Truthout’s Jason Leopold just conducted an interview with former U.S. Attorney John McKay, who was one of the targets in the Bush Justice Department’s massive U.S. Attorney purge scandal.
And it’s a doozy.
Here’s some excerpts from the story associated with the interview:
“I asked for a meeting with Harriet Miers, whom I had known since work I had been involved in with the American Bar Association, and she immediately agreed to see me in August of 2006,” McKay told me. McKay said that when he met with Miers and her deputy William Kelley at the White House, the first thing they asked him was, “Why would Republicans in the state of Washington be angry with you?” That was “a clear reference to the 2004 governor’s election,” McKay said in characterizing Miers and her deputy’s comments. “Some believed I should convene a federal grand jury and bring innocent people before the grand jury.”
“All of my actions as United States attorney had been coordinated with the Department of Justice,” McKay told me. He said he explained that to Miers and Kelley, and informed them that there was no evidence of voter fraud to support launching a federal inquiry into the election.
The meeting with Miers and Kelley did not have a positive impact on McKay’s request to be appointed a judge at US District Court. Instead, McKay said it appears that he landed on the so-called list of US attorneys to be fired just a few weeks after his meeting with Miers and Kelley.
But the question that remains unanswered is who put his name on the list?
Who, indeed?
McKay thinks that Alberto Gonzales knows, but is lying like a rug in order to protect that person or persons. Which makes sense, considering how Bush and Rove are flatly refusing to cut Gonzo loose in the face of growing and bipartisan calls for his ouster: He’s their firewall, the person standing between them and justice.
Related posts:
- Torture: How a Review Gets to Grand Jury in Five Days or Less
- Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission
- John Dean: Is Boies/Olson’s Federal Anti-Prop 8 Filing A Risk?
- Chris Christie, Former US Attorney, Claims He’s Still “Got” Federal Prosecutors
- Executive Privilege and the Cheney Interview Documents
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zed!
Uno? PW!
Dah! Missed by THAT much…
Phoenix Woman!
Abu’s protecting Rove. Pull back the curtain and there’s the manipulator working the strings on all the puppets.
dakine01:
To console yourself: same time stamp as the zed…
PW-
Yes, it is indeed a doozy.
—-
Too old school for ‘Uno!’, yet…was overwhelmed it just happened to slide to me.
Wow. How is the traditional media going to spin this one?
dakine01 @ 5
Yup. And since Bush is helpless without Rove or Cheney around, Bush must protect Rove at all costs. That’s why Abu Gonzo will never be dumped.
(Edit: I just had a scary thought. If Rove goes, will there be anyone in BushCoLand who can counter Cheney’s push to attack Iran? Unless, of course, Rove favors attacking Iran, which is not unlikely.)
PW, I saw that interview, and it is astounding. It also gives me hope.
please excuse the early OT (and driveby too)….
tula has put up a dkos diary with her latest call to action post…. if you are a kossack, would you consider stopping by to give her diary a “recommend”?. thx.
Impeachment. It’s the only solution. Start with Gonzales and move up the food chain.
Ahhh….ummm….Scooter Libby put him and all the other USAs on the list! Yea, that’s the ticket…
Blank Kludge @ 7
I’ve been thinking about going with zunoed and have the best of all worlds…
How the Founding Fathers would’ve fought back against Bush:
http://freewayblogger.blogspot…..thers.html
selise @ 11
Thanks, selise! Just Recommended.
OT New Froomkin Lede is no pardon for at least a while…
Lists were compiled.
Names were added.
Meetings were held.
The passive voice was used.
Accountability was avoided.
Grrrr . . .
I want that firewall brought down.
Never mind the hortatory subjunctive — I want to see Bush administration officials testifying using short sentences, first person singular pronouns, and lots of active verbs.
If that means Waxman and Leahy have to bring in the Grammar Police, then by all means do so!
I hate this stuff because we already know it. There’s been enough information that’s come out of testimony for us to get a reasonbly decent picture of what went on. The trouble is that there’s no paper trail because nobody – not the RNC, not the WH, and not the DOJ – has responded properly with requested or subpoenaed emails and papers. If impeaching Gonzo is the only way to enforce this, then that’s what needs to be done.
