Kyle Sampson back in front of Judiciary Committee

Although I really don't like linking to Fox News, they do have the story:

09:22 a.m. EDT Kyle
Sampson, former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, will return to Capitol Hill on Friday for a voluntary follow-up interview with House and Senate staffers investigating the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, a source with knowledge of the congressional investigation told FOX News on
Wednesday.

The source said Sampson, who testified late last month on the firings, is committed to cooperating fully with the congressional investigation and "despite his lengthy public testimony, has agreed to make himself available again to ensure that any outstanding questions are answered."

Maybe they will ask him more about the missing emails from the RNC email bank.

More on the RNC email system the White House used

That's right! The White House aides using the RNC email system! And supposedly they lost alot of emails.

Here's what's happening from the AP via the Ft. Wayne Press:

Bush aides' use of GOP e-mail probed
JENNIFER LOVEN - Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The White House said Wednesday it had mishandled Republican Party-sponsored e-mail accounts used by nearly two dozen presidential aides, resulting in the loss of an undetermined number of e-mails concerning official White House business.

Congressional investigators looking into the administration's firing of eight federal prosecutors already had the nongovernmental e-mail accounts in their sights because some White House aides used them to help plan the U.S. attorneys' ouster. Democrats were questioning whether the use of the GOP-provided e-mail accounts was proof that the firings were political.

Democrats also have been asking if White House officials are purposely conducting sensitive official presidential business via nongovernmental accounts to get around a law requiring preservation - and eventual disclosure - of presidential records. The announcement of the lost e-mails - a rare admission of error from the Bush White House at a delicate time for the administration's relations with Democratically controlled Capitol Hill - gave new fodder for inquiry on this front.

"This sounds like the administration's version of the dog ate my homework," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. "I am deeply disturbed that just when this administration is finally subjected to meaningful oversight, it cannot produce the necessary information."

The secrecy of this admin is falling apart due to pure incompetence. It continues to unfold and yet there are still people, seeing this, that still believe in this corrupt admin.

Good News - Bad News, Bad New, Bad News

The Good News is that the Senate passed the bill to ease restrictions for Stem Cell Research.

The vote broke down to 63/34 and was 4 votes shy of the margin of votes they needed to over-ride a veto from Pres. Bush. And that's the bad news. Read the rest here.

And this is bad news for the disabled. From USA Today:

Life in Medicare's waiting period
Group fights 2-year delay for
disabled
By Julie ApplebyUSA TODAY

The rare muscle disorder that twisted her spine and compressed her lungs, making it hard to breathe, finally forced Roxianna McCutchan to quit her job as a clerk and dispatcher at the Rockport Police Department in Rockport, Texas, in July 2002.

"I was so independent and had an attitude that, 'I'm going to work, I am going to be a success, and no one is going to stop me,' " says McCutchan in an e-mail because she has now nearly lost her voice. "And then my body says, 'I can't keep up. You have to stop.' "

Each year, tens of thousands of Americans like McCutchan find themselves disabled and unable to work. After going through the process to get Social Security disability income, most are shocked to discover that they have to wait two more years to be eligible for Medicare, the federal health program for elderly and disabled people.

"I would still be there working and loving my job if I could," says McCutchan, 36, who now lives in Victoria, Texas. "I lost all that and had no clue that Medicare wouldn't be there to help me."

McCutchan and 20 others tell their stories about life in the two-year waiting period today in a report released by New York-based advocacy group the Medicare Rights Center, which is lobbying to end the waiting period.

"There's no more desperate group of uninsured Americans than people who are severely disabled, suddenly unemployed and without any access to health coverage," says Robert Hayes, the center's president.

The report, funded by the center and the Commonwealth Fund, comes amid renewed interest among lawmakers in Congress and the states to reduce the umber
of uninsured. Among the nation's 45 million residents without health coverage, the center's report says, an estimated 400,000 are disabled people in the waiting period.

And some more bad news for our troops. Sec. Gates and General Pace
held a news conference today to tell us that they were extending the tours of
duty in Iraq from 12 months to 15 months.

From the AP:

Gates announces longer tours in Iraq
By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press
Writer1 hour, 20 minutes ago

Beginning immediately, all active-duty Army soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan will serve 15-month tours — three months longer than the usual standard, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday.

It was the latest move by the Pentagon to cope with the strains of fighting two wars simultaneously and maintaining a higher troop level in Iraq as part of President Bush's revised strategy for stabilizing Baghdad.

"This policy is a difficult but necessary interim step," Gates told a Pentagon news
conference, adding that the goal is to eventually return to 12 months as the standard length of tour in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He said the new policy does not affect the other main components of the U.S. ground force in Iraq: the Marines, whose standard tour is seven months, or the Army National Guard or Army Reserve, which will continue to serve 12-month tours.
Gates acknowledged that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are making life difficult for many in the military.

"Our forces are stretched, there's no question about that," Gates said.
He said the new policy also seeks to ensure that all active-duty Army units get at least 12 months at home between deployments. He said it would allow the Pentagon to maintain the current level of troops in Iraq for another year, although he added that there has been no decision on future troop levels.

Soldiers will get an extra $1,000 a month for the three extra months they serve, he said.

**They get an extra $1,000 a month. And if they die during those three months?

Poll shows Americans want Gonzales to resign

This is an LA Times/Bloomberg poll. In this poll, 53% of those polled think Gonzales should resign. But surprisingly 74% of Americans want Gonzales aides including Karl Rove to testify under oath. And this is surprising, "Even among Republicans, 49% said the aides should testify; 43% said they should not."

