Signing Off

Paul Kiel | May 16, 2008, 6:41PM

As Josh writes, just short of my three thousandth post at TPMm I am raising my rake and roaming on to other mucky pastures.

One thing I've learned here at TPM is to appreciate Josh's ability to put things better than I could. And in his typically generous spirit, he has.

But I also wanted to take a moment to thank the thousands of TPM readers who have commented on posts, sent in tips, or joined me on doc dump dives, and especially those special few dogged readers (you know who you are) whose muckraking have managed to regularly make me look good on countless occasions. There are a number of things that make working at TPM unique and special, but the experience of such an engaged and intelligent readership has impressed me the most.

I hope you'll check in at ProPublica next month. But you can be sure that TPMm won't miss a beat.

Hans von Spakovsky

Breaking: Spakovsky Withdraws as FEC Nominee

Paul Kiel | May 16, 2008, 5:10PM

After a five-month standoff, Hans von Spakovsky has withdrawn his name as a nominee to the FEC. The move likely clears the way for the deadlock over the FEC to be resolved.

You can read his resignation here.

"It is with regret that I write to request that you withdraw my nomination," Spakovsky wrote in a letter to the President today. In his letter, Spakovsky explains that Democrats' opposition to his nomination has caused a battle that has been "extremely hard on my family and quite frankly, we do not have the financial resources to continue to wait until this matter is resolved."

Democrats have opposed Spakovsky's nomination ever since last year, but it was the opposition of Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Russ Feingold (D-WI), who refused to allow any vote on the nominees together, that ultimately led to his withdrawal. Republicans, on the other hand, refused to allow Spakovsky to be voted on separately.

To remind you of some of the lowlights of Spakovsky's career at the Justice Department: his attempt to disenfranchise thousands of voters in Arizona singlehandedly (and then his false testimony to Congress about that), his petty attempts to retaliate against Department employees who did not agree with his legal philosophy (and his contested testimony about that), and his advisory letters that led to restrictive voter roll policies in a number of states.

Update: Rick Hasen on where things go from here.

Later Update: Reid's response:

Read more »

Iraq

Obama Calls for Investigation of VA Cost-Cutting PTSD Diagnoses

Paul Kiel | May 16, 2008, 2:06PM

Yesterday, CREW and VoteVets.org released an email from a FOIA request that showed an employee in the Veterans Administration "suggesting" that staff ought to "refrain from giving a diagnosis of [Post Traumatic Stress Disorder] straight out" to "compensation seeking veterans" and that VA staff members "really don't . . . have time to do the extensive testing that should be done to determine PTSD."

The Washington Post identified the official in a story this morning as Norma Perez, a psychologist who helps lead the PTSD program at the Department of Veterans Affairs' Olin E. Teague Veterans' Center in Temple, Texas. The VA responded that it was simple Perez's bad idea:

Veterans Affairs Secretary James B. Peake said in a statement that Perez's e-mail was "inappropriate" and does not reflect VA policy. It has been "repudiated at the highest level of our health care organization," he said.

"VA's leadership will strongly remind all medical staff that trust, accuracy and transparency is paramount to maintaining our relationships with our veteran patients," Peake said.

Peake said Perez has been "counseled" and is "extremely apologetic." Aikele said Perez remains in her job.

But Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) picking up the torch, is not reassured. And in a letter to Peake today, he calls for an investigation of the email, whether Perez's suggestion was followed, and a look at the numbers of PTSD diagnoses to see whether it really was so isolated of an occurrence. The letter is below.

Read more »

Iraq

McClatchy: U.S. Ditched Chalabi to Satisfy Maliki

Paul Kiel | May 16, 2008, 12:48PM

Yesterday, NBC reported that the U.S. had finally cut off ties to Ahmed Chalabi because of "unauthorized" contacts with Iranian officials. Newsweek reported the same today, but said that Nouri al-Maliki's government had acted first. McClatchy's take is even clearer:

A State Department official said that this time the U.S. cut off Chalabi, who was appointed in September to head Maliki's Services Committee, which is meant to help usher services into communities after they're secured by U.S. and Iraqi troops, in deference to Maliki.

"Maliki has effectively de-horsed him and asked us to maintain a similar position," said the official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive interchanges with the Iraqi government. "My sense is that Maliki wants to marginalize and diminish Chalabi because he sees him as a pretender to the throne."

Iraq Contractors

Feds Probing Drunken Blackwater Shooting

Paul Kiel | May 16, 2008, 11:38AM

Nearly a year and a half after the incident, the Justice Department has sent a team to investigate a former Blackwater contractor for drunkenly gunning down a bodyguard to Iraqi Vice President Adil Abd-al-Mahdi on Christmas Eve, 2006.

To refresh your memory on this singularly ugly case: after the shooting, Blackwater and the State Department got together to hustle the contractor, Andrew Moonen, out of Iraq (when Blackwater CEO Erik Prince was asked about this, he replied, "It could easily be.").

Part of the effort to keep the thing under wraps was a payment to the victim's family. Emails showed that when U.S. Embassy officials suggested either $100,000 or $250,000, a State diplomatic-security official countered with $15,000. The figure needed to be lower, the diplomatic-security official contended, so Iraqis wouldn't "try to get killed to set up their family financially."

And they managed to keep the thing so quiet that Moonen soon went back to Iraq working for another contractor.

But now prosecutors have evidently determined that the law will allow them to charge Moonen. They say they'll reach a decision at the end of the summer. Don't confuse this case with the Nisour Square shooting -- the Justice Department is also investigating that incident, and a handful of contractors are reportedly still on the hook.