But how long is Congress going to sit on their ass and tolerate this sporatic document dumping, which always turns out to be a trickle and usually isn’t even relevant. When are they going to get these papers?
1. Who made the list of USAttorneys to be fired?
2. Who put names on the list?
Amazingly — with all the “klieg lights” on this issue since Senator Feinstein raised it five months ago and with all the Congressional hearings that the White House characterized as “show trials” — these two very simple questions at the core of the controversy have not been answered.
LS @ 10
Exactly.
I apologize for the long title, but I thought that the quote of McKay’s made a nice two-by-four to the skull, eh?
dakine01 @ 14
That one is indeed worthy of consideration as an option. *g*
Here’s the Word Press error message that fills my screen when I try to get http://www.firedoglake.com from my Opera browser.
=======
Error establishing a database connection
This either means that the username and password information in your wp-config.php file is incorrect or we can’t contact the database server at database.ziaspace.com. This could mean your host’s database server is down.
Are you sure you have the correct username and password?
Are you sure that you have typed the correct hostname?
Are you sure that the database server is running?
If you’re unsure what these terms mean you should probably contact your host. If you still need help you can always visit the WordPress Support Forums.
=========
This has persisted for about 2 hours.
TeddySanFran @ 20
Every one of them should be indicted for Obstruction of Justice. Throw the book at them. What a bunch of slimey criminals. Just sickening.
Unbelievable…
He IS a firewall trying to race to the end of the finish line like Gen Pace.
Listen Bushie: We DO NOT want these guys running to the finish line… We want them
tripped up NOW….
This country is in grave danger
behindthefall @ 23
How are you getting into the Lake right now?
If that means Waxman and Leahy have to bring in the Grammar Police, then by all means do so!
Rep. Sarbanes, (or your mother) please pick up the white courtesy phone…
behindthefall @ 23
Opera here – perfect. Try clearing cache.
Saddest sentence in the current Froomkin:
That’s just a concise and tragic commentary on the anatomy of deceit.
Peterr @ 18
Simple, straightforward questions that DEMAND simple, straightforward answers.
Something no one associated with BushCo is capable of giving.
TeddySanFran @ 29
Morning Teddy!
Knut Wicksell @ 12
I agree.
g’morning, Flip4Mac friend!
I can not help but worry that we are about 17 months or less away from martial law.
TeddySanFran @ 33
…and can you believe it’s free?
BobbyG @ 34
If they tried that, it would never be successful. Not at this point.
Peterr @ 18
And answer the bloody question. (And then shut up.)
Sorry if someone has posted this already. Apparently the missing RNC/White House emails have been found.
behindthefall @ 23
I’ve only used Opera here, and haven’t had any problems. That’s probably not much help to you though. Good luck.
Helen @ 38
Ha!!!! Fork ‘em over!!
GeorgeSimian @ 19
Congress is being sabotaged by its republican members, whose strings are pulled by Rove from the white house.
TeddySanFran @ 29
Yup. And the press corps’ complicity.
When all the “respectable” news orgs were going around trying to make excuses for right-wing anti-Semitic white-supremacist terrorist Eric Rudolph, it was left to Jon Stewart to emphasize, right up front, that Rudolph was a bleeping loser who couldn’t get a bleeping job because he was too busy tokin’ and blaming his bleeping joblessness on the Great International Jewish Conspiracy. Bleep.
They know they have to give up the email. That must be why they just lawyered-up.
Gonzo’s not just BushCo’s firewall, he’s also got the goods on W. Recall, please, that he was then-Governor Bush’s personal attorney who got him outta jury duty.
In the category of “known knows” this stands alone. Think what else there must be in the category of “things we don’t know.” In the any Crime Family, the consigliere is the one who knows all the secrets.
Helen @ 38
Woo-hoo!
Yes! — more please with the “I reserve my time, Mr. Chairman” when the witness rambles.
TeddySanFran @ 46
YEah, and you can blow “Let me place that question in context” out yer a**. That means you Lorna Doon.
LS @ 43
Oh – good catch!!
Peterr @ 18
A friend of mine ran an underground newspaper in High School called “The Passive Voice.” It was named in honor of an actual statement in the student writing manual:
“The passive voice is not to be used.” *g*
How ’bout we try on for size, “officials were impeached”?
