Michael McGee is always being misunderstood.

The alderman for the sixth district of Milwaukee, McGee was arrested Monday on state and federal charges. The federal investigation started back in May 2006, when the FBI caught wind that McGee was strong-arming small businesses in his constituency by threatening to withhold liquor licenses unless they paid him cash.

But federal investigators hurriedly arrested McGee on Monday after, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, they recorded him and two friends conspiring to murder a man named Pierre. The allegations of murder conspiracy have since been changed to substantial battery after the tapes showed one of the defendants deciding he didn’t want Pierre dead but merely to receive a “head-busting.”

McGee’s lawyer Glen Givens calls the whole situation a misunderstanding; at fault is not McGee, but rather the FBI’s complete lack of street cred. Givens maintains that planning to have Pierre get “bust up and beat down” is, at best, a misdemeanor charge. “You have to look at who's using the language, what community it comes from before you can draw conclusions about what it is that's being communicated,” says Givens.

Indeed. After all, McGee has been misunderstood before. Like when authorities didn’t think it was constructive political discourse to give out a former School Board Member’s number and say the man should be “hung” for his “betrayal of the community.” Or the time that McGee allegedly told the mother of his child “if you drive by my house, I’m going to kill your ass” during a court hearing in which she was pursuing a restraining order against him.

Unfortunately, the local district attorney John Chisholm is unconvinced. Although he doesn’t believe that McGee intended to commit murder, neither does he look kindly on McGee and friends saying they would be “peeling [Pierre’s] wig back” and “sew his cap together.” Says Chisholm, "I don't have a degree in street terminology, but the intent is pretty clear…. That is a substantial battery." The final nail in the coffin for Chisholm is a recording of McGee saying, “that n----r needs some quicksand.” The feds just don’t understand.

The Senate Intelligence Committee included in its bill authorizing intelligence activities written comments that recommend closing the CIA’s program of secret overseas prisons because of the damage they do to the American image. (Salon)

Valerie Plame continues to pursue justice for her outing from the CIA by members of the Bush administration. This time, Plame and her publisher are suing the CIA for allegedly delaying the publication of her new book. Former CIA officers must have all writings approved by the agency before publishing. (Associated Press)

Remember when we showed you pictures of the new U.S. Embassy being built in Iraq? Apparently, you weren’t supposed to see those. (Think Progress, Associated Press)

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"Distinguished public servant. Generous mentor. Selfless friend. Devoted father. Convicted felon." So begins the sentencing memorandum prepared by Scooter Libby's attorneys (well, except for the last part). They're asking for no jail time.

Emptywheel has a typically comprehensive rundown of the memo.

Many of the controversial interrogation tactics used against “war on terror” detainees in Guantanamo, Iraq and Afghanistan are similar to strategies the United States feared its worst enemies would use against captured soldiers during the Cold War.

Time magazine catches this connection in a recently declassified report, "Review of DoD-Directed Investigations of Detainee Abuse,” that has received little media coverage.

The same potential enemy tactics the U.S. military trained forces to face during the Cold War became interrogation strategies used on enemy combatants.

Originally developed as training for elite special forces at Fort Bragg under the "Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape" program, otherwise known as SERE, tactics such as sleep deprivation, isolation, sexual humiliation, nudity, exposure to extremes of cold and stress positions were part of a carefully monitored survival training program for personnel at risk of capture by Soviet or Chinese forces, all carried out under the supervision of military psychologists:

The Pentagon began scaling back the well-documented use of these SERE tactics in 2002, which include “prolonged isolation, sensory deprivation (visual and auditory), forced removal of clothing, exploiting prisoners phobias (notably fear of dogs), and threats against family members.” The Army Field Manual now prohibits the use of water-boarding and dogs.

Some critics are concerned that the scale-back has not gone far enough, Time reports:

In the letter to Secretary Gates, dated May 31, 2007, the non-profit Physicians for Human Rights cites an appendix of the current Army Field Manual that "explicitly permits what amounts to isolation, along with sleep and sensory deprivation." The letter, signed by retired Army General Stephen Xenakis, a psychiatrist and former senior medical commander, and Leonard Rubenstein, the organization's executive director, also points out that the current Field Manual remains "silent on a number of other SERE-based methods (including sensory overload and deprivation) creating ambiguity and doubt over their place in interrogation doctrine."

