And that hit job looks like it’s working out so well for the Rs, now that it appears the Dems will take control of the State Senate. And Bruno quit before he got pushed. All that smear for the scalp of one man.

Elliott Spitzer was incredibly stupid but if stupid was a crime, most of the Republicans in DeeCee would already be in jail.

Spitzer went down the way he went up: bullying & dirty tricks. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

Cleaning up DOJ has to be a priority for Obama.

Gotta, gotta, gotta.

LHP. Paybacks will be a bitch for old Bruno and Rove.

And lhp, why would you ever give a surviving USAtty from the AgAg DoJ the benefit of the doubt?

Well maybe Spitzer can play a role in digging dirt for the new administration. Didn’t it seem like he was on to something with the predatory lending? He tried to stop it at the state level but the Bush admin of course changed the rule and prevented him from going all the way with his consumer protection?

This is even more necessary as we know that NOTHING has changed in the rules/laws/structure from preventing consumers from being taken advantage of again and again.

Thank you LHP for putting this together – I collected a little bit for an oxdown diary, but as usual, I worship at the feet of the master…

What?!? Malicious prosecution for political gain in the Bush DOJ? Shocking, simply shocking.

The good news for Spitzer is that we won, otherwise you can bet Garcia would have prosecuted him anyway, prosecutable offence or no, railroading him into prison just like in the Don Siegelman case.

I have thought this was a coordinated takedown started by a cabal of businessmen who had been NYAG targets. It’s my impression that several of them got a tip from that creep Roger Stone and then financed some extensive surveillance of Spitzer’s activities.

When they had enough to “justify” involving law enforcement, Karl and his minions took over.

Obama needs to look for a good attorney who could step in as the USA for SDNY and clean the place up a bit. If only we knew someone who had some good legal chops as a prosecutor, knows NY, and has an highly developed sense for due process and the rule of law . . .

Oh, and it would help if this person had some friends who know how things work in the Senate (especially the Judiciary Committee), so as to help the confirmation process along.

Oh, and the Wall St. robber barons Eliot was after? Retired, living in the lap of luxury.

Ain’t that justice?

/s

lhp,

loosely related note:
WaPo is reporting former Clinton DOJ’er and Reno Chief of Staff David Ogden has been selected to head DOJ Transition Team

why would you ever give a surviving USAtty from the AgAg DoJ the benefit of the doubt?

Because it was SDNY, the jewel in the crown, the flagship of the US Attorney’s system. An office that some people think has more de facto influence than Main Justice.

We like to call it the Sovereign Distict of New York. It has enjoyed an amazing reputation for honor and independance. I just couldn’t/wouldn’t belieive that anyone who had ever been an AUSA there 9and Garcia was) could bringthemselves to harm the reputation of the office that way.

Even if you knew yourself to be a craven sell out, the OFFICE has always been such profound experience for most AUSA’s that you just expect that no one would be able to do the office harm.

I’m not explaining it well, but it inspires people to do/be much better than they normally are.

Garcia has harmed something rare and precious.

And let us remember that at the time Spitzer was making hay, going after malfeasance in the financial sector, which is now of course blowing up in our face…

Get Spitzer back on the case of AIG, and close that place down before it absorbs another taxpayer dollar!!

Can we get him a job in the Justice Dept?

Toby, go ahead and hit it again on Oxdown and lets get some MSM mega phone going here.

Spitzer may have been abrasive, but that is no justification for what was done to him, or to the people of the sate of NY who elected him and were deprived of our chosen governor

FOR NO GOOD REASON

I don’t think Garcia would have prosecuted Spiitzer anyway.
1) Spitzer can afford ($) the best defense
2) Spitzer was being represented by Michelle Hirshman, EVERYBODY at SDNY knows how very good she is, she would have made mincemeat of the case
3) If all Garcia has is what was in the media, I think the case would have been dismissed before it went to trial–that’s how much there was no “there” there

So can Spitzer sue the bejabbers out of Garcia or push for criminal charges?

I’ll see what I can do to resurrect my piece..

Langone, the Home Depot guy? Supposedly had him followed. Was calling up reporters with all kinds of details that he could only know from a surveillance report.

