George Bush

Bush Personally Sent Card And Gonzo To Ashcroft's Hospital Bed

Zachary Roth | July 10, 2009, 5:47PM

This great catch by Marcy Wheeler might be the most shocking nugget of all from the IGs report on surveillance.

The report goes into some detail about that famous visit made by Andy Card and Alberto Gonzales to then-AG John Ashcroft, when Ashcroft was in the hospital, and essentially incapacitated, after gall bladder surgery. The White House needed the Attorney General's sign-off to continue its warrantless wiretapping program.

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Alberto Gonzales

WH Counsel Gonzo To DOJ: When We Said We Cared About Your Legal Opinions On Surveillance, We Didn't Really Mean It

Zachary Roth | July 10, 2009, 5:17PM

Another great nugget from that just-released inspector generals' report on surveillance...

Check out the amazing 2004 letter from Alberto Gonzales, at the time the White House counsel, to then-Deputy Attorney General James Comey, who had raised "serious issues" about the legal basis of the surveillance program, and particularly the lack of congressional notification.

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George Bush

Was Bush Kept In The Dark On DOJ Concerns About Surveillance?

Zachary Roth | July 10, 2009, 4:49PM

One passage on the IGs report on surveillance suggests something that perhaps shouldn't come as a surprise -- that President Bush was kept in the dark by members of the White House staff about about serious objections to the surveillance program raised by others in the administration.

To wit:

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Rick Santorum

Did Santorum Tip Off Ensign?

Zachary Roth | July 10, 2009, 4:26PM

A great nugget we missed from the portion of Doug Hampton's interview that aired last night...

Ever since the appearance last month of the famous letter Hampton wrote to Fox News -- asking for the network's assistance in exposing John Ensign's "relentless pursuit" of Hampton's wife Cindy -- there has been intense speculation that someone at Fox tipped off Ensign to the fact that Hampton was preparing to go public, prompting the Nevada senator to pre-emptively admit to the affair.

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CIA

White House Slipped In Key Passage To CIA Threat Assessment, Justifiying Surveillance

Zachary Roth | July 10, 2009, 4:06PM

Perhaps the key passage -- or at least the most interesting one -- from the just released inspectors general report on warrantless wiretapping is this one:

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John Ensign

Ensign: The Updated Timeline

Zachary Roth | July 10, 2009, 3:12PM

We've already published one timeline on the Ensign saga, but we figured that, what with the new revelations of recent days, it was worth compiling an updated one. So without further ado...

• Nov 2006: Ensign is easily reelected to the U.S. Senate from Nevada.

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Sex

More Ensign: Maddow Talks To Hampton Interviewer, And Expert On Christian Fellowship Group

Zachary Roth | July 10, 2009, 1:57PM

Last night, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow had two important interviews on the John Ensign story that are worth checking out.

The first was with Jon Ralston, who himself interviewed Doug Hampton over the last few days.

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John Ensign

Hampton: Religious Buddies Drove Ensign To FedEx To Mail Letter To Cindy

Zachary Roth | July 10, 2009, 11:58AM

We're probably not going out on a limb by saying that Doug Hampton's entire televised interview about John Ensign's affair with Hampton's wife Cindy, and the fallout from it, had to have been pretty embarrassing for the Nevada senator, if he's even been able to bring himself to watch it.

But one particular narrative that Hampton lays out really brings out what seems like the utter pathetic-ness of a man who Republicans once talked about as presidential material -- as well as the strangely paternalistic culture of the religious organization with which he's affiliated. And it jibes with yesterday's news that Ensign went to his parents to pay off the Hamptons, painting a picture of a man who, despite being 51 years old and a powerful US senator, still seems strangely weak-willed and dependent on those around him.

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Hans von Spakovsky

Spakovsky Likely Headed Back To Voting Rights Agency, In Volunteer Post

Zachary Roth | July 9, 2009, 4:42PM

The US Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR) is scheduled to vote tomorrow on the nomination of Republican voter-suppression guru Hans Von Spakovsky to a state-level body that advises the commission.

