TPMMuckraker August 9, 2009 - August 15, 2009
FreedomWorks
Armey Leaves Lobby Firm, Citing Negative Attention Brought by FreedomWorks
Dick Armey, the former House Majority Leader, is leaving his job with top Washington lobbying firm DLA Piper, citing negative attention that the firm is receiving thanks to the role of Armey's corporate-backed outfit, FreedomWorks, in turning out protesters to shut down town hall meetings on health care.
In a Friday afternoon news dump, Armey, a committed anti-government extremist, gave Politico the following statement:
It is painful and frustrating to see a good, decent, able and effective partnership of honorable men and women and their clients attacked for things in which they are not involved simply because of their association with me. One would expect a higher degree of competence and professionalism from members of the media than spurious attacks on innocent bystanders. PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (18)
Topics: Astroturf, Dick Armey, FreedomWorks, Lobbyists
C Street
Christian News Show Poses The Real Question On C St.: How Many Affairs Has It Thwarted?
Here's some summer Friday fun.
The right-wing Christian Broadcasting Network does damage control for C Street, explaining that the real question isn't, how many affairs were covered up, but rather, "how many affairs were thwarted."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (12)Topics: C Street, Right-wing extremism, Sex
John Sweeney
Sweeney Charged With Drunk Driving Felony
Troubled former GOP congressman John Sweeney was indicted this morning on a felony drunk driving charge, reports the Albany Times-Union.
The charges concern an April 5 incident. But in 2007, Sweeney pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor drunk driving charge offense.
Topics: Jack Abramoff, John Sweeney
Global Warming
"Sensitive" Oil Industry Memo Lays Out Plan For Astroturf Rallies Against Climate Change Bill
The memo -- sent by the American Petroleum Institute and obtained by Greenpeace, which sent it to reporters -- urges oil companies to recruit their employees for events that will "put a human face on the impacts of unsound energy policy," and will urge senators to "avoid the mistakes embodied in the House climate bill."
Topics: Global Warming, Lobbyists, Oil
Jack Bonner
Coal Industry Group Responds To Congress On Forged Letters -- But Won't Give Details
The coal industry lobbying group on whose behalf those forged letters were written has responded in part to a congressional inquiry about the matter -- but won't offer any details.
Roll Call reports (sub. req.) that the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity last night wrote to Rep. Ed Markey, who last week asked for answers from the group about the episode. But ACCCE wouldn't make its letter public, nor would it say whether it had found any additional forged letters, beyond the ones already reported on.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)Topics: ACCCE, Global Warming, Jack Bonner
James Traficant
Ohio Ballclub Cancels 'Traficant Release Night'
Take me out to the corrupt ex-Rep. Traficant prison release party?
Alas, no -- a planned "Traficant Release Night" was canceled today by the Single-A Cleveland Indians affiliate in the disgraced former congressman's district after angry residents complained, the AP reports.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)Topics: James Traficant
Don Siegelman
In Testimony, Rove Hedged On Role In Siegelman Prosecution
Hat tip to Roger Shuler at the Legal Schnauzer blog for this one...
It didn't get much attention, but the testimony from Karl Rove that was released this week concerned not just the U.S. attorney firings, but also another alleged instance of politicization of the Justice Department: the Don Siegelman prosecution.
Topics: Don Siegelman, House Judiciary, Karl Rove, Leura Canary, U.S. Attorneys
John Ensign
Nevada GOP Rep: Ensign Should Answer Questions About Affair
The pressure is growing for John Ensign to break his silence over his affair with a staffer who was his close friend's wife.
Rep. Dean Heller has become the first high-ranking Nevada Republican to call for the senator to address the numerous unanswered question about his torrid liaison with Cindy Hampton. Speaking in a televised interview to Las Vegas Sun political columnist Jon Ralston -- who has led the way in keeping the story in the spotlight -- Heller said: "I don't want to speculate, but until John talks, we haven't seen the end of it."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (5)Topics: FEC, John Ensign, Senate Ethics Committee, Sex
David Iglesias
Iglesias: "I Feel One Hundred Percent Vindicated"
David Iglesias has reacted with a combination of satisfaction and indignation to this week's release of documents on the U.S. attorney firings.
"I feel 100 percent vindicated," Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney for New Mexico, whose dismissal was the most controversial of the bunch, told TPMmuckraker in an interview.
Topics: David Iglesias, Harriet Miers, Justice Department, Karl Rove, Pat Rogers, U.S. Attorneys
U.S. Attorneys
Did Christie Play Politics With Probe? U.S. Attorney Docs Add To Questions
Those newly released documents from the U.S. attorney firings raise a few questions about the Republican who may be his party's highest profile electoral contender this year.
