Just now, news has hit the wires that the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Pat Leahy, has issued a subpoena for Dick Cheney's office as part of the warrantless wiretapping investigation. More news as we get it, and links. CNN has a news alert at the top of their home page at the moment. Think Progress has more, including Leahy's statement. Here's the AP. (hat tips to many, including Bustedknuckles in the comments)
Meanwhile, here's some family values, Cheney style. From John Aravosis:
Bush is now threatening to veto the DC Appropriations bill because it no longer includes gay-bashing language that the GOP has put in there for years. The language banned the DC government from using federal funds to in any way support domestic partner benefits, civil unions and the like (not that the DC government was using federal funds, but it was a nice chance for the GOP to gay bash anyway). Now that the Democrats have dropped the GOP gay-bashing language from the bill, George Bush is threatening a veto.First off, has Bush learned nothing from the fact that his vice president has a daughter, Mary Cheney, who is a lesbian, and who just had a child - in DC - with her lesbian partner, Heather Poe? What Bush is saying is that should Heather end up in a hospital in DC, dying, Mary won't be allowed to see her because she's not "family." What Bush is saying is that if Mary and Heather's baby, Samuel David Cheney, ends up in a DC hospital with a serious illness (and forget him if he ends up in Virginia) only one parent (we're not sure which) will be allowed to visit because both clearly aren't the biological parent of their baby. (And it's interesting that Mary and Heather, who live in Virginia, chose to come to DC to have their baby - a city in which they have far more rights as a lesbian couple than they have in Virginia. Yet now those rights are in danger of being taken away by the man Mary helped get elected. Way to go, mom.)
Forget the phony photo shoots. If Dick Cheney doesn't stand up and say "no" to this, he thinks as much of that baby as he does Klamath River salmon.
Way to go, Gramps.
Login Here
Share This
Spotlight
Dos?
Bustednuckles @ 1
Dos nuttin. Youse #1!
What a great point Jane. Maybe he’ll resign over it.
That treasonous bastard can stay the hell away from anything that has to do with the Pacific Northwest.
Note to Cheney,
We don’t care much for your kind.
Since the family is clearly above, beyond and past any laws, those pesky ones that limit other same-sex unions will have absolutely no effect on Mary, Heather or baby.
Hi Jane, Christy and FDL pups:
Now if only they will enforce those subpoenas!
Also - haven’t seen this elsewhere, but the House Oversight and Govt. Reform Committee has a craptastically super contracts abuse database. Has anyone been blogging about this? Would love to read about those multibillion dollar contracts which have cost overruns in the hundreds of millions and which continue to payout BONUSES to the contractors.
“what’s the frequency, Klamath?”
JANE! Hope this finds you feeling better today…
Subpoena Darth. And when he doesn’t comply, send the Sgt at Arms to frog march him up to the Hill and throw him in the basement until he either complies or 12/08, whichever comes first.
EPUd, but tasty and now on-topic:
Helen @ 100
From the link:
Oh, and I’m quite sure that if Heather is in the hospital, the management will do all in their power to keep Mary out of the room. Anybody wanna buy this bridge?
dakine01 @ 8
or compel him to come to the Senate to break an important tie vote, then take him into custody.
Don’t all those subpoenas piled up in the corner of the White House constitute a fire hazard?
Or can’t the White House Fire Marshall gain access to the place, either?
Like his daughter or grandchild will be going to a public hospital. . .right.
The law doesn’t apply to anyone named cheney.
How come Cheney has never ‘died’ from his heart attacks?
The Devil keeps throwing him back!
dakine01 @ 10
No way is Heather’s family going to “stand up” to the Cheney family. And that is the point, these people (like all good facists do) play by 2 sets of rules. The rules for the everywoman, which are designed to keep her down, and those who can “afford” the privilege of making up their own, which only apply to them.
punaise @ 11
Why do I sense that if it ever started to reach this point that toothless Mitch would do all in his power to make sure it didn’t happen even if it meant directing Jim Bunning or some other cipher to vote with the dems and give them wins JUST to avoid Cheney having to perform his duties?
Here is a link to Leahy’s statement page, which includes links to all 4 subpoenas. (PDFs)
punaise @ 11
And give the Sgt at Arms some strong backup in case Darth is hiding in one of his man sized safes.
Dick Cheney has gathered much plunder, so Mary need not worry. Being a Cheney, she’d gladly step on poor gay people to get what she wants.
And after Gonzales’ failure yesterday here in Boise to promote the administration, it just keeps getting better.
The AG was to have a press conference outside our Community Center where there are outstanding programs for kids every summer (and have been for a few decades now). Our media showed up dutifully and so did WE.