Here's more from the LA Times:

Respondents were divided along party lines as to whether Gonzales should resign. Among Democrats, 68% said he should do so; among Republicans, 33% said he should depart.

Independents tip the balance -- 57% said they supported calls for his resignation while 22% said he should stay.

On another issue, the poll found that Americans are also split along partisan lines over pending congressional legislation that would provide new funding for the war in Iraq, but require a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from the country.

Asked whether Bush should accept or veto a bill that included a timetable, 48% said he should sign such a measure while 43% said he should reject it. A significant majority of Democrats -- 74% -- backed signing the bill; an even bigger majority of Republicans, 80%, supported a veto.

The poll found that Americans have grown more pessimistic since the beginning of the year.

About two-thirds, 66%, said the country is "seriously off on the wrong track," up from 61% in a Times/Bloomberg Poll in January.

Well there you go. All down party lines. But it is hartening to see where the majority is.

And here's another surprise:

An overwhelming majority of Americans, 73 percent, said Bush's plan for Iraq has made the situation there worse or has had no effect on the country's stability. Just 27 percent said setting a timetable for withdrawal helps U.S. troops on the ground, and 15 percent said it would have no effect.

Subpoenas, Subpoenas, Subpoenas!!!

The Senate is back today so the subpoenas are flying. Rep. John Conyers issues some too!

Here's what's going on from TPM Muckraker:

One last chance, or the subpoenas come out.

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee along with ranking member Arlen Specter (R-PA) wrote Attorney General Alberto Gonzales yesterday to ask again for certain withheld documents relevant to the U.S. attorney firings. If Gonzales
doesn't turn them over by tomorrow, the committee will issue subpoenas for
them on Thursday, they write. You can read the letter here.

And more documents:

They also targeted documents reported on by The American Spectator last week. The mag reported that certain files in the Deputy Attorney General's office had not been turned over to Congress: "the files include overviews and evaluations of at least a dozen current and now-former U.S. Attorneys, which were prepared by DAG and EOUSA staff to brief Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty and his chief of staff Michael Elston."

Dems Demand Docs Related to Wisconsin Case:

First see my post here, and then to TPM Muckraker's report:

At TPM, we've been taking a hard look at the U.S. Attorney in Milwaukee, Steven Biskupic. And so, apparently, have Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
A number of Democratic committee members signed a letter today to Alberto Gonzales seeking answers:

We are concerned whether or not politics may have played a role in a case brought by Stephen Biskupic, the United States Attorney based in Milwaukee, against Georgia Thompson, formerly an official in the administration of Wisconsin’s Democratic governor.

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals was reportedly so troubled by the insufficiency of the evidence against Ms. Thompson that it made the unusual
decision to issue an order reversing Ms. Thompson’s conviction and releasing her
from custody immediately after oral arguments in her appeal.

Democrats are seeking all documents related to Biskupic's handling of that case, including "[a]ll communications between the Department of Justice and any other outside party, including political party officials, regarding the case against Ms. Thompson or the United States Attorney’s handling of that case."

And from Rep Jon Conyers at the AP:

WASHINGTON - The House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed new documents Tuesday from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as part of its investigation into
the firings of federal prosecutors, with the panel chairman saying he had run
out of patience.

"We have been patient in allowing the department to work through its concerns regarding the sensitive nature of some of these materials," Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., wrote Gonzales in a letter accompanying the subpoena.

"Unfortunately, the department has not indicated any meaningful willingness to
find a way to meet our legitimate needs.,"

"At this point further delay in receiving these materials will not serve any constructive purpose," Conyers said. He characterized the subpoena as a last resort after weeks of negotiations with Justice over documents and e-mails the committee wants.

The Justice Department did not have an immediate comment.

Will the DOJ give these documents to the Senate or will the Senate have to subpoena them. Really makes you think they have something to hide, doesn't it. Ya Think?

Another by-product of the US Attorneys firing, Dems are looking into alternate email system for White House aides

And it could be much more trouble for Karl Rove. Seems the RNC gave Rove and his people laptops and other communication devices to use along with the goverment-issued equipment. This can be and has been a major problem.

The system was put in place because the RNC thought it would be a way to avoid the charges that the government equipment was being used for political purposes as were the charges (brought by the republicans, by the way) in the Clinton admin.

Here's more from the LA Times:

Now, that dual computer system is creating new embarrassment and legal headaches for the White House, the Republican Party and Rove's once-vaunted White House operation.

Democrats say evidence suggests the RNC e-mail system was used for political and government policy matters in violation of federal record preservation and disclosure rules.

In addition, Democrats point to a handful of e-mails obtained through ongoing inquiries suggesting the system may have been used to conceal such activities as contacts with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was convicted on bribery charges and is now in prison for fraud.

Democratic congressional investigators are beginning to demand access to this RNC-White House communications system, which was used not only by Rove's office but by several top officials elsewhere in the White House.

The prospect that such communication might become public has further jangled the nerves of an already rattled Bush White House.

Some Republicans believe that the huge number of e-mails — many written hastily, with no thought that they might become public — may contain more detailed and unguarded inside information about the administration's far-flung political activities than has previously been available.

"There is concern about what may be in these e-mails," said one GOP activist who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject."The system was created with the best intentions," said former Assistant White House Press Secretary Adam Levine, who was assigned an RNC laptop and BlackBerry when he worked at the White House in 2002. But, he added, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Now comes Rep. Waxman:

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, last week formally requested access to broad
categories of RNC-White House e-mails.

