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The Daily Muck
Some Ask if US Attorney Dismissals Point to Pattern of Investigating Democrats
“When a jury acquitted Carl J. Marlinga, a former county prosecutor from suburban Detroit, of bribery charges last year, his initial reaction was to write off the episode as a terrible mistake that at least had been corrected. ‘Prosecutors can make mistakes for innocent reasons,’ Mr. Marlinga said. ‘I know that first hand.’ But as he looks back at the case, Mr. Marlinga, 60, who was charged while he was a Democratic candidate for Congress, no longer has such confidence in the integrity of the legal system.” (NY Times)
US Top Court Refuses to Hear Guantanamo Case
"The US Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a case brought by two detainees at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, who were contesting the legality of the base's military courts. The court did not give any reason for refusing to hear the case, but said three of the nine judges had been in favor of proceeding with the hearing." (AFP)
Wolfowitz and Riza Struggle Under the Pressure
Paul D. Wolfowitz defended himself vigorously on Monday, declaring that it would be “unjust and frankly hypocritical” for the World Bank’s board to find him guilty of ethical lapses. But, according to the New York Times, he also hinted that he would discuss whether to resign as bank president if the board cleared him of misconduct. Meanwhile, his girlfriend Shaha Riza has taken what some have labeled a decidedly feminist defense of her situation. The Wall Street Journal reports that Riza, refused to use Wolfowitz's name in her recent didn’t use his name in her recent statement, referring to him only as “the new President."
DOJ Warns of Crime "Sanctuary"
"If the search of Rep. William Jefferson’s (D-LA) House office is deemed unconstitutional, such a ruling 'could not help but convert a Member’s office into a sanctuary for crime.' So the government argues in an April 2 brief that previews its legal strategy for gaining access to more than 20,000 paper records and computer files seized in the controversial and unprecedented May 2006 search of Jefferson’s House office building." (Roll Call)
Ethics Reexamines Renzi's Finances
"Signaling that the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct may be probing the activities of Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ), a senior ethics aide pulled the embattled lawmaker’s financial disclosure records on April 19 — the same day the FBI raided Renzi’s family business in Sonoita, AZ. The top committee aide to ethics ranking member Doc Hastings (R-WA), Todd Ungerecht, pulled all of Renzi’s annual financial disclosure records from 2003 to 2006, according to records available at the House’s Legislative Resource Center." (Roll Call)
A Bush Appointee Goes After the White House
"At first glance, Scott J. Bloch seems to fit the profile of the "loyal Bushie," the kind of person the White House salted through the Washington bureaucracy to make sure federal agencies heeded administration priorities. But Bloch, 48, is a man who defies expectations. The lifelong Republican runs an agency — the Office of Special Counsel — that is turning its investigative spotlight on the White House, in particular the political operation headed by Karl Rove." (LA Times)
House Oversight Panel May Look Past Rice, Tenet to Inquiry into Uranium
"Following a subpoena to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a letter to former CIA Director George Tenet last week, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee may cast an even wider net in its probe into why the administration made false pre-war claims that Iraq was seeking to acquire uranium from Niger. The panel’s chairman, Henry Waxman (D-CA), said last Thursday that the panel had not yet made a decision on how many more individuals it would contact, but indicated that he may consider it." (Roll Call)
Panel to Probe Handling of Foreign Aid for Katrina
"The Senate homeland security committee plans to hold hearings this summer on the Bush administration's handling of offers of foreign aid after Hurricane Katrina, senators said yesterday. Of $854 million offered after the storm -- in cash and oil that was to be sold for cash -- only $44 million has gone to disaster victims or reconstruction so far." (Washington Post)
Senators Question Halliburton Executive About Dealings in Iran
"A Halliburton executive, facing withering criticism from Democratic lawmakers during a Senate hearing on Monday about the company’s business dealings in Iran, insisted that the firm had not broken any laws. The official, Sherry Williams, a Halliburton vice president and corporate secretary, said the company had consulted several law firms in 1995 after sanctions were imposed on Iran. Officials of the company, which recently announced it was moving its chief executive from Houston to Dubai and establishing a corporate headquarters there, determined that it was legal for independent foreign subsidiaries of United States companies to do business there, she said." (NY Times)
Josh
Zachary
The Times might have mentioned that at the local level (beneath the radar of the national media) prosecutions of Democrats outnumbered prosecutions of Republicans something like 7 to 1.
