Rayne reminds me of the McNulty handout from his testimony to Congress:
I’d commented over at DailyKos:
I’ve been scratching my head for weeks now over McNulty’s testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary committee. Heard this on my clock radio, an NPR report by Ari Shapiro, made me snap up out of bed.While McNulty testified that the firings weren’t political but based on performance, a staffer was handing out a brief with supporting documents that included emails from members of Congress complaining about some of the USA’s. This was the first time I’d heard about emails or actual Congressional complaints. Shapiro even sounds quizzical in his report about this gap between what was said and what was handed out.
Was McNulty trying to say something in the briefer that he couldn’t say verbally?
Was he blowing the whistle?
I’ve not been able to get my hands on a copy of the handout since then.
Something about this scenario still does not make sense. If Harriet “Bush’s BGFF*” Miers was coaching staff to avoid commentary about personnel issues, why did this handout include those emails??
This entire story could have blown up even faster if anybody had actually read and then furnished a copy of those handouts to bloggers…in fact, I think we still need those handouts regardless of what we’ve seen so far in the document dumps because most of the Congressional material we’ve seen is in the form of letters and not emails. What else was in those emails? Who would they vindicate or accuse?
I remember us talking about this in the comments during the course of that week, and even tried to reach out through my contacts on the committee to get my hands on the McNulty hand-out for Rayne, who had exhausted her contacts in trying to get a copy as well. No luck thus far. If anyone out there has a lead on how we might get a peek at the McNulty hand-out, I'd sure love to hear it. Because, more and more, the dissonance between what we've been hearing from Rove's shop and the Attorney General, and the bits and pieces that are leaking out of the DoJ around the edges, is becoming a sort of cacophony of trouble for the White House. All of this adds up to a lot of trouble with "the math" in my mind.
And if Mr. McNulty is, as ABC News suggests this morning, being set up as Fall Guy #1 — I am wondering more and more this morning if his hand-out and what he knows and may have been trying to say to Congress might be the reason. Which makes me ask: what exactly does Mr. McNulty know, and is he willing to tell the rest of us?
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Zed!
Waxman!
Roots!
“Ah what tangled webs we weave,
When first we practice to deceive”
I think I probably just mis-quoted the Bard but y’all understand the sentiment…
Damn, so close.
Dick Cheney Controls Tim Russert.
I feel better about this, now that Rayne is on the case!
EPU’d from the last post…
Oh, and by the way, isn’t it sad when a self-avowed “conservative” comic strip gets the USA scandalbetter than the beltway pundits… (Warning – this link probably won’t work after today, March 27.)
How very tantalizing and frustrating at the same time that we can’t get a hold of and read those handouts. Drat! Thanks for pointing it out.
And don’t forget: Gonzales was very unhappy with McNulty’s testimony.
Wouldn’t the hand-out be part of the record?
Christy,
This is how sloppy folks get when they are accustomed to no oversight. They are used to saying any bullshit thing that pops into their tiny little minds, knowing they’re not gonna be called on it.
There is a parallel phenomenon in the business world. When I was a pup, most companies still believed in accountability.
Many have drifted from that, and put enormous resources into not being held accountable by anyone. Think WorldCom, Tyco, Enron, Arthur Andersen.
In the later days of my career, the rot had spread to the bottom. Even supervisors and managers had a “how dare you question me” attitude, when the questions were based on the freakin’ corporate handbook – they didn’t want to go by their own rules, and the veeps and CEO’s backed them.
2006 was the beginning of the end of neo-monarchy, IMV.
Holy scheiss!
CNN reporting on the Wilton High School play.
Rayne rocks.
great posts this morning christie, am going back to read comments after i post this-
i guess i am missing something, since McNulty’s handout was a part of his testimony, why isn’t it a matter of public record? it’s not a top secret document or anything, so why not automatically made public as part of the record?
will check back for answer later, am going back to catch up on comments from this morning’s posts……..
a sort of cacophony of trouble for the White House.
I feel the beat of the wings from muse of inspiration for my next musical piece in those words, Christy.
Gawd… re: the ‘handouts’, etc.). I absolutely despise censorship. Most of us are capable of sorting things out for ourselves.
NPR is reporting that there is evidence that the Justice Department interfered with the New Hampshire phone jamming prosecution.
Is there any evidence that they’re going light on Abramoff?
McNulty is in trouble for a number of reasons. First of all, Miers told him to go to the committee and stonewall. He didn’t do what he was told. Second, he had a meeting with a bunch of DOJ people to get his story straight, and now he’s claiming he got inaccurate and/or incomplete information. That opens a big can of worms, because now Congress is obligated to haul in everyone else who was at that meeting. Third, he tried to run a line of horseshit past Congress, and he got caught. He’s pissed off the White House, the DOJ, and Congress. I don’t see him having many friends left.