The Daily Muck

The Daily Muck

John Amick | May 16, 2008, 10:44AM

The practice of outsourcing defense operations in Iraq and Afghanistan includes another wrinkle, the House Oversight Committee reported Thursday. While the pertinent government agencies have set rates with a single carrier, the Pentagon has allowed the contractors to negotiate their own insurance deals, causing massive markups that taxpayers inherit. (Associated Press)

Following the recent resignation of two staffers of Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) campaign team due to their ties to lobbying for a dictatorship, Republican consultant Craig Shirley has been asked to leave the campaign now after Politico found Shirley working for a '527' group in opposition to Democratic presidential candidates. McCain hired Shirley's firm, Shirley & Bannister Associates, for $22,000 earlier this year to drum up Republican support. Shirley has received over $155,000 since 2007 from Stop Her Now, the '527', for public relations work. (Politico)

The Bush administration cut ties with Iraq war-pusher Ahmed Chalabi this week ... again. He was removed from his post in the Iraqi government for his connections to Iranian officials. But is he really gone for good? (Newsweek)

Read more »

Global Warming

Today's Must Read

Paul Kiel | May 16, 2008, 10:16AM

For those who've been watching the Environmental Protection Agency under the Bush administration, you're familiar with the following pattern: the EPA, over the objection of its own scientists, issues a new rule that weakens environmental controls, but when pressed for an explanation, EPA officials explain that the new rule has nothing to do with easing the restrictions on polluters. No -- the change is merely a clarification, or a technical fix to some nonsense bureaucratic rule, or the inescapable conclusion drawn from a sober appraisal of the law.

And here we go again. Here's the rule change (note the dissent from EPA scientists):

The Bush administration is on the verge of implementing new air quality rules that will make it easier to build power plants near national parks and wilderness areas, according to rank-and-file agency scientists and park managers who oppose the plan.

The new regulations, which are likely to be finalized this summer, rewrite a provision of the Clean Air Act that applies to "Class 1 areas," federal lands that currently have the highest level of protection under the law. Opponents predict the changes will worsen visibility at many of the nation's most prized tourist destinations, including Virginia's Shenandoah, Colorado's Mesa Verde and North Dakota's Theodore Roosevelt national parks.

And here is the explanation -- from a former EPA official who has departed to head the the environmental strategies group at the law firm Bracewell & Giuliani (yes, that Giuliani) no less:

Jeffrey R. Holmstead... helped initiate the rule change while heading the EPA's air and radiation office. He said agency officials became concerned that the EPA's scientific staff was taking "the most conservative approach" in predicting how much pollution new power plants would produce.

"The question from a policy perspective was: Do you need to have models based on the absolute worst-case conditions that were unlikely to ever occur in the real world?" Holmstead said in an interview Thursday. "This has to do with what [modeling] assumptions you're required to do. This is really a legal issue and a policy issue."

The new rule changes how pollution levels in parks are measured -- instead of frequent measures, the new rule "would average the levels over a year so that spikes in pollution levels would not violate the law." Just a common sense fix, you might say. But as one environmental advocate explains, "It's like if you're pulled over by a cop for going 75 miles per hour in a 55 miles-per-hour zone, and you say, 'If you look at how I've driven all year, I've averaged 55 miles per hour.'"

It looks like the EPA is really competing to not only be the most politicized of the agencies in the Bush Administration, but also to create the most lasting damage.

Karl Rove

Conyers on Rove: "Someone's Got to Kick His Ass"

Paul Kiel | May 15, 2008, 2:44PM

House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers (D-MI) forgot to keep his voice down when there are reporters present:

Just off the House floor today, the Crypt overheard House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers tell two other people: "We're closing in on Rove. Someone's got to kick his ass."

Asked a few minutes later for a more official explanation, Conyers told us that Rove has a week to appear before his committee. If he doesn't, said Conyers, "We'll do what any self-respecting committee would do. We'd hold him in contempt. Either that or go and have him arrested."

The chairman seems to have been having fire for breakfast lately, pursuing the testimony -- with the threat of a subpoena -- of a number of former administration figures, including Dick Cheney's consigliere David Addington. And of course he's also been pursuing Rove to testify about the prosecution of ex-Gov. Don Siegelman (D-AL). Yesterday, in somewhat more diplomatic language, Conyers refused Rove's offer to testify in writing.

Don Young

Young's Defense Fund Nets $0

Paul Kiel | May 15, 2008, 12:16PM

When you've got lawyers gobbling up $1 million plus in fees, you need all the help you can get. And in January, Rep. Don Young (R-AK) opened up a legal defense fund to help stop the bleeding. He was forced to pay out more in legal fees from his campaign account than he was able to raise in the first quarter of this year.

But through March of this year, a disclosure report for the fund shows, no one had contributed to the fund.

It's been a pretty dismal year for Young so far -- what with drawing a surprise primary challenge from the lieutenant governor and the drumbeat of bad press. The only bright spot has been Democrat Jake Metcalfe's ("Jake the Snake," Young calls him) departure from the race due to his aide's alleged role in rigging up fake websites to ridicule fellow Dem candidate Ethan Berkowitz.

John McCain

McCain to Vet Aides "More Thoroughly" for Lobbying Ties

Paul Kiel | May 15, 2008, 11:24AM

McCain is rolling out a new way of doing things -- instead of reacting to news stories that point out the fact that his advisors are lobbying for clients in opposition to his stated policies, he's going to root such contradictions out himself:

Sen. John McCain said today that his campaign will do a better job scrutinizing the people who work for it, given the resignation of two officials who had ties to a firm representing Myanmar's military junta....

"People will be thoroughly, more thoroughly, vetted and we'll make sure that that is the case."

He specifically referred to the two people who were tied to Myanmar--Doug Davenport, a regional campaign director for Mid-Atlantic states, and Doug Goodyear, who was slated to run the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., this summer.

