So the countable tainted USAGs are up above 10. This is another one that should be added to the impeachment list.

I've always believed this story was really about the USA's that were NOT dismissed. It is nice to know that some people still believe in investigative reporting. Keep digging! There's going to be more.

Biskupic was investigating "voter fraud" in 2004 and 2005 when he finally admitted there was "no evidence of a broad conspiracy to try to steal an election."

Mr. Rove thinks of himself as a political special force - "Who Dares, Wins" - willing to attempt anything - "De l'audace, encore de l'audace, toujours de l'audace!!" The grander and more elaborate, the less likely it will be detected for what it is.

Like Holmes, he reads voraciously but retains selectively. In a way unlike Holmes, he ignores the Holocaust and admires the propaganda that disguised it. He ignores the debasement of the Hitler Youth, admiring only how effectively it channeled talent and loyalty. He ignores a brutal past, only to admire how a dispersed SS and its enablers rebuilt an organization with no traces. He ignores Stalin's purges and Archipelago, only to admire how effectively he ferreted out dissenters and crushed them.

Like a brilliant saboteur whose interest in the marvel of a submarine is limited to what will sink it "accidentally", Mr. Rove is interested in government only to know how to make it work for corrupt purposes.

Pull the threads. Keep pulling.

The 2:17 post was unsigned, so I don't know who to compliment, but I do want to say that both the analysis and the writing were excellent.

So what happened in the Wisconsin elections?
Posted by: eCAHNomics
Date: April 6, 2007 02:24 PM

Dems won control of the state Senate, closed the gap in the state Assembly, kept the governorship, elected Steve Kagen to the House (a seat formerly held by GOP Representative Mark Green, who ran for governor but lost). However, JB Van Hollen, a Republican running for state Attorney General against Democrat Kathleen Falk, won that race. Falk was not an incumbent; she defeated Peg Lautenslauger in the Democratic primary. It should be noted that JB Van Hollen was appointed U.S. Attorney for Western Wisconsin by President Bush in 2002.

Not only did Ct of Apps reject conviction out of hand - it ordered appellant's release at the close of oral arguments! I thought that was something that only happened on tv.

In one account, Biskupic was quoted as saying he was surprised at the conviction, that he didn't think he had proved a crime.

Thankfully, Gov. Doyle was re-elected. But the lingering damage to his reputation won't magically vanish with this reversal.

Georgia Thompson was appointed to her state purchasing position by Republican governor Scott McCallum, who had just taken over for Tommy Thompson when he was asked to serve as HHS Secretary. I'm still at a loss why Doyle was nailed over this.

Did he have a choir and color guard at his swearing in? (See Atrios for that USA story).

What's next, a USA who declined to prosecute a GOPer who was guilty as hell?

We already know that they deliberately sabotaged the case against big tobacco (huge GOP donors), saving them billions in fines.

The judge who gave Biskupic his guilty verdict, Rudolph T. Randa, is also aloyal Bushie: (from NYTimes archives)
_________________________________________________
Judge Strikes Down Abortion Clinic Law

Published: March 17, 1995

Contradicting previous Federal court rulings, a Federal judge today struck down a Federal law that protects access to abortion clinics. In a ruling stemming from a September protest at a local clinic, Judge Rudolph T. Randa of Federal District Court here said the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinics Entrances Act was unconstitutional in banning "nonviolent, physical obstruction of reproductive health services clinics."

Seven other Federal judges and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, have upheld the law, but abortion opponents said Judge Randa's ruling was still important.

"Now we have a real issue that I think the U.S. Supreme Court would be more interested in looking at," said Monica Miller, director of Citizens for Life in Milwaukee.

Roger Evans, director of litigation for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in New York, said the ruling by Judge Randa, an appointee of President George Bush, was "just a strange blip on the screen."

boh said:

Lets get a list of all the USAs. Then splith THEM up and start research threads for each one seeing which is dem leaning state and which is a rep leaning state then cross reference their ties to the admin and their actions before the last election. theres got to be more going on here.

the link posted previous is a good start:
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/offices/personnel/usattorneys.html

this one has some extra info:
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/offices/index.html

code word: snake

should have been snakeS!

Hmm.

And there's this from the April Harper's Index:

Number of local Republicans officials who have been investigated by the US Department of Justice since 2001: 37

Number of local Democratic officials who have been: 262.