Waxman told the Los Angeles Times in a statement that a separate "e-mail system for high-ranking White House officials would raise serious questions about violations of the Presidential Records Act," which requires the preservation and ultimate disclosure of e-mails about official government business.

Waxman's initial request to the RNC seeks e-mails relating to the presentation of campaign polling and strategy information to Cabinet agency appointees. He is also expected to ask for e-mails relating to Abramoff's activities, which Waxman is also investigating.

And here is why I say it is a by-product of the firing of the US attorneys:

The private e-mail system came to light in the U.S. attorney controversy because one of Rove's deputies used an RNC-maintained e-mail domain — gwb43.com — to communicate with the Justice Department about replacing one of those prosecutors.

snip

Waxman focused on the e-mails after a hearing last month examining a presentation of campaign forecasts and polling data made by a Rove deputy to top appointed officials of the Government Services Administration, some of whom believed they were being instructed to help GOP candidates.

White House staff arranging for the GSA briefing by a Rove deputy, Scott Jennings, used the gwb43.com e-mail domain name. That caught the attention of Waxman's investigators, who had previously examined e-mails from Abramoff to Rove's executive assistant, Susan B. Ralston, to object to an impending Interior Department decision. The decision, he wrote, was "anathema to all our supporters it's important if possible to get some quiet message from the WH [White House] that this is absurd."

Ralston used outside accounts — including at rnchq.org — to communicate with Abramoff and his partners. One e-mail from an Abramoff associate said that White House personnel had warned "it is better to not put this stuff in writing in [the White House] … e-mail system because it might actually limit what they can do to help us, especially since there could be lawsuits, etc."

Abramoff's response, according to a copy of his e-mail released by Waxman's committee, was: "Dammit. It was sent to Susan on her rnc pager and was not supposed to go into the WH system." Ralston later resigned in connection with the lobbying scandal.

Ahh! Abramoff too? The web widens!

Happy Easter/Passover - Open Thread

Seems the MSM don't want to give up picking on Nancy Pelosi. C-SPAN had Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV), who traveled last week with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and he desputes what is coming out of the WH.

From Think Progress:

Rahall: Pelosi Personally Told Bush Of Syria Trip And He Did Not Object »
Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV), who traveled last week with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as part of her delegation to the Middle East, said this morning on C-Span that Pelosi told Bush of the trip to Syria a day before they left, and Bush did not object.
Rahall said, “The Speaker had met with President Bush in the halls of the U.S. Capitol just the day before we left and mentioned to him that we were going to Syria. No response at all from the President.”
Watch it:

The wingers keep saying "the liberal press", but we seem to find numerous stories daily that disputes this.

Anyway have a great Holiday!

Thread's open for you.

UPDATE: Fox Calls Out Gingrich Hypocrisy on Pelosi Trip to Syria. Video at link

Here's trouble for a US Attorney that wasn't fired

First Minnesota, the 3 lawyers that quit the US attorney's office, now Wisconsin. the US Attorney in Wisconsin is Steven Biskupic and let's look what's happening with him.

From the Carpetbagger:

Last year, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle (D), seeking a second term, was considered relatively vulnerable by the Republican establishment. The GOP had successfully recruited then-Rep. Mark Green (R-Wis.) to be their gubernatorial candidate, they cleared the field so he could get the nomination, fundraising was brisk, and some early polling showed Green within striking distance.

Right around the time that Green officially became the GOP nominee in Wisconsin, U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic brought charges against a top official in Doyle’s administration, accusing the state purchasing supervisor of corruption. Were the charges politically motivated? It’s hard to say for sure, but consider how quickly a federal appeals court dismissed the charges yesterday. (thanks to reader D.D. for the heads-up)

Federal judges Thursday ruled that former state purchasing supervisor Georgia L. Thompson was wrongly convicted of making sure a state travel contract went to a firm linked to Gov. Jim Doyle’s re-election campaign and freed her from an Illinois prison.
The three-judge panel in Chicago acted with unusual speed, ruling after oral arguments by Thompson’s attorney and the U.S. attorney’s office.

During 26 minutes of oral arguments, all three judges assailed the government’s case, with Judge Diane Wood saying at one point that “the evidence is beyond thin.”
During a news conference later Thursday, Doyle, a former state attorney general, said the three judges did an “extraordinary thing” by entering an order finding Thompson innocent and ordering her immediate release.(emphasis added)

I’ll spare you the minutiae of the case, but here’s the story in a nutshell: Thompson, who was originally hired under Doyle’s Republican predecessor, awarded a state contract to Adelman Travel, which became controversial because two of the company’s officers had donated the state maximum to Doyle’s re-election campaign.

There was no evidence that Thompson personally profited from the contract and nothing to suggest she approved the contract for political reasons. Biskupic brought charges anyway and managed to win a conviction, which was thrown out swiftly yesterday.

The article also has a list of suspicions of other US Attorney's. Check it out here.

This is like a rolling stone that is gathering moss and growing and growing. Who's next

UPDATE: From Faithful Progressive:

Paul Krugman has said that the biggest scandal in the hyper-partisan Bush/Gonzales US Justice Department is with the US Attorneys who are still in office, and not with those who were fired. That's quite a claim, given that some like David C. Iglesias were apparently fired for refusing to file trumped up political charges against Democrats. Was this deeper scandal a factor in a shocking turn of events today in Wisconsin--when a thin "corruption case" was reversed by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals? Democratic State Senator Bob Jauch appears to think so.