"We found out that these two individuals had represented that country and so they left. We will vet everyone very seriously to make sure there's not a repetition," McCain told reporters.

The Daily Muck

The Daily Muck

John Amick | May 15, 2008, 10:39AM

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, Allen Raymond, former Republican consultant connected to the 2002 Election Day phone-jamming controversy in New Hampshire, said the White House had no knowledge of the plot. The scandal has led to at least three criminal prosecutions and a $135,000-lawsuit settled between Republicans and Democrats.(Associated Press)

The top defender in Supreme Court cases of the Bush administration's policies toward legal rights of Gitmo prisoners is resigning after nearly three years at the post. Solicitor General Paul Clement argued before the Supreme Court that the detainees are not allowed rights to prove their innocence, backing the administration's view to abolish habeas corpus rights for all terrorism suspects. (Reuters)

Head of analysis for all U.S. spy agencies Thomas Fingar spent years compiling an intelligence report on Iran and the country's nuclear goals. Just before his report was to be released last summer, new intelligence offered a view different from Fingar's, that Iran was no longer seeking a nuclear program, undermining the Bush administration's hard line on Tehran and underscoring the murky lines that separate politics and intelligence. (LA Times)

Read more »

Must Read

Today's Must Read

Paul Kiel | May 15, 2008, 10:09AM

OK, that's it! Let no one say that the administration has not handled the situation with its typical forbearance and caution. Other, rasher leaders would have shunned Ahmad Chalabi after it became apparent that his network of informants were liars and that he could not be trusted. But the U.S. has not been overly swift to act. Sure, there were suspicions that he had passed classified information to Iran, but this is not a group that rushes to judgment.

Now, however, the straw has finally broken the camel's back:

Sources in Baghdad tell NBC News that as of this week American military and civilian officials have cut off all contact with controversial Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi, the former favorite of Washington's once powerful neoconservatives.

The reason, the sources say, is "unauthorized" contacts with Iran's government, an allegation Chalabi denies. Iran has been accused of arming and training rebel Shiite forces in Iraq....

Since September 2007... American military officials and civilian officials working out of the U.S. Embassy had contacts with Chalabi. At that time he was installed as the head of a "services" committee for Baghdad that was to coordinate the restoration of services to the city's residents.

Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the Multi-National Forces-Iraq, even escorted Chalabi on a trip, on U.S. helicopters, to address reconstruction issues. And American officials attended meetings with him and supported his efforts.

Call it tough love.

Note: By the Charlie Black code of lobbying, it is now not OK to lobby for Ahmed Chalabi.

All Muck is Local

Ohio AG Marc Dann Resigns

Paul Kiel | May 14, 2008, 5:12PM

Finally. All it took was almost every Democrat in the state House supporting his impeachment and a new investigation by the state's inspector general that involved a raid of his office.

Relive the memories here.

John McCain

When Lobbying for Dictators Is OK

Paul Kiel | May 14, 2008, 3:20PM

The McCain campaign has provided an ongoing tutorial in the subtle ethics of lobbying. For instance, you might think that a politician who professes to be abhorred by special interests would not surround himself with lobbyists. Not so. What a politician can be drowning in lobbyists -- what matters is his integrity. And for that, you'll just have to take his word.

Charlie Black, McCain's campaign chairman and a veteran lobbyist, provides another tutorial today. Some have criticized the McCain camp for keeping Black while other McCain campaign officials have had to resign for their lobbying on behalf of Myanmar's ruling junta. Black lobbied for plenty of shady characters, they say, including Ferdinand Marcos and Jonas Savimbi. But Black has an answer for that. He has a code:

Black said he never took on work for foreign figures "without first talking to the State Department and the White House and clearing with them that the work would be in the interest of U.S. foreign policy."

For instance, he said, the U.S. considered Marcos an ally when his firm took on work for his government, and "when the White House pulled the plug on Marcos, we resigned the account the same day," Black said. He said his firm was hired to help show [Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire] how to form political parties and conduct elections, and when Mobutu canceled the results of the parliamentary election, "we quit."

This rule would surely also cover Black's work for Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, which provided much of the dubious evidence that formed the administration's case for war with Iraq, and the Lincoln Group, the State Department contractor that was hired to plant stories in the Iraqi press. So I guess there's no problem with that.

John McCain

Judge: Dems Must Wait until June to File Suit against McCain

Paul Kiel | May 14, 2008, 3:10PM

Back in February, the Democratic National Committee filed a complaint against the McCain campaign for violating the spending limits for the primary public financing system (explanation of that mess here). Since the FEC is defunct, the DNC then had to go to court to get some action.

Today, the district court in D.C. came to its decision -- for now, at least. The court has ruled that the law is clear that the DNC must wait 120 days after filing their FEC complaint before going to court. So this suit was dismissed, and the DNC must wait until June before they can go back to court. The judge didn't even consider the merits of the case, which will have to wait until June. Meanwhile, McCain continues to spend far beyond the spending limits of the program.

Don Siegelman

Conyers to Rove: No

Paul Kiel | May 14, 2008, 2:46PM

House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers' (D-MI) response to Karl Rove's offer to testify by letter: Nope.

The committee wants Rove to testify about his role in the prosecution of ex-Gov. Don Siegelman (D-AL), but Rove has refused to appear for a hearing, instead offering to speak privately with staff off the record. He modified that offer to testify by letter.

But Conyers says that's a no-go. If Rove is willing to create a record with a letter, he argues, then there's no reason why he shouldn't be willing to sit down with staff for an on-the-record interview. Conyers says the committee is prepared to offer "other possible accommodations, such as providing a list of initial questions that may be asked," but there must be a live interview and a transcript. Conyers again mentions the possibility of a subpoena should talks break down.