That's Chris Christie, the former U.S. attorney from New Jersey, who's also leading incumbent Jon Corzine in that state's race for governor.
Topics: Alberto Gonzales, Chris Christie, Harriet Miers, Justice Department, Karl Rove, Kyle Sampson, Michael Elston, U.S. Attorneys
Media
Leaked Email: CNBC Went To Tea Partiers Looking for Angry Protests
CNBC approached Tea Party activists, looking for angry protest events that would make good television, according to a leaked email from a Tea Party discussion group. And one Tea Bagger responded by flagging an upcoming event that, he said, "should be a riot ... literally."
Yesterday, Tea Party Patriots national coordinator Jenny Beth Martin sent an email, obtained by TPMmuckraker, to a Tea Party google group. Martin told the group: "We have a media request for an event this week that will have lots of energy and lots of anger. This is for CNBC."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (52)Topics: Health Care, Media, Racism, Right-wing extremism
David Iglesias
Rove Aide Longed to Replace Iglesias With GOP Lawyer Who Helped Get Him Fired
After firing David Iglesias as U.S. attorney for New Mexico, Karl Rove's top aide longed to replace him with a Republican party activist who had helped agitate for the firing in the first place, newly released documents reveal.
In early January 2007, several weeks after the firings had been carried out, the Albuquerque Journal reported, based on a press release from New Mexico senator Pete Domenici, that there were four leading candidates for the newly vacant post.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (13)Topics: David Iglesias, Karl Rove, Pat Rogers, Scott Jennings, U.S. Attorneys
Harriet Miers
E-Mails: On Election Eve, Miers Tried To Intervene With DOJ About Sensitive Renzi Case
It's just days before the mid-term elections, and you're sitting in the White House watching a close Congressional race when it bubbles up that the the Republican incumbent, long dogged by corruption rumors, is under federal investigation.
That's the situation the Bush White House found itself in when it was reported in late October 2006, first on blogs, that U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton was investigating Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ).
And that's when the damage control machine kicked into gear.
Scott Jennings, deputy to Karl Rove, and White House Counsel Harriet Miers intervened to try to get the Justice Department to throw cold water on the reports of an investigation, despite the DOJ's policy not to confirm or deny the existence of ongoing probes, according to e-mails released by the House Judiciary Committee today. (Read them here.)
In the two days following Miers and Jennings' emails, articles appeared in the press quoting DOJ officials saying the investigation was in "preliminary stage" -- which it was not.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (24)Topics: Harriet Miers, Justice Department, Rick Renzi
Media
John Solomon's Sycophantic Email To Justice On Attorney Firings
It's fair to say the U.S. attorney firings scandal turned out to be a pretty big deal. It contributed to Alberto Gonzales' resignation as Attorney General, and triggered an ongoing criminal investigation.
But based on those newly released documents, John Solomon's take was pretty much: what's the big deal?
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (19)Topics: Media, U.S. Attorneys
Karl Rove
Griffin to Rove: We're Thinking Of Calling Our Baby "Karl"
How big of a suckup is Tim Griffin, the Rove protege who the White House was trying to muscle into a U.S. attorney post after firing the previous occupant?
In a January 2007 email, Griffin wrote to Rove:
Topics: Karl Rove, Tim Griffin, U.S. Attorneys
Dana Perino
Dana Perino On US Attorney Firings Scheme: 'I Can't Breathe'
This is fun. In the trove of Bush White House documents released by the House Judiciary Committee is an email chain from November 2006 in which Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino first learns of the plan to purge U.S. Attorneys.
Perino's reaction after getting the heads-up email and the attached "USA replacement plan.doc"?
"Someone get me an oxygen can!!"
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (29)Topics: Dana Perino, Scott Jennings, U.S. Attorneys
U.S. Attorneys
Email: Rich Lowry Offered To Help White House Spin Firings
Here's a fun nugget from the U.S. attorney documents (h/t reader B.M.):
It looks like Rich Lowry of National Review offered the White House his services in doing some positive P.R. on behalf of Rove protege Tim Griffin, who the administration had sought to muscle into the U.S. attorney job in Arkansas as a replacement for the fired Bud Cummins.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (22)Topics: Bud Cummins, Media, Tim Griffin, U.S. Attorneys
Karl Rove
Rove: Remembering E-mails Is Like Remembering 'Raindrop In A Thunderstorm'
The Washington Post does us the favor of tallying the "I don't recall"-s that saturate the hundreds of pages of Miers and Rove interview transcripts.
In 10 hours, Harriet Miers said she couldn't remember events almost 150 times.
Asked if Miers ever responded to an October 2006 email from Rove with the subject line "Domenici is calling me about the USA for New Mexico", Rove offered investigators this gem:
"I don't recall. I generally receive hundreds of e-mails a day, and asking me to remember replies is like asking me to remember a raindrop in a thunderstorm."