As we reported a couple of days ago, the federal investigation into a bribery scheme centering on one of Alaska's biggest oil services companies has crossed paths with Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK). And Stevens' problems seem to come down to some highly creative methods Stevens used to remodel his Alaska home. According to contractor Augie Paone, it all started when a group of unnamed "friends" got together to renovate the senator's house as a weekend project. The group of friends ended up being unable to pull it off. But in the group’s defense, the job was pretty ambitious. The plan was to ratchet the one-story house off its foundation, build a new first floor and then place the old first floor on top of the new first floor. Unfortunately for the do-it-yourselfers, they ran into a few problems. That’s when the local contractor, Paone, came into the picture. Paone has provided most of the sordid details in this story, since none of the other players are talking. According to Paone, it wasn’t Stevens who sought him out to fix the mangled construction, but oil company Veco Corp. It's not clear how involved Veco had been in the do-it-yourself phase of the remodeling. But Paone says Veco was in charge when he came on board. Veco hired Paone and and collected and reviewed the $100,000 worth of invoices he submitted as the project progressed. Paone would then receive payments signed by Stevens -- checks which according to Paone appeared to come from a special account created for the renovation. Paone says he didn’t know Stevens before working on the house and dealt with Veco during the project. He told a local television station he doesn’t think the arrangement raises any red flags.

"The senator doesn't know me, so some of the people I had contacts with were more familiar with the senator, so they kind of took over his interests and they kind of overviewed the billings. After they saw them, it was just faxed over to the senator and the senator a few days later just mailed me a check," Paone said.

Here’s the straightforward arrangement: oil company decides to remodel senator's house, oil company finds contractor, contractor creates new first floor in senator's house, contractor sends invoices to oil company, oil company reviews bills, oil company faxes bills to senior senator, senior senator pulls cash from a special account set up specifically for the construction and pays contractor, senior senator never speaks to contractor. The arrangement looks fairly questionable on its face. And it looks even more questionable when you take Veco's track record into account. The person from Veco who hired Paone was Veco CEO Bill Allen. Allen happens to have just pled guilty this month to federal conspiracy and bribery charges for “giving things of value” to local lawmakers. In a court document accompanying his guilty plea, the Anchorage Daily News noticed a seemingly irrelevant description of what the company did not do while he was in charge: "Veco was not in the business of residential construction or remodeling." So far Stevens has refused to explain the arrangement. But it has piqued the FBI’s interest and investigators are looking into it. Paone says the FBI interviewed him about six months ago and that he testified before a grand jury in December. In response to questions about the remodeling, Stevens’ spokesman sent me a statement saying the senator is not commenting.

What did the FBI search in the tiny Alaska town of Girdwood last summer? The mystery continues. A spokesman for Sen. Ted Stevens’ (R-AK) told me today it wasn’t his boss’ home or office -- two favored guesses. Stevens has been tightlipped in the FBI’s broad probe into oil company Veco Corp.’s dealings with Alaska state and federal lawmakers. But today his office opened up slightly. Stevens’ spokesman Aaron Saunders denied a raid of Stevens' home or office and sent me a copy of this local television story with the following portions underlined:

The FBI will not comment on whether Sen. Stevens is being investigated. But when the agency served search warrants on lawmaker's office last August, one search warrant was served in Girdwood. Agents said it wasn't at the senator's home or office, but they won't say where.

There’s not much else in Girdwood. Any guesses?

From IraqSlogger:

In the months following September 2005, complaints began coming in to the US State Department that all was not well with its most ambitious project ever: a sprawling new embassy project on the banks of the ancient Tigris River. The largest, most heavily-fortified embassy in the world with over 20 buildings, it spans 104 acres-- comparable in size to the Vatican.

Soon after the State Department awarded $592-million building contract to First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting in July 2005, thousands of low-paid migrant workers recruited from South Asia, the Philippines and other nations poured into Baghdad, beginning work to build the gargantuan complex within two years time. But sources involved in the embassy project tell Slogger that during First Kuwaiti’s rush to the finish the project by this summer on schedule, American managers and specialists involved with the project began protesting about the living and working conditions of lower-paid workers sequestered and largely unseen behind security walls bordering the embassy project inside the US-controlled Green Zone....

“Every US labor law was broken,” says an American labor foreman, John Owens, who adds that he never witnessed a safety meeting. Once an Egyptian worker fell and broke his back and was sent home. No one ever heard from him again. “The accident might not have happened if there was a safety program and he had known how to use a safety harness,” charges Owen, who left the embassy project last June.

And that's not even the worst part. The piece is well worth reading.

IraqSlogger also reports that the Justice Department is investigating First Kuwaiti for possible labor trafficking.

Update: You can see plans for the embassy here.

U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania Tom Marino -- who appeared on two of the later firing lists -- is considering a run for Congress.

The case for Republican voter fraud complaints being at the root of yet another U.S. attorney firing just got a lot stronger.