So now the ball is in Rove's court.

Read more »

Elliot Spitzer

Emperor's Club V.I.P. Booker Pleads Guilty

Paul Kiel | May 14, 2008, 12:57PM

One of the four people who have been charged for having run the Emperor's Club -- the prostitution ring that ensnared Eliot Spitzer -- has pleaded guilty to prostitution and money laundering charges. The others are likely to follow, The New York Times reports. What does this mean for Spitzer? It's too early to tell. But we'll likely know soon enough.

New Hampshire Phone Jamming

New Hampshire Phone Jamming: The Movie!

Paul Kiel | May 14, 2008, 12:31PM

Today at two, convicted New Hampshire phone jammer and author Allen Raymond will testify before the House Judiciary Committee as part of its ongoing probe into the 2002 crime.

They keep on asking questions because they have gone unanswered. As Raymond laid it out in How To Rig An Election, he doesn't buy the story that Jim Tobin, the former Republican National Committee official who was convicted for his part in arranging the jamming, didn't confer with his higher-ups in the RNC and the White House about the scheme. And since he personally urged well-connected Republicans to snuff the Justice Department's investigation, he certainly doesn't think it's far-fetched that they took his advice.

Your quick refresher on the details of the scheme: Charles McGee, then the executive director of the New Hampshire GOP, was the one who had the genius idea of jamming Democratic phone lines on Election Day. He called Jim Tobin, the New England Regional Director of the RNC, to ask for help implementing it. Tobin then called Raymond, whom he knew from working on the 2000 Steve Forbes campaign and who ran a telemarketing consulting firm, to see if he could do the job. Raymond said he could, and things went on from there.

After the jamming came to light in early 2003, it took until after the 2004 elections for Tobin was finally indicted. Democrats have alleged that the probe was slow-rolled and stifled by an inadequate devotion of resources at the FBI.

Despite the fact that the Justice Department has so far stonewalled the committee's requests for information and documents about the probe, they are trying to keep it in the public eye with a hearing today.

And they might get some help on that score from Hollywood. The AP reported over the weekend that Billy Ray, the writer and director of Shattered Glass, is working on an adaptation of Raymond's book.

Allow me to make some casting suggestions. Jon Voight as Jim Tobin, I'd say. Philip Seymour Hoffman would be a strong choice to play McGee (he's pictured to the left there). Paul Giamatti as Raymond. And maybe Josh could be persuaded to play himself.

The Daily Muck

The Daily Muck

John Amick | May 14, 2008, 10:24AM

The Washington Post's extensive four-part series on the shoddy health care provided to imprisoned illegal immigrants ends today with a look into the drugging of detainees, oftentimes for no medical reason. (Washington Post)

The Detroit City Council narrowly voted to begin the removal of embattled Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick Tuesday. The measure, passing by one vote, asks the governor to force Kilpatrick out as the council simultaneously moves to do the same. (Detroit Free Press)

Another legacy of the Bush administration: Using federal agency bureaucrats to propose or adopt rules limiting lawsuits, circumventing an unfriendly Congress and the public's watchful eye. (Associated Press)

Read more »

Must Read

Today's Must Read

Paul Kiel | May 14, 2008, 10:09AM

You'd think that an Iraqi anti-corruption crusader who testified before Congress about his travails would find no great difficulty in obtaining asylum in the United States. You'd think the U.S. would be grateful for the news that $18 billion worth of corruption had virtually "stopped" reconstruction in Iraq. But not so much.

Former State Department officials told Congress earlier this week that, though Radhi Hamza al-Radhi, the former head of the Iraqi Commission on Public Integrity, was able to get access into the U.S., he is not allowed to work and is living hand to mouth. Why has he fallen through the cracks?

It's always a toss-up between negligence/incompetence and malfeasance with this administration. On the negligence side of things, you have the disastrously impenetrable immigration system, which has allowed so few Iraqis to come to the U.S. As The New York Times reports today, U.S. soldiers have actually set up organizations to help their interpreters gain asylum, since the Iraqis, even though they face certain threat of death for collaborating with American forces, cannot navigate the system on their own. As one Army captain tells it, interpreters are required to produce a letter from a general, which he said was "like a junior associate at a Fortune 500 company asking the chief executive for a letter of recommendation."

But then there's the malfeasance side of things. One of the former officials testified that "a senior State Department official had ordered agency employees not to give al Radhi references or contact him" for help with his asylum.

That might have a lot to do with the trouble that Radhi gave Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the administration. Like pointing out that corruption ran rampant under Maliki and that he'd jiggered the system so that corruption judges could not bring charges against any of his senior officials without his approval -- that was a decree on which Secretary of State Rice refused to pass judgment when she testified late last year. Rice also refused to comment on Radhi's many accusations.

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) declared at the hearing early this week that he is "going to ask the State Department what in the hell are they thinking." Somehow I don't think Rice will be any more forthcoming this time around.

Torture

Yoo: Impeach Bush? Why Not?

Paul Kiel | May 13, 2008, 5:54PM

Esquire has posted the transcript of its wide ranging interview with former Justice Department official John Yoo. While Yoo is best known for his time at the Justice Department crafting jaw-dropping legal opinions authorizing torture, the interview shows that he harbors some unexpected opinions. For instance, who knew that the guy who gave the legal green light to the administration to pursue their most controversial policies takes a broad view of impeachment and Congressional oversight?

This is from the interview, where Yoo is speaking about his time as the general counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee under Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) during the late 1990s:

Read more »

All Muck is Local

Reports: Dannimal Negotiating Resignation

Paul Kiel | May 13, 2008, 5:22PM

Both The Columbus Dispatch and Cleveland Plain Dealer report that it's just a matter of time before Ohio AG Marc Dann steps down.