Lenore Ostrowsky, a spokeswoman for the USCCR -- whose mission is to defend voting rights -- confirmed to TPMmuckraker that commissioners will vote at a Friday morning meeting on Spakovsky's nomination to the State Advisory Committee for Virginia, where he lives. According to a source, it is likely that Spakovsky's nomination will be approved.

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John Ensign

Ensign Still Bringing Dirty Laundry Home To Be Washed

Zachary Roth | July 9, 2009, 3:33PM

It looks like John Ensign's sexual dignity -- which hasn't been high lately -- has plunged to new depths. His lawyer has just released a remarkable statement saying that Ensign's parents paid the Hamptons $96,000 after the 51-year-old senator told his Mom and Dad about the affair.

The senator's father, Mike Ensign, is a casino mogul who sold his shares in the Mandalay Group for around $300 million earlier this decade.

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Tom Coburn

Coburn On Hampton Claims: "Ask What's the Motivation Here"

Zachary Roth | July 9, 2009, 3:05PM

It looks like when Tom Coburn denied today that he urged his friend John Ensign to pay restitution to the family of the woman he had an affair with, the Oklahoma senator wasn't speaking just to Roll Call (sub. req.). Rather, in a sign of the potential trouble the story could represent for Coburn, he appears to have given an impromptu press conference, in what's likely to be a failed effort to nip it in the bud.

Politico reports that, along with his denial, Coburn had some choice words for Doug Hampton.

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John Ensign

Coburn Denies That He Urged Ensign To Pay "Restitution" For Affair

Zachary Roth | July 9, 2009, 1:47PM

We just told you about Doug Hampton's allegation that Sen. Tom Coburn urged his friend Sen. John Ensign to pay "restitution" money to the Hamptons on account of Ensign's affair with Hampton's wife. And now Coburn is denying the claim.

Roll Call reports:

Coburn repeatedly denied allegations that he urged Ensign to pay Doug Hampton, the husband of his mistress Cynthia, millions in hush money following a confrontation with Hampton. "I categorically deny everything he said," Coburn said.

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John Ensign

UPDATED: Coburn Not Denying Claim That He Urged Ensign To Pay "Restitution" To Girlfriend's Family

Zachary Roth | July 9, 2009, 12:35PM

SEE LATE UPDATE BELOW

Doug Hampton's TV interview about his wife's affair with Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) is hardly a model of clarity. Hampton meanders away from some questions, jumps forwards and back in time, and seems, perhaps understandably, still to have trouble viewing the situation dispassionately.

But there's one point on which Hampton is particularly lucid. He clearly says that when Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) confronted Ensign over the affair in February 2008, the Oklahoma senator urged Ensign to pay "restitution" to the Hamptons, including helping them to pay the mortgage on their $1.2 million house and to move out of state. And Coburn isn't denying it.

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John Ensign

Doug Hampton Breaks Silence On Wife's Affair With Ensign

Zachary Roth | July 8, 2009, 5:14PM

Doug Hampton has spoken publicly for the first time about his wife Cindy's affair with Sen. John Ensign. And it's good...

The highlights from Hampton's interview with Las Vegas Sun political columnist Jon Ralston:

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Alaska

Only Three Palin Ethics Complaints Were Still Pending

Zachary Roth | July 8, 2009, 3:01PM

If you had to pick out a coherent explanation given by Sarah Palin for her decision to quit as Alaska governor, you'd probably have to settle on the notion that she felt her agenda was being paralyzed by frivolous ethics complaints, and that she only foresaw additional ones. So she stepped down so as not to continue to drag Alaskans through the process.

"Palin Says Ethics Complaints Were Paralyzing" reported the Anchorage Daily News after the governor's round of beachside interviews Monday. And Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell, who'll soon replace Palin as governor, had given that line over the weekend, saying on Fox News that Palin had talked to him about the toll the complaints had taken.

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Harriet Miers

Rove Testifies, But Next Steps In Probe Remain Murky

Zachary Roth | July 8, 2009, 12:36PM

The news that Karl Rove has finally testified before lawyers for the House Judiciary committee about his role in the US Attorney firings and the prosecution of Don Siegelman represents, in one sense, the culmination of years-long battle. That fight has pitted Congress, determined to get to the bottom of the firings, against the Bush White House, which has dragged its feet at virtually every stage. And yet, the path from here to a full public accounting of what happened remains unclear at best.