There’s also a wonderful writeup on the front page of the Idaho Democratic Party, complete with a list of venues who reported on Gonzo.
The original press conference was ‘postponed’, ‘canceled’ and moved to the U.S. Attorney’s office with only “credentialed media” being allowed. That announcement prompted immediate outcries of “COWARD! COWARD!” and needless to say, actually did piss off the media.
It was WONDERFUL!
punaise dear, da brat apologizes for wreaking havoc on and disappearing your comment at 19 and would fix it if I only had a brain.
fartsinsleep @ 15
I’ve read that he sits in his bunker, huffing on oxygen, popping nitroglycerin, and barking orders to the flying monkeys and attorneys that are at his beck and call.
Wordsmith @ 21
Yeah, when someone posted a link to that yesterday, I commented that you were probably enjoying the spectacle…
Today’s GOP: Hypocrites R Us.
Newspaperbrat @19:
It probably takes as many men to lift one of those safes as it does pallbearers to carry a coffin. I think we could find enough people to carry it off…if it meant a perp-walk for someone down the road.
TeddySanFran @ 9
good thing veep’s duty supervising the Senate journal was axed before dickie came along with his crayons & shredder, or the Senate would have no history, & might be reduced to being a figment of our collective imagination.
newspaperbrat @ 19
easier just to weld the seams shut.
Video of Dick Cheney receiving his subpoena. (Well, not really, but funny nonetheless…)
Brisingamen @ 26
This keeps sounding like Neil Young’s Cortez the Killer. “They lifted many a stone”.
dakine01 @ 24
Nah… I clocked out ‘for dinner’ and sauntered on down and did my civic duty - proudly.
(npb - no prblm)
[Mod: fixed]
Christy Hardin Smith @ 29
Strange,Look at the original post, there is no link but when I quoted it, there it is!
Busted at 33 — That’s because I originally screwed up the HTML and had to go back and edit it. No mystery — just a screw up on my part on a tech issue.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 29
LOL!!
Ha!
I’m not the only one then!
*g*
Busted: Christy had sent me the TP link right after the original post went up, and I put it in Jane’s post (she’s out at the moment). No conspiracy, but you made a good catch, too!
In fact, this post has been an FDL team effort:
Jane and I talked about the Cheney/DC story earlier, then with the post set to run at 2PM EST, the subpoena story broke. I tried to call Jane but she’s out. So I updated the title, put information in it sent to me by siun, and then posted. Immediately, Christy and siun sent me more links, so I kept updated.
Hurray for Idaho!
Bushistas: You can go nowhere now without getting the Andy Card treatment.
Nowhere!
Word, I was looking at the coverage of that, and I thought it was AWESOME. I SO wish I could have been down there with you.
CNN -just now announcing the peenies . White House reporter says Ms. Perino issued a statement basically calling it is all partisan on behalf of dems . WH correspondent then points out the vote was 13-3 and hardly partisan . BEAUTIFUL!
Who will enforce the subpoenas, I wonder?
Fredo’s Justice Department?
Anybody think Dana Perino can get through an “executive privilege” claim about the OVP subpoena without Helen Thomas asking about Darth’s status as a non-entity within the Executive Branch?
I should add, Jane offered earlier for me to make any edits to her original post, before she had to go out.
ifthethunderdontgetya @ 41
Yosemite Sam
Remember when Fitzy interviewed Darth in June 2004 on the Plame matter.
Cheney probably told Fitz to “fuck off”
I’d love to ask him about it…
Will we ever find out?
My hats off to the team,watch out for that blinding light, BTW.
punaise @ 32
You are too kind - :~(
Bay State at 45 — I heard through the grapevine from a couple of different sources that VP Cheney’s meeting with Mr. Fitzgerald included a moment of highly raised voice. And that the voice did not sound like Mr. Fitzgerald. So…
If Bush’s lackeys can’t even get a safe reception in Idaho, I am afraid that the toothpaste is almost all out of the tube.
It’s time for the Dr. Ben Marble in all of us to come out.
Does anyone know about the anti-Bush protests in Kennebunkport coming up?
Chimpy is meeting Pootie at the casa de Poppy.
-GSD
Christy Hardin Smith @ 48
Dish, girl! You don’t just drop a little tidbit like that and scurry off.
Did Fitz interview Darth and Chimp together, or was that just for the 911 Commission?
Hopefully this little scene will be repeated soon and often: Dana Millbank
OK, don’t we all want our signicant others to shower us with funding from DOI? Who cares about wine and roses!
