Category Archives: Politics: US: GW Bush Scandals

I haven't been posting about the various GWB insanities regarding the Veep, Gonzales, the Prosecutors, etc. etc. because, well:

• I'm busy
• It's all too depressing
• TPM & The Carpetbagger Report have been doing such a great job of it

Here's part of an especially good one from Thecarpetbaggerreport, The truth is apparently out of the question:

The White House “offer” to the Senate Judiciary Committee was fairly straightforward: if members wanted to talk to WH staffers about the prosecutor purge, the discussions had to be a) private; b) not under oath; and c) without transcripts. It’s that last one that never made any sense.

Indeed, the Bush gang never even tried to rationalize it. That is, until today.

The White House organized a conference call this morning with an official who certainly appeared to be Counsel Fred Fielding, who finally shed some light on why the president would make staffers available for private interviews, but only if there was no transcript of their remarks.

“Obviously, there has been a lot of discussion back and forth in that regard. The position that the president took and conveyed to the committees and the offer of compromise did not include transcripts. The accommodation was designed to provide information, not to appear to be having testimony without having testimony. One of the concomitants of testimony, of course, is transcripts.

“As far as the debate goes, often cited is that a transcript is not wanted because otherwise there would be a perjury trap. And, candidly, as everyone has discussed, misleading Congress is misleading Congress, whether it’s under oath or not. And so a transcript may be convenient, but there’s no intention to try to avoid telling the truth.” (emphasis added)

Got that? As Fielding sees it, if there’s a written record of what Bush’s aides say, senators might have proof if they lie. It’s preferable, then, to have no record and simply assume that White House staffers are being honest. And if you disagree with any of this, you prefer “confrontation” to cooperation.

He did not appear to be kidding.

571 more long days until it's over.

I'm back, I'm almost over jet lag, and almost caught up with the news, but not with all the things that piled up while I was away. Fortunately, Patrick has agreed to do a few more guest posts as and when the Supreme Court issues its final decisions of the regular term.

It appears that nothing changed while I was away. Notably:

• The war continues, and the Congress continues to enable it.
• Alberto Gonzales is still Attorney General… although most of the senior people working for him are quitting either in disgust or (in the case of henchpeople) in fear.
• There are near-daily revelations about US misdeeds regarding legal or physical treatment of prisoners in Iraq, or in Guantanamo or in secret CIA prisons, or regarding the coverup of same.
• The Republican primary field appears as hapless as ever.

Or did I miss something?

Stuart Taylor Jr. isn't pulling his punches. OPENING ARGUMENT: Another Gonzales Horror Story :

Every day that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is allowed to remain in office is corrosive to constitutional governance and an invitation to further politicization of the Justice Department.

And “X-Judge” H. Lee Sarokin asks What Do Alberto Gonzalez And A Chicago Divorce Lawyer Have In Common?, and answers as follows:

They both have demeaned the legal profession. A huge billboard in Chicago's nightclub district proclaims: “Life's short. Get a divorce” It features photographs of “a sexy, scantily clad woman on one side and a buff, bare-chested man on the other”. (NYTimes 5/13/07) No matter what the message or the motive of the messenger, no one can dispute the right of the lawyer to offer her wares in this fashion. It has met with considerable success. As with the Attorney General, apparently all things are to be judged by whether or not they are working, not whether they are right or wrong. Illegal wiretapping, secret prisons, torture, unlawful detentions, political firings of U.S. attorneys, suspension of habeas corpus, rejection of the Geneva Convention, and undoubtedly a host of other conduct yet to be revealed (such as a coercive hospital visit to the previous Attorney General seeking approval of an illegal wiretapping scheme) are all justified on the basis that no further attacks have occured since 9/11. Ergo, these tactics, like the billboard poster, are working, The only difference being that encouraging divorce is not illegal or unconstitutional, although in this administration it might be one day.

As to the firings of the U.S. attorneys, nothing infuriates me more than the party line that these are political appointments, and the President, as did President Clinton, can replace them all. Yes, these appointments are political as are those to the courts, but once appointed, U.S. Attorneys, Judges and Justices cease to be political agents. To do otherwise violates their oath of office. Prosecutors should not be dismissed for pursuing criminal conduct by members of the party in power or failing to pursue actions for the sole purpose of embarrassing the opposition and affecting the outcome of elections. Justice is not meant to be used as a political weapon.

So look for a billboard with that infamous picture of the hooded prisoner at Abu Ghraib on one side and a smiling picture of the Attorney General on the other saying: “Stop Terror. Torture Works”, because there is little that the current Attorney General does not have in common with the sleazy divorce lawyer.

But, GWB “stands by” Gonzales. And you can see why Bush stands by his man: it will be hard to find anyone to take the job, and the confirmation hearing for any but a top-drawer replacement will be … searching.

This is sort of a cheap laugh, but the last line is really funny. YouTube – Godfather IV

See the video by ImpeachGonzales.org.

I'm in Nashville for a couple of days of intensive meetings, so I don't have the energy to blog about this important development in the Gonzales scandal: thanks to James Comey's testimony before Congress, it seems that top officials in the White House, including then-counsel Gonzales were so anxious to keep on with a secret, illegal wiretapping program (whose details remain unknown) that the entire Justice Dept. opposed they tried to get Ashcroft to sign off on it while he was in intensive care. To his credit, Ashcroft, like Comey, refused.

The Comey video is at Talking Points Memo and some good discussions are in my brother's column, and at Hullabaloo, Glenn Greenwald and FireDogLake.

It is now is impossible to dismiss the suspicion is that for more than two years — before the Justice Dept got around to complaining about it — there were illegal domestic wiretaps aimed at the Bush regime's domestic opponents.

Previous post about James Comey: An Honest Man.