The U.S. attorney here is Todd Graves, the U.S. attorney for Kansas City who was fired in January of last year. And Murray Waas, reporting for National Journal, reports that Mark "Thor" Hearne, the GOP operative behind the American Center for Voting Rights -- the conservative organization that served to spread allegations of widespread voter fraud and push voter ID laws as the cure -- had complained to the White House and senior officials in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division about Graves' lack of commitment to the cause:

In the case involving ACORN, Hearne had urged the Justice Department long before the election to investigate the activist organization and similar groups that registered Democrats. When Hearne came to believe that the U.S. attorney for western Missouri, Todd Graves, was not taking seriously allegations that ACORN workers were registering people who did not qualify to vote, he took his complaints to senior officials in Justice’s Civil Rights Division and to the White House, according to a former Justice official and a private attorney who worked with Hearne. The private attorney said in an interview that Hearne boasted to him about having discussions with administration officials who wanted Graves replaced. The White House declined to comment on any of its discussions with Hearne.

Waas notes that there's no direct evidence that Hearne's complaints led to Graves' dismissal. But Graves' case is starting to look a lot like two others that have drawn plenty of suspicion: David Iglesias of New Mexico and John McKay of Washington. In both those cases, state Republicans' brought their complaints to the White House and the leadership at the Justice Department. In Iglesias' case, both the president and Karl Rove himself echoed those complaints to the Justice Department.

And a complaint from Hearne would have gotten special attention. Hearne is reportedly close to Rove, and served as national election counsel for the 2004 Bush-Cheney presidential campaign.

There's an additional fact which makes this case even more suspicious. Graves was replaced by Bradley Schlozman, a former senior political appointee at the Civil Rights Division who oversaw the voting rights section. According to Waas, Hearne brought his complaints about Graves to "senior officials in Justice’s Civil Rights Division." These were complaints about voting cases, which means the complaints most likely went to Schlozman himself -- or his right hand Hans Von Spakovsky. After Schlozman was installed in Graves' place, he brought an indictment against four ACORN workers days before the election in 2006. So it looks a lot like Hearne got his wish.

Schlozman, remember, will appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee this coming Tuesday. That hearing promises to be very interesting.

Update: Rick Hasen has more over at the Election Law blog.

Via War and Piece: The ACLU has accused a subsidiary of Boeing of facilitating torture by providing services to the CIA for secret overseas flight. (Associated Press)

The LA Times connects former US Attorney Thomas Heffelfinger’s record to his appearance on Kyle Sampson’s firing list. The verdict? Heffelfinger was concerned with protecting the voting rights of Native Americans.

Tim Griffin is set to resign Friday as interim U.S. Attorney for Eastern Arkansas, according to local congressional staffers. (Arkansas Times)

The Hill is reporting that House conservatives intend to block the Senate immigration bill based on a constitutional rule that revenue-related bills to originate in the House. According to an unnamed aide, “a number of people in the House are dying to be fingered as the person who killed [the Senate bill].”

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The gang's all here.

The Los Angeles Times looks into why Thomas Heffelfinger, the former U.S. attorney for Minnesota, was targeted for removal and finds circumstantial evidence that Heffelfinger might have made himself a marked man by raising objection to the implementation of a voter ID law in the state. Some familiar characters crop up -- namely Bradley Schlozman and Hans Von Spakovsky, the two Republican lawyers who reigned over the Civil Rights Division's voting rights section.

Here's the tale, according to The Times: in the fall of 2004, Minnesota's Republican Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer issued a directive that tribal ID cards could not be used for voter identification by Native Americans living off reservations. On October 19, 2004, an assistant U.S. attorney in Heffelinger's office wrote Joe Rich, the then-chief of the voting rights section in the Civil Rights Division, to raise the alarm about Kiffmeyer's move. The directive might disproportionately affect Native Americans' ability to vote, the AUSA wrote, and was a matter of "deep concern" to Heffelfinger.

Rich, a near 40-year veteran of the Civil Rights Division, who retired in 2005 and has been fiercely critical of the division's political leadership, recommended opening an investigation. The division, after all, is charged with protecting minorities against possible discrimination. But things went downhill from there:

In response, he said, Bradley Schlozman, a political appointee in the department, told Rich "not to do anything without his approval" because of the "special sensitivity of this matter."

Rich responded by suggesting that more information be gathered from voting officials in the Twin Cities area, which includes Minnesota's two most populous counties.

A message came back from another Republican official in the department, Hans von Spakovsky, saying Rich should not contact the county officials but should instead deal only with the secretary of state's office.

Von Spakovsky indicated, Rich said, that working with Kiffmeyer's office reduced the likelihood of a leak to the news media.

The orders from Schlozman and Von Spakovsky, who wielded unusual power in the civil rights division, effectively ended any department inquiry, Rich said.

So Schlozman and Von Spakovsky, in their own typically creative way, spiked the investigation. (A suit by the ACLU eventually blocked Kiffmeyer's directive from being implemented.)

Now, this was in October of 2004. And Heffelfinger, along with twelve other U.S. attorneys, appeared on Kyle Sampson's first list of U.S. attorneys in February of 2005 -- that's the one where "strong" U.S.A.s were ones who had "exhibited loyalty" to the president. Heffelfinger appeared again on a January, 2006 list and stepped down the next month. He's said he was not asked to step down.

