Congress continues to investigate the Justice Department¹s dismissal of at least nine U.S. attorneys, and related issues about the role politics may have played. If you have questions about this evolving story, send them to questions@mcclatchydc.com.
Next week McClatchy reporters Marisa Taylor and Margaret Talev, who have broken many of this saga's key stories, will supply answers when our newly designed Web site debuts.
I think I might submit a few questions of my own. What about you?
A couple of days ago, I used Dave Helling as a literary device. I have to give credit when credit is due. Dave and Micheal Mahoney did a great job pulling together all the threads of what The Blog Of Independence calls the Kansas City Voting Rights Massacre during a recent visit to KCUR's Up To Date with Steve Kraske. Give the June 7, 2007, podcast a listen.
A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a controversy raging between the folks at FiredUp! Missouri and a little newspaper in south Missouri. The little newspaper had announced it wasn't going to publish anonymous comments from people posting at FiredUp! Missouri. I have linked their response.
Today some guy calling himself "Scooter" Jackson writing for a tiny startup Republican blog made the following comment about me.
The liberal blogosphere cracks me up. Their absolute hatred for President Bush blinds them to their obvious duplicity- and for that matter stupidity. Anonymous blogger Corpus Juris weighs in on anonymous sources and former U.S. Attorney Brad Schlozman’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday.
FiredUp!Missouri and Blue Girl have both presented their takes on the merits of the critics' arguments. Here's mine.
Sometime around 1984 the world changed. Once upon a time, not too long ago when newspapers announced the "news," that is what people thought was the "news." If the newspaper didn't say it, it wasn't worth considering. Television news, including cable news, is simply print news with fewer voices. People like Dave Helling talk, and we listen. If News Corp doesn't say it, we shouldn't think it.
Recently, the right wing noise machine invented talk radio, another one way form of communication. People like Rush Limbaugh control the microphone. If you effectively disagree with Rush on his show, your thoughts are never aired. In Rush's world only "dittoheads" are honored. Since every approved "dittohead" thought was first announced by Rush, in reality, only Rush is honored. Talk radio is top down all the way.
The Internet changes all that. We get to talk back. We get to have our own ideas. We get to share those ideas, unfiltered, without an editor. If our ideas are good, they gain traction. If they are bad, they fall of their own weight. Honestly, a lot of what I read on the Internet is junk. I don't even agree with everything published by this blog. I deeply respect the courage it takes for average people to write and write often. I admire the originality of the people who blog here and who blog across the net. Their voices must be honored.
For obvious reasons the Internet is an economic threat to the traditional media. The Dave Hellings of the world like telling us what to think. They can sell advertising space and make lots of money telling us what is important and what isn't.
The same with the organ grinders of the right wing noise machine. If we start to question, we realize they are just pushing us around. They are trying to make us do things for them that are not in our best interests.
"Scooter" might ask, "what does all this have to do with insisting people use their "real names" when they blog?"
The answer is as simple as the idea of democracy. The use of pseudonyms encourages average people to speak freely. It encourages average people to share their ideas. Unlike professional journalists, like Dave Helling, or political activists, like "Scooter" Jackson, average people have real jobs. They have people for whom they are responsible. Many of them fear that the people in power, people like Dave Helling and "Scooter" Jackson, or more to the point their bosses, and their bosses bosses, might not approve if they express slightly different ideas not invented by the people in power. Dittoheads are rewarded. People like me, who think differently, are called duplicitous and stupid.
In the world of Karl Rove, Tom Delay and Alberto Gonzales can we truly say that someone expressing slightly different ideas might not find himself out of a job, his family shunned, or the victim of a ruined career. I am responsible for the welfare of any number of people, including family members, business associates, employees and clients. It would be irresponsible for me not to consider their well being and the potential impact that my non-dittohead blogging could have on their lives.
Of course, Dave Helling and "Scooter" Jackson want to compel bloggers to identify themselves. If they are successful many good and powerful voices will never blog again. That is just what people like Dave and "Scooter" want. They want to tell us what to think. They don't want us to think differently. They want to go back to the bad old days. They want to be our bosses. They want to be our brains. They don't want to have to think about our different ideas.
"Scooter" has said that I am blogging anonymously. While I wonder why I should consider the comments of anyone calling himself "Scooter," I can assure him that I am not anonymous. I am blogging under the pen name "Corpus Juris."
