Well, now. It appears things are getting a bit strained around the White House. Kind of makes you wonder when the string is going to snap.
The dirge of the purge
It’s been a fairly eventful afternoon for the purge scandal; let’s consider the latest news. * Bush is scheduled to address the controversy at 5:45pm (eastern). CNN reports, however, that we shouldn’t expect too much in the way of actual news: “What is expected from the president is that he will say that Attorney General Gonzales [...]
Tags: U.s. Attorneys, Alberto Gonzales, George W. Bush
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So, the White House says Rove and Miers can talk. But… you guessed it – not under oath. Can you ask, "Have something to hide?" Or maybe, "go over like a lead balloon."
Rove, Miers to be ‘interviewed’?
The Bush gang has been mulling over whether to let Karl Rove and Harriet Miers talk to lawmakers about the prosecutor purge scandal. This afternoon, the White House announced its response. The White House will allow the president’s top political adviser, Karl Rove, and former White House counsel Harriet Miers to be interviewed by congressional committees [...]
UPDATE: Fast react from Congress. That offer just ain’t gonna fly.
Behind Closed Doors?
The White House says that they will let Harriet Myers and Karl Rove testify, but unsworn with no transcript and behind closed doors. Screw that. Schumer is on TV saying that they will move forward with subpoenas on Thursday because this isn’t what Leahy outlined on Sunday. Enough with this government by super-secret probation. Let’s hope [...]
UPDATE 2: Great (and short) comment from Joshua Micah Marshall –
Gotta love this….
Tags: Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, U.S. Attorneys
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It’s getting good. Already! Pick your sides and place your bets.
Clinton v. Obama: Lets get ready to rumble
Cross posted fromTKB Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to full contact politics. In this corner, we have Hillary “I’m not sorry for my vote” Clinton. Clinton (N.Y.) voted for the October 2002 resolution authorizing the Iraq war and refuses to say she is sorry for that vote. She is the wife of Bubba and now wants a [...]
Tags: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama
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Don’t miss this one. It’ll probably be buried in the avalanche of 3,000 pages of U.S. Attorneys’ documents. But, it should be a big deal!
Public Financing Bill Hits Senate
Big news today – a bill to provide public financing for Congressional elections was introduced by Dick Durbin and Arlen Specter. Here’s how it works – if you get a certain number of people to give you $5, then money is unlocked for a campaign based on your district, the media market, and/or population size for various states. If you face a wealthy opponent who self-funds [...]
Tags: Public Financing, Congressional Elections
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George W. Bush made it obvious this morning that he’s standing behind his man, Alberto Ganzales. We’ve been digging around the Conservative bloggers today, and came up with one who is willing to go out on that limb with the President. The media and some politicians are just mean, nasty, people – don’t you know!
No Evidence Needed to Convict?
The Democrats, the media, and some Republicans have appeared ready to convict AG Gonzales for some time now. But, sadly, these people so quick to declare guilt are doing so without any evidence to support it, as Tony Snow explained [...]
Tags: Alberto Gonzales, U.S. Attorneys, Tony Snow
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Looks like the American people are tired of seeing the Congress they elected not get a whole lot accomplished. So, it’s time to replace talk with action.
Poll: Approval Rating Of Dem-Controlled Congress Sinks To 28%
This isn’t good. A new poll finds that the approval rating of the Dem-controlled Congress is on the skids among not just Republicans, but Democrats, too — and the pollster speculates that the Dems failure to "do anything substantive" on Iraq could be the reason why. The new Gallup poll finds that Congress’ approval rating is [...]
Tags: Congress Approval Rating, Gallup Poll
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Finally. Congress appears to be living up to promises. Looks like it’s not going to let anything like the U.S. Attorney purge be repeated. The interesting thing is that this passed the Senate first! Should be easy going in the House.
It’s a Start
Here’s a pleasant surprise — today the Senate voted 94-2 to repeal that part of the Patriot Act that allows the Attorney General to appoint “interim” U.S. attorneys who can serve without confirmation. My next question is, who were the two? I’m guessing one was Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) who had tried to attach an amendment [...]
Tags: U.S. Attorneys, Patriot Act
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Short of saying "they made it all up", you have to admit that there was some serious truth-twisting going on in the DOJ when push came to shove in the U.S. Attorneys purge.
Docs Show DoJ Brainstorm on Firing Justifications
Among the documents last night are some showing that the "performance related" reasons for firing eight prosecutors were the result of an ongoing collobaration at Justice. In other words, the officials appear to have brainstormed on the reasons they had [...]
Tags: DOJ, Department of Justice, U.S. attorneys
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It comes with an obvious question- Wouldn’t all "you know what" have broken out if Olbermann or another left-leaning broadcaster had said this? But, when El Rusho opens his mouth, nobody screams.
A Babe?
Speaking of Quotes, here’s one we meant to post yesterday – Courtesy of George W. Bush
Quotes of the Day
UPDATE: Let’s go for three! Just stumbled on ANOTHER one I’d slid aside from the weekend!