Apparently it wasn't the Dems impeachment filing that is driving him out, but Republicans' attempt to launch an investigation by Ohio's inspector general. He reportedly has offered to resign if Dem legislators blocked the bill: another investigation he does not need.

Surveillance

Senate GOPer Hatching Secret White House Wiretapping Compromise

Paul Kiel | May 13, 2008, 5:06PM

It's time for your surveillance bill update. Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) says that he's drafted a compromise on retroactive immunity for the telecoms. How does it bridge the gap between the House Dems, who refuse to wipe away the forty or so lawsuits against the telecoms for collaborating with the administration's wireless wiretapping program, and the White House, who refuse to pass any surveillance bill without such a measure?

Well, he's not saying, although he's dropping some hints:

"I think we've come up with some things that would involve the court, but not get to a position where it would endanger the program or the carriers."...

Bond said the language, drafted with White House consent, represented a "new provision we've come up with" on immunity. He would not give details other than to say that the FISA court would have a role. It is unclear whether the new approach will gain approval from Democratic leaders and negotiators.

Bond says that the measure is not the one that was offered by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) that would have directed the secret FISA court to have determined whether the telecoms had followed the law or participated "in good faith with an objectively reasonable belief that such assistance was lawful." Most Democrats supported that, but all Republicans except Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) didn't. Since Bond says that his solution doesn't "endanger" the telecoms, one would think that his proposed solution would be even less risky than having the secret court make a determination as to whether the telecoms really believed they had legal cover. I can't wait to see it.

Meanwhile, The Hill also reports that Bond is negotiating directly with Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD). It's unclear as of yet whether Hoyer is amenable to Bond's offer, but they're talking.

All Muck is Local

Ohio Dems Impeach The Dannimal

Paul Kiel | May 13, 2008, 2:40PM

Last week, I did a complete rundown of the incredibly sordid case of Ohio Attorney General Mark Dann (D). Democrats, though united in their desire for Dann to resign, had not quite arrived at impeachment as the solution. As one lawmaker put it, it wasn't clear if Dann's transgressions had gone beyond "being stupid."

Well, with Dann continuing to refuse to step down, Democrats have united on impeachment as the solution. This morning, they filed articles of impeachment in Ohio's House, with 42 of the 45 Dems supporting the nine counts.

Karl Rove

Rove to Congress: Let's Be Pen Pals

Paul Kiel | May 13, 2008, 1:55PM

The House Judiciary Committee wants Karl Rove to testify about what he knows about the prosecution of ex-Gov. Don Siegelman (D-AL). Rove doesn't want to testify. Conyers has threatened to seek a subpoena, and in response, Rove's lawyer made an offer for a compromise yesterday.

It was somewhat of an improvement on Rove's preliminary offer, which was a private interview with no transcript or oath and with strictly defined parameters. The new offer is that he will testify in writing. So it would create a record of his answers, thus creating a clear basis for prosecution if he were to lie. On the other hand, it's hardly the ideal forum for questioning.

Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) has yet to indicate what he thinks of the offer. We'll let you know when he does.

U.S. Attorneys

House Republicans File Brief Siding with White House in Subpoena Battle

Paul Kiel | May 13, 2008, 11:34AM

Throughout the House Judiciary Committee's struggle to obtain White House documents and have Harriet Miers testify about the U.S. Attorney firings, House Republicans adopted a contrary stance.

They're firm believers in Congressional oversight, they said, but citing Miers and White House chief of staff Josh Bolten with contempt of Congress was the wrong way to go. If they lost the battle in court, then the executive would come out much stronger. It would "make the presidency in America, a much stronger, imperial office," as Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) put it. Democrats, of course, think we're already there.

Well, now House Republicans have brought their opposition to court. In a filing yesterday, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO), House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Rep. Cannon asked the court to allow them to file a brief in the case arguing against the House's suit and with the administration. They are just trying to save the House from itself, they write:

Read more »

The Daily Muck

The Daily Muck

John Amick | May 13, 2008, 10:23AM

The Washington Post's four-part series on sub-standard health care provided for illegal immigrants with fewer rights than convicted felons, detained in Gitmo-like prisons, continues today with a look into the perils of mental health treatment at detention centers. (Washington Post)

Alaa "Alex" Mohammad Ali, dual Iraqi and Candadian citizen and Army translator working in Iraq, has been court-martialed by the U.S. military for stabbing another contract worker on Feb. 23. This is the first such prosecution of a civilian military contractor working for the U.S. since the Vietnam War. (US News)

Esquire takes a careful look at John Yoo, former Justice Dept. lawyer and author of what are now called the torture memos, and the steps he took when contemplating the rationales for torture during a war with a unique foes. (Esquire)

Read more »

Must Read

Today's Must Read

Paul Kiel | May 13, 2008, 10:15AM

Just in time to run during the Spring sweeps, the Pentagon has rolled out a slate of charges against five Guantanamo Bay detainees for conspiring in the 9/11 attacks. Kudos to the Convening Authority for beating expectations with a well-timed launch.

Unfortunately, the move does come shortly after one of the senior Pentagon officials working on the commissions was disqualified from dealing with Osama Bin Laden's alleged driver Salim Hamdan's case. For some reason, the judge didn't seem to appreciate Brig. Gen. Tom Hartmann's taste for "sexy" cases that grab the public's attention (he's obviously never tried to run a PR campaign himself). It was a black eye surely, but you know the old saying: there's no such thing as bad press. They are riding that wave.