Rove's deposition put a cap on a protracted legal standoff between the committee, chaired by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and the Bush White House. Conyers, investigating the late 2006 firing of nine US Attorneys, had first subpoenaed Rove in 2007. Citing executive privilege, the White House refused to let Rove testify. That eventually prompted Congress to hold Rove in contempt, and ultimately to file a lawsuit seeking to compel Rove to testify. A district court ruled in Congress's favor last year, but the White House appealed that ruling, and Rove continued to be a no-show at several committee hearings to which he had been called to testify. Eventually, in March, lawyers for President Bush reached an agreement with the committee, securing Rove's and Harriet Miers' testimony. Even since then, though, it's taken over four months to arrange for Rove's sit-down. (Miers had hers last month.)

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Media

Second WaPo Doc Offers More Info On Salons

Zachary Roth | July 7, 2009, 2:21PM

When a leaked flier last week revealed the Washington Post's plan to organize a corporate-sponsored "salon" on health care, the paper portrayed the flier as the hastily-created product of an over-zealous business department which misrepresented the Post's genuine vision for the event.

But now Politico -- which broke the original story -- has obtained a copy of a word document, sent out over two weeks ago, for the planned July 21 event. The document's existence will intensify questions about how, as the Post has claimed, the business and news sides of the paper could have been on such different pages over the event.

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Media

Atlantic Publisher On "Salons": I Didn't Read The Marketing Materials Either

Zachary Roth | July 7, 2009, 9:13AM

Atlantic Media publisher David Bradley is defending the corporate-sponsored, off-the-record "salon" dinners that his company has been organizing since 2003, in response to TPMmuckraker's report yesterday on the dinners.

In a 1500-word "letter" posted on The Hotline, Bradley refers to "concerns I'm reading now on the web" (no attribution, naturally), before explaining why he thinks the salons -- which, as we wrote yesterday, are very similar to the Washington Post's planned event that ignited a furor last week -- "are full of good purpose." (He adds that they're also "part of my best thinking on how we carry forward (read fund) modern journalism.")

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John Conyers

Report: John Conyers Leads "Separate Life" From Corrupt Wife

Zachary Roth | July 6, 2009, 4:54PM

It looks like it's not just us and the local press asking questions about what Rep. John Conyers knew of the bribery scheme to which his wife pleaded guilty last week.

The Washington Post got in on the game yesterday -- but it also offered a bit of detail about John and Monica Conyers' marriage which may support the House Judiciary chair's claim that he was in the dark.

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John Ensign

Did Ensign Hire Doug Hampton To Stop Himself From Having An Affair?

Zachary Roth | July 6, 2009, 3:38PM

We can't blame you if you'd almost forgotten about John Ensign. Since the GOP senator confessed last month to an affair, he's been unceremoniously knocked out of the headlines by the successive implosions of two other Republican 2012 hopefuls.

But the philandering Nevadan doesn't deserve to go gently into that good night just yet. And yesterday the Las Vegas Sun had a report on the relationship between Ensign and Doug and Cynthia Hampton -- the latter was Ensign's paramour from December 2007 until August 2008 -- which jibes in places with what we reported several weeks ago.

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Lobbyists

Not Just WaPo: Atlantic's Corporate-Sponsored "Salons" Tout "Private Conversations" With Top Journos, Lawmakers

Zachary Roth | July 6, 2009, 1:13PM

Last week, Politico reported that the Washington Post had planned to put on an exclusive off-the-record "salon" at the home of its publisher, where corporate lobbyists would pay as much as $250,000 to gain access to Post reporters and editors, as well as Obama administration officials and members of Congress. The news provoked an outcry in DC journalism circles -- the Post's own ombudsman called it "pretty close to a public relations disaster" -- and the the event was quickly canceled.

But the notion that the Post's gambit represents some sort of new and uniquely outrageous collapsing of the wall between the editorial and business sides of a news publication is badly off the mark. In fact, it would be closer to the truth to say that the paper got caught pushing the envelope on a money-making and influence-building strategy that other outlets had been quietly deploying for years.

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