Sen. Bob Jauch noted, "In overturning her conviction, the court has not only acknowledged the absence of evidence presented at trial, but has also concluded that election year politicking has no place in our courts."

Counselor to Gonzales,Monica Goodling Resigns

A surprise? Yes and no. I suspected that Monica might resign. The surprise was that she did it today, late in the day on a Holiday weekend. This woman does not want to talk!

Here what happened from CNN:

Justice Department official Monica Goodling resigned her position as counselor to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Friday afternoon.

Goodling had invoked the Fifth Amendment, which protects witnesses from self-incrimination, in refusing to testify before Congress regarding the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.

Goodling was among the senior Justice Department officials who participated in meetings and e-mail exchanges about the planned dismissals. She went on paid leave as the controversy grew.

In a brief letter to Gonzales, Goodling gave no reason for her resignation but said it would be effective Saturday.

"I am hereby submitting my resignation to the Office of the Attorney General, effective April 7, 2007. It has been an honor to have served at the Department of Justice for the past five years," Goodling wrote.

"May God bless you richly as you continue your service to America," she wrote in the letter.

The resignation came abruptly, just as the Justice Department was closing for the Easter weekend.

There was no warning. Officials had said hours earlier that Goodling remained on paid leave of absence from the department.

The Justice Department said Friday it would have no comment on Goodling's decision to resign. However, it did acknowledge her resignation in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.

Gonzales' former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, resigned March 13.

"Attorney General Gonzales' hold on the department gets more tenuous each day," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-New York.

I'm curious how this will effect her invocation of the Fifth Amendment. Christie Hardy at firedoglake.com will most likely have more about this soon. What next?

UPDATE: And this is a good one. Talking Points Memo put together a video about Monica Goodling's involvement with Tim Griffin in the RNC oppo research war room on debate night in 2000. Take a look here.

UPDATE II: Raw Story reports that Chairman Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) would still seek to question Goodling.

"The Chairman remains committed to questioning Monica Goodling, especially with this new development. Her involvement and general knowledge of what happened makes her a valuable piece to this puzzle," the spokesperson said in an e-mail.

Pelosi getting so much bad press so here's the good news, from Pelosi!

I'm sure you have heard that Bush and Cheney did not like the idea of Speaker Pelosi's trip to the Middle East and particularly her trip to Syria and her meeting with Syrian President Assad.

Even the Main Stream Media is dutifully following the Bush/Cheney talking points and saying that Speaker Pelosi should not have gone, that it was not her place, even though "our" Constitution allows this. I was stunned while watching the news on CNN and the way they portrayed Speaker Pelosi's trip. And I found that the same was true on MSNBC and NBC. Matt Lauer took his turn lambasting the Speaker on the Today Show this morning while discussing her with Tim Russert. I don't watch Fox News although I am sure they were all negative.

Here, via the AP, is Speaker Pelosi's synopsis of her trip:

Pelosi: Mideast Trip strengthened ties
By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated
Press Writer

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), deflecting White House criticism of her trip to Syria, said Friday she thinks the mission helped President Bush because it showed the United States is unified against terrorism despite being divided over the Iraq war.

Pelosi, D-Calif., met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus earlier this week, against the president's wishes.

"Our message was President Bush's message," Pelosi said in a phone interview with The Associated Press from Portugal, where she stopped briefly en route back to the United States.

"The funny thing is, I think we may have even had a more powerful impact with our message because of the attention that was called to our trip," the California Democrat said. "It became clear to President Assad that even though we have our differences in the United States, there is no division between the president and the Congress and the Democrats on the message we wanted him to receive."

Bush earlier in the week assailed Pelosi for making the trip to Damascus, saying it sent mixed messages to the Syrian government, which his administration considers to be a state supporter of terrorism.

Because our Imperial President won't talk to these country heads is the reason that we are in this mess today!

Bad News! For me anyway. Sam Seder Show cancelled at Air America Radio

My bad news is that Sam Seder's show on Air America Radio is being cancelled. His last day for his daily show is Friday, April 13th. The Greens say they want something less substansive in that time frame. Now that blew my mind!!! Less substansive? The whole idea of Air America was to give you substance and truth.

My opinion is that AAR is making a big mistake here. Seems like the station has been gutting their talent since before the 2004 election. I've had to stream the show for over a year now, since Sam took the morning slot because my local affiliate decided not to carry Sam's show when Jerry Springer left.

Air America got into trouble by not selling advertising. Of course there was a right wing led campaign to get sponsors not to advertize on AAR also. There was a list of companies that would not advertize so in essence AAR was blacklisted. However, the former owners had no idea how to promote their station nor did they realize they have to sell advertizing to keep on air.

Sam started with Air America the day it went on air, March 31, 2004, with Janeane Garofalo and they were on in the late evening with their show called Majority Report Radio. There also was a blog attached to the show and Sam interacted with the bloggers from time to time.

When Janeane left Sam took over the whole show and he was great. He had great guests and did wonderful interviews and always linked info for the guests to his blog. After other changes and when Jerry Springer left, Sam, wanting to have earlier hours, took the 9-12 AM ET slot.

I can't say how much I admire Sam. When I heard this news, I was immediately sick to my stomach and angry.

Sam did say he might have a Sunday show on AAR. He'll let us know more next week. If it's a Sunday show for him then that will be the only day I listen to AAR.

Here's more from blatherWatch:

Air America pulls the plug on Sam Seder

Sadly, it's true this time: Friday the 13th of April is the last day for the Sam Seder Show as we know it.

Seder's been at the troubled Air America from the beginning. A close-in source says he'll probably take a Sunday afternoon show as a consolation prize.