Now, the naysayers will point to the fact that the nascent commissions are sure to drag on for possibly as much as a year before the actual trials begin. There are still plenty of kinks (allegations of torture, politicization, lack of due process, etc.). And then there's the small matter of the Supreme Court, which might overturn the applecart all over again in the near future. You can understand the frustration of the administration: they had hoped to roll out the trials before the 2006 election, and here we are in the run-up to the 2008 election, and the clock is ticking.

But all is not lost. The detainees should be arraigned in June. And there should be frequent opportunities between now and November to remind the public of what's going on down there. Finally, justice is served.

Note: The Convening Authority Susan Crawford had planned to include charges against Mohammed al Qahtani, the supposed 20th hijacker, along with the other five, but Qahtani has been struck from the charging sheet. Now, Qahtani's lawyer has immediately jumped to the conclusion that Crawford's decision to dismiss the charges affirms "that everything he said at Guantánamo was extracted through torture -- or the threat of torture," and that his treatment was "so well documented and unconscionable that he is unprosecutable.'' But I gotta figure that this crew is sharper than that. Crawford can bring those chargers against Qahtani at any time. The 20th hijacker deserves his own unique launch, to be sure. Maybe in October?

U.S. Attorneys

DoJ Lawyers: Congress Ought to Play Hardball to Get White House Testimony

Paul Kiel | May 12, 2008, 6:08PM

Last Friday, administration lawyers for the first time laid out their argument against the House's lawsuit to enforce Congressional subpoenas from the U.S. Attorney firings scandal. The House is seeking to enforce the House Judiciary Committee's subpoena of former White House counsel Harriet Miers and current chief of staff Josh Bolten.

The 83-page motion laid out a number of arguments for why the judge should dismiss the suit, but the central one was that the courts should not get involved because historically, they haven't. From the AP:

"For over two hundred years, when disputes have arisen between the political branches concerning the testimony of executive branch witnesses before Congress, or the production of executive branch documents to Congress, the branches have engaged in negotiation and compromise," Justice Department lawyers wrote....

"Never in American history has a federal court ordered an executive branch official to testify before Congress," lawyers for the White House wrote.

That makes for a murky area of law, and the Bush administration is urging U.S. District Judge John D. Bates not to tidy it up. The ambiguity fosters compromise, political solutions and the kind of give and take that the Founding Father envisioned, attorneys said.

Clearing it up "would forever alter the accommodation process that has served the Nation so well for over two centuries," attorneys wrote.

As part of their argument, the administration lawyers cited Congress' considerable leverage as the more traditional means of getting what it wants. This is from the motion:

And the Legislative Branch may vindicate its interests without enlisting judicial support: Congress has a variety of other means by which it can exert pressure on the Executive Branch, such as the withholding of consent for Presidential nominations, reducing Executive Branch appropriations, and the exercise of other powers Congress has under the Constitution.

It's not a tactic that Congress has employed over the past couple years, with a few exceptions. But maybe they ought to take the administration up on its own advice and see how it goes.

Iraq

Don't Say "Softball!"

Paul Kiel | May 12, 2008, 5:01PM

In our Pentagon military analyst doc dump thread, Kevin H comes up with a beauty. You can see it here.

In the exchange, someone (the name is redacted) emails public relations officials in the Pentagon with news that Jed Babbin, who was deputy undersecretary of defense in President George H.W. Bush's administration and a participant in the analyst program ("one of our military analysts," the emailer calls him), would be guest hosting the Michael Medved radio show. And Babbin wanted to interview Gen. George Casey, then the commanding officer in Iraq. Babbin is the editor of Human Events.

But just in case Pentagon officials were worried that the interview might not be worth doing, the emailer made the case: "this would be a softball interview and the show is 8th or 9th in the nation."

Allison Barber, a Public Affairs official at the Pentagon, responded quickly:

Thanks for sending this.

Just fyi, probably wouldn't put "softball" interview in writing. If that got out it would compromise jed and general casey.

The emailer, somewhat chastened, replied "check, check." Not bad advice at all.

Note: As for who this emailer is, it's unclear. The Pentagon redacted email addresses in the release, so it could very well be an official in the public affairs office emailing from a private address. The use of the phrase "our military analysts" certainly suggests that.

Iraq

Former Staffers: State Dept. Muzzled Iraqi Corruption Fighters

Paul Kiel | May 12, 2008, 4:10PM

From the AP:

Arthur Brennan, who briefly served in Baghdad as head of the department's Office of Accountability and Transparency last year, and James Mattil, who worked as the chief of staff, told Senate Democrats on Monday that their office was understaffed and its warnings and recommendations ignored.

Brennan also alleges that the State Department prevented a congressional staffer visiting Baghdad from talking with staffers by insisting they were too busy. In reality, Brennan said, the staffers were watching movies at the embassy and on their computers. The staffers' workload had been cut dramatically because of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's "evisceration" of Iraq's top anti-corruption office, he said.

The State Department's policies "not only contradicted the anti-corruption mission but indirectly contributed to and has allowed corruption to fester at the highest levels of the Iraqi government," Brennan told the Senate Democratic Policy Committee.

Iraq

Pentagon Military Analyst Doc Diving Thread

Paul Kiel | May 12, 2008, 3:14PM

As Josh says, we'd like any help we can get finding the revealing tidbits from the Pentagon's military analyst documents. The documents are here. Please provide a link to the pdf you are referring to, as well as the page number when you comment below.

And for those of you who haven't heard the audio of the analyst briefing on April 18, 2006, don't miss it.

Torture

Politicizing Gitmo: A Timeline

Paul Kiel | May 12, 2008, 2:21PM

If you thought the military commissions in Guantanamo Bay couldn't get any uglier, you were wrong. On Friday, the judge presiding over the Salim Hamdan case, Capt. Keith J. Allred, disqualified a top Pentagon official from any more involvement in the case. The reason? His aims seemed too political, his cheerleading for the prosecution too obvious to allow him to remain involved.