Read that section of the interview right here.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (10)Topics: Harriet Miers, Justice Department, Karl Rove, U.S. Attorneys
David Iglesias
Docs Belie Rove's Claim That His Aide Was "Freelancing" In Pushing For Iglesias Firing
This won't come as a shock ... but the just released documents on the U.S. attorney firings make it clear that Karl Rove was far from straight with the House committee that interviewed him last month.
According to the transcript of the interview, Rove said that his top aide, Scott Jennings, was "freelancing" in trying to get David Iglesias fired in the summer of 2005. Rove told his interviewers that Jennings "had strong feelings about Iglesias" after having done political work in New Mexico.
Topics: David Iglesias, Harriet Miers, Karl Rove, U.S. Attorneys
U.S. Attorneys
Rep Who Led Miers/Rove Questioning: Iglesias Case Was Most 'Pernicious Case Of Partisan Interference'
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the House Judiciary Committee member who led questioning of Karl Rove and Harriet Miers, released a statement today skewering the Bush White House for considering "partisan and political considerations" in firing US Attorneys.
He concludes that "a weak and pliant leadership" of the Justice Department "largely refused to stand up to the pressure."
Schiff's office says the committee's findings will be forwarded, as expected, to prosecutor Nora Dannehy, who is investigating possible criminal wrongdoing in the firings.
Schiff's full statement:
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)Topics: Adam Schiff, Harriet Miers, Justice Department, Karl Rove, Nora Dannehy, U.S. Attorneys
Karl Rove
Docs Show Rove Pushed For Iglesias Firing
Perhaps the key takeaway from the just released documents on the U.S. attorney firings is this:
Karl Rove claimed recently that he and his staff acted merely as a conduit for passing on concerns about David Iglesias. But it's now clear that Rove's office pushed from 2005 for Iglesias to be canned, and was intimately involved in the decision.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (21)
Topics: David Iglesias, Harriet Miers, Karl Rove, U.S. Attorneys
Karl Rove
'Very Agitated' Rove Called Miers From New Mexico To Complain About Iglesias
We're digging through the trove of documents released today by the House Judiciary Committee on the US attorney firings and the politicization of the Justice Department under George W. Bush.
In a June 15 interview with House investigators, former White House Counsel Harriet Miers detailed a remarkable 2006 contact with Karl Rove, then on the road in New Mexico, regarding US Attorney David Iglesias.
Rove, Miers recalled, was "very agitated" about Iglesias, who was later ousted in the Bush Administration's purge of US Attorneys. Rove was getting "barraged" with complains by "political people that were active in New Mexico."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (7)Topics: David Iglesias, Harriet Miers, Justice Department, Karl Rove, U.S. Attorneys
David Iglesias
Rove Aide: "I Would Really Like To Move Forward With Getting Rid Of" Iglesias
Here are two quick juicy parts from the just-released documents on the U.S. attorney firings, about the decision to fire David Igleisas of New Mexico -- as flagged in a House Judiciary committee press release:
• 2005 White House "Decision" to fire David Iglesias - It has previously been known that New Mexico Republicans pressed for Iglesias to be removed because they did not like his decisions on vote fraud cases. New White House documents show that Rove and his office were involved in this effort no later than May 2005 (months earlier than previously known) - for example, in May and June 2005, Rove aide Scott Jennings sent emails to Tim Griffin (also in Rove's office) asking "what else I can do to move this process forward" and stressing that "I would really like to move forward with getting rid of NM US ATTY." In June 2005, Harriet Miers emailed that a "decision" had been made to replace Iglesias. At this time, DOJ gave Iglesias top rankings, so this decision was clearly not just the result of the White House following the Department's lead as Rove and Miers have maintained.PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (4)• Iglesias criticized by Rove aide for not "doing his job on" Democratic Congressional Candidate Patricia Madrid - An October 2006 email chain begun by Representative Heather Wilson criticized David Iglesias for not bringing politically useful public corruption prosecutions in the run up to the 2006 elections. Scott Jennings forwarded Wilson's email to Karl Rove and complained that Iglesias had been "shy about doing his job on Madrid," Wilson's opponent in the 2006 Congressional race. Just weeks after this email, Iglesias' name was placed on the final firing list.
Topics: David Iglesias, House Judiciary, Justice Department, Karl Rove, U.S. Attorneys
U.S. Attorneys
U.S. Attorney Firings: White House And RNC Docs Released
On the U.S. attorney firings, Congress has also released thousands of pages of White House and RNC emails and other documents pertaining to the firings.
