Chris Christie

Did Christie Break DOJ Rules By Pulling Rank On Traffic Stop?

Zachary Roth | September 4, 2009, 5:59PM

NJ Gov. Chris Christie (R)

New Jersey GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie's spotty driving record is one thing. But what's worse is that he may have violated clear Justice Department guidelines by pulling rank with cops on the scene.

Today we learned about a 2002 episode in which Christie hit a motorcyclist after making a wrong-turn that had him briefly going the wrong way down a one-way street in Elizabeth. The motorcyclist ended up in hospital, but Christie didn't get so much as a ticket. And a police official told the Star Ledger that Christie "did identify himself as U.S. attorney."

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Charles Rangel

Boehner To Rangel: Step Down Till Ethics Probe Is Complete

Zachary Roth | September 4, 2009, 1:18PM

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY)

Things aren't looking good for Rep. Charlie Rangel.

Last week, we learned that the embattled New York congressman had failed to disclose $600,000 in assets, as well as tens of thousands of dollars in income, on his 2007 financial disclosure forms.

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Barack Obama

Tea Party Group: Obama Is Both Goebbels And Mengele

Zachary Roth | September 4, 2009, 12:58PM

A crowd gathers at a tea party

So as you may have heard, the Tea Partiers are set to get back in the news next weekend with a big "March on Washington" to protest health-care reform, the bailout, climate-change legislation, and all those other intolerable encroachments on freedom that the Obama administration is planning.

The Tea Party Patriots -- which, along with the corporate-backed FreedomWorks, is the prime organizer of the march -- have worked hard to portray their movement as a reasonable, principled, non-violent opposition. Among the confirmed speakers for the rally are GOP lawmakers who are leaders of the conservative movement like Jim DeMint, Mike Pence, and Marsha Blackburn.

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John Ashcroft

Top Ashcroft Aide May Plead Fifth In Trial Of Abramoff Crony

Zachary Roth | September 4, 2009, 11:33AM

CEO of Ashcroft Group David Ayres

Did the Abramoff scandal extend into the highest reaches of the Justice Department?

John Ashcroft's chief of staff at DOJ may plead the fifth in the trial of Kevin Ring, the Team Abramoff operative accused of bribing lawmakers and public officials, according to court documents.

A motion filed this week by Ring's lawyers and examined by TPMmuckraker states:

Counsel for Mr. Ayres and counsel for Ms. Ayres [Ayres's wife] have indicated that each would invoke their Fifth Amendment privilege if subpoeaned.

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Texas

Could Texas' Gingrich-Based High School History Curriculum Go National?

Justin Elliott | September 4, 2009, 9:02AM

Newt Gingrich and Phyllis Schlafly

While Republicans are busy gnashing their teeth over President Obama's imminent indoctrination of the nation's schoolchildren, there's an education story bubbling up in Texas that could have considerably more far-reaching consequences.

The GOP-controlled State Board of Education is working on a new set of statewide textbook standards for, among other subjects, U.S. History Studies Since Reconstruction. And it turns out what the board decides may end up having implications far beyond the Lone Star State.

The first draft of the standards, released at the end of July, is a doozy. It lays out a kind of Human Events version of U.S. history.

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ACCCE

Liberal Groups Set Up Hotline For Forged Letters

Zachary Roth | September 3, 2009, 5:06PM

Jack Bonner

Supporters of action on climate change are still working to make hay out of those forged letters, sent by a Washington lobbying firm opposing a recent climate change bill.

The National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, American Progress Action Fund, the NAACP and the AAUW, a women's rights group, have set up a "hotline" where callers can leave tips about forged letters and other suspected trickery by industry lobbyists, reports The Hill.

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Alberto Gonzales

Gonzo On Support For Torture Probe: Um, Never Mind

Zachary Roth | September 3, 2009, 3:22PM

Fmr. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

Oh this is good...

Remember how Alberto Gonzales came out the other day and said he supports Eric Holder's decision to investigate torture, as long as the probe is limited to CIA personnel who exceeded the lawyers' legal guidance?

Well it looks like even that qualified position was too much for torture supporters on the right. Because now Gonzo has crawled back to the Washington Times to say that, actually, he didn't really mean it.

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Mark Sanford

SC Lawmaker Accuses Sanford Camp Of Planting Lt. Gov Gay Smear

Zachary Roth | September 3, 2009, 3:02PM

Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC)

The fallout from Mark Sanford's Argentinian romance is getting increasingly nasty.

Yesterday, State Senator Jake Knotts, a Republican but a committed Sanford foe, sent a letter to fellow lawmakers, in which he accused unnamed supporters of the bed-hopping chief exec of planting a rumor that Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer -- who would become governor if Sanford steps down -- is gay.

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Pat Buchanan

MSNBC Promoting Buchanan's Hitler-Sympathizing Column

Zachary Roth | September 3, 2009, 11:34AM

It's one thing for a national cable network to feature a Nazi sympathizer as a political analyst, and refuse to answer questions about it. It's another for that network to actively promote that person's apologies for Hitler.

But that's what MSNBC is doing.