"It's like a gold watch," she said. "Besides, they'd owe him a shit load of severance."
Who's next in the 9a-12p (East coast) time slot? Mark Green told the staff Thursday that the person hadn't been locked in, but should be by Monday or Tuesday.

"We think," he said brightly to the troubled assemblage, "you'll love the replacement."
It's been a death of a thousand cuts- not great for a slasher film plot, but serves a passive-aggressive (read chicken shit) executive AAR executive well.

In February, chief operating officer Scott Elberg, the network's corporate Jason Voorhees, and sixth CEO in three years, slashed Seder's budget and salary by 40%.

Elberg is a veteran radio guy, and was the last AAR man standing after the bankruptcy. Many however, say Elberg simply doesn't even believe in the liberal talk format.
"He voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004," staffers grumble.

Elberg never worked in a network or in syndication, they say, "He's a sales manager."
The whole deal is mysterious. It's not based on data because there isn't much- there's been no full book since Seder inherited in September from Jerry Springer, who'd bled ratings from that key anchoring position before he was finally fired.

And here is the "substance" part:

New owner, Mark Green reportedly told people he wanted "less substance" in the 9-ta-noon timeslot. Hence they offered it, to no avail to comedian Marc Maron, and tried unsuccessfully to get Jones Radio's Stephanie Miller with her comedic format.

Many think Elberg is enamored with Free FM "hot talk," the testosteronic, hyper-sexual audio foreplay like Anthony & Opie, or The Radio Chick except he'd have it with politics- a coupling of hot libs with hot libidos in sweaty, partisan, lizard-brain, 9-ta-noon, weekdaily orgies.

"I think he [Elberg] thought Maron could morph into that," says one staffer, "and when Maron balked, he'd gotten himself in a position he couldn't back off of- that there was something wrong with Sam's program."

Read the rest here and there is also more at Liberal Talk Radio.

I'd welcome comments on this. I might want to send them to the Greens at Air America Radio.

Just in: Senate postpones April 12th Gonzales testimony

This just came in from AP:

Democrats delay Gonzales testimony
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated
Press Writer
Fri Apr 6, 8:12 AM ET

Senate Democrats postponed on Thursday Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' first chance to testify in his own defense over the firings of eight federal prosecutors.

The decision to shelve next week's Senate Appropriations hearing frustrated the White House, which wants Gonzales to quickly give lawmakers his side of the story amid calls for his resignation.

But Sen. Barbara Mikulski (news, bio, voting record), D-Md, said the political firestorm should be resolved before Gonzales talks about the Justice Department's spending plan for next year.

"It would be very difficult in this environment to give the department's budget request the attention it deserves until the Senate has examined the department's leadership failures," said Mikulski, who heads the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that had planned to hear from Gonzales on April 12.

The delay means Gonzales won't appear publicly on Capitol Hill until April 17 — which even Republicans are calling a "make or break" performance — to testify at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing into the firings.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto called the delay disappointing. Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said it was regrettable.

"The attorney general has said that he would testify in hearings regarding Department of Justice appropriations, U.S. attorneys, or other issues of interest to the Senate whenever they could be scheduled," Fratto said.

We'll just have to wait til April 17th. And I am sure there will be more happening between now and then. The continuing saga!

A Side Effect of the US Attorneys Firing?

In the Minneapolis office of the US attorney, Rachael Paulose, 3 of her staff have decided to quit. Now, while the Atty General's office is up for grabs and Gonzales is fighting for his job, these 3 have decided to return to prosecuting cases.

Here's the rest from AP:

3 U.S. attorney's lawyers resign posts
By PATRICK CONDON, Associated
Press Writer

Three lawyers in the U.S. Attorney's office in Minneapolis resigned their management posts and will return to prosecuting cases, the office said Friday. The moves come as the U.S. Justice Department is under fire for its replacement of eight U.S. attorneys last year.

Jeanne Cooney, spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Rachel Paulose, confirmed that John Marti, a first assistant U.S. attorney, Erika Mozangue, head of the office's civil division, and James Lackner, who heads the office's criminal division, have "decided to go back to being prosecutors," Cooney said.

She said she didn't have any further information about their decisions. Paulose wasn't immediately available for comment.

Paulose, 34, had replaced former U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger after he resigned in early 2006. Prior to her appointment, she had served as senior counsel to U.S. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty.

The three resignations come as Congress investigates the U.S. Justice Department's firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year and whether the moves were politically motivated. Its findings so far have torpedoed morale at Justice Department headquarters in Washington and in U.S. attorneys' offices nationwide.

Heffelfinger, who has said he left of his own accord, was not among those eight. However, Paulose was one of 15 federal prosecutors appointed after Congress changed the USA Patriot Act to let the Justice Department fill vacant U.S. attorney jobs without judicial review. She was confirmed by the Senate in December 2006.

Every day there is something new! What will happen next?

Here's even more from Think Progress:

The Justice Department has faced criticism not only for firing well-respected U.S. attorneys, but also for replacing them with loyal Bushies.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota demonstrates the havoc that ensues when the Bush administration places politics over justice. Four top staffers to Rachel Paulose, the U.S. attorney in Minnesota, have voluntarily demoted themselves in protest of Paulose’s “highly dictatorial style” of managing. Paulose has also “earned a reputation for quoting Bible verses and dressing down underlings.”

According to news reports, the staffers’ dramatic moves were “intended to send a message to Washington — that 33-year-old Paulose is in over her head.” The Bush administration tried to prevent the resignations by sending a “top justice official to Minneapolis Thursday to mediate the situation. The mediation failed.”