“Was McNulty trying to say something in the briefer that he couldn’t say verbally?
Was he blowing the whistle?”
Finally! Just what this scandal needs-somebody blowing something.
Ed*ard at 16 — Oooooh, happy to be of assistance. Anything to help along the muse of musical genius. :)
Per TPM, it looks like Goodling might have a basis for pleading the Fifth — — but it doesn’t bode well for her or McNulty :
Thanks for giving this a few more eyeballs, Christy.
There’s a link to NPR’s article in the original comment, but here it is again; what do you guys think after hearing it?
I have the impression that McNulty is walking a very fine line.
edit: note that it says the “spokeswoman” passed out the handout…was that Goodling? At the time I first heard this report a little over 2 weeks ago, it didn’t matter who the staffer was, but now it makes a serious difference.
edit2: and it says letters, not emails; I could have sworn I heard emails.
Feedback from you guys would be great since I’m apparently hearing things…
OT: Is anyone else having trouble getting into Salon.com, or is it just me? I haven’t been able to read there for a couple of days and I’m getting a little cranky about it.
Frank Probst @ 19
Though apparently he’s friends with Schumer–and it’s Schumer, in this case, who wields the subpoena power.
OT – I’ve been lurking here at the lake for a few months and have been actively posting for a couple of weeks. I need to say how awed I am by the depth and breadth of knowledge here. The tenacity and laser focus has invigorated my sometimes weary political self. Thanks for reminding me that I’m not alone in being appalled at this administration…and that as a people we have the power to restore our country.
Pachacutec @ 24
I’m not a member so I watched the Makers Mark ad and got right in.
Btw, I am an Ambassador for Makers Mark. Good stuff.
Lest we forget,there are still men of honor in the legal profession.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/and…..on177.html
Pachacutec @ 24
I just left salon.com, reading atrios’s “wanker” link to greenwald’s story at Salon. Then I went to TPM, where Josh has posted this in the past 20 minutes:
Monica Goodling does have a good faith basis for pleading the Fifth Amendment – just not the ones in her lawyer’s letter that are getting all the attention.
Under the federal False Statements statute, 18 USC 1001, it is a felony to cause another person to make a false statement to Congress. Since McNulty has allegedly told Senator Schumer that he made a false statement to Congress based on information provided to him by Monica Goodling, Goodling could very well be prosecuted for a Section 1001 violation.
All the rest of the crap in her lawyer’s letter is intended to sooth as much as possible WH anger at her for invoking the Fifth.
Journalists (or someone) could/should have passed the handouts to bloggers… interesting concept.
Is there any way to turn that into a regular flow of information, as opposed to a random occurrence?
OT– A lady is having her say about the Patriot Act after the cmte hearing! Her name is Shahin Sadiqqui (sp)– she says she is a housewife and not OBL– she says President Bush is conducting a secret war in America. She addressed herself to some lady that was telling her to hush.
They just cut away!
Access denied (to the handouts) IS censorship.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if some of the idiots in this administration think that complaining letters from members of congress *is* evidence of poor performance.
That’s no more ridiculous than the crap that spews out of Vitriolic Tonsilitis, and she’s an effing lawyer!
emptywheel @ 25
Sounds like we may all need to start making some calls to Schumer’s office. 8-)
It would be a shame if friendship got in the way of Schumer’s constitutional duties.
If it appears this is happening, FDL readership, along with the Roots Project, will need to take action.
Pachacutec @ 24
I haven’t had any problems. I just read Glen’s blog not 30 min ago.
So inquiring minds want to know…did those handouts ONLY include the content we’ve already seen in the document dumps, or was there something else in there?
And why would Goodling encourage use of “The Department doesn’t discuss personnel matters” as spin, while handing out these documents?
Were these the Darryl Issa letters b*tching at Lam about immigration prosecution — likely ginned up to obstruct Lam’s office by sucking resources away from the Cunningham-Foggo-Wilkes investigation?
Rats…
Ok, we have got to put together a simpler, easier to follow narrative. I am not quite getting what’s going on here. Should I go back and review McNulty’s testimony to see what he actually said or would that be pointless because what he said is not the sum total of what he actually divulged?
And what is it that Monica is supposed to have told him anyway? Ohhhh! I just had a lightbulb go on. What if it was Monica’s job to provide McNulty with the official version of events and he was supposed to testify verbatim sort of like that Karen What’shername was supposed to do at the tobacco trial. But McNulty wasn’t going to be caught saying something he knew not to be true so he provided the committee with a brief with extra information. So, now Monica is caught between a rock and a hard place. She was just doing her job passing info from the WH to McNulty but McNulty went off the reservation. So, if she testifies truthfully to what she did, she would be implicating Miers, Rove et al because Miers says the WH email was supposed to stay confidential and it wasn’t.