Salmon don’t vote, so screw ‘em. And the Indians who rely on them, and the fisheries along the west coast too. I’m going to look for some numbers to see what the real cost of that fish kill in 2002 was.
It was all to help the repubs in the midterm elections. Disgusting.
Sentaor Leahy has all the docs over at his place Subpoenas
Peterr at 50 — If I had been able to get more than that from any of my sources, I would have dished about that one long ago. But, alas, it is all I have. It was loud enough for people not in the room with them to hear, though, I know that.
Teddy — Cheney and Bush were interviewed separately, but I believe their respective counsel’s may have been present. Need to check to be certain on that, though, but I seem to recall Bush’s attorney specifically being in the room with him based on reports.
Does anyone besides me think that Ann Coulter is being paid by the liability insurance lobby to go after John Edwards? Not directly, of course, that would be too crude. But I am sure there are many ways to route lucre to the Blonde Lamprey without leaving tracks, esp. in the back alleys of K St. Why do I feel this? Yesterday Coulter made a specific reference that she might stop attacking Edwards if he stopped “stealing money from doctors” (her words). That was too unsubtle by half, and very revealing. Coulter is not attacking Edward’s fitness to be president, she is attacking the fact that he was a liability lawyer.
(Actually, doctors do not pay to settle for liability suits. They pay for liability insurance. It’s the insurance companies that have a hit order out on Edwards. So she is being doubly deceptive here.)
From the Great State of Alaska, Land of the Midnight Sun and Under the Table Bribes - Via The Muckracker and starting the Amazing Stevens Family:
LINK
Don’t forget that Sue Ellen Wooldridge’s name opened the Cheney Chapter Four today. Coincidence?
AZ Matt @ 52
Two little tidbits to season the mix further:
- Griles was a member of the Bush/Cheney 2000 transition team (so he goes way back with this crew);
- Woolridge is the DOI official cited in the beginning of WaPo’s Angler-Part 4. Is Woolridge flipping on behalf of her sweetie??
Edit: Heh. I see Teddy and I were on the same wavelength re: Woolridge…
TeddySanFran - a friend sent me a photo I want to share with you if you’ll email your addy to newspaperbrat at gmail. Thanks.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 55
Kind of gives new meaning to “wireless eavesdropping” at the OVP.
Now that Libby’s trial is over, and with the WaPo series on Cheney out there, you might want to remind your sources about that long-ago conversation, and see if they are willing to . . . ahem . . . revise and extend their earlier remarks.
RAyne @ 60,
Well, at least with Griles you can say he was in bed with everybody!
Peterr at 60 — Already did. SIGH
AZ Matt @ 52
…Susan Wooldridge. Where have I heard that name before. hmmm.
TheOtherWA @ 53
Might want to try to dig up estimates on whether the population will even survive.
Don’t they migrate out to sea for a few years, then return to spawn. I.e., the true extent of the damage might be even bigger down the road than the initial die-off. Hope this makes sense. I’m too disgusted, myself, to put this into coherent rant. Such wretched, evil acts!
BTW, Jane, I think you meant to type “warrantless wiretapping” up top.
Let’s de-fund OVP just because Cheney is a jerk.
Let him sue to collect his pay.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 48
hmmm, would have loved to be the fly on the wall for that one!
I knew Jane would be on this like Crashcart at the Cracker Barrel buffet line. Go get ‘em!
AZ Matt @ 63
very emotional fella, in every sense apparently; choking back tears during testimony; oh puleeze. throw the book at im.
albert fall @ 68
Yup.
Adie @ 71
Was he bawling like Boehnert?
Talk about a pack of greedy, conniving elitists. Good God.
It is funny too how the “hang ‘em high’ ethos of the Bush/Coulter Republicans seems to dissappear the moment the long arm of the law reaches them.
Bush is at the nexus of the worst crimes and financial misdeeds…From Kenny Lay, to Jack Abramoff to Bandit Bandar Bush.
It’s all about the company you keep.
-GSD
This Klamath issue is VERY local for us here in so. OR. I’m hoping, with this story, we will be able to forever shackle Gordon Smith to Darth Cheney and drown any hopes of Smith being reelected.
Adie @ 71
They did, and it was a large book. The judge gave him twice what the prosecutors recommended for his sentence.
That’s gotta sting.
To Dickie Cheney: Squirm baby, squirm.
Bay State Librul @ 45
thanks for the segue. here’s our daily cheney link:
my cheney backgrounder
rat bastahd @ 75
Amen.
I was soooo hoping DeFazio would jump in.
Adie @ 66
This stuff is a real issue for the west coast. It’s crazy, but you STILL hear the parties affected by this make derisive statements about “liberal environmentalists” - exactly the guys who are trying to do something about it!
