Illinosians speak out about Cheney

My home state Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Rahm Emanual chime in on Cheney. First Sen. Durbin's speech on the Senate floor about Cheney's statement that he is exempt from inspection of his Classified Information by the National Archives:





And Emanual's take on Cheney's move:

Washington, D.C. House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel
issued the following statement regarding his amendment to cut funding
for the Office of the Vice President from the bill that funds the
executive branch. The legislation -- the Financial Services and General
Government Appropriations bill -- will be considered on the floor of
the House of Representatives next week.

"The Vice President has a choice to make. If he believes his legal
case, his office has no business being funded as part of the executive
branch. However, if he demands executive branch funding he cannot
ignore executive branch rules. At the very least, the Vice President
should be consistent. This amendment will ensure that the Vice
President's funding is consistent with his legal arguments. I have
worked closely with my colleagues on this amendment and will continue
to pursue this measure in the coming days."

On Thursday, Emanuel suggested that if Cheney feels his office is not part of the executive branch "he should return the salary the American taxpayers have been paying him since January 2001, and move out of the home for which they are footing the bill."

Emanuel also released the following graphic satirizing the situation:



And Rep. Henry Waxman has written Cheney a letter. Check out his letter from the Gavel.

Dick Cheney's "own branch of government"?

You've heard by now, I am sure, about Dick Cheney's refusal to abide by the presidential order to comply with the National Archives order to have his national security documents inspected to make sure he is in compliance. He says his office is exempt from this. He also says he is not part of the executive branch of government.
That surprises me since my first question after having read this is...if he is not connected to the executive branch then he should no longer be able to claim executive privlege which he has done recently.

Here's a video clip by Keith olberman on Cheney's pronouncement of not being a part of the Executive Branch:

The vice president's office claims it doesn't have to comply with the National Archives because Dick Cheney is his own branch of government. Dana Milbank weighs in.




And here's another Olbermann video with Bush's new poll numbers that shows he is now below Carter's lowest poll. And more on Cheney's new branch of government:

Dick Cheney is claiming that because he serves a function as the President of the Senate this exempts he and his office from any laws pertaining to the executive branch, even laws Bush himself has put into place.



Not only is this admin incompetent, they are out of their minds!

Bush's War

The Iraq "war" being run by Bush and his generals seems to be the same strategy over and over again and there seems to be little if any improvements. Day after day we hear the same thing from the admin and the generals. "Things are improving". "Give us six more moths". And the only thing that changes are the amounts of our soldiers killed and maimed and the number of Iraqis killed and maimed.

Chris from Paris, one of the posters on Americablog, came up with a great clip from the British Comedy BlackAdder that could very well describe the Bush strategy in Iraq. It's funny but not so far fetched!

Blackadder goes forth - Secret mission:

Eisenhower warns us of the military industrial complex.

C-SPAN's Washington Journal was discussing this speech and how relevent it is today. So I decided to post the video here to remind people that his warning is pertinent today. The Military Industrial Complex is here and working against us.

Listen to Eisnehower's speech again and if inclined, use the comments.

The History Of Flag Day

The History Of Flag Day



The Fourth of July was traditionally celebrated as America's birthday, but the idea of an annual day specifically celebrating the Flag is believed to have first originated in 1885. BJ Cigrand, a schoolteacher, arranged for the pupils in the Fredonia, Wisconsin Public School, District 6, to observe June 14 (the 108th anniversary of the official adoption of The Stars and Stripes) as 'Flag Birthday'. In numerous magazines and newspaper articles and public addresses over the following years, Cigrand continued to enthusiastically advocate the observance of June 14 as 'Flag Birthday', or 'Flag Day'.

On June 14, 1889, George Balch, a kindergarten teacher in New York City, planned appropriate ceremonies for the children of his school, and his idea of observing Flag Day was later adopted by the State Board of Education of New York. On June 14, 1891, the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia held a Flag Day celebration, and on June 14 of the following year, the New York Society of the Sons of the Revolution, celebrated Flag Day.