Or something like that.
Does that mean that when Paul said he wasn’t in the loop verbally, his brief said he was in the loop (somewhere) so he didn’t really perjure himself?
I’m so confused!
Hi Rayne, I placed a call to one of the judiciary members press office requesting the hand-out. He indicated he’d look into it and get back to me. Here’s hoping.
WASHINGTON – FBI Director Robert Mueller labored Tuesday to persuade skeptical senators that the FBI can properly use its terrorism-era authority to gather telephone, e-mail and financial records of Americans and foreigners while pursuing terrorists.
1,467 dayz and the killin’ goez on and on and..
Citizen Hardin Smith and the Firepup Patriots:
Thank you dear, you make the sometimes Byzantine language and structure of the law as it applies to complicated situations clear to an old man with only 3 brain cellz left. So I ask you, first Mc Nulty, then Goodling (and they are tryin’ ta keep her on a leash by puttin her on “leave”)it seems that all the rumors of ass-savin’ and bus dodgin’ are true…and we haven’t even got to non-political, career civil servants.
Do you think that subpeonas are bein’ held up until negotiations with McNulty AND Goodling can bring ‘em both in out of the rain (so ta speak) and out of harm’s way. I wonder if any of the middling players in this horror-show are fearing for their safety about now.
And are Waxman and Leahy holdin’ up issuing subpeonas as long as information continues to surface, thus keeping a drawn out court fight from distracting everyone?
KEEP THE FAITH AND WATCH YER BACK, SISTER,!!
Pat_AlexVA @ 39
Thanks, Pat, hope you’ll have better luck than I’ve had.
Pach @ 24:
Try and try again. I’ve been dipping in and out this morning. No problem. You can get in even if you’re not a member. Look at the ad and get a free day pass.
Bustedknuckels @ 27: being a native of Kentucky, I always preferred Rebel Yell to Maker’s but when I do indulge (infrequently these days), I’ve become somewhat partial to Woodford Reserve. As a bourbon, I feel it can hold it’s own with any single malts…
mc @
20
AND there is a Monica involved. It’s 1998 all over again. All Monica, all the time!
Pach: Try a different browser, if possible.
Salon didn’t load for me. All I got was the S in the top left. No ad, lot’s of dead space.
Isn’t it wonderful to watch them tear each other to pieces? All it takes is just a tiny touch of oversight. I’m beginning to think the Dems, especially Waxman, may be on the right track with the “let them melt down while we dispassionately look on” strategy.
I believe strongly we are perched on the brink of the beginnings of world war.
Prairie Sunshine @ 13
The principal made the wrong call by deep-sixing the effort. The kids want to understand tis phenomena. Why not let them present their play and then lead a discussion about it, the play. They could insist on civility and dialogue. Shutting it down is anti-academic. It was a good learning opportunity lost and it the wrong lesson taught to kids who want to understand their world better.
dakine01 @ 44
Unfortunately, my small town likker store has a limited menu.:(
I will look for these as I always like a good bourbon. Thanks for the heads up.
Monica Goodling – Jesus Camp, Class of 1996…
Kucinich is speaking on the floor, CSPAN1, declaring that the Presidents actions towards Iran is an impeachable offense… and then talks about conflict resolution through other methods.
Just heard Leahy on the Senate floor say, that despite Bush’s veto threat, he will vote no on any supplemental that does not contain
redeployment of troops language. He was not a happy camper! Then Specteramous was up. I couldn’t listen to him.
NorskeFlamethrower @ 41
This sounds plausible to me but I’m only guessing because I feel like I’ve come in during the middle of the play. I think we have to go back and reread McNulty’s testimony to find out what happened. Clearly, the judiciary committee knows more than they are letting on. This must be what Schumer meant when he said it would be better for Rove, Miers et al to come clean now and get it over with because the truth is going to come out anyway.
Ed*ard Teller @ 52
Nahhh, really?
You guys and Dkos and TPM need to keep on the theme: Gonzo is just a fall guy, this thing came right out of the White House and Rove’s shop.
Even Keith O last night didn’t make that point.
This is just like Libby being Cheney’s firewall?
Well, now Gonzo is Rove and Bushy’s firewall. As long as Gonzo is still there, he’s taking the heat instead of the real purpetrators of this thing.
Zee:
Yeah, I used to feel alone also. Great feeling, isn’t it? Knowing that you are not the one eyed king in the land of the blind is like balm to the soul. And FDL supplies that balm every day!!!
