With All Due Respect to the WaPo
Amy Goldstein was one of the nicest people covering the Scooter Libby trial and Dan Eggen has been doing excellent work covering the USA Scandal. But their article on the White House's assertion that no US Attorney can take up the contempt charges that HJC is about to dump on Harriet and Josh Bolten misses some key details.
Dear Congress
John Bates has issued a ruling I've been anticipating--dismissing the Wilson lawsuit against Cheney, Rove, Libby, and Armitage. If I'm reading correctly, Bates ruled that he has no jurisdiction to rule in this matter.
This Court therefore lacks subject matter jurisdiction over plaintiffs' tort claim for public disclosure of private facts.
He therefore did not deal with many of the arguments the Wilsons and the defendants raised in this case--including Cheney's claim to
Oh, It Was Eric Edelman Lecturing Hillary??
Update: Thanks to Scarecrow for directing everyone over here--but don't miss Hillary's response to Edelman. She hits all the right notes.
I didn't realize, at first, when I heard that Hillary had been lectured that public discussion of withdrawal reinforced enemy propaganda, who was doing the lecturing.
Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S.
Senate Dems Corner Bush and Gonzales on Their Attempt to Game Appointments
Oh, this is getting fun.
Remember how I pointed out that Steven Bradbury, the guy who wrote the opinion declaring Harriet immune from having to appear before Congress, was not acting with proper authority?
Well, Leahy, Durbin, Feingold, and Kennedy have raised the stakes on that issue.
We write seeking information about a memorandum issued on July 10, 2007, by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), concluding that former White House Counsel
Propaganda Squared
I've been referring to Brigadier Bergner as Baghdad Bergner since he first started giving press conferences. There was the press conference where he blamed Iran for the woes in Iraq, based on the interrogation of one Shiite. There's this press conference where he blamed all the woes in Iraq on Al Qaeda in Iraq.
The IG Loophole
Remember how Senator Whitehouse busted Alberto Gonzales for trying to bury the DOJ's internal investigation of the USA firing into the Office of Professional Responsibility, which has no authority over potential illegalities and doesn't issue public reports? Remember how Paul Clement, who has ostensibly been in charge of DOJ's internal investigation since the time Gonzales recused himself, has at the same time been defending the White House's ability to keep materials
The "PDAG" Who Approved Harriet's Immunity Had No Authority to Do So
There are two big tidbits in the questions Leahy sent to AGAG to "pre-refresh" his memory before he testifies next week. The first is a question that seems to suggest that the "Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General," Steven Bradbury, who wrote the opinion judging Harriet immune from compelled Congressional testimony was acting as Acting AAG of the Office of Legal Counsel, in spite of the fact that his nomination to be
Why Hide the Energy Task Force
Once the CIA released its Crown Jewels, it was only a matter of time before the list of Cheney's Energy Task Force meetings would be liberated.
A confidential list prepared by the Bush administration shows thatCheney and his aides had already held at least 40 meetings withinterest groups, most of them from energy-producing industries.
AGAG Says "Good Job"--but about What?
Al Kamen chronicles the latest joy-ridden interaction between Alberto Gonzales and Patrick Fitzgerald.
In the Justice Department's Great Hall (the very room where giant, blue drapes covered the underdressed statuary during John Ashcroft's tenure as attorney general), an array of prosecutors, securities regulators and FBI honchos gathered yesterday to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the President's Corporate Fraud Task Force.
Chicago U.S.
The Resignation of CIFA's Top Management
I'm still reading the November 2005 affidavit on Cunningham's bribery. It has a previously unknown level of detail on the CIFA-related pork Cunningham made possible. I think some of those details provide new insight into why the Director and Deputy Director of CIFA resigned (speaking of "trepidation") in August 2006, when the Cunningham investigation was focusing closely on CIFA.
