Integrity Counts

I spent the last several minutes thinking about what to write this morning. There are a lot of topics out there. The Simpsons 400th episode trashes Fox News. (I might save that one for later). Jimmy Carter had a lot to say about George Bush and Tony Blair, none of it good. Voter suppression mastermind Mark "Thor" Hearne, a name known here in Missouri, has been featured in Slate and not in a good way.

All those stories are pretty obvious. I mean that Fox News doesn't do news, isn't news. Anybody who cares to look realizes it is Republican infotainment intended to keep the white masses content in their self-loathing and justified in their racial bigotry. Jimmy Carter has been assailed for his comments about Blair and Bush, but darned if I can see why. He simply told the truth. Mark Hearne, Brad Schlozman, Hans von Spakovsky are simply bit players carrying out Karl Rove's version of Nixon's old Southern strategy. Stop the blacks from voting and white Republicans win.

Then I saw a story of hope. David Iglesias is building a new life. I thought about it for a minute. Do you know who the winners are in the US Attorney scandal? The winners are the fired attorneys. Their lives have all been carefully examined by the media, and they have all been certified to be professional lawyers striving to achieve the highest ethical standards. Long after the many US Attorneys who knuckled under to Karl Rove are forgotten in their suburban practices the Gonzales 8 will be held up as models of how US Attorneys should act. Long after Kyle Sampson and Monica Goodling are utterly forgotten, their careers in tatters, people like Carol Lam, Bud Cummins and John McKay will be building their futures and fully living their lives. Hell, who knows, one of those fired US Attorneys might run for senator, maybe in New Mexico.

James Comey has emerged as a hero in the Department of Justice scandal because he stood for what was right. So have all the people who stood with him. Even John Ashcroft, who doesn't even mention the episode in his book, looks better, so much better that Blue Girl had to remind us of just who we are talking about. I know who John Ashcroft is and what he has done, but darn if the image of him saying "NO" Alberto Gonzales and Andy Card hasn't forced me to give him a higher mark.

Today I choose to remember that integrity counts. People who display courage in the face of adversity are often rewarded. Good guys can finish first.

There's more: "Integrity Counts" >>

Orrin Hatch Slips A Cog

We call this blog Watching Those We Chose. Well some of you chose Orrin Hatch. I guess he is worth watching too.

Last Sunday Senator Hatch appeared on Meet the Press and made the following comment about Carol Lam.

Take Carol Lam, for instance. Carol Lam was raised on your program, Tim, by Schumer. Carol Lam, it’s amazing to me she wasn’t fired earlier because for three years members of the Congress had complained that there had been all kinds of border patrol capture of these people but hardly any prosecutions. She was a former law professor, no prosecutorial experience, and the former campaign manager in Southern California for Clinton, and they’re trying to say that this administration appoints people politically? Of course they do. That’s what these positions are.

Strong words. Small problem--Carol Lam was never a law professor. Second small problem--Carol Lam worked for 18 years as an assistant US Attorney in California before being appointed by George Bush. Third small problem, she was never a campaign manager for anybody let alone Bill Clinton. In short he made her background up out of whole cloth. Jesus, she was one of the people he shepherded through the confirmation process. Rachel Maddow called him on his little reality based problem.

Here is how the Senator replied.

In short he said "my statement was accurate, but my facts were wrong." Or "I told the truth except for when I was lying."

I have to ask those who are watching our representatives from Utah, what are you guys smoking out there? I thought Mormons like Hatch didn't do anything stronger than Coca-Cola. This guy is obviously doing something heavier. I guess he has been Republican Senator so long he thinks he can just make stuff up and nobody will notice.

In fairness he claims to have confused Carol Lam with her predecessor Alan Bersin. They look so much alike.
Alan Bersin Carol Lam

There's more: "Orrin Hatch Slips A Cog" >>

There Is Politics And Then There Is A Cover-Up Of Public Corruption

Reuters reports that during a hearing yesterday FBI Director Robert Mueller confirmed that Dan Dzwilewski, the FBI Agent in charge in the San Diego political corruption investigations was told to keep his comments to himself by FBI Headquarters after he told reporters that he thought fired US Attorney Carol Lam was crucial to ongoing investigations of political corruption and that politics was involved in her firing. Mueller testified that "I do not believe it's appropriate for our special agents in charge to comment to the media on personnel decisions that are made by the Department of Justice."

"I profoundly disagree," replied Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, who told the panel of the warning to the agent. "He (the agent) was simply saying that it would affect cases that were ongoing. And I think he's entitled to his opinion."

Folks, there is politics and then there is obstruction of justice. If it turns out that Lam was fired to stop or limit her broad ranging political corruption investigation, one that has already caught the most corrupt congressman in history, the number 3 at the CIA and several defense contractors, threatens at least two more Republican congressmen, and has recently moved into Vice-President's office, her firing is more than politics--it is obstruction and that is a criminal offense. As I have written before unless you are willing to say the President is above the law, he can fire a US Attorney for no reason, but he can't fire her for a criminal reason.