Following the suggestion of Colonel J Granville Leach (at the time historian of the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolution), the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames of America on April 25, 1893 adopted a resolution requesting the mayor of Philadelphia and all others in authority and all private citizens to display the Flag on June 14th. Leach went on to recommend that thereafter the day be known as 'Flag Day', and on that day, school children be assembled for appropriate exercises, with each child being given a small Flag.

Two weeks later on May 8th, the Board of Managers of the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution unanimously endorsed the action of the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames. As a result of the resolution, Dr. Edward Brooks, then Superintendent of Public Schools of Philadelphia, directed that Flag Day exercises be held on June 14, 1893 in Independence Square. School children were assembled, each carrying a small Flag, and patriotic songs were sung and addresses delivered.

In 1894, the governor of New York directed that on June 14 the Flag be displayed on all public buildings. With BJ Cigrand and Leroy Van Horn as the moving spirits, the Illinois organization, known as the American Flag Day Association, was organized for the purpose of promoting the holding of Flag Day exercises. On June 14th, 1894, under the auspices of this association, the first general public school children's celebration of Flag Day in Chicago was held in Douglas, Garfield, Humboldt, Lincoln, and Washington Parks, with more than 300,000 children participating.

Adults, too, participated in patriotic programs. Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, delivered a 1914 Flag Day address in which he repeated words he said the flag had spoken to him that morning: "I am what you make me; nothing more. I swing before your eyes as a bright gleam of color, a symbol of yourself."

Inspired by these three decades of state and local celebrations, Flag Day - the anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777 - was officially established by the Proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson on May 30th, 1916. While Flag Day was celebrated in various communities for years after Wilson's proclamation, it was not until August 3rd, 1949, that President Truman signed an Act of Congress designating June 14th of each year as National Flag Day.

It's time to take back our national emblem from the highjackers, the Republican party!

Chairman Henry Waxman gives closing remarks and calls for Doan’s resignation:

Chairman Waxman:
“It’s unusual for me to ever call for the resignation of a federal official, but in your case I don’t see any other course of action that will protect the interests of your agency and the federal taxpayer. No one can be an effective leader who has abused the trust of her employees, and threatened to deny promotions and bonuses to employees for telling the truth. And no one can be an effective leader who has lost the public’s confidence, politicizing the agency and violating the Hatch Act. Yet that is exactly what you have done. I give you my opinion, just as others have given you their opinion. It will be up to the President of the United States who appointed you to decide what to do with the recommendation by this Office of Special Counsel that recommends the President remove you from this office. I would urge you to resign.”

More Videos from the Gavel Blog - House of Representatives II

Rep. William Lacy Clay questions Doan on whether she was accusing her employees of lying to investigators:


Rep. Clay:
“Later in your interview [with OSC] you explain why you don’t believe the testimony of the other GSA officials, according to the transcript you stated that the witnesses were not crdible because ‘they have an axe to grind,’ that’s on page 391. They have an axe to grind so therefore they are not telling the truth, that’s what you meant isn’t it?”

Doan:
“No, that is not what I meant. We’re still in the period of subjection… conjection… conjecture…”




Chairman Henry Waxman questions Doan on apparent inconsistencies in her statements:

Chairman Waxman:
“At our March hearing, you repeatedly claimed you could not recall any information about the January 26, 2007 meeting or the White House political presentation, and you had absolutely no memory of asking GSA employees how they could help Republican candidates in upcoming elections. That’s what you told us. We questioned you over and over again. You remember there were cookies, you remembered you came in late, you remembered that some employees didn’t attend, but beyond that you said you had no further information. Five weeks later you testified before the Office of Special Counsel and suddenly you had a new enriched details about the meeting and your statements…”

More Videos from the Gavel Blog - House of Representatives

Chairman Waxman responds to Republican accusations that the investigation, which was initiated by a Republican inspector general and has been reinforced by the White House’s Official of Special Counsel, is nonetheless a partisan witch hunt:

Chairman Waxman:
“Now the problem with these people that were criticized by Ms. Doan were that they testified before this committee and that got her wrath. But as I pointed out those people as well were Republicans, some of them were Republican appointees at the GSA.”



