Zachary Roth: August 30, 2009 - September 5, 2009

Chris Christie

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

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

Former US Attorney Chris Christie

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."

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.

Barack Obama

Tea Party Group: Obama Is Both Goebbels And Mengele

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

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.

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.

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.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (2) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)
Topics: ACCCE, Astroturf, Jack Bonner, Lobbyists

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.

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.

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (9) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)
Topics: Mark Sanford, Sex

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.

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:

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (4) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (3)
Topics: Bob McDonnell, Media

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?"

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

PERMALINK | COMMENTS (50) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (2)
Topics: Mark Sanford, Sex

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.

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.

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:

Torture

ACLU Lawyer: Torture Probe Too Narrowly Focused

Zachary Roth | August 31, 2009, 4:45PM

Earlier today, Jameel Jaffer of the ACLU went on MSNBC, and made a crucial point about the decision to probe torture.

The problem, argued Jaffer, is not that we're investigating clear evidence of law-breaking -- as Dick Cheney and countless conservatives would have it. Rather, it's that the scope of the investigation, as we've noted, appears to be unduly narrow. As things stand, it focuses on CIA personnel, but ignores the Bush administration officials -- both Justice Department lawyers like John Yoo, and high-ranking policy-makers like Cheney himself -- who authorized and approved torture in the first place.

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."