May 1, 2007 9:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
By appointing political operatives, commissars, for the purpose of overseeing the DoJ is proof that the Republican party[the 2nd thousand year Reich]with the Bush maladministration is establishing a sovietfascist government where all decision are political.
May 1, 2007 9:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
There's so much irony in bush's comments that wolfie should have an opportunity to defend himself. What about all those poor folks at Gitmo, whose defense attorneys should not even be allowed to see them?
The double standards are so glaring, the perfidy and wrong-doing so great, that I go from numb to white hot anger several times a day.
The criminal conspiracy beneath all of this is just mind-boggling.
And the word is "desire." And how I desire for all the criminals to be prosecuted and for our constitution to be protected once again.
May 1, 2007 10:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
What John Emerson said. The Times article is missing a critical bit of context, the academic study that found a massive partisan tilt to local prosecutions:
"Donald Shields and John Cragan, two professors of communication, have compiled a database of investigations and/or indictments of candidates and elected officials by U.S. attorneys since the Bush administration came to power. Of the 375 cases they identified, 10 involved independents, 67 involved Republicans, and 298 involved Democrats. The main source of this partisan tilt was a huge disparity in investigations of local politicians, in which Democrats were seven times as likely as Republicans to face Justice Department scrutiny."
Source:
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F40914F939550C7A8CDDAA0894DF404482
Link to study:
http://www.epluribusmedia.org/columns/2007/20070212_political_profiling.html
May 1, 2007 10:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Re Katrina foreign aid - What the WaPo doesn't say is that Kuwait pledged $500 million and Qatar pledged $100 million of the total $854 million pledged.
The $600 million in Katrina aid pledged by Kuwaiti and Qatar was just a publicity stunt? Nice.
May 1, 2007 10:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Any of you who have seen the video "Bush's Brain" or have read the book on which it is based will recognize the pattern here. From his early days with Bush in Texas, Karl Rove has intentionally targeted rising stars in the Democratic party and singled them out for "bogus prosecutions." The clear purpose of this has been to "destroy" the opposition. It worked in Texas. I live in Minnesota and have been active in local Democratic politics. I am convinced this was the plan for Minnesota in the last election also. Republicans targeted the majority leader of the Minnesota Senate (Dean Johnson, a Democrat) and the attorney general (Mike Hatch) who was running for governor.
Both of these two were defeated due to the targeting by Rove and the Republican party. There also was a "dust up" during the campaign involving an alleged breach of a Republican web site by a campaign worker for Amy Klobuchar (the Democratic candidate and now Senator from Minnesota). That "dust up" had eerie similarities to another incident in "Bush's Brain" where Karl Rove seems to have planted a bug in his own office and then claimed to have been wire tapped by his political opponents. The strategy did not work in Minnesota, even though both Dean Johnson and Mike Hatch were defeated. There also have been several prosecutions in federal court of local Democratic politicians. Fortunately, there were so many young Democratic candidates in the last election that Deomorats took over both the the state House and Senate as well as all of the state-wide constitutional offices, except for that of governor. It doesn't surprise me that the USA position in Minnesota is one of those that is now being investigated. Karl Rove made several trips to Minnesota during the last election cycle. I am sure there was a plan. It just was not as successful as Rove and the DOJ had hoped.
May 1, 2007 10:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
At first glance, Scott J. Bloch seems to fit the profile of the "loyal Bushie," the kind of person the White House salted through the Washington bureaucracy to make sure federal agencies heeded administration priorities.