It’s the same feeling I remember when Watergate finally broke… a minty, refreshing breath of truth airing out all the Repugnican felonious bullshit. Sam Ervin is smiling wherever he is!
Leahy up on cspan2…
Bustednuckles @ 51
Rebel Yell used to be sold “exclusively” in the “deep” south (they included KY), but when the Supremes ruled against Coors blocking from going East, it became available most everywhere. The NH state stores carried it after my sister and friends requested and I found it once in a packy in Waltham, MA. I don’t knwo who is distilling it these days but it was same as Cabin Still (lesser brand)
Woodford Reserve is a sngle barrel bourbon that is a little pricey ($30-40 for 750 ml bottle) but well worth it. Straight with water on the side and it is smooth enough to drink this way…
portia.vz @ 45
Since she’s “declined” to testify, you could even say she’s a missing blonde white woman, too!
Rayne is a patriot.
Has anyone called the Library of Congress and asked if they have a copy of McNulty’s handout?
IIRC, they are the archive for all Congressional proceedings…
Another avenue to check might be the Federal Register.
OT
Martha Raddatz was on Charlie Rose last night reporting on Admiral Fallon’s trip to Iraq. He’s the new head of CENTCOM, a command which comprises both Iraq and Afghanistan. He’s General Petraeus’s boss.
She said he was there to press generals to move quickly to change conditions in Iraq. As an admiral bullying generals, I’m sure that will go over big. As the new kid on the block with little experience in the area, his telling others how it should be done also looks like a winner. Raddatz also said that Fallon does not believe Iraq is in civil war. He picked up right away that there were none of the obligatory blue and gray uniforms, which would have been a dead giveaway. But the clincher was that no side was led by someone named Robert E. Lee.
Looking through Raddatz’s report, it reinforces my impression that Fallon is a “political general” and not a strategic thinker. He is more interested in doing the bidding of his masters in Washington than listening to his generals on the ground.
Shaking things up can be a good thing. It can knock people out of their business as usual mindset and allow new, creative solutions. It can also push for short term evanescent gains while ignoring their long term negative consequences.
This second possibility is what I’m afraid is going on here. I have said this very often. If you don’t understand the problem, you aren’t going to solve it (except by blindingly good luck which, let’s face it, isn’t going to happen here). Fallon doesn’t understand the problem, neither does Petraeus.
Bush and his generals, and now admiral, refuse to give up the storyline they have created for Iraq. This narrative is important because it determines their approach to Iraq and it has changed over time, just not in the direction of reality. At first, there was the Rumsfeldian idea that democracy and reconciliation would just happen magically like spontaneous generation. Then there was the Bremerite idea that it could be imposed by fiat. This was followed by the Bushian theory that elections equal democracy. They didn’t. Now we are in the Petraeus-Fallonian period where the goal of democracy is being ditched and our forces are there to stabilize the situation so that the Iraqis can come to some kind of an arrangement which will allow an eventual drawdown of our forces.
Like the previous incarnations of the Iraq narrative, this most recent version is a fairytale. It is why the current strategy will fail. It is predicated on what Bush and his generals think the Iraqis want. None of them seem to have asked the Iraqis however and therein lies the rub. In Iraq, no side wants to share power and all sides think they can win. The result is civil war. Whatever Bush, Fallon, and the generals may think they are doing by backing the “central” government, they are in effect supporting one side in a civil war. Shia militias are perfectly willing to go on vacation for a while, husband their own resources, and watch American forces fight it out with their enemies the Sunnis.
Bush and company think they are running things in Iraq. The fact is they are just the janissaries of the Shia.
A final note: Raddatz being Raddatz dutifully reported how Admiral Fallon was concentrated on Iraq and only Iraq. He didn’t have the time, the troops, or the energy to go messing with Iran. All that talk of carrier groups and an admiral to run the show was just that talk. This no doubt explains why US naval forces have begun large and aggressive exercises today off the Iranian coast.
Terry Olson @ 62
And an inspiration.
We all know lawyers who would lie faster than a used car salesman or tobacco lobbyist. But my guess is that professional prosecutors whose ambition is not being governor or Attorney General, care about this thing called the law. They could make a lot more money in private practice. There are easier jobs elsewhere. When you care about the law, you care about the rules that make conflicting things work, no matter how imperfectly.
It must get a lot of dander up when a political machine drops in on you like God in a Machine, tosses all of your work out the window, and says “do this”, knowing you know that it’s a lie and all about partisan winning. Kind of like telling a priest to forget his vows and his flock because the bishop wants to keep it quiet and keep the money.
