Sometimes one has to wonder if certain Democratic Party leaders aren’t working for the Republicans…especially when they signal that they’ll let Republicans get away with illegal, unethical and criminal acts.

The view here is that it is imperative that investigations continue in the matters of Rove, Gonzales, Bush, Cheney, and others. No matter how long it takes.

I’d like to see Fitzgerald indict Libby, Rove, Fleischer and Armitage for disclosing classified information — the classified job of Valerie Plame, and show how V.P. Cheney was tied to that.

Whether he does or not the Congress could look into it as a question of whether legislation needs to come forth relating to how classified information is managed and whether the protection of agents is being done properly (review Vic Toensing’s law). This too would probably reveal a lot about the “outing” of Plame and Cheney’s involvement.

But, they could look more broadly and probably find other WH hands involved in the story. I’m certain it would be enlightening and certainly important for improving the laws.

Considering that Bush didn’t even bother to tell Gates he was going to ask for $50 billion, maybe even Gates will back off. That is a real slap in the face.

Give the guy a break. Bush doesn’t have his brain, so what is he supposed to do?

Look for Bush to appoint someone he trusts for AG. Look for Dems to say NO to anybody that close to Bush and to anyone who isn’t actually good for the job and America. It’s important now to get the DoJ back into good working order, regardless of what the politics are. Competence is required.

1) They are genuinely isolated from the rest of the country, listening only to those closest to them who just happen to be lobbyists, handlers and insiders, all of whom do not want to ‘rock the boat’ and get caught doing anything noble or wise that might screw up their bank accounts;
2) They are trying to be nice and accommodating to others, which would be wonderful behavior if they were dealing with opponents who were also nice and accommodating, which is something the Republicans haven’t been since, oh for the love of God, Coolidge.
3) They are well aware of the outrage and anger directed at Bush and at the Republicans in general, and are patiently waiting out for 2008-2009 knowing the voting public has nowhere to turn but the Democrats, foolishly forgetting the amount of damage Bush is willing to do before he’s obligated to leave office.

The only things to shake them out of their complacency are also threefold:
1) Mass voter registration ‘Change of Party’ to where enough people change from ‘Dem’ to ‘No Party’ (it’d be nice to see enough of the registered Republicans do that right now, but I swear there’s noone left over there that’s sane), which ought to scare the crap out of pollsters and screw up their party’s primary season. I mean, let’s see how it looks when 100 registered Democrats vote in the NH Primary;
2) Mass protests in the streets demanding that Bush/Cheney be forced to hire one of the outed US Attorneys as AG, and that Habeus be restored immediately and all torture and warrantless surveillence ended. Unless you show the outrage in a big way, they’re not going to understand just how serious it is;
3) Mass refusal to contribute to their re-election campaigns until they show some goddamn backbone.

So far, the USA firings seem to have the best paper trail and seem the most deveopled in terms of a possible tirable case.

The FISA/TSP thingy will never go to trial because of the CIPA problems. You’ve got to think in terms of what is the biggest crime I can get a conviction on, not what is the biggest crime committted.

The Siegelman (Alabama) case has the potential to bust it all wide open. Josh is following. http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004035.php

He’s ducked out on things over and over and seems to take the position that, no matter what he uncovers, his only function is to say – oh, that doesn’t really look very good does it, you may want to explore that a bit more Congress, but I’m sure there was no actual CRIME committed by the – uh, violations of criminal code. Whatever. The NSL report pretty much shows all the places he won’t go imo.

But here’s the deal with Clement. Who I don’t want – but that’s neither here nor there. He’s the guy who WILL be AG, in acting capacity, no matter what. He’s the guy handling the subpoena requests, the Exec priv assertions, etc. He’s the guy who – if Congress won’t let him out of Committee – will still be running things. For that reason alone, Republicans can mock at the wasted effort over trying to fight the “nomination” of the man who is running the dept.

Plus Schumer has already blessed him with the holy spittle that dribbles from the corner of the devine orifice – iow, iirc, Schumer has already said he’s good to go with Clement.

I think you are dead on with the problems at DOJ – loss of the competent and the arguably not completely immoral and criminal. Wedging into authority of Regent grads. On and on. Really – it is beyond fixing though. No matter who they get in.

It’s like the fall of Rome.

It fell with the DOJ’s solicitations and commitment to cover up and crime laid out in the torture memos.

That someone like Larry Thompson, a defendant in a torture victims act suit that only got dismissed bc of Comey’s intervention and assertions of State Secrets, is proferred up as an option shows how low the country has fallen.

But my money for the newest nominee to leave everyone agag is Clement.

The biggest reason that he would be out would be that he may be too in the know to want to have him questioned, but it looks like Schumer is making sure that Bush won’t have to worry on that front.

Hopefully Leahy et al are spending time coming up with questions for all the possibles. DOJ isn’t going to arise, phoenix like, no matter who gets the nod. The best anyone can get is the use of the nomination process to get info or at least uncover all the dark places where Bush refuses to allow light.