IRAQ — CARD REJECTS ROVE’S CLAIM THAT CONGRESS PUSHED BUSH TO WAR: ‘HIS MOUTH GETS AHEAD OF HIS BRAIN’: Former White House adviser Karl Rove recently asserted that “[t]he administration was opposed” to voting for a war resolution in the fall of 2002. “It seemed to make things move too fast,” he argued. As ThinkProgress documented, key leaders in both the House and the Senate — including then-Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) — were asking Bush in 2002 to delay the war vote. But as Daschle recalled, when he asked Bush to delay the vote, Bush “looked at Cheney and he looked at me, and there was a half-smile on his face. And he said: ‘We just have to do this now.’” This morning, the White House chief of staff at the time, Andrew Card, appeared on MSNBC and completely discredited Rove’s argument. “Karl Rove went on Charlie Rose and he blamed the Democrats for pushing him and the president into war. Is that how it worked?” asked host Joe Scarborough. “No, that’s not the way it worked,” replied Card. “Sometimes his mouth gets ahead of his brain.”

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ETHICS — NOVAK ATTACKS BUFFET AS A ‘HYPOCRITE’ WITH ‘PHONY MESSAGE’:  Last week, billionaire investor Warren Buffett urged Congress “to maintain the estate tax, saying that plans to repeal the tax would benefit a handful of the richest American families and widen income disparity in the United States.” Fewer than one percent of the nation’s super-rich pay the estate tax. “For this year, individual estates valued at more than $2 million are taxed at a top rate of 45 percent.” In the last 20 years, tax laws have allowed the “superrich” to become richer, according to Buffet. Buffet — who pays the estate tax — argued, “A progressive and meaningful estate tax is needed to curb the movement of a democracy toward plutocracy.” This weekend on Bloomberg Television, right-wing pundit Bob Novak fumed over Buffett’s altruistic testimony, attacking him as a hypocrite who “should be ashamed of himself for putting out that phony message.” Bloomberg’s Al Hunt responded, “Bob, there’s only two differences between you and Warren Buffett: $40 billion and a conscience.”

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South Carolina House Speaker Bobby Harrell sent me and all the other registered voters in South Carolina a big color post card last week. I’m not sure what it cost but it was glossy and full color and I’m sure it was expensive. Anyway, Speaker Harrell was taking credit for engineering the biggest tax cut in South Carolina’s history. The postcard and recent TV public service announcements featuring Speaker Harrell would seem to be the opening salvo in his potential gubanatorial bid. The cover of his missive highlighted the repeal of the state grocery tax but that was small potatoes compared to the $86 million reduction in personal income taxes. While I am in accord with the move to eliminate the lowest tax bracket on personal income, providing relief to low-income families the worrisome part of the legislature’s tax relief fixation is that it hinders our state’s ability to fund infrastructure improvements and increase the amount of money provided to public schools. A more detailed look at our current situation was provided recently by my friend Andy Brack in his weekly State House Report column. You can read this for yourself by clicking on http://www.statehousereport.com/columns/07.1021.money.htm.

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