The proof will be in what happens now. If the Department of Justice quietly closes lines of inquiry and little more comes of the investigation, we will know that the real reason for Lam's firing was to protect the sorry asses of some corrupt Congressmen and maybe some additional administration officials. If the case picks up steam and the San Diego office pursues the evidence aggressively, then we might conclude that Lam was not fired for improper reasons. We will be Watching Those We Chose.

There's more: "There Is Politics And Then There Is A Cover-Up Of Public Corruption" >>

Curious Phrasing

The Kansas City Star (a McClatchy newspaper) is reporting this morning that "Lam notified the Justice Department on May 10, 2006, that she planned to serve search warrants on Kyle Dustin "Dusty" Foggo, who'd resigned two days earlier as the No. 3 official at the CIA."

As you might recall, on May 11, 2006, Kyle Sampson, then Gonzales' chief of staff, sent an e-mail to deputy White House counsel William Kelley, asking Kelley to call to discuss "the real problem we have right now with Carol Lam that leads me to conclude that we should have someone ready to be nominated on 11/18, the day her 4-year term expires." Curious phrasing.

I wonder if Mr. Sampson would be willing to talk under oath about why Justice and the White House had a problem with Ms Lam and not with her high profile Republican targets--Dusty Foggo or Rep. Lewis. It is pretty obvious that Sampson's solution to the Lam problem was to fire Lam.

There's more: "Curious Phrasing" >>

Why The Need to Take Out A Crowd?

Why would Harriet Miers recommend taking down all the incumbent USAs. That would have been unprecedented in the middle of a term. Why did they then draw up lists of USAs to hit? Normally those matters would have been handled one person at a time. Instead they decided to bring several of them down in a group. There is only one reason for taking out a whole group at once. There is somebody you don't want to take out all by herself.

The more I read about this the more I am forced to the conclusion that this is one giant obstruction of justice case and it is focused like a laser on Carol Lam. Wilkes or Foggo was about to turn. She was getting close to taking out her second Congressman, Jerry Lewis. Duncan Hunter was not far away. From Duncan Hunter it probably isn't a big jump to somebody even bigger.

No this is the biggest scandal since Watergate. Probably the biggest since Teapot Dome. You can just smell it.

There's more: "Why The Need to Take Out A Crowd?" >>

First Subpoenas To Be Issued By 110 th Congress

The following is a press release from the Office of Congresswoman Linda T. Sánchez

Washington - Chairwoman Linda Sánchez today announced that the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law (CAL) will meet tomorrow to vote on issuing subpoenas for certain former U.S. Attorneys who were recently fired by the Bush Administration.

If approved by the subcommittee, the subpoenas - which would be the first issued by the 110th Congress - would require Carol Lam, David Iglesias, H.E. Cummins, III, and John McKay to appear before a CAL Subcommittee hearing next week.

"In order to get the full picture of why these U.S. Attorneys were fired, we need to hear from the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorneys themselves," said Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers. "We look forward to their testimony on this issue."

"I called this meeting because we pledged to do everything we can to get to the truth of what could be brazen abuse of power by the Bush Administration," said CAL Chairwoman Sánchez.

The hearing, which is scheduled for Tuesday, March 6, will consider a bill by Congressman Howard Berman that would reverse a new provision in the USA PATRIOT Act allowing the Attorney General to indefinitely appoint federal prosecutors through the end of the Bush Administration without Senate confirmation.

**The vote to issue subpoenas is scheduled for Thursday, March 1, at 4:00 pm in the Judiciary Committee Hearing Room (2141 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC).

It seems that every day there is a new development in this scandal. Now that Fitzmas is winding down, this might just take it's place. Thank you Karl. Thank you Alberto.

Alberto should never have said he would never fire a prosecutor for political reasons.

If you want to watch today's hearing live you can click this link to pick up a live webcast feed at 4:00 pm Eastern. Depending on what happens today I will probably be popping popcorn and dialing in.

UPDATE: The AP has done some additional reporting on this story. The Senate Judiciary Committee is sending letters to those fired before voting next week to compel their testimony. It is a race to the hearing chamber.

In response to the charge that David Iglesias was fired for not indicting some Democrats before last November's election as requested by two congressmembers to help Republicans in their election efforts Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said. "The suggestion that David Iglesias was asked to resign because he failed to bring an indictment ... is flatly false. This administration has never removed a United States attorney in an effort to retaliate against them or inappropriately interfere with a public integrity investigation."

The charge isn't that Iglesias didn't bring an indictment, it is he didn't bring an indictment when it could do Republicans the most good. Instead he elected to do his job, and wait for sufficient evidence to win convictions.

There's more: "First Subpoenas To Be Issued By 110 th Congress" >>