That’s OK. DOJ hasn’t been doing any work on anything else, either. Why bother doing work when you don’t know if your boss will make it through the week?

Ever since Iglesias spoke up, all the Rejent DOJ hacks have been playing minesweeper from 8:30 to 4:30 every day, just waiting for the axe to fall.

tekel

I think they’re playing Boomshine, myself. It doesn’t have ’lose’ as an option. (It’s also nearly hypnotic.)

EW, they were prepared for the stonewall on the subpoenas. Knowing they would arrive ever since the Dems won Congress last Nov.

OVP probably did not expect to be under so much scrutiny. They need to figure out their battle strategy.

Two of Reagan’s former DoJ folk are saying that Bush has a right to claim executive privilege: http://www.startribune.com/562/story/1272460.html

Anyone feel like dissecting?

Marcy,

Alberto hasn’t come up with an opinion because he doesn’t have one. He doesn’t have a legal opinion because no one has told him what it is. The head of the DoJ is the LEAST qualified lawyer on the planet. Just as the president is the LEAST qualified for his position as well.

What gets me is that while Bush and his ilk would sentence a retarded man to death in a capital case, the democratic congresspeople (Senators included) will not impeach even the AG, even with all this evidence slapping them in the face. Jesus Fucking Christ.

Executive Priviledge is a Tarbaby.

It will tie down everyone for months well into the Presidential Race next year.

Impeachment though a pleasant thought is likewise laborious.

On Rove, and Harriet, I think that the Committees ought to take up the White House’s offer of private, non transcripted questioning. Then if they think there is something more, bring some kind of charge if they can find a valid reason.

It is the quickest way to get info.

I agree with Leonard’s statement that they need to just suspend the flow of confidential information into the OVP until the legal issues have been resolved. They caught a spy in Cheney’s office a few years ago, so the concern is more than just theoretical. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

http://www.atlargely.com/2007/…..ke-to.html

I would like to officially welcome you to Watergate. Please buckle up for the festivities of executive abuses and prepare to watch as Karl Rove, in panic mode, begins to throw people under the bus – who in turn, along with so many other enemies made already, will reveal much more than anyone thought to even look at.

This was exactly the move that Congress wanted and why it waited until it became undeniably clear that the White House was not remotely interested in protecting the integrity of private council, but rather, protecting its own hide and covering possible crimes. The White House taking this position on attorney-gate is the trap. It is one thing to claim EP when talking about national security documents, but with attorney-gate, their position has rendered them with no legal or arguably Constitutional leg to stand on.

It would have been far easier to throw Rove and Harriet Miers to the curb. Such a move would have been seen as a major effort on the part of the White House to work with Congress. By bringing out the big argument, the only argument, that the White House has in defense of these two – Rove and Miers – they have lost the advantage and likely, they will lose the game.

Karl Rove, however, will not remain loyal if his own ass is on the line – which it is. Mark my words, protecting Rove and Miers by bringing out the only argument the administration can make ( instead of holding it for issues such as the wiretapping program ) is not only a bad move, it is a mistake of serious and likely game-ending proportions.

former blogger at firedoglake has struck out on his own >>>

http://spookinthemachine.blogspot.com/

literally started the blog about four washington-post-stories-about-cheney ago.

http://spookinthemachine.blogs…..ition.html

Putting all the above facts together, the message from these four ruthless hatchet pieces to the Co-President and his Shadow Administration is very, very clear.

Start a war with Iran without our permission, and we will put you either in jail or in economic and political purgatory. All of you. No exceptions. No mercy. This is proof we can do it. Don’t fuck with us again. You have been warned.

Those Brits get all the good stuff. First it was the Beatles and Stones; now this Wheeler chick. We have got to close the coolness gap between us and the Brits…

Yeah, bmaz, and the Brits just got rid of Bush’s lap dog.
Sigh…
Wish we could get rid of the monster who holds Bush’s chain.

as a public service — though
it did cause me to throw up in
my mouth a little — i have set
both the clement coniption-fit, and
the fielding flatulence, as fully-
seachable plain texts on mine, at
the above-two-links. . .

i’ll comment on each in due course,
but for now, know that the searchable
text makes it easy to find, and point
up, the places where clement’s analysis
may present powerful arguments against
the positions taken by lawrence robbins on
behalf of scooter libby. . . truly, this
could make for some fun stuff!

The problem with Jodi’s approach, which isn’t inherently stupid, by the way, is (1) the WH has said it is the private, no transcripts interviews and an agreement for no subpoenas or nothing (ie, this is all the Congress ever gets) and (2) without transcripts they will always say later they were misquoted or misunderstood. These kinds of interviews ar ok for underlings, but not for big fish.

I agree that the US Attorney fight is the stupidest battle for Bush to have picked to fight Exec Privilege. While it is generally true that the USAs serve at the pleasure and he can appoint whom he wishes, it is also not legal to appoint on the basis of cult partisan politics for the USAs (let alone for the career jobs) or to skew or interfere with prosecutions, especially when the latter is done for partisan gain. There is a strong circumstantial cast that that is what happened here. More even than circumstantial.

Given that Bush was oout of the country so much during the 18-day gap, it seems clear that either Rove or Cheney or both wwere making the decisions here. Can Cong subpoena the Air Force One phone logs?

Mimikatz,

everyone says that the Bush Administration is wrong, or crazy, or mistaken, or whatever, when they will not talk directly to the ENEMY like Iran, or Syria.

I think that there is always a reason to talk to everyone all the time. Now I don’t mean every weekend you should have a talk with Iran when the talks are going anywhere, but you shouldn’t refuse to get/take what information you can on some regular basis.

Not listening to Rove, Card, Harriet, etc., under any conditions is frankly to my mind a bit stupid.

If the Committees don’t like what they hear, then they just say that we have learned enough, say this, and say that, to just strenghten our resolve for a public hearing.

Who knows? Maybe some questions will be answered reasonably well by this private meeting.

It appears to be grandstanding by the Committees to a lot of people, though of course maybe only 1 or 2 on this Blog.