Bonus Quote of the Day
Tags: Rush Limbaugh, Keith Olbermann, Valerie Plame
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It comes with an obvious question- Wouldn’t all "you know what" have broken out if Olbermann or another left-leaning broadcaster had said this? But, when El Rusho opens his mouth, nobody screams.
A Babe?
Tags: Rush Limbaugh, Keith Olbermann, Valerie Plame
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You’ve certainly read by now that the DOJ dumped thousands of pages of documents on Congress last night, most of it dealing the the Alberto Gonzales/Attorney Purge situation. via FireDogLake, follow the links as bloggers sift through things and begin to put the pieces of evidence together. This is fascinating community journalism – in action.
From the Overnight DoJ Document Dump
While most of you were sleeping, a band of fearless, overly caffeinated patriots were pawing through the latest 3000 pages of internal documents from the Department of Justice. Clever Josh Marshall and Paul Kiel enlisted the aid of their readers in going over the copious amounts of material in this latest document dump: Thousands of Pages [...]
Tags: Alberto Gonzales, Attorney Purge, Document Dump, Department of Justice
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It’s happening. Here. And now. I’m betting Al Gore includes this fact when he unloads on Congress this week.
Global Warming Bad for Grain Crops — Right Now
Will global warming ultimately effect how much corn, wheat and rice we grow? Sorry, that’s the wrong question. The right question is: Has global warming already had a negative impact on production of grain crops? The answer is — Yes, yes it has: Global warming over the past quarter century has led to a fall in the yield of some of the most important food crops in the world, according to one of the first scientific studies of how climate change has affected cereal crops. Rising temperatures between 1981 and [...]
Indeed, the evidence continues to build.
Ex-Bush Official: I Fixed The Facts Around The Policy
Philip Cooney is the former chief of staff to President Bush’s Council on Environmental Quality who made hundreds of edits to government climate reports in ways that played down links between human activity and global warming. He worked for the American Petroleum Institute before coming to the Bush administration, and left the White House for [...]
Tags: Global Warming, Grain Crops
Tags: Philip Cooney, Council on Environmental Quality
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The Bush-Gonzales relationship must run deeper that I realized. Sure, they go back to the glory days in Texas. Sure, Gonzales was hand-picked by George W. Still, it’s a bit hard to understand the rock-solid support the President seems to be throwing Alberto’s direction. A bit hard to understand UNTIL you let the folks at the Carpetbagger Report come up with the key.
What if Bush keeps Gonzales?
Obviously, the writing is on the Attorney General’s wall. Tony Snow would only say yesterday that White House officials “hope” Gonzales stays on. There are multiple reports this morning that the search is already on for a new AG, and a list of possible replacements is already being floated, presumably as a trial balloon. But here’s [...]
Tags: Alberto Gonzales, Tony Snow, U.S. Attorneys, Bud Cummins
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One simple question. Why? Why would he make this call?
Bush still hearts Alberto, for now. But he loves Karl more.
The White House is making a big deal about a phone call Bush made to Gonzales this morning. Whatever. In the battle for their President’s affection, Alberto loses. Bush still loves (and needs) Karl more. Ed Henry just explained the situation quite succinctly on CNN: "The White House is going to protect [...]
It’s all part of the bigger picture. And that picture now has some three-thousand pages of documentation to go along with it.
Today’s Must Read
OK, reporters from the major papers, like TPM readers, spent a bleary-eyed night scanning the emails released last night. Let’s look at the highlights. The Washington Post reports that Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. Attorney for Chicago, got a middling rating [...]
Tags: alberto Gonzales, George W. Bush, Ed Henry, Karl Rove
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Well, now. It appears things are getting a bit strained around the White House. Kind of makes you wonder when the string is going to snap.
The dirge of the purge
It’s been a fairly eventful afternoon for the purge scandal; let’s consider the latest news. * Bush is scheduled to address the controversy at 5:45pm (eastern). CNN reports, however, that we shouldn’t expect too much in the way of actual news: “What is expected from the president is that he will say that Attorney General Gonzales [...]
Tags: U.s. Attorneys, Alberto Gonzales, George W. Bush
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So, the White House says Rove and Miers can talk. But… you guessed it – not under oath. Can you ask, "Have something to hide?" Or maybe, "go over like a lead balloon."
Rove, Miers to be ‘interviewed’?
The Bush gang has been mulling over whether to let Karl Rove and Harriet Miers talk to lawmakers about the prosecutor purge scandal. This afternoon, the White House announced its response. The White House will allow the president’s top political adviser, Karl Rove, and former White House counsel Harriet Miers to be interviewed by congressional committees [...]
UPDATE: Fast react from Congress. That offer just ain’t gonna fly.
Behind Closed Doors?
The White House says that they will let Harriet Myers and Karl Rove testify, but unsworn with no transcript and behind closed doors. Screw that. Schumer is on TV saying that they will move forward with subpoenas on Thursday because this isn’t what Leahy outlined on Sunday. Enough with this government by super-secret probation. Let’s hope [...]
UPDATE 2: Great (and short) comment from Joshua Micah Marshall –
Gotta love this….
Tags: Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, U.S. Attorneys
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Categories: Uncategorized