A look at Paulose’s background indicates that she was handpicked by the Justice Department because of her personal connections, rather than her professional qualifications:

She was a special assistant to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, worked as a senior counsel for deputy attorney general Paul McNulty and is best buds with Monica Goodling — the assistant U.S. Attorney who recently took the Fifth rather than testify before Congress.

Add to the suspicions the fact that Minnesota’s former U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger stepped down just as the White House was developing its hit list.

And it all goes back to the White House.

Two Thirds of Americans anxious about Bush Foreign Policy

Here it is from the AP:

Americans are expressing growing nervousness about their country's foreign policy, according to a survey, with about two-thirds saying relations with the rest of the world are on the wrong track.

The poll, completed in March, found that public pessimism extends beyond the war in Iraq. More than eight in 10 respondents said they were worried about the way things are going for the United States in world affairs. Three quarters of Americans also said they worry about global warming, up from two-thirds percent in September 2006.

The poll included an "anxiety indicator" that calculates the level of angst in the country based on answers to five questions. The indicator registered 137 on a scale of zero to 200, with zero being the most secure and 200 the most anxious.

The figure registered in the latest survey moved up seven points since a similar survey in September.

"The Anxiety Indicator is moving closer to the 150 mark, the `red zone' that to me would signal a full-blown crisis of public confidence," said survey researcher Daniel Yankelovich, chairman of Public Agenda, the nonpartisan public policy institute that released the study Wednesday along with the publication Foreign Affairs.

I've been anxious since Bush took office!

Alberto Practices!

Poor Alberto! His job is hanging on it's last thread. Seems like there are fewer people that support him now. But Bush is loyal to his old friend. (Loyal or scared?)

If you have nothing to hide, why would you have to practice to answer questions for the Judicial Committee of the Senate? If you were doing your job, shouldn't you have the answers at your finger tip? He's meeting with people to plan a strategy. He will practice testifying.

Here's more from the Washington Post about how Alberto is preparing:

Gonzales Prepares to Fight for His Job in Testimony

By Dan Eggen and Paul KaneWashington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, April 5, 2007; Page A01

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales has retreated from public view this week in an intensive effort to save his job, spending hours practicing testimony and phoning lawmakers for support in preparation for pivotal appearances in the Senate this month, according to administration officials.

After struggling for weeks to explain the extent of his involvement in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, Gonzales and his aides are viewing the Senate testimony on April 12 and April 17 as seriously as if it were a confirmation proceeding for a Supreme Court or a Cabinet appointment, officials said.

Ed Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman, and Timothy E. Flanigan, who worked for Gonzales at the White House, have met with the attorney general to plot strategy. The department has scheduled three days of rigorous mock testimony sessions next week and Gonzales has placed phone calls to more than a dozen GOP lawmakers seeking support, officials said.

After all the damning testimony by Kyle Sampson, and another Dept. Official refusing to testify (Monica Goodling), Gonzales will really have to make the case that he is competent to stay.

The other problem I see, right now, is the actions David Iglesias will take against the reason for his firing.

More from the WaPo:

Gonzales and senior Justice lawyers have so far received little assistance from the White House and cannot consult with some of his closest aides, including Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, officials said.

"We are hampered because some senior officials are not able to discuss the facts as they know them in the same room, for fears of additional accusations of misleading Congress," said one Justice official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) sent a letter to Gonzales on Tuesday, asking for "appropriate firewalls" between potential witnesses involved in the firings.

"Our question to you is: Who do we talk to at the Department of Justice?" Leahy and Whitehouse wrote. "The office of the Attorney General appears to be hopelessly conflicted."

Several central players in the prosecutor saga are out of the Justice Department building altogether. They include Gonzales's former chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, who resigned last month, and senior counselor Monica M. Goodling, who is on indefinite leave and who yesterday reiterated her refusal to answer questions from Congress. Michael J. Elston, McNulty's chief of staff, also began a scheduled personal leave this week after submitting to six hours of congressional interviews last Friday, officials said.

The president may have the right to fire his US Attorneys, but the people of the United States have the right to have a competent administration and the right to the truth!

David Iglesias, fired US Atty, wrongfully fired for serving in the Navy Reserves

Here's another twist to this story! David Iglesias was fired from his position because the Justice Dept. called him an "Absentee Landlord". He was gone 45 days a year. Where? In the Navy Reserves. Doing what? Teaching foreign military officers about international terrorism.

Here's the rest of the story from Newsweek:

April 4, 2007 - When he wasn’t doing his day job as U.S. attorney in New Mexico, David Iglesias was a captain in the Navy Reserve, teaching foreign military officers about international terrorism.

But Iglesias’s military service in support of what the Pentagon likes to call the Global War on Terror (GWOT) apparently didn’t go down well with his superiors at the Justice Department. Recently released documents show that one reason aides to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales cited in justifying the decision to fire Iglesias as U.S attorney late last year was that he was an “absentee landlord” who was spending too much time away from the office.

That explanation may create new legal problems for Gonzales and Justice. Iglesias confirmed to NEWSWEEK that he was recently questioned by lawyers for the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal watchdog agency, to determine if his dismissal was a violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), a federal law that prohibits job discrimination against members of the U.S. military.