Rep. Elijah Cummings questions Doan on her partisanship dating back to her interest in taking the job:

Rep. Cummings:
“This is an email that you wrote to your husband Douglas Doan on his official government computer at the Department of Homeland Security where he worked. You wrote it on the same day you met with Mr. Hubbard [about employment in the Bush Administration] at 1:14 pm, this is your draft email to Mr. Hubbard, and here’s what it says in part: ‘Thanks for the excellent comments’… the email then goes on to say, something that is extremely interesting, it says, ‘as I mentioned, I believe that party has a unique opportunity to make about a 5%swing of the black vote to the GOP,’ you go on to say, ‘one of the largest concentrations of wealth and influence lies in the black business community…”

Doan Testimony before the House Oversight Committee, Cont'd

Again From Think Progress:

Doan expected Rove aide to give ‘motivational speech.’GSA chief Lurita Doan is accused of violating federal law after she hosted a partisan PowerPoint briefing delivered by top Karl Rove deputy Scott Jennings, and then asked her agency employees to think up ways to help GOP candidates. During her hearing today, Doan claimed she didn’t know it would be a political meeting. “I thought we were going to have a motivational speech,” Doan told Rep. John Mica (R-FL). Watch it:

(Video at Link)

Earlier during the hearing, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) made public an email written by Doan while she was a staffer at the Homeland Security Department. From her official government account, Doan wrote, “as I mentioned, I believe that party has a unique opportunity to make about a 5 percent swing of the black vote to the GOP… one of the largest concentrations of wealth and influence lies in the black business community.”

Inbetween the Doan hearing info - Breaking News

From Think Progress with updates:

BREAKING: Top White House Officials Subpoenaed Over Attorney Scandal
Former White House counsel Harriet Miers and former top Karl Rove aide Sara Taylor, who served as White House political director before resigning last month, have been issued subpoenas over their connections to the U.S. attorney scandal.


UPDATE: These are the first subpoenas delivered to the White House regarding the attorney firings. The House Judiciary Committee issued the subpoena to Miers, and the Senate Judiciary Committee issued the subpoena to Taylor. Emails showing Taylor and Miers deeply involved in the Justice Department’s response to the scandal were released last night.

UPDATE II: The AP reports, “The Senate Judiciary Committee’s subpoena for Taylor compels her to testify on July 11, while the House Judiciary Committee’s subpoena for Miers compels her testimony the next day.”

UPDATE III: CNN’s legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin reports, “The White House has made clear it will cite executive privilege for conversations that took place within the White House on the U.S. attorney matter, and if the people with those conversations happen to have subsequently left the White House, that doesn’t matter. They’re still going to cite executive privilege, and these people are not going to be allowed to testify anytime soon, it appears, if the White House remains as it has been. … Even if they want to testify.”

UPDATE IV: Statement from House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI):

Let me be clear: this subpoena is not a request, it is a demand on behalf of the American people for the White House to make available the documents and individuals we are requesting to help us answer the questions that remain. The breadcrumbs in this investigation have always led to 1600 Pennsylvania.

Statement from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT):

The White House cannot have it both ways — it cannot stonewall congressional investigations by refusing to provide documents and witnesses, while claiming nothing improper occurred. … Some at the White House may hope to thwart our constitutional oversight efforts by locking the doors and closing the curtains, but we will keep asking until we get to the truth.

UPDATE V: In Leahy’s letter to Fielding today subpoenaing White House documents, he expresses his frustration that the White House continued to offer only “off-the-record interviews” related to the U.S. attorney investigation. ThinkProgress has obtained a copy of White House counsel Fred Fielding’s June 7 letter to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, reiterating the White House’s narrow offer HERE.

UPDATE VI: Subpoena for Harriet Miers is HERE.