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Bob McDonnell

Ponnuru: McDonnell Didn't Really Mean That Part About Working Women

Zachary Roth | September 2, 2009, 6:32PM

VA gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell

Nice try.

Ramesh Ponnuru of National Review, writing on Washingtonpost.com, does his best to misconstrue Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell's neanderthal master's thesis. Writes Ponnuru:

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Media

Buchanan: Hitler Didn't Want War -- MSNBC Mum On Employing Hitler Sympathizer

Zachary Roth | September 2, 2009, 5:44PM

Pat Buchanan

Usually, historical revisionist arguments of the "Hitler Was Actually A Man Of Peace" variety are confined to the kind of poorly designed and little-read white supremacist and neo-Nazi websites that Holocaust Museum shooting suspect James Von Brunn patronized.

But that doesn't account for the mainstream media's token Hitler sympathizer, Pat Buchanan. To mark the 70th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Poland, Buchanan, a frequent commentator on MSNBC, has written a syndicated column entitled "Did Hitler Want War?"

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Hassan Nemazee

Feds: Nemazee Swindled Two Other Banks

Zachary Roth | September 2, 2009, 4:06PM

Hassan Nemazee

It looks like that fraudulent $74 million loan that top Democratic fundraiser Hassan Nemazee allegedly obtained from Citigroup may have just been the tip of the iceberg.

In a letter to the judge in Nemazee's case, reported by Reuters, prosecutors claimed that Nemazee also ripped off two other banks.

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Bernard Madoff

Madoff Claimed He Was On "Short List" For SEC Chair

Zachary Roth | September 2, 2009, 3:36PM

When Franklin Roosevelt appointed Joseph P. Kennedy as SEC chair, the president responded to concerns about Kennedy's unsavory reputation by declaring: "It takes a thief to catch a thief."

Over 70 years later, Bernard Madoff may have been hoping that President Bush agreed.

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Bernard Madoff

Madoff: "I Thought It Was The End Game. Over" -- But SEC Never Followed Up!

Zachary Roth | September 2, 2009, 3:16PM

It's not really news that the SEC screwed up big-time on Bernard Madoff. But the just released executive summary (pdf) of the agency's inspector general report really brings home just how far that failure went.

The summary, produced by SEC inspector general David Kotz, paints a picture of a series of botched investigations going back to 1992, in which inexperienced, unsophisticated and incurious agency examiners repeatedly failed to take seemingly obvious steps that would have uncovered Madoff's massive scam. And it shows how Madoff used his air of authority to confuse and intimidate the over-matched Feds in order to keep them at bay.

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Bernard Madoff

SEC Lawyer Who Failed To Catch Madoff Got Highest Performance Rating

Zachary Roth | September 2, 2009, 2:26PM

The SEC attorney who failed, despite numerous red flags, to catch Bernie Madoff's colossal fraud received the highest possible performance rating from the agency -- citing her "ability to understand and analyze the complex issues of the Madoff investigation" -- soon after the probe closed in 2006.

That's according to an SEC inspector general report on the Madoff fiasco, whose executive summary (pdf) was released this afternoon. The full report will be made available in the coming days.

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Mark Sanford

Sanford: Appalachian Trail Tale Was "A Little White Lie"

Zachary Roth | September 2, 2009, 10:10AM

Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC)

As part of a fresh round of interviews designed to help save his job, South Carolina governor Mark Sanford suggested a higher power wants him to remain in office, and called his now legendary Appalachian Trail deception "a little white lie". And the embattled Palmetto State Romeo reiterated that he planned to complete his term, which runs through 2010, in order to advance conservative principles -- despite a meeting of GOP lawmakers over the weekend, at which not a single person expressed support for him.

"I feel absolutely committed to the cause, to what God wanted me to do with my life," Sanford told the Washington Times. "I have got this blessing of being engaged in a fight for liberty, which is constantly being threatened."

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Howard Kaloogian

Legendary GOP Bamboozler Hitches Wagon To Tea Party Brand

Zachary Roth | September 1, 2009, 2:56PM

Howard Kaloogian

Remember Howard Kaloogian? He was the Republican House candidate who in 2006 tried to pass off a picture of a quiet Istanbul street as having been taken during a trip he made to Baghdad -- then told a string of additional lies in trying to explain what happened.

Well, he's back. And this time he's taking the bamboozlement to a whole new level.

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Alberto Gonzales

Gonzo Backs Torture Probe

Zachary Roth | September 1, 2009, 1:00PM

Fmr. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

Eric Holder is getting support for his decision to announce a criminal probe of torture from an unlikely source: Alberto Gonzales.

The former Attorney General told a radio interviewer for the Washington Times:

We worked very hard to establish ground rules and parameters about how to deal with terrorists. And if people go beyond that, I think it is legitimate to question and examine that conduct to ensure people are held accountable for their actions, even if it's action in prosecuting the war on terror.

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War In Afghanistan

Study: More Contractors In Afghanistan Than Military Personnel -- Highest Ratio Ever

Justin Elliott | September 1, 2009, 11:44AM

Private contractors depart from airfield in Sharana, Afghanistan

Private Defense Department contractors outnumber the ranks of uniformed U.S. military in Afghanistan, according to a Congressional Research Service study obtained by the invaluable Secrecy News.