Bmaz sent me the link by email. thanks

Doubtful, he did technically violate teh MAnn Act. That would kinda tend to knock you out of the box

Yep……heard Langone and Grasso were part of the group. Given their NYSE contacts, goodness knows who else could have been in on it.

This seemed to me a not so veiled threat to humiliate any in government who dared cross the rich and powerful.

3) If all Garcia has is what was in the media, I think the case would have been dismissed before it went to trial–that’s how much there was no “there” there

Wow – now THAT’s interesting. Thanks for the update.

Thanks for the explanation. I don’t know anything about the USAttys except what I read during the scandal. But I would suspect the SDNY is special. Didn’t know how special it was.

But as for Garcia, I’d turn your logic back on you. If SDNY is the jewel in the crown, all the more reason for AgAg to try to ruin it.

He might be able to sue for defamation. NYS has a slander per se statute. It’s worth thinking about.

If I were Spitzer and if what we saw in the press is really all they had, I would be screaming bloody murder and looking to get a piece of my own back.

Not only for his own sake, but for the sake of the institution. Being a prosecutor should not be a license to defame and destroy those you cannot convict!!!

Hmmm, who might that be?!

Garcia was a protoge of Chertoff’s. Before that though, he was one of the “bomb boys” –the group of AUSAs who pioneered real terrorism prosecution 9as opposed to the crap that has gone on pursuant to the Yoo memos)

Garcia was Dave Kelley second seat for the successful prosecution of the 1993 WTC bombing case.

Have the trucks carrying the pardon forms arrived at the WH yet? I’m sure the Decider’s signature is preprinted. They wouldn’t want the little fellow to get a cramp from all that signing.

SOP for USAs is to resign when new president is sworn in. The new USAs are picked from those recommended by the senior elected persons from that state of the same party as the president at least that is how it happened when my ex was an AUSA.

While as a technical matter you’re quite correct, I think that his knowledge of where the bodies and cash are buried on Wall Street would be extremely valuable. As were the organization-building skills he exhibited in turning the NYAG into something serious.

And, FWIW, don’t you think that between the combination of losing the governorship of NY and the public humiliation he’s gone through, he’s suffered enough.

For the NYC businessmen and media men who would be the most virulent opponents of having him in DoJ – a quick note that a lot of them doubtless have technically violated the Mann Act in the same or similar manners might be enough to shut them up and kill the criticism. After all, if you give your girlfriend money for the bridge tolls and parking after she comes in to the City from Jersey so the two of you can get it on, you have technically violated the Mann Act.

Tradition has it that in the high-end flesh trade in NYC, the johns never get punished.

As for Mr. Garcia – it’s pariah time. Let him work night court next to Gonzo.

Just another Republican scumbag’s scumbag from the Town of fucking Hempstead.

Thanks again. It looks like Garcia has a real resume. But then so did several of the other USAttys who were fired. (In fact, I remember being impressed by serveral of them and wondering why the W admin even hired them to begin with, they were so well qualified.) The fact that Garcia survived creates at least a Q of why that might have been. Now we know.

Thanks, LHP.

Digg is now open, pups. You know what to do.

and all for something it took me less than an hour of legal research to figure out he could not prosecute!

surely the same can be said of some of his SDNY colleagues – keep thinking of the woman who once worked with Spitzer – her name came up at the time the story broke

and yeah, Scribe has it right. My understanding is this is a very small community in which news travels fast – look at you now, you fuc*** F* !

PS The last thing we need in DOJ is a rich, privileged fuck like Spitzer. Plenty of NYAG lawyers have the vaunted knowledge without the inflated sense of self and willingness to put the office and the people at risk. Spitzer acted like a republican, except he had sex with women instead of boys. Mark him nfg and “not needed.”

Rove?

The citizens are taking matters into their own hands:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_51XspHi4

Siegelman and Spitzer ought to get together and throw a party for Karl Rove.

Prior to the election getting to intense, there was no small amount of discussion on the topic of turning to the pariah treatment for those attorneys who worked for Bushco and facilitated that admin’s reign of terror and extraconstitutionality.