The official is Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, the Legal Advisor to the Convening Authority. That office oversees the whole process, meaning both prosecutors and defense attorneys. But as the judge's ruling makes clear, Hartmann wasn't anything close to impartial:

You can read the judge's ruling, which was first reported on by The New York Times, in full here. The judge requires that Hartmann be replaced on the case by someone outside his office.

As the Times reports, the ruling will open the flood gates to new challenges to the process from lawyers for other detainees.

Even beyond the judge's conclusion, the ruling is a remarkable document because it involves a blow-by-blow account of the politicization of the process. Mainly this information comes from Col. Morris Davis, who was the chief prosecutor for the commissions until he resigned because of the meddling of Hartmann and former Pentagon general counsel William Haynes. But other attorneys involved in the commissions provided similar accounts. Davis, called by Hamdan's lawyers, testified there late last month.

Below is an abbreviated timeline of efforts by Hartmann, Haynes and other Pentagon officials to use the Gitmo trials for political gain, as well as their efforts to squelch Davis' complaints about Hartmann's interference. It is all culled from the judge's ruling.

August, 2005 -- During Col. Davis' interview to be the chief prosecutor for the Gitmo military commissions, Pentagon general counsel William Haynes told Davis "We can't have acquittals. We've got to have convictions. We can't hold these men for five years and then have acquittals."

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Hans von Spakovsky

Reid to Bush: Drop Hans or Let Us Drop Him

Paul Kiel | May 12, 2008, 1:04PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) responded to President Bush's uncompromising compromise from last week today with the obvious response. From Roll Call (sub. req.):

Senate Democrats have made their next move in the ongoing stalemate involving Federal Election Commission nominees, asking President Bush on Monday to either drop former Justice Department lawyer Hans von Spakovsky or begin persuading Senate Republicans to go along with individual votes to fill the five agency vacancies.

"Despite your commitment that you would accept and agree to individual votes on each of the pending nominations, including Mr. von Spakovsky's, Republican Senate leaders indicated last week that they intend to continue to block such votes," Reid wrote in a letter on Monday to White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten. "This continued obstructionism will prevent the FEC from its important work during this election season, including issuing advisory opinions, rulemakings, enforcement actions and certification of public financing."

As Reid notes, White House officials had whispered last week that Republicans would finally allow a vote on Spakovsky, but Senate Republicans quickly put the kibosh on that notion -- thus eliminating the only aspect of Bush's proposal that gave any ground. And so it goes.

Congressional Subpoenas

Conyers Threatens Subpoenas for DoJ Selective Prosecution Documents

Paul Kiel | May 12, 2008, 11:04AM

Last July, the House Judiciary Committee requested documents from the Justice Department about three cases that seemed to be the worst cases of selective prosecutions undertaken by George Bush's DoJ. In each case, the U.S. attorney had pursued a flawed case that hurt a prominent Democrat.

Since that time, the Department has refused to turn over all but a few documents -- though one of the produced emails showed a DoJ official troubled by one of the cases, the Georgia Thompson prosecution (the other two cases are ex-Gov. Don Siegelman (D-AL) and Cyril Wecht). And in a letter on Friday, Conyers warned Attorney General Michael Mukasey that if the Department did not take notice, "we will have little choice but to consider the compulsory process." You can see that letter here.

Conyers included in his letter a three-page chart of requests (pdf) made by the committee that have gone unanswered by the Department. "We very much that the pending requests can be resolved voluntarily," he writes.

The Daily Muck

The Daily Muck

John Amick | May 12, 2008, 10:24AM

The Washington Post takes a four-part look into sub-standard health care offered to detainees held in prisons across the United States made for certain indigent laborers awaiting trial for minor offenses, or those waiting for political asylum from their home countries. They have less access to legal protection than convicted felons, and some prisons they must endure resemble Gitmo. (Washington Post)

It may not be a comeback when nothing changes, but it seems defense contractor Blackwater has done just that as the State Dept. recently renewed their contract. No charges have been brought against Blackwater despite the unprovoked, mass-killing of 17 Iraqi citizens at the hands of Blackwater guards and repeated calls from Iraqi officials for the U.S. to outlaw the group's security influence in the country. (New York Times)

According to a memo from seven employees of the Office of Special Counsel, department head Scott Bloch, whose office was raided last week during an investigation into whether his office was used for political motivations, ordered the closing of an investigation into allegations that former White House adviser Karl Rove attempted to make the frontrunner candidate for governor in Alabama Don Siegelman (D) a target for prosecution. (Washington Post)

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Must Read

Today's Must Read

Paul Kiel | May 12, 2008, 10:01AM

The president has said that his administration is employing every tool at their disposal to foil terrorists while protecting the civil liberties of Americans. For some reason, The Los Angeles Times opted not to take him at his word.

The secrecy necessary for counterterrorism prosecutions has combined with the rampant secrecy of the Bush administration to make it all but impossible to measure that balance. But the Times chooses a method, however imperfect, to gauge what's going on. Simply put: spying is up while counterterrorism prosecutions are down. The specifics:

A recent study showed that the number of terrorism and national security cases initiated by the Justice Department in 2007 was more than 50% below 2002 levels. The nonprofit Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, which obtained the data under the Freedom of Information Act, found that the number of cases brought declined 19% in the last year alone, dropping to 505 in 2007 from 624 in 2006.