Heffelfinger's lack of enthusiasm for Kiffmeyer's voter ID measure has long been floated as the real reason for his being placed on the list -- Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) even asked Monica Goodling about it during her hearing last week. Goodling denied knowing anything about that, instead saying she remembered hearing something about how Heffelfinger spent too much time on Native American issues -- Heffelfinger was the chairman of the subcommittee of U.S. attorneys that deals with American Indian issues. Her response didn't seem to convince Rep. Ellison.

The question here is whether, or how, Heffelfinger's disloyalty was communicated to the leadership in the Justice Department or the White House. Voter fraud, we know, is an issue close to Karl Rove's heart. Did Schlozman or Van Spakovsky complain to Rove's shop or someone else? Fortunately, both Schlozman and Von Spakovsky will be put under oath in the near future -- Schlozman this coming Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee (as part of the U.S. attorney firings investigation) and Von Spakovsky before the Senate Rules Committee (a confirmation hearing for his spot as a commissioner at the FEC) on June 13th. Let's hope they get some questions about this.

The Washington Post’s Dan Froomkin spells out how a memo Patrick Fitzgerald sent to the judge preparing to sentence Scooter Libby connects Libby’s obstruction crimes to Dick Cheney.

In the sentencing memo, Fitzgerald urges U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton to send Libby to prison for 2 and a half to 3 years. You can read the memo here.

In Friday's eminently readable court filing, Fitzgerald quotes the Libby defense calling his prosecution "unwarranted, unjust, and motivated by politics." In responding to that charge, the special counsel evidently felt obliged to put Libby's crime in context. And that context is Dick Cheney.

At trial, it became clear that Libby learned about former CIA agent Valerie Plame from Cheney. But the details that would clarify who orchestrated the press leak were covered up, Fitzgerald says, by Libby’s acts of obstruction.

Froomkin grabs key points from Fitzgerald’s memo saying:

The investigation, Fitzgerald writes, "was necessary to determine whether there was concerted action by any combination of the officials known to have disclosed the information about Ms. Plame to the media as anonymous sources, and also whether any of those who were involved acted at the direction of others. This was particularly important in light of Mr. Libby's statement to the FBI that he may have discussed Ms. Wilson's employment with reporters at the specific direction of the Vice President." (My italics.)

We’ll find out Libby’s fate next week, when he is expected to be sentenced.

From The Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

At their annual convention here, members of the statewide organization of moderate and center-right Republicans clapped enthusiastically when McKay, the former U.S. attorney for Western Washington, declared that the "enormous power" vested in federal prosecutors "cannot be associated with partisan politics."...

He said he and at least five of the other fired U.S. attorneys compared notes and concluded that "if we did remain silent, we were part of the lie, so that is why I spoke out."

Since then, McKay added, "senior officials at the Department of Justice have compounded early misstatements with lies and with cover-ups."...

McKay said he has no intention of running for political office, as some have speculated, and is troubled by the furor over the firings because "I felt this responsibility as a Republican (that) I did not want to be in the public arena handing spears to the Democrats to throw at the White House."

Nevertheless, McKay, the reluctant warrior, did hand a number of spears to Democrats. And in his speech, McKay singled out state Republicans who tried to get him fired for not bringing indictments in the wake of the 2004 gubernatorial election:

He referred dismissively to "cybercowards," apparently meaning conservative bloggers who have criticized the lack of prosecution, and scorned the purported evidence of election fraud alleged by Tom McCabe, the aggressive, conservative executive vice president of the Building Association of Washington and a Rossi supporter....

McKay said the evidence McCabe presented was "a joke from an evidentiary standpoint that a crime had been committed. ... Every FBI agent who looked at the evidence and every federal prosecutor who looked at the evidence that the BIAW sent in concluded that it was completely, utterly insufficient to move forward in an investigation."

Thanks to TPM Reader SD.

Yesterday we talked about how Sen. Ted Stevens’ (R-AK) home improvement project has piqued the interest of federal investigators. A local oil company’s involvement in hiring one of the contractors who built the new level to Stevens’ single-story home -- underneath the existing ground floor – seems to be the questionable part. The Associated Press followed up today on the story by adding that two sources close to the investigation said “Stevens was not considered a target of the investigation.” That won't comfort Sen. Stevens. The carefully-crafted language "I'm not a target" has been peddled by other politicians tied to investigations, like former Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) and Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA). The phrase makes the politician sound practically exhonerated, when really, prosecutors tend to wait to send out a “target” letter until shortly before an indictment is issued. (Feel like pleading guilty? Now's your chance.) Former number two at the Interior Department J. Steven Griles was named a target in the Abramoff scandal in January; he pled guilty to lying to Congress in March. It’s not clear how entwined Stevens is in the investigation, which has already led to the indictment of four current and former state officials. Two top executives from the oil company at the heart of the controversy, Veco Corp., pled guilty to conspiracy and bribery charges this month. But, both the AP and the Anchorage Daily News mentioned a search in the ski-resort town of Girdwood, where Stevens’ newly doubled home sits. From The Anchorage Daily News:

The wide-ranging federal inquiry surfaced in August when agents raided six legislative offices, including those of then-Senate President Ben Stevens, one of Ted Stevens' sons. The FBI said at the time that it also had executed a search warrant in Girdwood, among other places, although the location of that search has never been officially disclosed.