That pretty much sums it up

Its not exactly "follow the money", but follow the Prosecutors from GSA’s Money List.

Dems in the Senate can speed things along with a little research. Look to the GSA report that showed what Rove thought were targets, and look at every one of the US Attorneys in those areas, and their recent cases, and see just what was what.

By taking this tact, the Senate Judiciary committee will be able to ask why did you do it, as opposed to what did you do, which in the long run speeds things along, as well as creates more pressure on any official who is called to testify.

Do a little fishing in advance, so the hearings are less of a fishing expedition, and more of a catch and release, and by the way, the big ones don't get thrown back!

Oh this is rich, code word: screw

"What's next, a USA who declined to prosecute a GOPer who was guilty as hell?"

Hate to say it, but that would be David Iglesias. See this link regarding the case of Donna Erwin, Jeff and Doug Lords.

In a blistering report, the Interior Department's top investigator says that senior officials who manage $3.2 billion in Indian trust funds pressured subordinates to award lucrative contracts to executives with
whom the officials enjoyed close social ties.

Iglesias declined to prosecute the three, and they merely had their wrist slapped by Kempthorne.

Darn, that embedded link didn't work for Erwin and the Lords. Here's the URL.

http://www.indiantrust.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=Articles.ViewDetail&Article_id=353&Month=7&Year=2006

"Hmm. And there's this from the April Harper's Index:
Number of local Republicans officials who have been investigated by the US Department of Justice since 2001: 37
Number of local Democratic officials who have been: 262.
That pretty much sums it up"

i'd actually be interested in finding out what those 37 republicans who were investigated by the JD ended up being accused of, and also whether THEY would have been considered 'loyal bushies'.

my guess is, probably not.

or they were tokens, people republican leadership didn't particularly value or actually wanted out of the way.

you could go so much deeper on this.

Link to the Inspector General's report on the OST for Indian Affairs case referred to Iglesias' office, which declined to prosecute:

http://www.doioig.gov/upload/CD&L_WEB06_19_061.pdf

Another of the Kept USAttorneys is Johnny Sutton, Western District of Texas. He's the one who refused to pursue the case against the Texas Youth Commission facility in Pyote, Texas which had allegations of sexual abuse filed by a Texas Ranger, Brian Burzynski in 2005. This has blown sky high in Texas, with all the TYC commissioners resigning, up to 500 youths due to be released very soon because their sentences were extended with no due process, etc. In a solid red state, this is most embarrassing to the Governor, etc. Sutton is close to Gonzales from during W's tenure as Governor. Sutton is also the USAttorney that has Lou Dobbs in such a snit over the conviction of two Border Patrol agents on the testimony of a drug thug given immunity.

It makes good sense to follow up on all the Kept USAttorneys. There are plenty of (code word body)
bodies under those rocks.

How about the prosecution by USA for Michigan (Eastern Dist.) Stephen J. Murphy (confirmed June 8, 2005) against Carl Marlinga, the 2002 Democratic Party candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, Michigan's 10th District. Marling was charged with bribery, mail & wire fraud, false statement to Federal Election Commission and violations of federal campaign finance lasw. The indictment alleged the Michigan Democractic Party served as a "conduit" for unlawful campaign contributions. Marlinga was acquitted on all charges.

According to the Macomb Daily News, "The FBI and Michigan State Police began investigating the case in the second half of 2002 after the state Republican Party asked the state Attorney General to look into it." (09-26-06)

per comment right above, the link didn't translate, so here it is:

www.startribune.com/462/story/1104033.html

things are *really unravelling.

how completely fun!

code word: dress, as in "let's undress their lies."

Amen.

One of the other judges was Frank Easterbrook, who's a very well-known conservative judge. (Also the brother of journalist Gregg Easterbrook.)

They really took the AUSA to the woodshed on this one.

I just wrote a long post about how this adminstration has asked its appointees to prostitute their morals for him. It was just too sad to read and I deleted it.

How bad is it?

The President is too scared to go out in public that he can't even throw out the first ball on opening day.

We are no longer the land of the free and home of the brave, He f*cked it up.