Lorita Doan Hearing befor the House Oversight Committee

I am going to cross post, here, updates and videos of the hearing from Think Progress and TPM Muckraker and other blogs along with their links.

From Think Progress:

Emanuel calls on Bush to fire or suspend Doan. This morning, Lurita “cookies on the table” Doan will testify before the House oversight committee, just days after the Office of Special Counsel called on President Bush to punish Doan “to the fullest extent” for violating the Hatch Act. Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) released the following statement:

For years, the Bush Administration has tried to turn the federal government into another arm of the Republican Party. At every level of government, the President has put politics first. But it’s never too late to do the right thing. President Bush should heed the special counsel’s report, and fire or suspend Ms. Doan immediately - the administration should not offer amnesty for GSA Directors who violate the law.


UPDATE: The Gavel will have highlights from the hearing throughout the day. Here is Rep. Henry Waxman’s opening statement:

WAXMAN: Ms. Doan didn’t just disparage the employees [who gave information about her statements to the Committee], under oath she told the Special Counsel, and again I quote, ‘until extensive rehabilitation of their performance occurs, they will not be getting promoted, they will not be getting bonuses or special awards or anything of that nature.’ Apparently Ms. Doan’s position is that it is fine for her to retaliate against her employees by denying them promotions, bonuses and awards so long as she does so in secret and no one knows about it.

And the Waxman Video from YouTube:

One Vote 08

A majority of likely voters on both sides share a concern about both national security and America’s respect in the world. While uneasiness about America’s place in the world and personal security escalates, Americans remain compassionate and firm believers in justice. No matter their party, ethnicity, religion or ideology, they know saving children and families from hunger and preventable diseases is the right thing to do.

In today’s world, doing the right thing is not only a moral mission but also critical to America’s security in an interconnected world. ONE Vote ‘08 will address voters’ concerns about a fading global image and national security by talking about strategic, cost-effective and proven solutions to end global disease and extreme poverty. America must utilize strategic power that will strengthen our security, create new allies, set a global example and energize moral leadership. This cannot be done through military means alone.

Healthy citizens and productive economies lead to stronger nations in the developing world. Strategic investments in ending hunger, stopping the spread of AIDS and other preventable diseases and educating children are also investments in future stability, in global allies and against future enemies.

Twelve million children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS in Africa, yet AIDS drugs can now cost as little as $1 a day. School fees were eliminated in Kenya on Friday and on Monday, 1 million children enrolled in school. A $5 bed net can keep a child from dying from a mosquito bite and for pennies hydration tablets can keep children from dying of diarrhea. For as little as $140 per patient per year, tens of thousands of people per day can be protected from the spread of AIDS. Simple village water wells can not only prevent many waterborne diseases, it can save women and children hours of walking a day, giving them an opportunity to go to school or work. These strategic investments can save lives and secure our future.

Speaks for itself!

Comey "discloses" more

Former deputy attorney general James Comey's response to written questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee has disclosed more information about the Secret Surveillence Program that points directly to Cheney.

Washington Post has the story:

Official: Cheney Urged Wiretaps
Stand-In for Ashcroft Alleges Interference

Vice President Cheney told Justice Department officials that he disagreed with their objections to a secret surveillance program during a high-level White House meeting in March 2004, a former senior Justice official told senators yesterday.

The meeting came one day before White House officials tried to get approval for the same program from then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, who lay recovering from surgery in a hospital, according to former deputy attorney general James B. Comey.

Comey's disclosures, made in response to written questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee, indicate that Cheney and his aides were more closely involved than previously known in a fierce internal battle over the legality of the warrantless surveillance program. The program allowed the National Security Agency to monitor phone calls and e-mails between the United States and overseas.

Comey said that Cheney's office later blocked the promotion of a senior Justice Department lawyer, Patrick Philbin, because of his role in raising concerns about the surveillance.

The disclosures also provide further details about the role played by then-White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales. He visited Ashcroft in his hospital room and wrote an internal memorandum on the surveillance program shortly afterward, according to Comey's responses. Gonzales is now the attorney general. He faces possible congressional votes of no-confidence because of his handling of the firings of nine U.S. attorneys last year.

