Sidney Blumenthal’s book, How Bush Rules, in the chapter re: the Clinton Library opening. I’m too old to remember precise quotes, however, when a staffer said to Rove (to the effect), “You’re not so scarry.” Rove replied (to the effect)”Yeah? Well, I changed the Constitution.”

Just passing along a possible footnote.

Not sure who originated the idea (my guess is Karl), but William Moschella of DOJ sent the wording (a comprehensive fix) to Brett Tolman at 10:09 pm on 11/9/05. Mr. Tolman replied at 11:06 pm: ” I will get the comprehensive fix done.” the email is in the DOJ docudump from last week (Friday ?), file # 3, page DAG 2010.

Now there’s some reporting. Hope the right people have this information.

Don’t forget, Jay Bybee (Mr “Geneva Convention is quaint”) is a Mormon too. Mormons are very likely to be recruited into the CIA, NSA, etc. Too bad they hate government.

workerbee at 108 — thanks, that’s consistent with what I recall from California legis. Still, given the volume of bills and the size of the more complicated ones, it is common for some bills to go essentially unread by the elected reps, although one or more committee staff are supposed to be familiar with the final wording.

In that environment, it would be possible, though not ethical, for senior staff to hand leg counsel language to be inserted that none of the members would be aware of, at least not immediately. It should get the staff person fired, but I think it could happen.

Let’s see…

The Senate enacts legislation without knowing its contents.

Justice does a late Friday data dump designed to temporarily conceal by revealing all up against a weekend.

FDL foils the plot by conspiring to reading all the words nearly instantly.

The Senate hires FDL to actually read its bills before enactment.

Result: no surprises (or at least different ones!)

Why prosecute the man or woman
Who steals a goose from off the common,
And let the greater felon loose
Who steals the common from the goose?

This from a famous book free online written by Upton Sinclair, The Profits of Religion, considered by many to be one of the Great Books. If you have not yet read it, you can find it here–

http://www.infidels.org/librar…..igion.html

Yes! Mr Leahy says even if Mr Gonzalez were to resign, he has a subpoena ready to issue, will not allow another AG to be confirmed until all the facts are known.[lost the link — it’s in USAToday]

Cujo359 @ 109

Yet another mystery. Add it to who fired the U.S. Attorneys, and why they did it. My guess is that finding out who told Tolman to insert this into the paragraph will only lead to Abu Gonzalez, but it would be cool if it actually turned out to be Rove.

One thing you learn while looking at all the documents the DoJ dumped on the House Judiciary Committee is that there’s no clear reason why this happened. In fact, the DoJ’s public affairs person, Tasia Scolinos, seems to have come up with the “immigration” excuse by noting that three of the fired USAs had districts on the Mexican border. Check the last e-mail quoted here:

link

It’s also clear they tried very hard to keep the folks who made the decision out of the document dump. The e-mails we’ve seen are from folks who don’t have the authority to fire anyone. Gonzalez lying about not having heard of the firings is just one symptom of the problem.

I’m guessing that if the orders came from Gonzo, he was just transmitting what Rove told him to do. But I have a feeling it was Rove direct to Tolman.

Not sure who originated the idea (my guess is Karl), but William Moschella of DOJ sent the wording (a comprehensive fix) to Brett Tolman at 10:09 pm on 11/9/05. Mr. Tolman replied at 11:06 pm: ” I will get the comprehensive fix done.” the email is in the DOJ docudump from last week (Friday ?), file # 3, page DAG 2010.