At the encouragement of Office of Special Counsel director Scott Bloch and his deputies, Iglesias said he is this week filing a formal legal complaint with OSC against the Justice Department over his dismissal on this and other grounds. (While the Justice Department normally prosecutes USERRA violations, the OSC, an independent federal agency that protects the rights of whistle-blowers, takes the case when the potential violator is the federal government itself.) “I want to make sure they didn’t fire me because of my military duty,” Iglesias said. “When I was away from the office, it wasn’t like I was going on vacation in Europe.” (A Justice Department spokesman did not respond for a request for comment on whether Iglesias’s firing might have been a violation of the law.)

Now here's a problem for the Justice Department! I think they really stepped into it this time. And it will reflect on the Bush Admin.

Here's a bit more:

The Bush administration has vigorously promoted enforcement of USERRA—in large part because of the dramatic increase in National Guard and military reserve members who have been called into active duty due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The law’s purpose—highlighted by Gonzales himself in a Justice Department press release last summer—is to make sure reservists and National
Guard members don’t suffer in the workplace when they are called to serve their
country.

Gonzales announced last August the creation of a special Web site to inform reservists and National Guard members of their rights under the law. At the time, he also touted the first-ever class-action lawsuit under USERRA that had been brought by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. The suit against American Airlines alleged the company had reduced employment benefits for two pilots—one of them, like Iglesias, a captain in the Navy Reserve—because the pilots had taken too much leave to perform their military service. “This nation depends on our reservists to faithfully carry out their duty,” said Wan J. Kim, assistant attorney general in the charge of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, when the lawsuit suit was filed. “No reservists—indeed, no members of our armed forces—should ever be punished or discriminated against for answering the call of duty.”

“This is a really interesting issue,” said Sam Wright, a veteran U.S. Navy lawyer and leading expert on USERRA, when asked about whether the law might apply in Iglesias’s case. (Wright recently retired from government service).

Wright noted that USERRA prohibits employers—including government agencies—from taking any “adverse employment action” against reservists or National Guard members because of their military service or even using such service as a “motivating factor” in such actions.

There's more at the link. It's going to be fun watching this play out.

More Lies

Tim Griffin, the replacement for Bud Cummings, one of the fired US Attorneys, has put up a web site where he says he has prosecuted 40 cases while in the Army. This has been disputed by....The Army!

Here the rest of the story from Consortium News:

Did Rove's Protégé Puff Up Résumé?

By Richard L. Fricker April 3, 2007

Little Rock’s interim U.S. Attorney J. Timothy Griffin – already at the center of a firestorm over whether the White House has put politics ahead of prosecutorial integrity – made claims about his experience as an Army lawyer that have been put in doubt by military records.

The 38-year-old Griffin claims on his official Web site that he prosecuted 40 criminal cases while at Ft. Campbell, where he was stationed from September 2005 to May 2006. But Army authorities say Ft. Campbell’s records show Griffin only serving as assistant trial counsel on three cases, none of which went to trial.

Griffin didn’t agree to be interviewed about his claim of 40 criminal prosecutions versus the Army’s confirmation of three cases, all of which were settled as plea bargains. But Cherith Beck, a Griffin spokeswoman, suggested that Griffin’s higher number might refer to all cases he worked on in any capacity.

“Just wanted to clarify, make sure you had an understanding that prosecuted means it’s a case he handled while he was there; it doesn’t mean that it went to trial necessarily,” Beck said. “Prosecuted means he handled those cases in one form or another.”

Griffin’s prosecutorial experience at Ft. Campbell is important in evaluating Griffin’s fitness to serve as the top federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Arkansas since the bulk of Griffin’s legal career has been in political operations, such as opposition research on Democrats or work as a Republican staffer on Capitol Hill.

Seeking to burnish Griffin’s prosecutorial credentials, his backers also have cited a letter of recommendation dated Aug. 13, 2002, from then-Little Rock U.S. Attorney H.E. “Bud” Cummins III praising Griffin’s nine months of work as one of his assistants.

The article goes on to say:

On NBC’s “Meet the Press” last Sunday, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, a senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, hailed Griffin as “a person with Prosecutorial experience who the attorney – who the U.S. Attorney who was going to be removed said was his right-hand man and one of the best prosecutors he had.”

In an e-mail to me, however, Cummins disputed Hatch’s characterization of the letter.

“I don’t see here where I referred to him as my ‘right arm,’” Cummins said. “I don’t know where they are getting that. Tim [Griffin] worked hard and did a good job organizing the launch of what became a very successful PSN [Project Safe Neighborhoods] program. But the great success was at least equally due, if not a great deal more, to the efforts of virtually every prosecutor in the office after his departure.”

False Talking Points

Cummins noted that Hatch also made disparaging remarks about Carol Lam, the U.S. Attorney in San Diego who was another of the eight federal prosecutors fired last year because the White House and Justice Department didn’t rate them highly on lists that included an assessment of whether they were “loyal Bushies.”

“I imagine Senator Hatch will be very upset with the person or persons that fed him all the wrong information,” Cummins said in the e-mail. “I know he doesn’t want to put HIS credibility at risk, too. Sounds like he was provided talking points by someone as reckless with the facts as other previous occurrences in this saga.

“I have lost count of the public statements they have made that are simply wrong, or at least obviously deceptive. It smacks of desperation. You wonder if the bosses know the underlings are composing talking points for them with such little regard for the facts.”

You can read the rest here.

The lies continue to pour out from this admin and all that work for and with them.

Monica may soon be on the hot seat.

No, not that Monica! Monica Goodling, the Justice Department Official. First Reps. Conyers and Sanchez and now Sens. Leahy and Whitehouse are corresponding with her lawyer and Alberto Gonzales about meeting with them to find out what she is taking the 5th for.