Don’t we forevermore have to refer to her as African American woman entrepreneur Lurita Doan?
TeddySanFran @ 29
I thought this exchange with Tony Snow was extraordinarily pathetic:
“Said Thomas: ‘I have one follow-up. . . . Are there any members of the Bush family or this administration in this war?’
“‘Yes,’ said Snow, ‘the president. The president is in the war every day.’
“Thomas said that wasn’t her question. She said she meant ‘on the front lines.’
“‘The president,’ Snow said.”
This about made me puke.
TeddySanFran @ 44
I don’t think Gonzo is the power person here. Besides its shadowy menace, the Bush crime family must have even more on him.
LS @ 43
Yup. And as has been pointed out, when they lawyered up, it was with Ivy League alums, not with the fourth-tier religious Christian madrassa law school grads they’ve been using to set DoJ policy.
The concept I’d like investigators to start pushing is that decisions by consensus don’t mean no one is responsible, they mean everyone involved is responsible. Consensus means no one objected. If you’re the guy in charge, that means you’re accountable for that action, and for actions that you “can’t remember.”
If the action is illegal and you were involved, you’re guilty. If you were in charge and weren’t involved or “can’t remember,” you failed to stop illegal acts being committed on your authority, and you should be impeached for dereliction of duty.
Phoenix Woman AT 26:
To the MODS: is this an attack directed against Word Press and its users?
Only happens when I use Opera to go directly to the high-level URL; Opera will go to one of the archived pages, even from today.
Also, I can get into FDL-home using Firefox.
Perhaps a coincidence: yesterday, AVG Free Edition found 3 Trojan horses it calls JS/Uniz.b in Opera’s profile/cache4/ under filenames opr022rv.js, opr0237J.js, opr022RY.js. (First time anything has been found on this laptop.) The files have been “quarantined”, whatever that is.
Who? Just fucking say it, out loud, publicly. Can this Katie Couric shit.
Oh yeah, and thanks for coming forward three months ago.
You know how they always say Bush won’t fire his “good friends” and all that? Well, I wonder how much social time he has spent with Gonzo and Gonzo’s family over the years. Do they have a true friendship or only professional relationship in reality?
Completely off topic — but it occurred to me this morning that First ‘Bot LauraBelle may be putting real pressure on one of their Not-Serving Twins to find a young man this year, so that there can be a big, fat, distracting White House wedding next spring, after the GOP nominee is selected and before the House votes on impeachment.
You know how they always say Bush won’t fire his “good friends” and all that? Well, I wonder how much social time he has spent with Gonzo and Gonzo’s family over the years. Do they have a true friendship or only professional relationship in reality?
Well, it’s Friday. What do you think will happen today? Doc dump? The previously missing emails, perhaps? Or will someone recognize the need to spend time with their family? Anyone’s house being raided?
I’m waiting.
TeddySanFran @ 29
Snow lies every time he opens his mouth but that isn’t even the worst of it. He lies so poorly. To listen or read a White House press briefing is to experience something beyond pathetic. Yet the supine White House press corps continues to give him a surprisingly easy time of it.
Thanks for putting this up. I put a link to it up last night and watched it again today.
Gonzo’s last act has really left me furious and I wonder what can and will be done. How can the top law enforcement person so openly throw the confirmation amendment in our faces and have it be OK?
OT: Mike Nifong has apparently figured out that he screwed up.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa…..id=2905141
IrishJim — to the credit of the WH press corps, though, someone finally asked the question about a Bush family member serving in Iraq. Not sure that’s happened before, that we’ve heard about.
I’ve submitted a question to WaPo WH reporters in their chatz every day for about four weeks, since the Preznit’s assault on David Gregory’s kids — “Now that the President has brought people’s chldren into the war discussion, will you take an opportunity to ask President Bush if he’s chatted with his children about military service?”
Not one WaPo reporter has selected my question, but I plod relentlessly onward, with this question the other day as my reward. The WH press corps will only move past colleagility and deference if pushed — so we must push in all the ways available to us.
And yes, Pony Blow’s response was upchuck-worthy. But ready-at-hand, so he must be prepared for more. The question needs asking in a more targetted way (I prefer my formulation) to eliminate the weasel-room Tony found.
behindthefall @ 54
Other Operas users say that they’re not having any problems accessing FDL, so it might be that you need to clear your cache.
behindthefall @ 55
Time to get a Mac.