When you have passion and a mortgage or school fees, sometimes passive resistance is the only way to survive. But as Christy say, always keep a file. Someday, someone who can do something about it might want a look at it.
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to decieve.” Sir walter Scott
Ain’t it the sorry-assed truth?
Neil @ 50
Heaven forbid that our kids would do something like think for themselves. It seems that there is a strong effort to impose conformity in the educational system today. Just learn what you need to pass the test, but don’t exceed your bounds. I hope that the Supreme’s stick it to the administrator in the bong hits 4 Jesus case. Which, by the way, I thought was a marvelous bit of tongue in cheek humor.
portia.vz @ 56
I doubt it, because it seems from the movie’s narrative, that they recruit enough victims from the eastern slopes of the Rockies to fill their roster every summer. But Messiah College, her undergraduate alma mater, is a sort of Jesus Camp for older kids.
So we have McNulty saying the “all of the changes were for performance reasons”…and we have Goodling handing out letters from Congress persons crabbing about USA’s.
And then we have Goodling’s lawyer using the word “firings” instead of “resignations”.
I think Goodling’s got trouble with more than the Senate Judiciary Committee.
goose cooked.
he is McNull&Voided.
Going to comment and run …. have training classes starting in a few minutes…..
There is a boil on this administration which is growing and growing…. thankfully we do have Senator Leahy and Rep. Waxman to lance this boil.
And the voters last Nov gave them the scalpel.
The American people need a wide resection with a deep debridement of this nasty wound on our country.
Millineryman @ 65
Terry Olson @ 62
Thanks, you guys, but it’s nothing, just native and obsessive curiosity about the people screwing us over.
I’m personally inspired by the models that Jane, Christy and Marcy offer; they make a lot bigger sacrifices to get to the truth than I do.
By the way, Christy — did you get to meet Ari Shapiro at the Libby trial by any chance?
I guess I haven’t called him about the handouts…
Rayne @ 73
{{{{Rayne}}}}
Spewed my grape soda. Thanks.
Love you all… going to write another check to FDL right now. Ahem, suggestion… suggestion…
NickOdemus, happy lurker.
actually — this makes a lot of sense
to me, given that monica has “lawyered
up” so aggressively. . . she suddenly
saw the chasm of the crimianl justice system
yawning wide before her — as she received sen.
leahy’s “invitation”. . .
this is an excellent “connect the dots” theory!
remember — accept no substitutes!
under oath. in public. before congress!
Rayne at 74 — I did, and liked him. He might have beenable to snag a copy, now that you mention it. Didn’t think about asking Ari…
old gold @
67
Thanks! I knew I was quoting someone from England and picked the Bard as so many of our literary quotes originated with him…
Ed*ard Teller @
69
Messiah College is not really that bad. It’s not like Bob Jones University. It’s just a Christian college with ties to anabaptists (like the Mennonites) and methodists.
Now, that is not to say that fundamentalist evangelical parents don’t send their kids there. I have heard that the academic program is quite good, but you can probably expect a much more culturally conservative college experience there. I’m guessing that coed dorms and drinking and hazing and stuff are not tolerated there. But that doesn’t mean they teach the Rapture or any of that crap.
Here’s the smoking gun on the RNC email angle:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..01979.html
[quote]Susan B. Ralston, while she was executive assistant to Rove, similarly used “georgewbush.com” and “rnchq.org” e-mail accounts to confer in 2001 and 2003 with Abramoff, her former boss, about matters of interest to Abramoff’s clients.
In a related e-mail, an Abramoff aide said Ralston had warned that “it is better to not put this stuff in writing in [the White House] . . . email system because it might actually limit what they can do to help us, especially since there could be lawsuits, etc.”
Abramoff’s response, according to a copy of his e-mail, was: “Dammit. It was sent to Susan on her rnc pager and was not supposed to go into the WH system.”
[/quote]
ooops!
Christy Hardin Smith @
79
Would you like to make that call, bat those auburn eyelashes and see if you can sweet talk them out of him? Heh.
S’more planting of the American flag in Iraq.
AP – Two truck bombs simultaneously struck markets in Tal Afar on Tuesday, killing at least 30 people and wounding dozens, police said, in the second attack on the city in four days.
OT–
What has Condi’s junket accomplished? Nothing.
Messiah College is probably somewhat like Calvin College in Grand Rapids Michigan.
I think the goal is to churn out socially responsible, culturally involved, Christians.
Conservative but not snake-handlers. Not foaming at the mouth.
Brainwashed by golf shirts? maybe.
I’m looking forward to EW’s next installment in the Douchebag of Liberty four part series. In cast you missed Part One, read it here.
I got my progressive sea-legs in the 60’s. And I will continue the fight.
perhaps I am hopelessly naive, but did you ask Ari Shapiro?