As for the subpoenas, Christy, I assume that they will claim executive privilege and fight these. What happens after that? Does it go to court? How long would you guess that will take? I just assume them playing out the clock…tick, tock…
Phoenix Woman @ 73
heh
i was just referring to this umbelievagable little tidbit quoted by AZMatt at 52:
*blergh*
Sen. Norm Coleman was a dirty freaking hippie in college.
A former class mate is accusing the Senator of hyprocrisy.
Lets not forget about our past Sec. of Interior, Gale Norton.
She was up to her eyeballs in all of that.
Man, I am STILL pissed about that stunt.
Where are you in the great NW Busted? I too thought DeFazio would jump in. He would win! So would Kitzhaber. Now, I just don’t know. I saw on Blue Oregon that Smith’s approval ratings have gone from 58%-40% approve-disapprove in January to 47%-45%. That is promising.
I am quietly working with someone who is going to announce very soon, someone with some name recognition, a sharp progressive mind, and a good person who would serve us well.
Hopefully, Griles was able to borrow some of Scooter’s astronaut diapers for his sentencing.
Griles actually pleaded for an ‘all community service’ punishment.
Check this out: Kerry goes after David Addington!
EPU’d and just for fun. Eddie Murphy on Mrs. Edwards at one minute thirty 1:30. And wait for his astonishment on Ann Coulter swearing.
(not really, but you’ll see what I mean)
sic Eddie’s mother on the neocons
Totally OT:
I will be appearing on BlogTalk Radio between 3p and 4p eastern today. Hope that some of you can make it by!
rat bastahd @ 85
Unfortunately, I am across the Columbia in Washougal. 20 miles East of Portland.
I grew up on the coast in Oregon, still have relatives there, and would like to eventually move back.
I still keep an eye on Oregon politics, as you see.
(wicked grin)
Frank @ 33-
Beautiful. Beautiful.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 48
Maybe Fitz put a tack on his chair.
Hardball Exclusive:
Chris Matthews digs up the corpse of Magda Goebbels for a hard hitting interview about her provactive political views.
-GSD
TRex @ 89
I think I have it on, they keep saying they are waiting for their co_host.
Get with it Trex!
Shorter Leahy: “No, you go fuck yourself.”
Dick Cheney - keep your creepy hands off our salmon.
Phoenix Woman @ 87
Thanks for the linky, PW.
Does anyone else think of David Carradine in the old Kung Fu TV shows. You know, the bad guys dump on him endlessly until the last five minutes of the show, and then he finally goes all ballistic and kicks their butt?
I’m hoping Congress finally kicks some Bushco butt soon. I’m tired of getting dumped on.
Marcy says the Subpoenas will likely get refused, but the requested return date for the documents is July 18th - which just happens to be the anniversary of the starting of the fire that burned Nero’s Rome in 64CE.
http://thenexthurrah.typepad.c.....oenas.html
Ed*ard Teller @ 96
ET, Speaking of fish: The Amazing Stevens Family!
The attacks keep coming against Elizabeth Edwards on MSNBC. Wonder what Edwards will say on Hardball, apparently in response to yesterday’s debacle.
They are questioning Elizabeth’s “judgment” in DC.
Fight back!! Attack, Attack, Attack!!!
Christy Hardin Smith @ 29
707!
We’re assuming that (a)Cheney & Bush have an ounce of integrity between them (b)Mary Cheney has to worry about getting at least the minimum treatment, and (c)people are more important than salmon to this crew, correct?
Can we do that safely?
On NPR’s Talk of the Nation, they just played part of the exchange between Elizabeth Edwards and Lannprey. Afterward, Ken Rudin told Neal Conan that he can’t believe they let Coulter on the air after all her over the line remarks. Conan had a hard time dealing with it, almost spewing on his mike…
RE: hypocrisy on the right.
To most of us, hypocrisy means saying one thing and doing the opposite - ie, lying. Convenience. Saving face. But to the right, it’s more fundamental. Fire and brimstone lectures about the immorality of sex for anything but procreation makes that sex so much more exquisite - you’re risking eternal damnation so damn it’s gonna be good!
Coulter and Coleman are probably garden variety hypocrits, but Griles I bet is the real thing.
LS @ 100
See me at 88.
LS @ 100
Frankly, I think this is good news. I interpret that EE hit a bullseye and the GOP is shrieking in pain. Good on ya, Elizabeth! You go, girl.
Poopyman @ 67
Done. Thanks!!!
$$$$$$$More Dollars, Less Sense The Oversight Committee report on procurement and its many problems. Thank you Henry!