"How are you, General?" Gonzales asked Ashcroft at the hospital, according to Comey.

"Not well," replied Ashcroft, who had just undergone gallbladder surgery and was battling pancreatitis.

The new details follow Comey's gripping testimony last month about the visit by Gonzales and Andrew H. Card Jr., then President Bush's chief of staff, to Ashcroft's hospital bed on the night of March 10, 2004. The two Bush aides tried to persuade Ashcroft to renew the authorization of the NSA surveillance program, after Comey and other Justice Department officials had said they would not certify the legality of the effort, according to the testimony and other officials.

Ashcroft refused, noting that Comey had been designated as acting attorney general during his illness.

The episode prompted sharp criticism from Democrats and some Republicans, who questioned whether Gonzales and Card were attempting to take advantage of a sick man to get around legal objections from government lawyers. It is unclear who directed the two Bush aides to make the visit.

Democrats said yesterday that the new details from Comey raise further questions about the role of Cheney and other White House officials in the episode.
More at the link.

Just makes you wonder who is really president. And I've heard, lately, that Bush is not happy with Cheney. We'll see.

A little Illinois News

Since I live in Illinois and Specifically the 6th District, I'm going to take the opportunity to give some news about Illinois and promote Operation:Turn DuPage Blue. It's very important to pay attention to local elections and politics for two reasons.

1. The people we elect locally will some day represent us in the State and Nationally.

2. We need to get the right people into office to change the direction for positive and innovative ideas for the people of the village, town, city, county we live in.

First the news from Election Central:


LaHood May Resign To Head College

Congressman Ray LaHood (R-IL) is considering resigning from Congress to become president of Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, his alma mater. LaHood said he will make his decision in "ten days to two week." A special election for his seat could potentially be competitive, though the district does have a definite Republican lean.

Duckworth Considering Another Congressional Bid

2006 Congressional nominee Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) is considering a rematch against GOP Congressman Peter Roskam, who defeated her 51%-49% in the open-seat race. However, as Roll Call notes that Duckworth could be weakened by continued discord between the Democratic establishment and the local activists, who backed Christine Cegelis in the primary last year. "For a Democrat to win in that area, they’re going to need to heal that tension,” Cegelis said.

Now here is the new site I want to promote to forward thinking progressives:

Operation: Turn DuPage Blue:

Who they are:

Operation: Turn DuPage Blue is a volunteer grass roots organization that was formed by several longtime county residents who have supported Democratic candidates and causes for one unsuccessful election too many.

But it is an organization borne out of optimism, not frustration. For as group President Bob Peickert notes: "In recent elections, several Democratic candidates came far closer to winning DuPage County races than ever before, and several state and national Democrats—such as Jesse White and Lisa Madigan last year and even Barack Obama in 2004—carried the county handily. Numbers have clearly shown that DuPage is not the Republican stronghold it was 10 or 20 years ago, especially if we can get more people involved in the voting process".

OTDB represents an ongoing action plan that has been developed -- and will continually evolve -- to turn this upward spike in Democratic potential into real gains.

What they want:

-> To get Democrats elected in and from DuPage County.

-> To fill Precincts with Democratic Committeemen and Committeewomen We are underway with our efforts -- Phase 1: Friends & Neighbors -- and have already added several new PCs

-> To keep DuPage County Board Member compensation commensurate with the part-time commitment required

Why this matters:




It's time, Illinosians, to get active and take back your cities, counties, and country!

Another Email Dump and look what turned up...

The leader of the Federalist Society reccommended changes in US Attorneys. Another twist in Attorneygate.

From McClatchy News:

E-mail questions if conservative group was party to plan to fire U.S. attorneys

A leader of an influential conservative legal group recommended a replacement candidate for the U.S. attorney in San Diego just days after the sitting prosecutor's name was secretly placed on a Justice Department firing list, according to a document released Wednesday.