From TPM Muckraker:

It's a busy day for Monica Goodling's lawyer.

House Democrats asked again today to question Monica Goodling, the Justice department official who has pled the Fifth. Goodling notified the House Judiciary Committee last week that, as she had with regard to a potential Senate committee hearing, she planned to invoke the Fifth rather than participate in interviews with House committee staff -- as seven other Justice Department offiicals have been and will be doing over the coming week.

But in the letter today from committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and subcommittee Chair Linda Sanchez (D-CA), they wrote that Democrats weren't
convinced that Goodling was invoking the Fifth for valid reasons. Goodling's
lawyer John Dowd had cited earlier comments by Democrats to show that they had "reached conclusions" about the matter under investigation.

Conyers and Sanchez aren't buying it.

"The fact that a few Senators and Members of the House have expressed publicly their doubts about the credibility of the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General in their representations to Congress about the U.S. Attorneys' termination does not in any way excuse your client from answering questions honestly and to the best of her ability," they wrote.

And more from TPM Muckraker:

For perhaps the first time in history, a Justice Department official has invoked the Fifth Amendment -- and remains in her position at the Department. In a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales today, Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) and committtee member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) asked what the
Justice Department was going to do about it.

The first order of business, they said, was to figure out who to talk to at the Justice Department about Goodling. Ordinarily, they wrote, they would ask the Department about how to proceed, so as not to interfere with a possible criminal investigation. But "the office of the Attorney General appears to be hopelessly conflicted," they wrote. So who's it going to be?

The senators also want to know whether Goodling will be cooperating with the internal Justice Department investigation of the firings, given that career Department employees are required to cooperate with such investigations.

Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington Law School who's handled a number of high-profile clients in his career, said that Goodling, having invoked the Fifth with regard to Congress' investigation, is in a bind.

"It's a very clever question, because if she does not invoke the Fifth [for the internal Justice Department investigation], then she obviously has a fundamental contradiction in her legal position. She would basically be saying that despite having a high-ranking position in the Justice Department, she will not cooperate with a coequal branch... Congress has oversight responsibiilty over the Justice Department, over Monica Goodling. It would be an obvious contradiction with her job description."

It looks as though her Lawyer's little stunt might not work. But as I said before, just invoking the 5th makes people think you are guilty.

Gonzales prepares

Gonzales to family: I'm not going with you on vacation. I have to prepare for my testimony. I have to memorize all the talking points so it sounds like I am telling the truth. So take your vacation and I will try to catch up with you later.

From the Boston Globe:

Attorney general preparing for Senate showdown over firings
By Lara
Jakes Jordan, Associated Press April 3, 2007
WASHINGTON -- His
job on the line, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales shelved plans for a family
vacation and began prepping yesterday for a showdown with senators over the
firings of federal prosecutors.

An appearance next week in front of a Senate panel that oversees
Justice Department spending is shaping up as a trial run for Gonzales's
scheduled April 17 testimony to a separate Senate committee investigating the
eight dismissals.

The White House said yesterday that Gonzales's testimony cannot come
too fast for the besieged attorney general to explain the firings that Democrats
contend were politically motivated.

"Look, the attorney general thinks it's in everyone's best interest --
and we agree with him -- that he be able to get up and talk to Congress sooner
than later," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

"I think the American people would like to see us resolve this, so that
we can move on and work on other things. So we'd like to see the hearing moved
up to next week," Perino said.

Gonzales initially said he was never involved in discussions about the
firings -- a position he later changed to say he was only minimally aware of
plans to remove the prosecutors. Last week, however, his former chief of staff,
Kyle Sampson, said Gonzales was regularly briefed and participated in
discussions about "this process of asking certain US attorneys to
resign."
Growing numbers of Democrats and Republicans have demanded for
Gonzales to step down, saying he is no longer a credible attorney general.

Study hard, Alberto, study like your career depends on it. But this time, I don't think your lies will pass.

Gonzo loses more support

Another republican has had it with Gonzales. It's Rep. Lee Terry from Nebraska. Saturday he called for Gonzales to resign or be fired immediately.

Terry is asking, after all the evidence has contradicted what Gonzales said, he has lost faith that he can run the Dept. of Justice.

Of course Terry saw nothing wrong with the firing of the US Attorneys; they work for the pleasure of the president. But he did say that Gonzales' problem of credibility is self inflicted.

Here's the rest from the Omaha World-Herald:

Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., said he was not ready to call for Gonzales' resignation. Smith spokesman Charles Isom said he had some concerns but would wait to hear Gonzales' testimony.

Other lawmakers - including Republican Sens. Gordon Smith of Oregon and John Sununu of New Hampshire - have called for Gonzales to step down.Terry suggested that more of his Republican colleagues would join the chorus and that Gonzales' ouster is inevitable."I got a feeling there's a lot of my GOP colleagues that feel the same way," he said in a phone interview from Nebraska.

If Gonzales refuses to leave, Terry said, Bush should help him find the door. Terry said he has heard that all Bush appointees are required upfront to write resignation letters that are kept in a file."They should pull Gonzales' letter out of his file and accept his resignation now," Terry said.

Gonzales has said he was aware his staff was drawing up plans for the
firings . However, he said he did not recall taking part in discussions over
which people would be told to go.

Terry, asked whether he believed Gonzales' accounts, said: "I don't know. .
. . I don't think so. . . I trusted him before, but I can't now."

Seems like Orin Hatch (R-UT) still likes Gonzales. At least it sounded that way on Meet the Press today!