The FBI hasn’t said what it searched, but the list of possibilities isn’t very long. Take a look at a map of Girdwood, population 2,000:

In a letter today, the Justice Department's Inspector General and head counsel for the Office of Professional Responsibility notified the Senate Judiciary Committee that their joint probe into the U.S. attorney firings had expanded to include a broad array of allegations "regarding improper political or other considerations in hiring decisions within the Department of Justice."

The expansion was first reported last week in the wake of Monica Goodling's testimony, but it was unclear just how wide a net investigators had cast. The letter reads:

"Among the issues that we intend to investigate are allegations regarding Monica Goodling's and others' actions in the DoJ hiring and personnel decisions; allegations concerning hiring for the DoJ Honors Program and Summer Law Intern Program; and allegations concerning hiring practices in the DoJ Civil Rights Division."

Goodling admitted last week to improperly taking political considerations into account in the hiring of assistant U.S. attorneys, immigration judges and appointments to the Board of Immigration Appeals. But the IG and OPR's investigation appears to go far beyond Goodling.

Allegations concerning political hiring for the Honors Program -- the Department's historically rigorous program for hiring entry-level lawyers -- have centered on Michael Elston, the chief of staff to the deputy attorney general. A group of anonymous Justice Department employees raised alarms with Congress last month, complaining that Elston rejected hundreds of potential applicants to the program last year seemingly based on their political backgrounds.

And Goodling also hasn't been implicated in allegedly political hiring practices in the Department's Civil Rights Division. Those allegations have centered on Bradley Schlozman, the former #2 at the division, who has been accused of recruiting Republicans for career spots and then asking them to scrub mentions of their GOP bona fides from their resumes. Schlozman subsequently was appointed as an interim U.S. attorney in Kansas City -- and returned to main Justice to work in the Executive Office of United States Attorneys after he was replaced by a Senate-confirmed U.S. attorney. He's scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee this coming Tuesday.

So it appears that the DoJ's internal investigation has a lot of ground to cover. The report will be made public upon its completion.

From McClatchy's interview with President Bush:

Q How central a role did Rove play in the U.S. attorney business? That's what everybody wants to know. Was he the main guy drawing up the list?

THE PRESIDENT: Just look at the facts as they've come out.

Q It's unclear.

THE PRESIDENT: There has been plenty of testimony, plenty of hearings, plenty of statements. And one thing is for certain, that there was no wrongdoing done. And --

McClatchy's Ron Hutcheson mercifully moved on to another topic.

The Wall Street Journal reports (sub. req.) that Timothy Griffin, the former aide to Karl Rove who became one of the most controversial figures in the U.S. attorney firing scandal, is in talks with Fred Thompson's presidential campaign:

Backers look for Fred Thompson to use a June 2 speech to Virginia Republicans to step closer toward the race. Thompson allies have had discussions with Tim Griffin, the Arkansas U.S. attorney and Rove protégé, about taking a top job with the campaign.

Griffin, of course, was installed as the U.S. attorney for Little Rock last year. Emails from Kyle Sampson have shown that the Justice Department and White House were plotting to use a little noticed provision in the USA PATRIOT Act Reauthorization Bill to keep Griffin in place throughout Bush's term without the need for Senate confirmation. Alberto Gonzales has somewhat unconvincingly disavowed the plan.

But when that scheme was revealed, Democrats successfully pushed for the law to be changed back to the way it was -- a final version passed the House last week. As a result of that, Griffin will be forced out of office in four months or so. Apparently Griffin isn't waiting around for that. The Arkansas Times blog cites sources saying that Griffin may leave the job shortly.

Bush is set to announce today the nomination of former deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick as head of the World Bank. (Associated Press)

The FBI and the Justice Department are investigating Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) and the remodeling of his home by contractors associated with the VECO corporation. (Associated Press)

Nevada has passed a law imposing controls and reporting requirements for the legal defense funds of public officials. The measure comes in large part as a response to the current lack of transparency of Governor Jim Gibbons’ nearly $200,000 fund. (Associated Press)

A panel of experts advised intelligence agencies yesterday that the country’s current methods of interrogation, including controversial enhanced techniques, are amateurish and unreliable. Instead, they suggest restructuring interrogation practices around current psychological findings, marketing techniques and the experience of homicide detectives. (NY Times)

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Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons’ run-ins with the FBI, a cocktail waitress, the Wall Street Journal and most recently his state’s legislature, have gotten the new governor’s tenure off to a “rocky start” The New York Times reports.