The recommendation by the executive vice president of the Federalist Society, Leonard Leo, came before anyone outside of a tight group in the White House and Justice Department knew about a nascent strategy that ultimately led to the firings of nine U.S. attorneys.


It could not be determined whether a short e-mail, sent on March 7, 2005, making the recommendation meant that Leo knew of the plan to fire Carol Lam or whether his message was unsolicited and coincidental.


The subject line of Leo's e-mail to Mary Beth Buchanan, then-director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, says, "USA San Diego," indicating the top prosecutor job for the Southern District of California. Lam was on the job at the time and had no plans to step down.


The text of the note reads, "You guys need a good candidate?" Leo goes on to say he would "strongly recommend" the Air Force's general counsel, Mary Walker.


Walker led a Pentagon working group in 2003, which critics said helped provide the administration with a rationale to circumvent the international Geneva Conventions banning torture in the interrogations of terrorism suspects.


Leo, the Justice Department and Walker could not be reached for comment late Wednesday. Lam declined comment.

With every email another bit of info of the conspiracy of the Republican party and the DOJ and the White House to try to fix another election.

UPDATE from Think Progress:

Buchanan will meet with House investigators next week.

Schlozman Testimony

Schlozman almost put Gonzales to shame with his bad memory. "I don't recall, I can't remember" It was driving the Senators crazy, especially Leahy!

But the high pitched voice of this man was almost comical. I tuned in to C-Span to listen to the testimony rather late. I didn't have the video right away so was listening to the audio. I thought a woman was speaking.

Schlozman got himself into trouble a few times as you will see later in this post. Leahy was questioning him at the time.

Here, from TPM Muckraker is a synopsis of what happened:

Bradley Schlozman pointed to Craig Donsanto in his testimony today when he was asked who gave him the go ahead to press criminal voter fraud charges days before the 2006 midterm election, in an apparent violation of agency policy.

Donsanto, though, is the director of the Election Crimes branch of the Justice Department and author of the manual outlining that policy. It seems a bit surprising that he'd be the one to approve skirting that election policy, when he'd literally written the manual.

Schlozman's account also conflicts with an email former U.S. Attorney from New Mexico, David Iglesias sent to a Department of Justice legislative aide in 2004, just before an election. The email, contained in a DOJ document dump in April, shows Donsanto's stance was on bringing charges just before an election:

There will be another meeting of the EFTF (Election Fraud Task Force) on Wed, Oct. 6. Craig Donsanto has not authorized the FBI to open any case.
...

The federal members of the EFTF should be aware of the DoJ policy of not attempting to influence the outcome of an election through investigation or prosecution. I am not aware of any prosecution which will commence before November 2, 2004. I know Donsanto would not authorize such action because he has stated the same.

Note that last line again: " I am not aware of any prosecution which will commence before November 2, 2004. I know Donsanto would not authorize such action because he has stated the same."

Perhaps Donsanto changed his mind on these matters between 2004 and 2006. But on its face Iglesias' account of Donsanto's view of this question seems starkly different from the account Schlozman provided today in his testimony.

Here's the video of his testimony:

Cheney Blocked promotion of Patrick Philbin

According to AP:

Vice President Dick Cheney blocked the promotion of a Justice Department official involved in a bedside standoff over President Bush's eavesdropping program, a Senate committee learned Wednesday.

In a written account, former Deputy Attorney General James Comey said Cheney warned Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that he would oppose the promotion of a department official who once threatened to resign over the program.

Gonzales eventually decided against trying to promote Patrick Philbin to principal deputy solicitor general, Comey said.

"I understood that someone at the White House communicated to Attorney General Gonzales that the vice president would oppose the appointment if the attorney general pursued the matter," Comey wrote. "The attorney general chose not to pursue it."

Comey responded to written questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), D-Vt.

Comey's account provides new detail in a sprawling, Democratic-elicited story of how much the White House influences the department's operations.

Also Wednesday, the department released 39 new pages of internal e-mails and documents that partly detail efforts by the department's former White House liaison, Monica Goodling, in January 2006 to obtain authority to hire and fire political staffers.