People like Yoo, Addington, Delahunty, Gonzo, Garcia, the Canary family, and so on.

That could be effective even in the absence of any criminal, civil or ethical sanctions – look at how hard it was for Gonzo to get a job – any job. He went something like nine months before he got hired to help a retired judge who is the special master in a patent case. He’s basically a glorified law clerk/paralegal keeping track of lots of documents and drawing a salary so he doesn’t wind up living in his car.

No one would hire him.

That’s a good place to start with the rest of those clowns, too.

When will Chertoff step down, or will he?

[Mod: no] Garcia, he’s a witch!!

You betcha. I couldn’t think of a more just sentence for those crooks.

This is awful on so many levels: 1) Spitzer was going after Wall Street financiers & they were powerful enough to defeat him 2) NY State Government is a total mess; Spitzer was working to clean it up, thus also threatening the Democrats there so they didn’t stand by him when the Repubs began the impeachment chant 3) Now, this turns out to be a political game by the Repub district attorney to knock out another prominent Democrat & the Democrats do nothing – no media charges of partisanship, no investigation, nada.

I leave you with the following note: Repub Senator Vitter (Louisianna), around the same time, was caught in a prostitution ring but there was no investigation of him, much less talk of indictment. Instead, the prostitutes were prosecuted. Senator Vitter is still in the Senate; no talk of removing him. Incidentally, in my state of Pennsylvania, the state AG Corbit (Repub who’s going to run for governor) is going after legislative Democrats for paying staff for engaging in electioneering on office time (an illegal but common practice in state governments in the US). Funny, but the Repubs have dominated the Pa. legislatute the past 20 years are pretty corrupt but there’s no investigations by the Repub AG for anything they’ve done. And the Democrats are saying nothing.

Garcia’s from Hempstead? How did I not know that?

Brilliant idea.

This is another example of why the Bush/Cheney administration needs to go NOW. How much more damage will they do in the next few weeks?

Impeach Cheney. Then Impeach Bush.

It’s not as if there aren’t numerous reasons to do so. Let’s start with authorizing torture and go from there.

What else is wrong in the Justice Department? (As if there isn’t enough horrible things now…) Mukasey must go. He should be impeached too. His refusal to accede to Congressional subpoenas would be a good starting point.

okay, okay I’m Off Topic again. And I’m a broken record. We have a President-Elect but we still have Little Georgie and The Big Dick running things.
ITMFA

Most USAs are nominated by the senators in their home states. The senators take this very seriously and try to look for qualified candiates (except in some palces like Chicago before Sen Peter Fitzgerald went all rogue on the Chicago Combine and nomitated PatFitz)

?? a video of a Rashad Evans practising to be a boxer ??

Are thinking of former AUSA and former Deputay NYS Attorney General Michelle Hirshman?

She represented Spitzer as his defnse lawyer on the “charges” that never were.
I figure it took her the same/ or less time to figure out there was no ‘there” there

Sign the Petition: Strip Joe
upstairs

So Spitzer can thank Schumer (Senator Mukasey) and Clinton for Garcia?

Are PeteFitz & PatFitz related, or just fellow members of an Irish mafia, or serendipity?

Man, I hope Chambliss doesn’t win Georgia. Isn’t Siegleman from Georgia? I want the people who put him away to serve twice the seven years Don got.

broken linky. Try again?

All cabinet posts end when the new president is sworn in.

Chertoff presumably is looking for his next job and might resign before Jan 2oth.

I think Siegelman is from AL.

It’s been kicking around, but got a little swamped during the election.

If you recall, there was a bit of an uproar when Facebook (I think it was) hired one of the high-level assistants to AGAG who’d been in on either torture or wiretapping. But, the election kinda swamped that.

Time to pull those ideas out from under all the other stuff on the desk and just pillory anyone who hires these thugs.

yes lhp – apparently my memory was fuzzy. thanks

Sad to say, given the corporate sponsorship of the Republican Party, they always get well paying/cushy jobs in the end as their reward. They’re not giving Gonzo one now (it wouldn’t look good, given his record) but wait till after Obama takes office, he’ll be covered in money. Contrast what happens to Repub officials after office to what happened to Dean after ratting on Nixon. No major law firm would have him, despite an excellent legal record & being Nixon’s former legal counsel. He pretty much had to scramble on his own.