Someone is anonymous when you cannot know anything about him. In the article I posted earlier the "department official" is a complete unknown. We don't know if the person is a man or a woman. We don't know what job he holds. We don't know how to judge him by his previous writings or actions. He or she is truly anonymous.
If you want to know what I think on any subject about which I have written, all you have to do is google "Corpus Juris" and "Watching Those We Chose." You can then read everything I have ever written on this blog. You can read everything that has ever been written about me --"Corpus Juris". On the issues relevant to this blog, you will know more about me than most of my family. You can weigh the quality of my work and treat it accordingly. You can ask me questions, and I will answer. You can argue with me any time you want. All I ask is that you conduct yourself in a civil manner.
I refuse to go back to the world of 1984.
UPDATE: Blue Girl has commented on the subject again. She gives us a real history lesson.
Why is it reading any story touched by Steve Kraske involving the Missouri GOP like looking for clues on a treasure map? The other day he re-wrote Greg Gordon's excellent story with an eye to hiding Missouri GOP involvement and now he is co-author of a story with the normally outstanding Dave Helling requiring the reader to work hard to find gems sown in the story's lining.
For example a close reading of Dave Helling and Steve Kraske's Kansas City Star article confirms that Graves was fired. In one paragraph they indicate that Senator Kit Bond personally became involved with Graves’ tenure when Graves’ departure was imminent in early 2006.
“Senator Bond … upon (Graves’) request personally called the White House to gain Todd extra time to wrap up case work before his departure,” Marchio’s statement said.
This thread is picked up several paragraphs down when they write
A person in Bond’s office who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the discussions said the White House rejected Bond’s efforts on Graves’ behalf because of “performance” concerns. E-mails from the Justice Department and the White House have used similar language in discussing the other U.S. attorneys who were fired.
If Todd Graves voluntarily resigned why would he ask Bond to contact the White House to gain additional time to finish up his cases? It's pretty obvious that Graves was asked to leave. John Marshall is right. Graves was the 9th US Attorney fired. My question is why can't Helling and Graves report facts using simple declarative sentences?
Please note that there is another very important fact buried in these passages. Bond didn't contact Alberto Gonzales, he contacted the White House. If Bond wanted to help Graves gain a little more time to finish his work why didn't he go to Alberto Gonzales or one of his people?
Two theories have emerged about Todd Graves departure from his US Attorney job in Kansas City. The first is that he was pushed out because he and his wife were involved in a "fee office scandal." Helling does a fine job describing that scandal. I have always thought the fee office scandal was a phony because the "fee office" system, which is without doubt a lingering vestige of corrupt patronage politics, has been a prime tool used by generations of Missouri governors (both Republican and Democrat)to pay off supporters. Democrats bitching about Blunt's fee office appointments is sort of like the pot calling the kettle black. (I know I am going to be pummelled, but that's the way the story looks to the average Missourian.)
The second is that Graves was pushed out because he wasn't a loyal Bushie. He just didn't prosecute Democrats with sufficient vigour and he wasn't in love with voter fraud cases. The appointment and well documented performance of Bradley Schlozman seems to support this theory. Graves public record as US Attorney also supports the second theory. I, for one, have often connected Graves departure to his wife's involvement in the fee office scandal, but on reflection theory number two seems to be closer to the truth.
It looks like Karl Rove's Missouri adventure has come undone. Claire McCaskill was elected and Bradley Schlozman is going to be talking to congress. As for Todd Graves, while he didn't get a signing bonus at some large law firm he has attracted some pretty good young legal talent and has opened his own shiny new law firm.
Now if we could just get Helling and Kraske to write in clear declarative sentences about the hidden activities of Missouri's GOP, all would be right with the world. Of course, reading their stories for hidden clues is sort of fun.
Graves is the second U.S. attorney whose ouster is known to have been encouraged by the office of a Republican senator. Sen. Pete V. Domenici (N.M.) complained last October about New Mexico's David C. Iglesias, who was later fired.
Accountability. We have to be accountable, and we think our politicians should be too. We do not want a replay of the craven perfidy of the last 12 years that nearly sunk the ship of state. The administrators of this blog have decided, as a group, that working to elect real Democrats to office at all levels of government is the best way to achieve the restoration of oversight and accountability.
But please! Don’t make the mistake of thinking of us as battered wives who keep coming back for more, because that would be totally wrong. Parole Officers would be much more fitting. (Full Mission Statement here.)