LS @ 57
Gonzo is his friend like his dog is.
SeamusD @ 66
Dude!
If they just Impeach his ass and get it over with we’d all be better off.
tommy yum @ 8
By further trashing Leopold for starters, no doubt. The MSM did a heck of a job last fall spinning his unreliability. I admire truthout for sticking with Jason Leopold through thick and thin.
BobbyG @ 34
So what do we do, wait to say I told you so??
I see a public health “emergency” occurring just in time to postpone the elections where something like this will happen:
http://www.legitgov.org/DoD_to….._law.html.
And it’s all being done out in the open under everyone’s noses. All the distractions going on WRT hearings, investigations, new disclosures mean nothing.
These people are ignoring congressional demands for information and documents because they don’t intend to cede power and, therefore, don’t feel obligated to comply with requests from an institution they do not recognize as having any legitimacy.
Sad but true.
mods interested?
OK; thanks for the suggestion to clear the cache of Opera. Did so. It now fetches FDL-home, but only the first post of the day, even with refreshing. :{ However, I can get comments, edit the long URL, and walk my way up to the present — here I am.
I sure miss the days when a person could actually understand roughly what the programs were doing, back before the days of “applications”. Well, except for the parts beyond where the source said “You aren’t supposed to understand what comes next.”
Funny that access to other sites was not interfered with. That’s why I wondered if Word Press was a target of the Trojan horses that AVG found.
TeddySanFran @ 33
Hi Teddy!
What is this? I use a MacBook and sometimes have trouble viewing things in links. Would this help?
What’s Opera?
Sorry, I’m a bit of a Luddite at times.
spurious @ 32
Impeachment takes too much time and won’t be successful; just look at the no confidence vote. It would take 66 votes to convict and remove from office. I think the Dems are following the right strategy; hearings, document the felonies and perjury and obstruction and on and on. The key will be if the Dems follow up after 01/20/09 and refer to a Democratic Justice Department for prosecution. If that is going to happen, the public needs to be educated about the criminal nature of the Republican party and at least 60% of the public crying for blood.
OT:
Moyers has an excellent article about a possible Scooter pardon. Raw Story has it posted:
Link
Miers adores GW and is eternally grateful for his sweet company with her so she will do anything to protect him and do any act he requests of her. And so it is! There are no surprises. Every response is predictable. Every act is sinister. And the finger wagging goes no further than that.
Not just Gonzales knows. Kyle Sampson knows. How he was able to get through a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing without stating who told him to put what names on the list is beyond me. He kept claiming he was only the “aggregator” of the names, as if the “aggregator” would be completely ignorant of the sources of his data. They weren’t coming to him anonymously.
LS @ 36
Who’s going to stop them, LS?
The National Guard has been decimated and demoralized, and is somewhere else at the moment.
You think Blackwater, TITAN and CACI mercs wouldn’t love to neutralize some hippie liberal blogger scum?
Look at the directives that have been made public not to mention the number of executive orders that are listed only by number because their contents are secret.
The military is still separate from the people, there is no citizen soldier anymore. The end of the draft ended the link between the people and the military.
There is already a ready response team stationed in One Police Plaza in downtown Manhattan ready to go at a moment’s notice. Police Departments in many big cities have been staffed with former service members with extremely high security clearances. Why is that? The head of the NYPD’s Intelligence Division is David Cohen, Robert Gates’ #2 when Gates was in the Soviet section of the CIA.
It’s time for us to take the blinders off and realize that we have never before been this close to a complete takeover of our government, not even under Nixon.
And, btw, two of Nixon’s Plumbers were members of the NYPD Intelligence Division or BOSSI as it was known in those days.
Everything that’s going on in Washington is just a diversion. The Cossacks are just waiting for the word.
Steve @ 74
OTOH the spectre of imminent impeachment would wreak some long overdue defensive havoc, fear & loathing within DOJ and the White House, throwing them further off their arrogance and deadly gamesmanship.