Brisingamen @
63
How long will it take for that handout’s distribution for it to appear online?
Thank you Rayne for your diligence!
Condi’s success right here– how gruesome these things that happen to these prisoners are:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17812290/
compassion: check
embracers of democracy: check
*xyz @ 6
speaking of Cheney,
Where has Cheney disappeared to, is this entire DOJ event being stretched out as the latest protracted “shiny object” to divert us all away from Deadeye, who seemed to be in a lot of crosshairs after the Libby conviction?
Not that Karl shouldn’t stay in our online sights, and not that we should ignore the rising pile of evidence, lies and obfuscations, but it just seems as if Dick has simply disappeared, and so much of this latest scandal’s online chatter conveniently leaves him off the radar.
Does anyone really believe Cheney was not part and parcel of every machination that came out of the White House? I can not imagine a micro-managing book-cooker like Cheney leaving this to lesser manipulators, even to that pseudo-genius TBlossom…
If there is still any semblance of link still active between Cheney and Rove, then there’s also an abiding link between the DOJ firings and the VP command center.
Bustednuckles @ 51
Agreed. Maker’s is good, but for some reason it doesn’t taste like bourbon to me.
I haven’t experienced the Woodford Reserve – I’ll check it out. Thanks.
Biodun @ 85
The belief here is that the Secretary’s junkets to the Middle East are pre-designed to accomplish absolutely nothing. Except to perhaps reassure the Israeli government that we in America ‘have their back’. ;0)
NickOdemus @ 77
Get pd on Fri. Will donate then. Thanks FDL.
Perhaps this will help:
Congressional Record Index (CRI): Main Page
BTW, for all you youngesters that don’t remember Watergate we are at that very happy locus in this scandal where consciences that have been dormant for years begin re-asserting themselves.
I’m waiting for the “there’s a cancer on the presidency” moment in this one.
As Radar used to say, “Wait for it…”
Biodun @ 85
My shorthand approach to this is that if Condi is talking about the sides talking about talking then nothing is going to happen. People have known what an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal would look like in considerable detail for more than 20 years.
The talking about talking about talking has become such an old dodge that it positively creaks. Reporters traveling with Condi can dust off stories written years ago, change the dates, and recycle them. It’s that bad.
I am really, really tired of my tax dollar going to Israel to enforce the gulag that is Gaza.
UMM NASER, Gaza Strip – An earth embankment around a cesspool collapsed Tuesday, spewing a river of sewage and mud that killed four people and forced residents to flee from this village in the northern Gaza Strip, officials said.
—————–
You’re either with us in the war on water pipes or you’re against us!!!!!!!!!!!!
Christy,
I read somewhere(I’ve have read so much and I can’t find where I read it) that mc Nulty was a friend of Schumer’s and thought thatif he testified it would be better becasue of his frienship.
Then Schumer says to Obermann that there are a lot of disgruntled justice employees.
It seems likre the Democrats know more then they are letting on and I’m wondering if mc Nulty went to Schumer with this stuff and will get some kind of protection, if indeed it gets nasty.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 94
Or just keep her otherwise occupied while Negroponte runs things in her absence
“Dammit. It was sent to Susan on her rnc pager and was not supposed to go into the WH system.”
TRUE CONFESSIONS!!!
portia.vz @
38
As the spokesperson, Goodling would certain have a big role in how content is framed; I can see your concept working.
Goodling is to DOJ (and possibly the White House) as Cathie Martin was to Libby; she could be just as damaging and more so, since I don’t think she’d be able parse her testimony on the fly.
And if Goodling is Martin’s counterpart at DOJ, Goodling was an enormous part of the talking point preparation process, as much as Sampson was.
And then there’s the timing: this chick doesn’t just stroll into Dowd’s office yesterday morning, ask for a letter from John Dowd and presto, press release yesterday afternoon.
I think she lawyered up almost immediately after McNulty’s testimony.
(Hey Marcy — what’s the chances that the OTR Club is also the “Save Monica!” defense fund?)
White House press briefing with Perino on now on CSPAN3.
Press briefing on cspan3.
shadow government: conversations/deals/arrangements that take place in the shadows -
There is life after the Scooter/Shooter trial! It’s like a neverending soap opera with these guys — one storyline ends and another one begins and they’re all interconnected somehow. Never a dull moment — I just can’t wait until it all comes crashing down on them and I won’t be satisfied until someone gets frogmarched out of the WH.
JEP @ 103
Need to go back and look at any and all old e-mail doc drops on any and all subjects related to WH all the way back to January 20, 2001.