Security Code: Judge Here come the judge, here come the judge

How about the brewing allegations against Dem Menendez in New Jersey in the run up to the Senate election against Republican Tom Keane? To hear all of the atack ads prior to the election, these were serious allegations, supposedly supported by lots of proof. After Keane lost the race, the case was never pursued.

Smells dirty to me!

code word snake - might as well be Rove

I totally agree with bobh that there needs to be an effort to catalog all 93 USA's and see what patterns can emerge.

TPM has done timelines before -- if readers volunteer to provide info on a specific district, can TPM create some kind of catalog/database?

What happened? Well it was THE MOST publicized, overblown, Get Governor Doyle thing we had seen in WI. The loser republican bootlicker bush-lover....Congressman Mark Green (he of the Abrahmhoff Box Seat scandal) used TONS of repub money and this scandal to make it a close race. Without the National Repub money and this scandal he would not have even been visible.

No news of this has hit wisconsin, other than the Victim was released, charges dropped, and Gov. Doyle has said she is welcome to her job back. Not one word about Attorneygate or meddling or dirty Repub tricks has hit the airwaves here yet. Just goes to show you how much of this is UNDER THE RADAR and how deep it all goes. And not a murmur of how a politically corrupt Justice Dept reaches their slimy long arms into our local politics and tries to steal elections and thwart the will of the people.

I still think the actions of Mississippi U.S. Attorney in the run-up to the state's gubernatorial election back in 2003 deserve some scrutiny; you can read more about it in my Daily Kos diary.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/17/23408/4939

We haven't heard from a bunch of obvious places for Republican USA bad behavior toward Democrats or to shield Republicans yet: Montana, Oregon, Colorado, eastern Texas, Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, northern or southern Virginia, Delaware, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, or Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee. Or Hawai'i.

Of course, Rove et al prefer that Republican state officials do the dirty work where possible; the USAs are sent in when Democrats have state level control or the Republican ones at the state level can't do the trick.

So far: Guam, Alaska, Washington State, northern and southern California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, western Texas, Arkansas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, eastern and western Michigan, West Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, New Hampshire. I vaguely remember some Republician shenanigan being done in Puerto Rico/Virgin Islands but don't recall it precisely.

Of course, there's the DoJ division in charge of Guantanamo and US military bases and embassies and such- including Bagram and Abu Ghraib. That would be the greatest rat's nest of them all, presumably.

Under Kevin Ryan they had been spending all sorts of time (and of course newspaper ink) going after Don Perata - the Dem. Senate leader here in CA.

It had all died down (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20070205/ai_n17199076), with of course no actual indictments or anything else, just a bunch of smoke.

But now they seem to have found a new fishing rod to give to the grand jury (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/03/11/BAGDBOJ7SL1.DTL)

I can't help wondering: if there were actual Republican corruption investigations going on up here in northern CA, would they would have been happy to have such poor management of the US Atty office and have left Kevin Ryan in place?

The powerpoint brown-bag lunches held by Rove's staff at GSA "How To Help Our GOP Candidates" (that Lurita Doan doesn't remember), how many of those were being held in other govt agencies? Where they being hosted at DOJ sites?

Security Code: story

There might just be a story there too?

The thing is I asked around about Biskupic a week ago, and his rep. among liberals was great. He nixed the voter fraud investigation, finding no reason to indict. He is a career prosecutor. People (liberals) who dealt with him for years like the guy; now his name is trash; but I think the Georgia Thompson affair compells this conclusion.
###

Can't wait to read the comments. For this USA scandal to touch WI is unthinkable. I have lived in WI which is traditionally a very progressive state. To see this kind of fascism - how despicable! - overturned is heartwarming.

Code word "crossdress"

Has Conyers & Sanchez gotten a thousand e-mails informing them of this crap yet on this one yet?

I believe the USA for Montana, who would have looked into Conrad Burn's ties to Jack Abrahmof, was or is in the process of being promoted. A new AG who can be confirmed by the Senate will be Bush's worst nightmare. To steal a line from Apocalypse Now, I love the smell of impeachment in the morning.

"It should be noted that JB Van Hollen was appointed U.S. Attorney for Western Wisconsin by President Bush in 2002." (Jake from Milwaukee)

I believe that in Rovian parlance this is known as "resume building"...which apparently has been successful since JB Van Hollen is now Wisconsin's Attorney General.

