Comments (19)

br wrote on April 2, 2007 2:02 PM:

On the Scott Jennings entry, one thing that you don't mention (and I haven't noticed elsewhere, although my reading is far from complete) is that Jennings ran the Bush re-election campaign in New Mexico. This takes on significance in the light of his role in the Iglesias firing.

See "KY Native At Home in the White House", Lexington Herald-Leader 08/07/06
http://cache.zoominfo.com/CachedPage/?archive_id=0&page_id=1720369631&page_url=%2f%2fwww.kentucky.com%2fmld%2fkentucky%2fnews%2flocal%2fstates%2fkentucky%2fcounties%2ffranklin%2f15215554.htm&page_last_updated=9%2f18%2f2006+4%3a09%3a15+AM&firstName=Scott&lastName=Jennings

>> After the '03 governor's race where Jennings had caught the eye of national Republicans, he accepted the daunting task of running President Bush's re-election campaign in New Mexico, whose five electoral votes had gone to Democrat Al Gore in the 2000 race.

And why had he caught the eye of national Republicans? Said the Kentucky Republican state chair:

>> "He's as good an operative and has as good of a mind as Lee Atwater coming up as a young guy,"

Anonymous wrote on April 2, 2007 2:31 PM:

Good work. Maybe you can forward it to Russert and some of the other talking heads so they can get a clue.
Code word: pull

Kay wrote on April 2, 2007 2:47 PM:

If the Senate and House Committees, Fox Noise, the rest of the MSM, and the American people need help figuring out this mess--Here's your sign . . .
Great work guys.

Security code: keep (keep on exposing the truth!)

John Mitchell wrote on April 2, 2007 3:53 PM:

Here's what the U.S. Attorneys' intranet homepage has said for the last couple of weeks:

"The Department of Justice has designated March 23, 2007 as Child Exploitation Awareness Day. This day will be a good opportunity for United States Attorneys' Offices to highlight the multi-jurisdictional efforts that are being made to protect our nation's children through Project Safe Childhood. As the Attorney General has eloquently described it, Project Safe Childhood is about all of us becoming 'brothers and sisters in a common cause . . . standing shoulder to shoulder, like sentinels at the watch.'"

John in PA wrote on April 2, 2007 5:06 PM:

I'm tired of the constant guilty attitude! What do we really know?

Andrew wrote on April 2, 2007 5:22 PM:

You've got to be kidding....right?

"The Department of Justice has designated March 23, 2007 as Child Exploitation Awareness Day. This day will be a good opportunity for United States Attorneys' Offices to highlight the multi-jurisdictional efforts that are being made to protect our nation's children through Project Safe Childhood. As the Attorney General has eloquently described it, Project Safe Childhood is about all of us becoming 'brothers and sisters in a common cause . . . standing shoulder to shoulder, like sentinels at the watch.'"

Check out this story at www.worldnetdaily.com
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54861

Attorney General Gonzales among officials who allegedly ignored abuse of minor boys

jen wrote on April 2, 2007 8:54 PM:

Probably a stupid question, but how to we access the Reference section and the timeline? For that matter, how do we access the Horses Mouth page?

If there's links somewhere I'm missing, I apologize in advance!

jen wrote on April 2, 2007 8:56 PM:

Figures, soon as I post the question, I see the links...

But still haven't figured out how to get to Horses Mouth, unless it's linked from TPM.

Node of Evil wrote on April 2, 2007 9:15 PM:

I have one thought; they want to go nationwide with Katherine Harris. I used to think that "the ball" was the ability to appoint USAs at will. I still do to an extent, only inasmuch as it allows them to have some control over legal troubles (if there are any... Will there be any, Republicans?) that might spring up in an election. Many folks have already come to this conclusion, I wanted to digest the information a bit more before coming 'round to this point of view myself. The attack-dog mentality of the political string-pullers is such that I have to think this is a primary motive, although probably not the only one. The timeline is suggestive of this, too, and I wonder if any of the "loyal Bushies" proved their mettle in the 2004 election. Most of the disloyal "Bushies" seemd to show their stripes around that time. Anyways, I'm sure their motives are a many-headed hydra, and probably changing over time. I now think that the biggest head is having some control over legal processes in close elections.