BTW Snow has a recurrence of his colon cancer with mets to the liver. Mets to the liver with this kind of cancer is not unusual but is an awful prognostic sign.
Hugh @ 64
Your reporting of Fallon’s “mindset” is ever so much more worrying – “there is none so blind as those who refuse to see”. Fallon is in command only to command the attack on Iran. The “extra” personnel called for in this “surge” are enough to occupy and control the 710 and 645 regions (oil & gas producing) of Iran, occupying the whole country is not possible with current resources and unnecessary. Remember there are some 80k – 100k “private contractors” available as reserve in addition to known US military present there. Fallon will order the attack on Iran as directed by the “W”anker occupying the WH.
CSPAN1 crawler: Gonzalez launching DOJ plan to keep children safe from online predators.
Oh! the children. How many people will make up their minds about the poor beleagered AG who is unfairly caught up in partisan politics and wants nothing more that to protect the children of our nation from sexual predators? For the sake of the children, let the man do his job.
I’d like to know in what office this policy priority (internet preditors) was decided, and if there’s good reason to support it as a priority for the DOJ.
Are the intelligence committees still wrangling over the terms (no oath, no transcript, no public hearing) of testimony by White House advisors or are all the efforts focused on finding documents in the public domain that tell the story?
Helpless Dancer @ 102
It still looks to me like Condi’s being pre-positioned for Cheney’s job, especially if some of these new investigations start to go where they will inevitably lead. Although there is no doubt the VP will retain an office in the Pentagon, right next to Rummy…
Just my gut feeling…
It seems like everyone in DOJ remotely associated with connections to the WH is in deep trouble. Hagel and Specter are making muffled noises about maybe it’s best for Abu to go.
No one has thus far suggested that the prime mover in all this, Rove, should go. How odd.
I get the vague and unsettling feeling that some of the `pugs in Congress know much more than they’re saying, and are still working to put a believable spin on something that’s rather ugly. McNulty’s still prosecuting the AIPAC guys, and it has bothered me that he was pressing the judge to rule against them in a way that would have large negative ramifications for the press and for whistleblowers. Was he ordered to do that by the WH, because, somewhere else in the bowels of Justice, someone is working on a contract-fixing matter that involves the WH?
McNulty knows the value of the press and whistleblowers because he was one of the lead prosecutors in all the defense scandals of the late `80s and early `90s, and from all accounts I’ve read, he did a bang-up job, was very tenacious. There were, quite literally, hundreds of separate prosecutions involved.
So, how does a guy like that get his ass in a crack over the political manipulation of USAs?
Using the US Attorneys for highly political purposes is obviously bad. Encouraging them to engage in selective prosecution as the basis for a sophisticated kind of election fraud is much worse. But, what if someone is covering up blatant corruption in the WH and/or the OVP, and McNulty went along with it. This sort of thing is McNulty’s metier. But, I’ve heard nothing about anyone investigating the OVP for interfering with Corps of Engineers contracts to Halliburton. The story just died and stayed dead. Another how odd.
Arnie #111,
I don’t think a land invasion of Iran is likely but I agree that Fallon is part of the problem not the solution.
Fresh thready goodness, for everyone, in case you are so inclined.
Pat_AlexVA @ 47
Have you guys checked your security settings? I just got into Salon, no problem.
NickOdemus @ 96
Yes! I will wait for it. Loved Sam Ervin and we spent many evenings together watching folks squirm on camera. Great family TV.
Watergate looks like a simple malignant tumor compared to this systemic spread of BushyFoama.
I would also love a “have you no decency” moment aimed at Karl Rove. Is it just me or does he remind anyone else of Hitler’s Goering, or Edgar J. Hoover’s Edgar J. Hoover?
Just sayin’.
Rayne @ 74
Rayne,
I think Christy did. I definitely did–he sat behind me, about 3 people down from Shuster.
If we can find an email for him, I’m happy to ask.
What’s Cheney up to these days? Last Friday, the NYTimes reminds us of what Darth and Gonzo have been up to in the recent past, inter alia:
Uhm — just thought of something…
Waxman is investigating how the $140,000 for Cheney’s office furniture turned into a boat for Cunningham, right?
All Federal offices buy their furniture through General Services Administration.
And we’ve just seen info on the Bush Mis-Administration’s attempt to politicize GSA. Gah! Talk about corruption…
Neil @ 112
And then there is this.
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot……andal.html
Ed*ard Teller @ 69
And her J.D. is from Pat Robertson’s Regent University. She’s got the Kool-Aid running through her veins …
BC
CSPAN1 crawler: Gonzalez launching DOJ plan to keep children safe from online predators.
See there? If you just watch the teevee, and that show that set up the stings for such people, you too could be the Attorney General of the United States of America.