By contrast, the Justice Department reported last month that the nation's spy court had granted 2,370 warrant requests by the department to search or eavesdrop on suspected terrorists and spies in the U.S. last year -- 9% more than in 2006. The number of such warrants approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has more than doubled since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The department also reported a sharp rise in the use of national security letters by the FBI -- from 9,254 in 2005 to 12,583 in 2006, the latest data available. The letters seek customer information from banks, Internet providers and phone companies.

And as the Times notes, the Justice Department's performance in terrorism prosecutions has lately been underwhelming -- to wit, the farcical Seas of David case, where two juries have failed to reach a verdict.

As to what to make of these numbers, it depends on how much you're inclined to give the administration the benefit of the doubt.

On the civil liberty advocate of the question, the conclusion is clear:

"The number of Americans being investigated dwarfs any legitimate number of actual terrorism prosecutions, and that is extremely troubling -- for both the security and privacy of innocent Americans as well as for the squandering of resources on people who have not and never will be charged with any wrongdoing," said Lisa Graves, deputy director of the Center for National Security Studies, a Washington-based civil liberties group.

Meanwhile, the former head of the FBI national security law unit says it's just in the nature of the enterprise:

"Most of these threats ultimately turn out to be wrong, or maybe just the investigating makes them go away.... A lot more information is going to pass through government hands, and most of that is going to be about people who turn out to be innocent or irrelevant."

All Muck is Local

All Muck is Local: The Pretender

Lila Shapiro | May 11, 2008, 10:25AM

For the past several months, a mayoral race has been quietly unfolding on the Northern edge of Dallas County, in Carrollton, Texas. For incumbent Becky Miller, the main issues were transportation and air quality; opponent Ron Branson's was illegal immigration.

Miller was always a politician with an eccentric edge-- she rode a mustang in the 2007 Dallas Gay Pride parade. She liked young people, and she liked to party (at least, she used to). After she was elected in 2005, The Dallas Morning News wrote that Carrollton's incoming mayor spoke convincingly to teens about drugs, because she'd lived it: "'I used to be a backup singer. I sang with several different famous people,'" including Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne" she told them, and coke had been part of her rock 'n roll past.

This year, Miller seemed to be sailing to reelection. Then, Wednesday morning, the Morning News changed all that. The fight turned ugly-- and very weird.

The article revealed, in short, that Miller's tales about her past could not be corroborated. The big four knocked down by the Morning News: that Becky Miller had sung backup for Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne, that she'd attended Western Kentucky University, that she was once engaged to Eagles singer-songwriter Don Henley, and that she had a brother who fought and died in the Vietnam War.

Things first began to unravel for Miller when Branson made inquiries into the story he had heard about Miller's dead brother. When things didn't quite add up, Branson questioned Miller about it, and the Morning News picked it up. Miller declared, bizarrely, that the tale had all been part of a plot to ensnare her rival:

Mrs. Miller admitted falsely telling Mr. Branson that an 18-year-old killed in Vietnam in 1968 was her brother. She said she deliberately conveyed the name of that soldier, Randolph Sampson, through a friend because she hoped Mr. Branson would use it and she could "catch him in a lie, get him to push this forward" and sue him for slander.

Mr. Branson said that after learning that the Web site the wall-usa.com listed the Army private first class as a "Negro," he informed a supporter of Mrs. Miller, who is white.

Mr. Branson provided the mayor's e-mailed reply: "The information on his being Negro is obvious [sic] a mistake, and those things happen from time to time."

"I took that as verification that she was saying this was her brother," Mr. Branson said.

Mrs. Miller said she misinformed Mr. Branson "out of anger" and "bad judgment."

Of course, it doesn't help Miller's convoluted explanation that her father, Edward Sampson, told reporters that he did have a son, who was alive and living in Maryland-- and had never been in the service. First Miller put this down to Alzheimer's, but later she changed her mind again, adding that the soldier was "not my blood brother. ... My mother did not have him." Then, in a letter to the Morning News, in which she attempted to address the paper's accusations, she said enough was enough:

My personal losses during the Vietnam war are exactly that. No one should be expected to put their personal grief on public display during an election. I certainly never brought this up as an issue.

And what of Don Henley, Jackson, Linda, Bonnie, and Western Kentucky U? Don's longtime rep told the Morning News, "Don said he's never heard of her, doesn't know her, certainly was never engaged to her." The story almost comes full circle when you look back through the archive of the local paper, the Carrollton Leader, where Miller explained in a May, 2007 story on her remarkable past that she'd become a backup singer by way of her brother, who was a songwriter for the Eagles.

Western Kentucky University echoed Don's claim of total ignorance:

Mrs. Miller states on her campaign Web site that she attended Western Kentucky University. Laura Dilliha, student records specialist there, said the school has no record of her having been a student. Mrs. Miller's former husband said that he attended Western Kentucky but that Mrs. Miller did not.

Mrs. Miller said Monday that she attended the school for about two months in 1968.

Ms. Dilliha said Tuesday, "Any time after two weeks, we do have a record ... unless they were dropped by the university for failure to pay."

As for the singers, it seems fitting that Jackson's great hit of the late 70s-- the very time Miller placed herself to be touring with him-- was The Pretender.

Of the various explanations Miller employed, the best was kept for Jackson and Linda. When informed that the singers didn't remember employing anyone of Miller's description, nor did they remember Miller's name (or the last names of her first two husbands), Miller responded:"Maybe I was going by a different name. Did you think about that?" At first she declined to offer what the name or names might be ("I'm not going to tell you what they are. You have to find that out."), but finally she acquiesced: Pinky. None of the singers remembered that one either. Ronstadt added that she hadn't employed any female backup singers during the period Miller said she'd toured with her.

Unfortunately for Miller, the voters of Carrolltown seem to prefer that their mayor's colorful past be verifiable. Miller, who'd been ahead by nine points in early voting, lost reelection yesterday.