So Spitzer can thank Schumer (Senator Mukasey) and Clinton for Garcia?

No, actually Rove stopped taking nominations from Dem Senators at all. In statres with 2 Dem senators the gov got to nominate. In states with all dems in statewide office or where the only rep was out of favor with Rove, some other person would be designated to nominate — in California that person was simply a big donor.

Then NYS GOP Gov. Pataki tried to nominate acting USA Dave Kelley, the rave choice of the Fedral bench down here. Word on the street is Rove put hte kiabosh on the Kelley idea, despite the fact that Kelley is (along with PatFitz) one of the world’s greatest experts on terro investigations and prosecutions and generally overqualified for the USA gig.

The reason? Rove didn;t want such a resume building post goin to a registered Dem. He wanted the resume enhancement to go to a memeber of the GOP. AFAIK, Pataki never heard of Garcia. Garcia’s name was sent to Pataki, it did not come from Pataki.

Are PeteFitz & PatFitz related, or just fellow members of an Irish mafia, or serendipity?

not related.

My sentiments exactly. It would send a message: what goes around, comes around.

That’s how Lawrence Eagleburger got to call himself “Secretary of State.” He was James Baker’s deputy in 1992, and when Baker resigned in August to try to fix GHWB’s reelection campaign, Eagleburger became the Acting SecState. Then, as a post-election thank you gift, Bush gave him a recess appointment so he could call himself “Secretary of State” for the rest of his days.

I cringe when I see him on panels with folks like Baker, Powell, and Albright as a “former Secretary of State.”

Thanks for explaining about Eagleburger. I’ve always wondered how he became an SOS.

This is why we need a good, clean, honest Attorney General.

Here’s the thing about Spitzer’s demise: he was one of two state AGs investigating Novation (a GPO) together with i believe blumenthal of CT? just before the AG/ firings scandal broke. Just before two asst AGs in the great state of TX who were investigating the same corp for defrauding the govt died mysteriously within a month of each other. Those two gals died, Spitzer lost his job. The novation thing is a multibillion dollar scandal that got dropped like a hot potato after those gals died. Gonsalez was former atty for firm that handled Novations shenanigans.

just a thought

And what I most remember at the time was bloggers beating themselves over the head because he was UNFAITHFUL!!!!! OMFG!!!!!! So, a political hit job that people like me saw a mile away and the Governor of NY goes down with Democrats turning their nose up because he had a wet pee pee problem.

Time to grow up and understand that what goes on between the right and the left, between Dems and Repubs is a war. No hyperbole there. It is a war. Period.

here’s another factoid: under the bush administration, US atty death rose over 6%.

Here is a link from an older Firedoglake post that points out the Spitzer was caught the day after his article in the Wall Street Journal pointed to the need to investigate the mortgage lending house of cards. Cause-effect.

Link http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/543

Rove stopped taking nominations from Dem Senators at all. In statres with 2 Dem senators the gov got to nominate. In states with all dems in statewide office or where the only rep was out of favor with Rove, some other person would be designated to nominate — in California that person was simply a big donor.

LHP, why in the world did the Senate confirm these nominations? Do they have no self-respect at all?

A rhetorical question ? *g*

How can anyone doubt this guy was biting corruption too close to the bone for, not only Wall Street’s comfort, but the entire Bush admin and their cronies in the “healthcare” ripoff industries. I always felt Spitzer was the kind of junkyard dog you need defending the rule of law in a powerful state like NY. Don’t have t like the guy or his methods, but, given the powers that be he was up against, the right guy who got it done. in fact got too much done to not be taken out. If you study the US attys who either quit or got fired or died in the last 8 yrs it’s pretty scary when you realize they were all barking up the corporate tree, and seemed to have those lying possums cornered and ready for the kill . Every US atty who left had a high rate of successful prosecution. Dangerous threats to bushco and to the looters of american treasure.