Steve @ 74
actually it would be 67 votes (2/3 of 100 is 66.666667 rounded up)
you know, when abu torture was first in the spotlight and everyone said he had to resign, nobody could withstand the onslaught I pointed out there was no way bush could let him resign
because anyone that is confirmable will be able to look into the programs this maggont approved, they will also look into the decisions regarding torture
and the call for impeachmet will grow stronger
abut torture stays until the day that there is no other choice
perris @ 81
Agreed. Even if Chimpy was willing to throw Abu over, he has to have a Senate-confirmable mook who will play ball with Shooter. No way.
james @ 78
That is my fear. We perhaps delude ourselves that our outrage over a Bush martial law takeover would generate an effective unified countermeasure response. We might see contending “sectarian militias” for a while. In essence, a bit of civil war.
Dunno. I think Bush is capable of perpetrating this.
Have any other congresscritters signed on with the Kucinich impeach Cheney drama recently? I’ve urged our rep Sam Farr to do so – MSM seems to be ignoring the story completely.
BobbyG @ 83
Yeah, Blackwater has done such a bang-up job providing security in Baghdad haven’t they…
But also realize, there are a whole bunch of “dirty f*ckin’ hippies” who actually know how to use weapons and own them.
BobbyG @ 83
let’s start with this fact;
bush was never elected, he lost in every scenario except the one the supreme court decided
he lost the second time around as well
we are already a government under siege, this was a bloodless coup
Phoenix Woman @ 9
Rove’s only concern would be how attacking Iran might affect the American political landscape. If it would help, then Bombs Away!!! If it would hurt, then he’s against it. He’s the ViceRegent for domestic affairs. Cheney has the ViceRegency for foreign affairs, which includes international megacorporations like Halliburton. You know, the Globilization people.
Bob in HI
selise @ 11
Done deal.
Bob in HI
Peterr @ 18
We need to train all members of investigative committees to follow up every passive construction with a direct question, e.g.
A. “Names were added”
Q. “BY WHOM were the names added?”
That should be the automatic, immediate response to every passive construction.
Bob in HI
Bob Schacht @ 89
Also these:
Who had the authority to add and remove names? Who granted that authority?
Kyle? I don’t think so. The Chief of Staff is a staff position, not in the chain of command per se.
Steve @ 74
You’re right about the American public needing to be educated of the crimes against the Constitution and crimes against humanity this Administration has perpetrated. In the past that “eductational” role was performed by the 4th Estate, print and broadcast. Over the last 8 years, however, the MSM has become complicit, compliant and corrupted by their power and priviledge. The last thing the media wants is an informed public. They are perfectly content with providing the citizenry with gruel for the mind. If the MSM is unwilling to perform an educational role, who then will do it? Certainly the internet is a start but how many people actually spend the time researching and finding out for themselves what the facts are? Something has to happen otherwise the American experiment in democracy is doomed.
TeddySanFran @ 64
Thanks for your perserverence SF Teddy – you never fail to inspire and lead by doing.
newspaperbrat @ 92
TeddySF – sorry about my dyslexic moment.
Anyone who’s been reading TPM and the great work of Josh Marshall and his crew, as well as – and especially – the posts on McKay over at Evergreen Politics, which have gone into great detail on the particulars of the situation in Washington State, would know that much of what Leopold got from McKay has been out there and well-known for some time.
newspaperbrat @ 92
Dude, seconded! A man of amazing patience!
What is sad is that Gonzales still runs the DOJ and McKay was fired! ABUse performance makes me pine for Ashcroft (and that’s twisted). Heck of a job Bush!
I am an optimist :
I believe that our free press, the veritable backbone of a democratic society and the last protection against the destruction of same, is a sham.
I believe that the two party system is, in truth, a duopoly, with the only area of disagreement being the fight over funding by the corporations that own the legislators.
I believe that the court system has been subverted at the higher levels and we will discover this when Libby’s appeal gets high enough and is upheld.
I am an optimist despite the above because I believe in the ultimate restoration of the greatest democracy in the world and a return to a path wherein all who dwell within it are able to prosper.
Here’s the thing, Executive Privilege pertains to confidentiality between a President and his advisors.
If Gonzalez, Miers, Goodling, Sampson, or McNulty claim executive privilege then verify the president in fact received advice from this person on this specific issue and hall “W” ass in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and let him answer Sen. Whitehouse’s questions.