It looks like the Republican governor’s involvement in myriad scandals might be catching up with him. A recent Mason-Dixon poll cited by the Times showed Gibbons, who was sworn into office 12 seconds after midnight on New Year’s Eve (because of security concerns related to the execution of Saddam Hussein…), garners support from only 28% of voters.

Lately, Gibbons, under investigation for allegedly taking bribes while a member of the House, has taken heat for causing a state government shutdown. Gibbons threatened to veto the state’s $7 billion budget after the legislature denied his request for half a million dollars for an anti-terrorism hub in Carson City that would duplicate work already being done in Reno and Las Vegas.

In another unpopular move, Gibbons backed a tax program meant to encourage green buildings, but turned out to be so generous that companies could actually turn a profit. He later ended the program (except for four companies), just before telling the local editorial board he could not pronounce the name of his "Indian" energy adviser (she is Turkish).

Besides outlining Gibbons’ ongoing saga of scandal The New York Times also revisited how he defeated State Senator Dina Titus and got into office in the first place:

He took few strong policy positions in that campaign, and instead continually derided Ms. Titus — already an object of suspicion thanks to her Southern accent and tough-edged persona — as tax happy.

Among the more memorable campaign remarks made by Mr. Gibbons, a former combat pilot and veteran of both the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars, was his suggestion that “liberal, tree-hugging, Birkenstock-wearing, hippie, tie-dyed liberals” ought to be used as human shields in Iraq. It all played well with Mr. Gibbons’s base of voters in rural and Northern Nevada.

Similar tactics worked well for another fighter pilot turned politician, Duke Cunningham. And Cunningham, like Gibbons, enjoyed cozy relationships with defense contractors who he rewarded millions of dollars in classified contracts. You can bet Gibbons hopes the similiarities end here.

Last week, Monica Goodling revealed that she'd routinely placed Republicans in civil service spots, including immigration judge positions. As she was eventually forced to concede under hard questioning, doing that was against the law.

But it also became apparent that the practice was nothing new -- and that it dated at least back to 2004, before Goodling got involved. That's how people like Garry Malphrus, a former Brooks Brother rioter with no immigration experience, became a judge.

Today The Legal Times fills in the blanks. And as Jason McLure and Emma Schwartz plainly put it, "As with the replacement of U.S. attorneys, political appointees at the Justice Department appear to have trod upon department norms — and may have even broken federal law — to reward their own people with plum assignments."

The slide began during John Ashcroft's tenure, they report, when Ashcroft's aides got the idea. They went to the Office of Legal Counsel, the Department's internal legal advisor, for the go-ahead. And they got it.

That process of consultation, however, seems to have been oddly casual for such a shift in policy. According to a statement by Monica Goodling's lawyer, Kyle Sampson got an oral opinion from the then-head of the OLC that it was legal.

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When a presidential directive appeared on the White House’s Web site on May 9, seemingly expanding the president's powers after a catastrophic attack, readers began emailing us asking why there had been no uproar in the media or amongst civil liberties groups.

The consensus amongst experts seems to be that the directive, aimed at establishing "continuity of government" after a major disaster, is not new nor does the policy seem to expand executive power.

In fact, Mike German, the policy counsel to the ACLU’s Washington office told me that an executive continuity plan actually might “not be that bad of an idea.”

Executive power expert, NYU law professor David Golove, also sent me an email saying the directive didn’t appear to be a power grab.

National Security Presidential Directive 51 or Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20 is posted here. Have a look.

Presidential directives outlining how the executive branch will remain intact in the event of an emergency have been around since the Cold War. The directive posted this month is the first to be made public, to the best of German’s recollection. (A description of Clinton’s continuity directive is available here.) German called the release a positive sign, but said he urges the release of all previous directives so we can get a real sense of what has changed.

The concept of continuity of government applies to all branches of government. Christopher Kelleye, a presidency expert and political science professor at Miami University Ohio told me in an email that he didn’t see any new powers listed in the directive, but wondered why Congress hasn’t done the same thing.

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) jacked his house off the ground, inserted a new first story and placed the old first floor on top, thanks to the help of a top executive at local oil company Veco Corp. who hired at least one key contractor to complete the feat of a job. Veco is entwined in a broad federal investigation that has led to the indictment of four current and former Alaska politicians and ensnared former Alaska Senate President Ben Stevens, son of Ted Stevens. Local press concluded that Stevens was state "Senator B," listed in the charging documents of two former Veco Corp. executives who pled guilty to federal bribery and conspiracy charges, saying they gave the younger Stevens $242,000 in illegitimate consulting fees. Neither Stevens has been charged with a crime. It’s unclear how the senior Stevens’ home doubling is connected to the broader investigation, but the Feds are now eyeing the construction job according to the Anchorage Daily News , which noticed a line in the Veco executives’ plea bargains that could link the senator to the probe:

The sentence, preceded by a listing of a dozen Veco-related enterprises around the world, said: "Veco was not in the business of residential construction or remodeling."