Nothin’ to it – where do I apply?
Doesn’t the fact that the firings were admittedly because of complaints from members of Congress make the firings POLICAL BY DEFINITION?
Neil @ 112
Sounds to me like a plan to shut down the internet.
jayt @
124
What was he doing during the Mark Foley Affair? Counting Loyal Bushies?
emptywheel @ 119
It’s in the mail!
LS @ 109
As one FDL commentor noted in one of the docudumps, the chain of “posession” that ends almost every email, may be a regular slug-trail of truth, one that identifies all the guilty parties.
Can there ba any doubt, if there is something in the body of the document that those of us here and TPm and other watchdog blogs find imminently implicating, that the computer-owners listed in those tag lines assuredly read that same email?
In this age of electronic files, though, the “delete” button is quickly becoming the shredder of 21st Century political subterfugfers.
“Subterfuggers”
There’s one worth coining!
Dick Cheney is in his bunker, finalizing plans to throw Bush, Rove, Abu, and Harriet under the bus, before their extraordinary rendition to Gitmo.
If the CheneyBot Veep does it, it’s not illegal.
The Bush/Rove Occupation of the White House is a cancer on the American body politic.
Hugh @
115
IIRC the 710 and 645 production areas of Iran are quite small and compact. They also don’t have a large population to overcome and terrorize into submission. Only that part of Iran will be physically invaded to control the resources. That gem of resources would be separated from Iranian control.
Hey Do Si Do!
Wouldn’t it have been fun if we had the internet back then? God bless Gore for inventing it!! :)
And isn’t it fun watching the bloviators bloviate themselves into irrelevancy? MSM? Is that like 8 track cartriges?
Heh, heh, heh. It does come around, doesn’t it?
Probably in EPU territory here, but here’s an interesting link:
Voice of San Diego
If you scroll down a bit, you’ll get to Darrell Issa talking about Carol Lam and various and sundry issues relating to the USA scandal. Issa hosted the Cafe San Diego portion of Voice of San Diego the other day, and responded to reader questions. There are some interesting bits. A lot of tap-dancing, but for those interested in his take, it’s worth looking at.
Rule for testifying before Congress is 200 copies plus e-copy two business days before – not handouts during presentation.
Better be copies somewhere
This morning’s CNN.com poll:
Do you think Iraq is in a civil war?
Yes 81% 23112 votes
No 19% 5470 votes
Total: 28582 votes
Should we tell Fallon? I think everyone but the hardcore wingnuts has figured it out by now.
portia.vz @
45
I wish! Seems to me it is all Anna Nicole all the time. Someone’s gonna hafta abduct or bump off another blonde soon or MSM might have to cover something meaningful.
I keep looking at this:
And it occurs to me that Goodling is very likely toast even if she pleads the Fifth. She doesn’t have to open her mouth or take the stand to be nailed for a Section 1001 violation, not if McNulty has proof positive that she fed him bogus information.
emptywheel@119
How about Shuster? Would he have a copy?
Rayne @
70
They said she might get in trouble for having used ‘one word’, so I’d guess it was that she told McNulty to tell Congress the Attorneys were ‘resignations’ when it was really ‘firings’.
She should be given immunity on something like that if she’ll just tell the truth and air out the DOJ laundry.
If the ”handout” you’re referring to is McNulty’s 06 February 2007 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, here it is –
http://judiciary.senate.gov/te…..it_id=2742
reticulant @
141
There’s been not reponse to your query, Reticulant. I’m waiting, too… The testimony relates to the rollback of the provision of the Patriot Act allowing gonzo to appt USA’s, which I’m not sure was the subject of the hearing.
Noneltheless, McNulty says:
“It should come as no surprise to anyone that, in an organization as large as the Justice Department, U.S. Attorneys are removed or asked or encouraged to resign from time to time. However, in this Administration U.S. Attorneys are never—repeat, never— removed, or asked or encouraged to resign, in an effort to retaliate against them, or interfere with, or inappropriately influence a particular investigation, criminal prosecution, or civil case. Any suggestion to the contrary is unfounded, and it irresponsibly undermines the reputation for impartiality the Department has earned over many years and on which it depends.”
portia.vz@38
“So, now Monica is caught between a rock and a hard place. She was just doing her job passing info from the WH to McNulty but McNulty went off the reservation. So, if she testifies truthfully to what she did, she would be implicating…”
Whoever demonstrates their integrity will be lauded and praised into immunity from any degaded crap flung their way.
JEP@92 ..link still active bet, Cheney and Rove…
How about the quid pro quo links bet. Gonzalas and Halliburton pre-2000?
“What webs we weave…” is Scott, by the way.