Here are the White House documents. Here are the RNC documents.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)Topics: Harriet Miers, House Judiciary, Karl Rove, U.S. Attorneys
U.S. Attorneys
House Judiciary Breaks Down 'Key Facts' In New White House Docs
Below is a press release from the House Judiciary Committee on new facts about DOJ politicization brought to light by interviews with Karl Rove and Harriet Miers along with 5,400 pages of White House and RNC e-mails.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (9)Topics: Harriet Miers, Karl Rove, U.S. Attorneys
Harriet Miers
Congress Releases Rove And Miers Interviews On U.S. Attorney Firings
The House Judiciary committee has posted the transcripts of its interviews with Karl Rove and Harriet Miers, about the U.S. attorney firings.
The Rove transcripts are here. The Miers transcripts are here.
Have at it.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (7)
Topics: Harriet Miers, Karl Rove, U.S. Attorneys
Health Care
FreedomWorks Says Jump, Tea Partiers Ask How High
Lately, there's been an ongoing debate about the Tea Party groups that have been fighting health-care reform. Are these groups organic manifestations of popular discontent, or are they in fact controlled by corporate-funded Washington lobbying groups -- in particular, FreedomWorks, the small-government organization, founded by former GOP congressman Dick Armey, that's worked closely with the Tea Baggers since their inception?
Well, an excerpt from the Tea Baggers' own internal discussions, obtained by TPMmuckraker, sheds some light on that point -- and it points to the latter.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (10)Topics: Health Care, Right-wing extremism
Barack Obama
Your Bank Account Is Safe: Running Down The Latest Winger Health-Care Lie
Another day, another metastasizing lie about health-care reform that needs debunking.
We've already seen the euthanasia lie -- in which conservatives, including Sarah Palin, have claimed that a provision in the bill that would extend Medicare coverage to end-of-life consultations is really aimed at letting Obama kill your grandmother. But that's old news by now.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (13)Topics: Barack Obama, Health Care
Henry Paulson
Interesting Reading: Paulson's '06 Ethics Agreement And '08 Goldman Waiver
Earlier today we told you about the near-constant phone contact between then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and his successor as Goldman Sachs CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, during the height of the financial crisis last September.
Now, we've obtained from the Treasury Department Paulson's ethics agreement, in which he pledged not to participate in matters involving Goldman Sachs, and the waiver to that agreement granted by White House counsel Fred Fielding. You can read the agreement here and the waiver here.
Of the dozens of phone calls between Paulson and Blankfein, 26 occurred before Paulson requested and obtained a waiver to deal with matters relating to Goldman Sachs, the New York Times reported Sunday. The content of the calls is unknown. But two were the morning of Sept. 17, a day after the AIG bailout, which ultimately handed Goldman $13 billion of taxpayers' money -- before Paulson obtained the ethics waiver.
In Paulson's ethics agreement, written after President Bush plucked him from Goldman to be Treasury Secretary, all but two of eight pages mention Goldman. He concludes it by saying "these steps will ensure that I avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (6)Topics: AIG, Bailout, Goldman Sachs, Henry Paulson, Lloyd Blankfein
Henry Paulson
Co-Treasury Secretary Lloyd Blankfein? Paulson And Goldman Exec Talked 24 Times In Week Of AIG Bailout
Blockbuster stuff from the New York Times Sunday on stunningly frequent contacts during the height of the financial crisis between Henry Paulson and his successor as CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein.
The then-Treasury Secretary and Blankfein spoke by phone two dozen times in one week in September 2008 when AIG was bailed out -- a deal that handed Goldman, a key counterparty of AIG, $13 billion in federal money.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the Times' account of the contacts between the two men, for which Paulson belatedly sought and received an ethics waiver, is that the phone calls were often coming from the Treasury Secretary.
In one day, Sept. 17, Paulson called Blankfein four times. Then after taking a call from President Bush in the evening, the Treasury Secretary called Blankfein yet again -- almost as if he felt obliged to keep the Goldman CEO constantly abreast of his progress. He spoke with Blankfein "far more" than with other executives, the Times reports.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (9)Topics: AIG, Bailout, Goldman Sachs, Henry Paulson, Lloyd Blankfein
Alberto Gonzales
Gonzo: My Time As AG Hurt My Reputation
The Alberto Gonzales self-rehabilitation tour continues?
The former Attorney General, who launched a mini media blitz in May, is back, this time trying his hand with New York Times magazine interviewer Deborah Solomon.
Among other tidbits, Gonzo says he hasn't talked to George W. Bush since the president left office. And he confirms that no law firm has offered him a job in the years since he resigned. (Though his lawyer told TPMmuckraker in May he was engaged in unspecified "legal work.")
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (14)Topics: Alberto Gonzales, George Bush
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