Maybe they dabbled.

Congressional Democrats have been wary of dropping the “s” word so far in the simmering Justice Department probe.

Despite indications of possible criminal wrongdoing, Democrats have not called for a special prosecutor (necessary, given the inherent conflict of interest at the Justice Department). It looks like the majority party is holding out for the smoking gun.

That gun will probably lead to peripheral charges, Roll Call reports today:

“Obstruction, perjury, false statements —that’s always how these things get started,” said ethics attorney and former House counsel Stan Brand.

Brand pointed to the Watergate defendants, many of whom were charged with similar crimes.

“There were not many substantial offenses charged in most cases. That was a cover-up,” he said.

The strongest aroma has wafted off the Monica Goodling and Paul McNulty standoff. McNulty has reportedly told Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) that, in preparation briefings for his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Goodling withheld information about the White House's roles in the firings from him. And Goodling claimed last week in her testimony before the House Judiciary Committee that McNulty knew more about the U.S. Attorneys firings than he claimed during his testimony. McNulty flatly denies Goodlings accusation.

Three of the fired U.S. attorneys have also testified that they received calls from Michael Elston, chief of staff to the deputy attorney general, with the implicit threat to stay quiet about the firings or risk the reasons for their dismissals being made public.

Prosecutor-turned-politician Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) described the possible criminal violations that have surfaced so far saying:

“It is surprising how often a whiff of obstruction of justice has reared its head in the course of this investigation.”

Let’s see how long just a “whiff” lasts.

When asked about a presentation by Rove aide Scott Jennings, GSA administrator Lurita Doan claimed she could not remember the meeting because she was on her Blackberry the whole time. Not likely, says the Office of Special Counsel, who found that Doan received only nine emails during the entire day, the last arriving twenty minutes before the event. (Think Progress)

The search for emails continues, this time with Karl Rove’s personal mail. Senators Leahy (D-VT) and Specter (R-PA) asked Rove’s attorney on Friday for copies of emails given to Patrick Fitzgerald during the 2004 investigation of Scooter Libby. Rove’s lawyer sees no reason to comply, as conversations about replacing US Attorneys occurred after the emails in question. The senators aren’t convinced. (WSJ’s Washington Wire)

Wolfowitz explains the facts that led to his resigning from the World Bank: "I think it tells us more about the media than about the bank and I'll leave it at that." We are flattered. (USA TODAY)

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Of all the half-truths and distortions coming from the White House, President Bush's tendency to cite public support for his Iraq policy is among the most pernicious. And the Associated Press calls him on it in a lengthy piece this morning. For example:

[In a press conference last week], Bush said: "I recognize there are a handful there, or some, who just say, `Get out, you know, it's just not worth it. Let's just leave.' I strongly disagree with that attitude. Most Americans do as well."

In fact, polls show Americans do not disagree, and that leaving — not winning — is their main goal.

There are numerable other examples, such as Bush's line during the standoff with Congress over the Iraq funding bill that the Democrats' "failure to fund our troops... is unacceptable to me, and I believe it is unacceptable to the American people." Polls, of course, showed popular support for the Democrats' plan. (Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has sounded a similar line.)

But there's an explanation, the AP reports, for this clash between Bush's assertions and polling results:

Bush aides say poll questions are asked so many ways, and often so imprecisely, that it is impossible to conclude that most Americans really want to get out. Failure, Bush says, is not what the public wants — they just don't fully understand that that is just what they will get if troops are pulled out before the Iraqi government is capable of keeping the country stable on its own.

To which a polling expert replies:

Independent pollster Andrew Kohut said of the White House view: "I don't see what they're talking about."

"They want to know when American troops are going to leave," Kohut, director of the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, said of the public. "They certainly want to win. But their hopes have been dashed."

Kohut has found it notable that there's such a consensus in poll findings.

"When the public hasn't made up its mind or hasn't thought about things, there's a lot of variation in the polls," he said. "But there's a fair amount of agreement now."

But there are times when even the administration admits that the public support is not there -- for instance, the president's consistently and irrefutably abysmal approval rating. And at such times, Bush and others have backpedaled to a stance of aloofness, the president posing as a rock of judgment that won't be swayed by public whim: "If you make decisions based upon the latest opinion poll, you won't be thinking long-term strategy on behalf of the American people."

Or, as White House spokesman Tony Fratto put it in the case of Alberto Gonzales:

"It's important for any public official to have as much confidence as he can garner. And that's going to ebb and flow, but it will not ebb and flow with this President and this Attorney General."