Jack wrote on April 2, 2007 9:51 PM:

They need the Loyal Bushies (TM) as US Attorneys to prevent the kind of law enforcement that resulted in Duke Cunningham's conviction. In their minds, one corrupt Republican in prison is one too many. It's hard work liberating all of those taxpayer dollars for the benefit of those who donate to their campaign and provide high paying jobs to out-of-work Neocons. They can't be stressed with the possibility that someone might want to investigate or prosecute them. After these firings, how can any US Attorney or FBI official be expected to put their career on the line to investigate an influential Republican?

Look how quickly they showed the San Diego FBI Chief the door, even with the full spotlight of live, televised Congressional hearings on the FBI Director. Mueller and his people should be given their walking papers on the same day that Gonzales is given his. The last time that the FBI was this compromised by partisan hacks, L. Patrick Gray was submitting his resignation for destroying Watergate evidence. That's what happens when you allow the President to appoint whoever he wants to a position that's supposed to be somewhat isolated from politics.

snart wrote on April 2, 2007 10:13 PM:

A well designed graphic showing key players and relationships between them would be extremely helpful for folks wanting to get up to speed quickly.

Y'all rock.

knowsthe truth wrote on April 2, 2007 10:19 PM:

to connect the dots, just follow the trail of breadcrumbs dropped by young federalist society members as they were sent, body-snatcher style, from DOJ's political positions to take over US Attorney's Offices from locally based Bush appointees - Kansas City, Minnesota, Miami are all places to look at - and remeber, don't go to sleep!

Michael Stevens wrote on April 2, 2007 11:55 PM:

Thanks TPM, this is a great resource.

Has Muckraker ever considered a scandal Wiki? It might be a better format for this sort of information.

steambomb wrote on April 3, 2007 12:10 AM:

I just looked at the timeline. I gotta say that Sampsons' testimony doesn't really hold water. I am sure that he has his story and is sticking to it but who would think that they would just go fire a USA without considering the ongoing investigations they were working on. That on its face seems like a ludicrous statement to me. He is either lying or he and anyone else considering the firing of USAs should resign due to gross negligence. To say that they never considered what ongoing investigations the USAs were working on is just too far out in left field for me to believe.

notjonathon wrote on April 3, 2007 2:44 AM:

Go take a look at Emptywheel's excellent posts over at The Next Hurrah. Her speculations are a great complement to your work over here.

sparkplug wrote on April 3, 2007 8:38 AM:

google examiner.com & george beall, to read about the good old days during Watergate when a truly independent and honest us attorney in maryland was allowed to pursue the investigation of the sitting v.p. - spiro agnew - for corruption. the current WH and DOJ would never have allowed this heroic us attorney to do his job. how tragic. patrick fitzgerald for attorney general.

John Mitchell wrote on April 3, 2007 10:01 AM:

Andrew, regarding your comment above, that wasn't my point at all. I don't believe for a second that Alberto Gonzales doesn't care about keeping kids safe. I think he really does. But the point is that while this is happening, he can not pay attention to real problems such as keeping kids safe! That is what is really sad about this whole thing happening. The kids who need to be protected need the Attorney General leading that effort, not paying attention to hearings and worrying about his job.

Bob King wrote on April 3, 2007 12:21 PM:

Snort! I believe Gonzolez believe in keeping future republican voters (IE, middle-to-upper-class white and white-equivalent kids) safe from troubling aspects of reality that might otherwise inspire them to reconsider their "family-values" based votes. Their actual safety and well-being, outside of that metric? Hah!

One only has to look at actual delivered services in the names of these causes to people actually affected. It always turns out that it's s way of directing funds to a crony in return for, say, opening a new private women's prison - where the showers are probably visible on line to significant republican donors.

Our administration has gone sociopathic and citizens exist to them only as entirely dispensable pawns in their masturbatory power games. It's reminding me of a History Channel documentary on Nero.

Offlogic wrote on April 3, 2007 10:17 PM:

Nero? Hello?
Think The Matrix", coppertop!