Yeah, it probably is rhetorical.

I simply cannot imagine being that spineless. It doesn’t make any sense to me.

Was he behind the prosecution of Lynne Stewart?

Because on paper garcia was not an insane choice. Schumer has been an unsung hero (wait read the rest of this paragraph beofr eyou start throwing the rotten tomatos at me) for blocking some really really crazy USAO and federal judge choices.

So, when presented with anyone who was not a toally insane pick, he kinda had to give in. He burned through a ton of favors on SJC to do this.

If youguys only knew how many saves he has. And he takes ZERO credit for it b/c it is not public. Tank heavens no one in NYC can keep a secret

Lynne Stewart was not a wrongful prosecution. She was warned several times to stop violating the terms of her clients incarceration. Those warnings escaltred to explain that she was leaving SDNY no choice but to prosecute her.

Everybody liked her, she was like a cranky grandma to the Foley Square community. I assure many prosecutors and ex-prosecutors shed geniune tears when she was indected and convicted. But she left them no choice.

You will please note, that despite her conviction and sentence to prison, she ahs yet to see the inside of a jail cell. Would that have happened if she was apoor person of color?

Garcia just goes to show how deep the rot and corruption goes. IIRC he hung out at DHS and Immigration for a while. I think that was a pretty big red flag. Competent people simply don’t appear anywhere near Michael Chertoff.

Schumer was also the “unsung hero” behind Kentucky being stuck with Lunsford to run against McConnell, but at least he managed to sing out loud when he was backing torture.

http://abcrad.vo.llnwd.net/o1/…..060804.mp3

The torture song about the President in the Foxhole (Bush? In a Foxhole? Uh, yuh) was pretty loud and clear.

Garcia was pretty panned at ICE before getting the DC gig, but what has made me re-think the SDNY has been watching bits and pieces of the McCarthy meltdowns over at The Corner. If he was a shining star when he was there, that’s a pretty *interesting* universe. Apparently one where it really isn’t nearly as bad to be a murdering terrorist as it is to be someone who believes in “liberal ideas”

Whatever happened to the translator in the Stewart fiasco?

Correct. File and settle. It got really bad.

Spitzer actually gave his credit card number out on a prostitution site. So the conspiracy thing is a bit much. Spitzer was like dropping acid at the police station. A nut job.

Garcis was Valley Stream Central, and Valley Stream is Town of Hempstead:

“Nice ascent for a nonpolitical youngster — he is a registered Republican now — who grew up in a nonpolitical — though both parents were Democrats — household in Valley Stream on Long Island, majored in American literature, wrote his master’s thesis at William and Mary on Mark Twain, and unwinds with 1,400-page classics like “The Count of Monte Cristo.””

from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10…..lives.html

I don’t believe that anyone from Valley stream or Hempstead generally gets hired in the SDNY without vetting and approval by the Town of Hempstead Republican Committee. Just like when Margiotta was still in charge.

See response at 80.

Aren’t they?

How about Spitzer?

Spitzer for US Attorney General.

He who laughs last…

In France Spitzer would have been promoted to Prime Minister.

Are you Karl Rove?

I think Spitzer should be SEC Chair.

Seriously. The SEC under Bush has been purposely disfunctional, and as AG of NY Spitzer did what the SEC wouldn’t do. This would be so delicious – he’d get his old job back only with Federal authority, and he’d be in charge of regulating the bastards who took him down.

Please, please, if any of you ‘Bamaheads are reading this,

SPITZER FOR SEC CHAIR

Spitzer’s personal experience with the Bushies & Wall Street going against him personally isn’t entirely unlike a politician (like Franken in Minnesota) seeing election fraud ‘aimed’ at them when they had been denying it ’til then might make him very good for SEC.

My one fear is that this would put him in position to get revenge AND revenge is not a good thing to be present in any legal setting. JUSTICE is what we’re after.

OTOH, if Franken finds anything rotten in Minnesota he oughta make a very big stink about it. The same goes for Begich (Dem opposing Ted Stevens) in Alaska. We need desperately to eradicate all this election fraud.