Hmmm, I just wonder what a "loyal Bushie" like Van Hollen could accomplish as a state's Attorney General, as far as turning that office into a Rovian partisan Republican Party attack machine used against all Democrats in Wisconsin?

JB Van Hollen should be watched like a hawk, as should all the "loyal Bushie" fascists.

Security codeword: FLOWER, as in Turdblossom.

I note that Paulrose was a member of the Federalist Society. Could this be a common thread? How many USA's are members? Is that where the "voter fraud" meme originated or got its greatest resonance?

In other words, is the Federalist Society part of a vast, right-wing conspiracy, a sort of shadow federal judiciary, to be given the reins at the opportune moment as the Bushies consolidated power?

Just thinking out loud...

Oh! Here is a link!

http://tinyurl.com/23zn33

Forgive me if this has been mentioned previously, but Biskupic is still doggedly investigating Gov. Doyle and his connections to trucking magnate Dennis Troha. He recently secured an indictment of Troha for skirting campaign finance rules by having his kids give to the Doyle campaign.

What's interesting here is that Troha also gave lots of money to U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Janesville), and that Ryan subsequently championed federal legislation designed to specifcally benefit Troha's company. But, guess what? Biskupic apparently isn't investigation this obvious pay-for-play scheme involving a Republican.

Actually, I think this is going to be the next shoe to drop locally with this story. (It has been reported on already, but I think it will get resurrected now.)

Look, even we liberals are not overly fond of Gov Doyle. Pay to play was perfected by former Gov and Republican prez candidate Tommy G Thompson, but Doyle was a quick study.

Fact is, Biskupic would have done more on voter fraud if there had been any evidence and someone he could have prosecuted. There simply wasn't a good target or any evidence. He couldn't get Doyle on the travelgate matter so he went after a low level civil servant and handed Republican operatives something with which to smear Doyle during the election. In the process, an innocent woman's life has been ruined. (She resigned from her job so I don't think she has a case for wrongful termination. I am looking forward to seeing what her excellent attorney Steve Hurley does bring on her behalf.)

"Sources tell No Quarter that Rick Wiley, then the executive director of the state GOP, directed a staffer in 2005 to prepare a 30-page report on election abuses in Wisconsin so Wiley could pass it along to a top White House official.

"That document, entitled "Fraud in Wisconsin 2004: A Timeline/Summary," turned up last week in the horde of White House and U.S. Justice Department records released by the House Judiciary Committee, which is investigating the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

"The report was prepared for Karl Rove," said a source with knowledge of the situation. "Rick wanted it so he could give it to Karl Rove.""

The Milwaukee JS story linked at TPM suggests to me that perhaps the US Atty in Milwaukee served up Georgia Thompson in the face of no evidence and no juicy political target for the voter fraud allegations.

Jake in Milwaukee--the liberals I know disappointed in Doyle are from the environmental arena. Other than stewardship matters, Doyle has been a major disappointment.

I don't know if anyone has seen today's NYT, but there's a juicy editorial about all of this stuff entitled "Another Layer of Scandal." It begins with specific reference to the Thompson case:

"As Congress investigates the politicization of the United States attorney offices by the Bush administration, it should review the extraordinary events the other day in a federal courtroom in Wisconsin. The case involved Georgia Thompson, a state employee sent to prison on the flimsiest of corruption charges just as her boss, a Democrat, was fighting off a Republican challenger. It just might shed some light on a question that lurks behind the firing of eight top federal prosecutors: what did the surviving attorneys do to escape the axe?"

This is awesome! The local media in WI (chiefly the Journal Sentinel, which really loathes Doyle) have been resisting precisely this angle, but hopefully there will be a national media firestorm about it.

Doug in Milwaukee--

You're right about the Journal Sentinel re: Doyle, they can't stand him and they've been nailing him left and right. The irony of all this is that Georgia Thompson was appointed by a Republican governor and was a holdover from McCallum's administration when Doyle won in 2002. All things being equal, Doyle wouldn't have taken the heat for her conviction in the first place (or at least, not as much as he did). Noblejoanie makes a good point about Doyle-- he's been a major disappointment to Democrats and he has other ethical clouds hanging over him, ranging from the state tobacco settlement to Indian gaming compacts. I think the state GOP smelled blood and the Journal Sentinel, despite their good reporting on the Thompson case, went along for the ride.