February 22, 2006 When it comes to the controversy surrounding the UAE port operations deal, left is right, right is left and the MSM seems caught somewhere in the middle, trying to balance its cultural instincts against its political interest. Last night's Scarborough Country thus treated us to the odd spectacle of Barbara Boxer doing her best Tom Tancredo impersonation, opposing the deal because "two of the 9/11 hijackers came from the UAE." Then, on this morning's Early Show, Dan Bartlett sounded more like a multi-cultural sensitivity trainer than the presidential counselor he is when he declared:...

The Talk Shows Sunday, January 29nd, 2006 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.; Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind.; Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean; former Commerce Secretary Don Evans. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. FACE THE NATION (CBS): President Bush. THIS WEEK (ABC): Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.; Dominique Dawes, Olympic gymnast. LATE EDITION (CNN) : White House counselor Dan Bartlett; Sens. Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Pat Roberts, R-Kan.; former President Carter; former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

OSAMA bin Laden, even in hiding, may still be able to mastermind a major terrorist attack inside the United States, a senior aide to US President George W. Bush said. Asked whether the al-Qaeda chief could engineer such a strike, Bush adviser Dan Bartlett told CBS television: "We have to assume that he can. We have to be very vigilant in what we do to protect our country." His remarks came as the Bush administration waged an aggressive campaign to defend a controversial program by the National Security Agency (NSA) to intercept US citizens' international telephone calls and electronic mail....

Embattled television news network CBS is again at the center of controversy after snubbing a White House request to allow a Republican to appear with one of President George W. Bush's greatest adversaries, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), on "Face the Nation" on Sunday. Kennedy was allowed to fire away at Bush on Social Security and Iraq without any rebuttal during his appearance on the Sunday morning talk show. Maintaining that Bush and the Republicans are making up a crisis with Social Security in order "to make a crisis on any political problem," Kennedy said there is not a funding issue...

WASHINGTON - U.S. commandos are hunting for secret nuclear and chemical weapons sites and other targets in Iran, and have a plan to turn the hard-line Islamic country into the next front in the war on terrorism. "It's not if we're going to do anything against Iran. They're doing it," an ex-intelligence official tells this week's issue of The New Yorker. Since at least last summer, the U.S. teams have penetrated eastern Iran, reportedly with Pakistan's help, the magazine said. "Iraq is just one campaign," the official told investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. "The Bush administration is looking at this as...

The Bush administration has been carrying out secret reconnaissance missions to learn about nuclear, chemical and missile sites in Iran in preparation for possible airstrikes there, journalist Seymour Hersh said Sunday. The effort has been under way at least since last summer, Hersh said on CNN's "Late Edition." In an interview on the same program, White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett said the story was "riddled with inaccuracies." "I don't believe that some of the conclusions he's drawing are based on fact," Bartlett said. He said his information on Iran came from "inside" sources who divulged it in the hope...

Let the fence-mending begin. According to a Broadcasting & Cable source in Washington, D.C., CBS News president Andrew Heyward, along with Washington bureau chief Janet Leissner, recently met with White House communications director Dan Bartlett, in part to repair chilly relations with the Bush administration.CBS News’ popularity at the White House—never high to begin with—plunged further in the wake of Dan Rather’s discredited 60 Minutes story on George Bush’s National Guard service.An incentive for making nice is the impending report from the two-member panel investigating CBS's use of now-infamous documents for the 60 Minutes piece.Heyward was “working overtime to convince Bartlett that neither...

Watching O'Reilly last night while getting ready for bed. I kept it on because he said Newt was going to give a prediction and I like hearing what Newt says. Anyway, BO spoke with Dan Bartlett, White House communications advisor. My take - either Bartlett is the greatest actor in the history of the nine known galaxies or the internal polling on the Presidents team show a victory. This man was calm, cool, confident, relaxed, collected, smooth. He spoke like he knew it was in the bag. Anywone else see this and if so, did you get that impression. Newt...