The affidavit provides details of the involvement of the top management of CIFA
MZM's Republican AND DEMOCRATIC Congressmen
I'm working my way through this November 2005 affidavit relating to the Cunningham scandal (hat tip Kentucky Jelly). But this paragraph and footnote jumped out at me, especially in light of Democratic refusal to declassify the complete report on Cunningham's House Intelligence Committee contracting.
On a page entitled "Election Impact on Congressional Mandates," Wade listed a number of politicians, starting with Cunningham, all of whom won reelection in November 2002.
Desperation at the DOJ
The DOJ's refusal to let John Tanner testify before the House Judiciary Committee reeks of desperation. After all, Brad Schlozman and Hans Von Spakovsky have already testified before Congress. Alberto Gonzales has testified repeatedly. What possible excuse can DOJ make not to allow Tanner to testify, ostensibly a career employee?
The absence of any good reason to refuse the request for his testimony suggests DOJ--and the Administration--is particularly worried about what he
Useful Details about Armitage Might Be In There
As predicted, Tom Maguire links to the two affidavits I made available yesterday without pointing out what those affidavits say: that in Fall 2004, Fitzgerald was still actively investigating Armitage and Novak and Rove and Libby on the Novak leak--because their stories all contradicted what the others were saying. Let me help you out, Tom, by quoting the entire passage on Armitage and the Novak column:
A brief discussion is in order
Where is Mary McCarthy Now?
Reuters reports that the EU report on secret prisons got much of its information from anonymous US intelligence officers.
Dissident U.S. intelligence officers angry at former DefenseSecretary Donald Rumsfeld helped a European probe uncover details ofsecret CIA prisons in Europe, the top investigator said on Tuesday.
SwissSenator Dick Marty, author of a Council of Europe report on the jails,said senior CIA officials disapproved of Rumsfeld's methods in huntingdown terrorist suspects,
The DOD/State Talking Point, Two
This is a follow-up to my post speculating that Cheney got his talking point about DOD and State being interested in the Iraq intell from the documents Valerie Wilson wrote before Joe Wilson's trip to Niger. This post will do something very simple: show where that talking point shows up, and where it doesn't.
What Fitzgerald Didn't Know Yet
In an effort to make these affidavits available as soon as possible so the wingnuts can start admitting they were wrong about Fitzgerald being a runaway prosecutor, I thought I'd catalog some of the things Fitzgerald didn't appear to know by August 27, 2004 and September 27, 2004.
As of August 2004, Fitzgerald did not yet know that:Rove may have talked to Novak on July 8, not July 9There was a second
The DOD/State Talking Point
This is the post I've been promising for weeks, in which I will speculate wildly as to the source of Cheney's knowledge about Plame's role at CPD and in her husband's trip. Here's the argument, in brief:Cheney learns during the week of June 9 that "Defense and State expressed a strong interestin the Niger intelligence"At a time when Cheney presumably already knew that information, he tried to get CIA to repeat
House Intelligence Committee Stonewalling
During the book salon chat on The Wrong Stuff yesterday, we discussed the House Intelligence Committee report on how Duke Cunningham managed to scam so much money for his friends. Lo and behold, the LAT has a long article on it today (hat tip Kentucky Jelly). The report, though, is pretty disappointing.
A Field Position Game
Mark Kleiman argues that the Democrats should see BushCo's refusal to turn over proof that they buried details about Pat Tillman's death as a godsend. This is the scandal, he argues, over which the Democrats should choose to confront Bush.
This is a Godsend for the Democrats in Congress. The committeesshouldn't compromise at all; this is the case we want to go to warover, in the courts and the court of
A Second Strategic Failure
I'm more and more convinced this is Dick Cheney's design. Failure in Afghanistan, which might lead to the collapse of Pakistan's western-friendly government, which might lead to a regional war between Sunni and Shiite.
Ashdown told The Observer that Afghanistan presented a graver threat than Iraq.
'Theconsequences of failure in Afghanistan are far greater than in Iraq,'he said.