So, in conclusion, the White House's attitude toward public opinion: claim public support for policies that do not have it; when challenged, explain that the public isn't really saying what it's saying; and when confronted with inarguable evidence of public disapproval, claim indifference. It's quite a dance.

(Ed. Note: We come across a number of local stories each week that just cry out for our attention, but since we confine our muckraking to the national level, we're forced to take a pass. No longer. Each weekend we'll be shining a bright light on the muckiest local muck of the week. Got an entry we should consider? Let us know. - PK)

A tight primary race, indictments of voter fraud and a squealing babysitter.

In the 27th State District of Virginia, Mike Tate (R) was indicted Monday on two counts of voter fraud and nine counts of perjury concerning previous campaign finance reports. Meanwhile, with the primary election only 18 days away, Tate's lawyer, Edward MacMahon Jr., is crying foul. "I find it outrageous that charges like this would be brought in the middle of a primary campaign, which has the effect of subverting the democratic process."

MacMahon is pointing fingers at Tate's Republican opponent Jill Holtzman Vogel, a former chief counsel for the RNC with strong ties to the Virginia Conservative Action PAC. After all, reason Tate supporters, the woman who brought the complaint to the attention of the Virginia State Board of Elections is a campaign volunteer for Vogel; the local Leesburg Today even reports that the whistleblower occasionally babysat Vogel's children. And the local prosecutor who initially handled the complaint supported Vogel last year, although the prosecutor recused himself from the investigation in February.

The coincidences don't stop there. Remember Jason Torchinsky from the American Center for Voting Rights? He shares an office with Jill Holtzman Vogel at the boutique Republican law firm Holztman Vogel. So the woman accused of trumping up cases of voter fraud works with a man whose think tank worked to spread misinformation about voter fraud. Coincidence? Maybe.

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Although Goodling hired career employees based on political preferences, officials within the Justice Department say she was following the example set early by the Bush administration. (Washington Post) The LA Times profiles some of those immigration judges with no background in immigration law but plenty in politics.

Newsweek offers the fullest account so far of Alberto Gonzales' and Andrew Card's now infamous hospital visit. Nearly 30 top DOJ officials were set to resign when the Justice Department's legal opinion on the surveillance program was ignored.

Slate points out that Monica Goodling played to the stereotype of the helpless little girl in her testimony, and it worked. Smashingly.

Bill and Hillary have been flying around the world courtesy of a longtime benefactor Vinod Gupta. A suit being filed by infoUSA claims that the $900,000 spent by Gupta jetting the Clintons around is a “serial misuse of corporate assets and resources.” Gupta also secured $3 million in contracts for former President Clinton to consult for his company. (Associated Press)

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On this Memorial Day, The New York Times spends time with some Army soldiers in Baghdad.

What the men of the Delta Company of the First Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division -- some of whom are on their third deployment of the war -- have to say is sadly predictable. But the resoluteness of the turn in their opinions of the war surprises.

In 2003 and 2004, they tell the Times, they felt confident in the mission. As one staff sergeant puts it, "In Mosul, in 2003, it felt like we were making the city a better place.... There was no sectarian violence, Saddam was gone, we were tracking down the bad guys. It felt awesome.”

But the soldiers have found it increasingly difficult to distinguish between good guys and bad guys. On one occasion, the soldiers killed a man setting a roadside bomb only to find that he was a sergeant in the Iraqi Army. On another occasion, a firefight with the Mahdi Army ended with finding two Iraqi Army soldiers among the dead insurgents. And the soldiers have noticed a disturbing pattern of IEDs showing up suspiciously close to Iraqi Army checkpoints. Staff Sgt. David Safstrom (who walked into a recrutiment office one week after 9/11) maintains a clear view of the situation:

“If we stayed here for 5, even 10 more years, the day we leave here these guys will go crazy.... It would go straight into a civil war. That’s how it feels, like we’re putting a Band-Aid on this country until we leave here.”

And another:

“In 2003, 2004, 100 percent of the soldiers wanted to be here, to fight this war,” said Sgt. First Class David Moore, a self-described “conservative Texas Republican” and platoon sergeant who strongly advocates an American withdrawal. “Now, 95 percent of my platoon agrees with me.”

And then, of course, there are the casualties. They continue to climb, representing a sacrifice that becomes less endurable the less hope there is in the war. For the first time, U.S. forces have suffered more than 100 fatalities for two months in a row. And to listen to the president speak, many more months lie ahead. Says another soldier:

As for his views on the war, Sergeant O’Flarity said, “I don’t believe we should be here in the middle of a civil war.”

“We’ve all lost friends over here,” he said. “Most of us don’t know what we’re fighting for anymore. We’re serving our country and friends, but the only reason we go out every day is for each other.”

“I don’t want any more of my guys to get hurt or die,” he continued. “If it was something I felt righteous about, maybe. But for this country and this conflict, no, it’s not worth it.”