As of March, there were over 68,000 contractors in Afghanistan and over 52,000 military personnel (Read the report in .pdf format here.)

At 57% of total Defense Department workforce, the number of contractors represents "the highest recorded percentage of contractors used by DOD in any conflict in the history of the United States," the study concludes.

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Torture

Whitehouse: Torture Probe Should Look At Bush Officials

Zachary Roth | September 1, 2009, 10:01AM

Another top Democrat has come out in support of the view that the torture investigation announced by the Justice Department shouldn't be limited to CIA personnel.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a former federal prosecutor who sits on the Judiciary committee, suggested in an article (sub. req.) for the National Law Journal that the probe should extend to:

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Bob McDonnell

In Thesis, McDonnell Slammed Gays, Unwed Mothers, No-Fault Divorce

Eric Kleefeld and Zachary Roth | August 31, 2009, 4:04PM

VA gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell

The Washington Post yesterday reported on the masters thesis of Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell. As the paper noted, McDonnell argued, among other things, that working women and feminists are "detrimental" to the family; that government policy should favor married couples over "cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators;" and that the court decision legalizing the use of contraception by unmarried couples was "illogical," because at the time non-marital sex was itself a crime.

Now we've taken our own look at the thesis -- written for Regent University in 1989, when McDonnell was already a married man of 34 years old. And it looks like the Post left out some other excerpts that might also give readers some pause.

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Astroturf

Contra Bonner's Claim, Local Groups Say Lobby Firm Never Contacted Them

Zachary Roth | August 31, 2009, 12:25PM

Jack Bonner

Did Bonner & Associates flat-out lie to Congress about informing lawmakers and constituent groups of those forged letters it sent?

In a letter to Rep. Ed Markey that we posted late last week, Bonner lawyer Steven Ross wrote that in the days after Bonner discovered the forged letters, the firm "personally contacted each of the eight organizations that were defrauded."

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Faithful Word Baptist Church

Secret Service 'Aware Of' Gun-Toter And Pastor's Prayers For Obama To Die

Justin Elliott | August 31, 2009, 12:14PM

Faithful Word Baptist Church, Tempe, Arizona

Asked about pastor Steven Anderson and gun-toter Chris Broughton's repeated wishes for President Barack Obama to die, Special Agent Darrin Blackford of the Secret Service sends along this statement:

"We are aware of the situation and appropriate follow up will be conducted."

Broughton is the member of Anderson's Faithful Word Baptist Church who brought an AR-15 rifle and a hand gun to an Obama event in Phoenix earlier this month. Anderson later confirmed to TPMmuckraker that just 24 hours before that show of arms-bearing, Broughton attended the pastor's fiery sermon in which he prayed for "Obama to melt like a snail tonight" for being a "socialist devil, murderer, infanticide."

And yesterday, Broughton and Anderson took their statements even further, with the pastor saying he'd like Obama to die of brain cancer like Ted Kennedy, and Broughton for the first time publicly saying that he, too, would like the president to be dead.

No word on what form the Secret Service's follow up will take. And the agency would not comment on a CNN report that it interviewed Anderson.

Gun-Toters

Gun-Toter From Obama Event: I, Like My Pastor, Want The President To Die

Justin Elliott | August 31, 2009, 11:18AM

Pastor Steven Anderson and Chris Broughton

The violent anti-Obama sentiment coming out of central Arizona managed to get still more toxic over the weekend.

Chris Broughton, the man who brought an AR-15 rifle and a handgun to an Arizona Obama rally earlier this month, says he "concurs" with his fundamentalist pastor's prayer for President Obama "to die and go to hell."

And in an interview with a local TV station, pastor Steven Anderson himself elaborated on his statement to TPMmuckraker that he would prefer Obama to die of natural causes so "he's not some martyr."

"I don't want him to be a martyr, we don't need another holiday. I'd like to see him die, like Ted Kennedy, of brain cancer," Anderson now says.

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Mark Sanford

No Support For Sanford Among SC House GOPers

Zachary Roth | August 31, 2009, 10:00AM

Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC)

The first line of this report from the South Carolina's The State newspaper is pretty stark:

Gov. Mark Sanford had no defenders when South Carolina House Republicans discussed his fate Saturday at an annual retreat.

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Rick Renzi

Renzi's Lawyers Argue Bush DOJ Leaked Info For Political Gain On Eve Of Election

Justin Elliott | August 30, 2009, 9:27AM

Fmr. WH Counsel Harriet Miers and Fmr. Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ)

We now have the lawyers of a former Republican Congressman arguing that the Bush Administration encouraged the Justice Department to leak information on an ongoing probe for "partisan political reasons."

The twist comes in a motion filed Thursday in the case of ex-Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ), who was indicted on 36 corruption counts in February 2008. (Read the motion here.)

His lawyers are demanding that the government show why it should not be held in contempt for disclosing information from grand jury proceedings.

The motion lays out the facts we now know, thanks to documents recently released by the House Judiciary Committee, about the White House's apparently successful attempt to secure favorable DOJ leaks on the Renzi probe in the days before the 2006 election.

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