No buts, Bloch definitely is a "loyal bushie" and the LAT cannot change that. Bloch himself is under investigation for exactly the same dirty tricks in his department he's "investigating" Rove about! Geez, you'd think they would know that.
May 1, 2007 11:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
Scott J. Bloch is getting on my nerves. I've been writing about him at the TPM Cafe (link below) and every day, Bloch's relationship with filmmaker, Tim De Paepe, becomes murkier.
Tim De Paepe apparently has been working on a documentary about Scott Bloch's grandfather, a noted artist, for several years. De Paepe is best known for his 2001, documentary about gay life in Kansas, "Shades of Gray."
In his bio submitted to a Senate committee in 2003, Bloch said he was a "passive investor" in Templeton Productions, a company Bloch founded in 1998 to produce the documentary about his grandfather. But in April 2002, Templeton told the Lawrence World-Journal that he was the executive producer of the film.
Bloch also told the senate committee in 2003 that the documentary was almost finished but three years later, the LA Times reports that Bloch and De Paepe are still working on it together.
De Paepe told the LA Times that he didn't think Bloch was homophobic and that Bloch had approached him about supporting "Shades of Gray."
Did Bloch, in fact, support "Shades of Gray" which is considered pro-gay by the gay community? Was that why Templeton Productions was first formed?
How is the documentary about Bloch's grandfather being financed?
Something is off about this story.
May 1, 2007 11:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Panel to Probe Handling of Foreign Aid for Katrina"
This one is a non sarter! Joe Lieberman heads up that committee with Susan Collins (anything you say Joe is just peachy kean with me)of Maine as the minirity leader. Having watched Joe and Sue in action during the past couple of years I seriously doubt that they are going to give this much more than a wink and a nod. They certainly won't be willing to look into something that may put this incompetent administration in bad light.
May 1, 2007 12:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Some ask if this headline insinuates that some doubt there was a pattern.
I find the code word game silly, but "smell" sure seems appropriate right now.
May 1, 2007 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
'I didn't break any laws." That seems to be the standard defense for all these clowns. Apparently it never occured to any of them that 'do the right thing' is a better way to operate.
May 1, 2007 1:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
This could be nothing, but we should keep up with the ever-growing list of resignations now:
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Another_top_Rice_aide_quits_04302007.html
Another top Rice aide quits
AFP
Published: Monday April 30, 2007
A top human rights adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced his resignation Monday, the latest in a string of senior State Department officials to quit as the administration of President George W. Bush winds to a close.
Barry Lowenkron, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, will leave within weeks to become a vice president with the MacArthur Foundation, a private grant-making enterprise, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
The departure of Lowenkron, who notably oversaw the State Department's annual human rights report, was announced just three days after the surprise resignation of one of Rice's two deputies, foreign aid director Randall Tobias.
Tobias quit on Friday after being named in the media as a client of a Washington DC call-girl ring.
Rice has lost a string of senior aides in recent months, beginning with her former top deputy, Robert Zoellick, who left last year to work for a Wall Street investment bank.
Her counselor, Philip Zelikow, resigned in January to return to teaching and the State Department's planning director, Stephen Krasner, quit in March.
The State Department's two highest profile hawks, former UN ambassador John Bolton and non-proliferation chief Bob Joseph, also left earlier this year and have since sniped at Rice's willingness to negotiate a disarmament deal with North Korea.
A senior State Department official indicated that the spate of resignations could continue as Bush nears the end of his mandate in January 2009.
"It's only natural as you get towards the end of the second term that people are going to be moving on," he said. "The secretary understands."
May 1, 2007 2:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
"A senior State Department official indicated that the spate of resignations could continue as Bush nears the end of his mandate in January 2009."
What mandate?
May 2, 2007 6:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hello
Nice work from your side... have a nice time with yoru blog :)
G'night
January 11, 2008 12:51 AM | Reply | Permalink