"Ok to send up directly to me, outside of system," Goodling wrote in a Jan. 19, 2006, e-mail to Paul Corts, the assistant attorney general for administration.

The Democrats' investigation into whether the firings of eight U.S. attorneys were improperly political led to testimony last month in which Comey disclosed details of a hospital visit on March 10, 2004, to the attorney general at that time, John Ashcroft.

Democrats contend the story shows the White House's heavy-handed influence over the department, including the agency's role to periodically endorse the National Security Agency's eavesdropping program.

Schlozman testified yesterday. I'll post some of what he didn't say. But it seems there is more and more evidence of a White House involvement in all of this.

Open Thread for the Sederites

Have at it!

Another White House Staff Memeber packing her desk

Sara Taylor, who has been with the Bush WH since the beginning, is leaving for the private sector. Here's the Washington Post article about her, then I'll follow up with more from Think Progress.

Another Top Bush Aide Makes an Exit

By Michael A. Fletcher
Monday, May 28, 2007; Page A15

As the Bush administration inches closer to its concluding months, more top aides are headed out to the private sector. Sara M. Taylor, the White House political director and microtargeting guru who has been with George W. Bush from the outset of his first presidential campaign, is the latest staff member to leave the president's employ.

Taylor, 32, was one of the first people put on the payroll of the Bush campaign, trekking through snowy Washington to interview with Karl Rove and Bush, who was then governor of Texas. Taylor worked on the 2000 campaign, and later became a political aide in the White House.

In 2004, she worked on Bush's reelection campaign, where she helped refine the emerging political art of microtargeting. Working with Alex Gage of TargetPoint Consulting, Taylor was among those who helped use sophisticated analysis of consumer data to enable the Bush campaign to target potential voters even when they resided in Democratic-leaning voting districts.

The campaign developed lists of potentially sympathetic voters, based in part on computer analysis of people's spending habits. Those voters were then targeted for direct mail and other advertising. The data-mining techniques are credited with giving Republicans a decisive turnout advantage in the 2004 election; they are now commonly practiced by Democrats as well.

And now from Think Progress:

Justice Department Officials Confirm White House Instigated Plan To Bypass Senate On U.S. Attorney

Both Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his former chief of staff Kyle Sampson approved a plan to bypass the Senate and install Karl Rove-protege Tim Griffin as U.S. attorney in Arkansas.

But according to Karen Tumulty of Time, private testimony by Sampson reveals that the idea was “instigated” by the White House:

In private testimony that is being released this afternoon by the committee, Alberto Gonzales’s former Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson told investigators that Gonzales himself initially resisted the idea of bypassing the Senators from Arkansas to install Karl Rove protege Tim Griffin as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Pressure to do it, he suggested, was coming from officials at the White House–specifically, White House political director Sara Taylor, her deputy Scott Jennings and Chris Oprison, the associate White House counsel. Sampson described himself and Goodling as “open to the idea,” which is not the same as instigating it.

Taylor reports directly to Rove. In a Dec. 19, 2006 e-mail, Sampson said that getting Griffin “appointed was important to Harriet, Karl, etc.”

And on another matter:

Rice, RNC subpoenas approved.“By 21-10, the House oversight committee voted to issue a subpoena to Rice to compel her story on the Bush administration’s claim, now discredited, that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa.” The oversight committee “also issued subpoenas for the Republican National Committee for testimony and documents about White House e-mails on RNC accounts that have apparently gone missing.” In the Senate, the Judiciary Committee “approved - but did not issue - a subpoena on the prosecutors’ matter to Sara Taylor, deputy to presidential adviser Karl Rove.”

So I see another subpoena coming for Sara Taylor and there could be another 5th Amendment invocation, and possibly, just possibly another request for immunity.

Monica Goodling Testifies

C-SPAN is airing it now at C-SPAN 3

C-SPAN 3

UPDATE: Firedoglake is live blogging the testimony here.

And TPM Muckraker is posting video clips and comment on the pertinent testimony here.