Saturday, September 30, 2006

Accessory After the Fact (12:38 pm)

Whoever, knowing that an offense against the United States has been committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial or punishment, is an accessory after the fact.

Except as otherwise expressly provided by any Act of Congress, an accessory after the fact shall be imprisoned not more than one-half the maximum term of imprisonment or (notwithstanding section 3571) fined not more than one-half the maximum fine prescribed for the punishment of the principal, or both; or if the principal is punishable by life imprisonment or death, the accessory shall be imprisoned not more than 15 years.

There’s a batch of prominent names who would be well advised to lawyer up:

Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) Chairman of the House Page Board
Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY) - head of the NRCC
John Boehner (R-Ohio) House Majority Leader
J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) House Speaker (and members of his office staff)
Tom DeLay (R-TX) Ex-House Majority Leader
Roy Blunt (R-MO.) House Majority Whip
Rep. Alexander (R-LA)

posted by Brian Zick | start the discussion

Woodward 60 Minutes Preview (12:15 pm)

Norm at onegoodmove has a brief clip.

Woodward: “There’s public and then there’s private. But what did they do with the private? They stamp it Secret. No one’s supposed to know. Why is that secret? The insurgents know what they’re doing, they know the level of violence and how effective they are. Who doesn’t know? The American public.”

posted by Brian Zick | start the discussion

How Many Republicans Knew? (8:01 am)

Josh Marshall has several posts up on the fast evolving GOP Sexploitationgate scandal.
Josh highlighted this story in Roll Call:

Chairman of the House Page Board, Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) interviewed Foley last year about some of the contacts with the page. The House clerk, who is also a member of the Board, was also present. Speaker Hastert’s office was informed of the interview, but according to GOP leadership sources who spoke to Roll Call, Hastert himself was not informed.

Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI), the only Democrat on the Board, was not informed of the interview, according to Roll Call.

Then Josh reported that Majority Leader Boehner - who admits being informed - developed a case of Contradictus Backpedallus about Speaker Haster’s knowledge of events.

Justin Rood at TPM Muckraker passes along this AP story:

Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., who sponsored the page from his district, told reporters that he learned of the e-mails from a reporter some months ago and passed on the information to Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Republican campaign organization [the National Republican Congressional Committee].

So the only Democrat in a position to exercise proper oversight is kept in the dark by the Republican committee chair, but the Republican campaign operation gets to know about the story from the very start.

posted by Brian Zick | 5 comments

Friday, September 29, 2006

GOP Congressman Resigns After Exposure of Inappropriate Emails with 16 Year Old Page (12:33 pm)

David Espo and Jim Kuhnhenn for AP report “Rep. Mark Foley R-Fla., resigned from Congress on Friday, effective immediately, in the wake of questions about e-mails he wrote a former teenage male page.”

Foley’s aides initially blamed Democratic rival Tim Mahoney and Democrats with attempting to smear the congressman before the election.

The e-mails were posted Friday on Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s Web site after ABC News reported their existence. The group asked the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to investigate the exchange Foley had with the boy, who served as a page for Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La.

“The House of Representatives has an obligation to protect the teenagers who come to Congress to learn about the legislative process,” the group wrote, adding that the committee, “must investigate any allegation that a page has been subjected to sexual advances by members of the House.”

update:
Josh Marshall read the story by AP, and concludes “If I’m understanding this correctly, that means that the leaders of the House Republican caucus have known for almost a year that a member of their caucus was having cybersex with an underage congressional page. And apparently they did nothing about it. I think this story is about to get a lot bigger.”

posted by Brian Zick | 1 comment

Court Challenge to GOP Pro-Torture/Dictatorship Law (12:15 pm)

Justin Rood at TPM Muckraker passes along the report from Congressional Quarterly that the abominable “detainee law” will be challenged in court in a matter of “days.”

Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights which represents a number of Guantanamo prisoners, is quoted: “I don’t think there’s a snowball’s chance in ‘H’ that this will be found constitutional.”

posted by Brian Zick | start the discussion

“Osama bin Laden’s having a great laugh at our expense.” (8:38 am)

The Rude Pundit responds to passage of the GOP’s “Military Commissions Act of 2006.”

posted by Brian Zick | 1 comment

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Ashcroft Denied Immunity from Civil Suit for Wrongful Detention (11:09 pm)

Dan Eggen for WaPo reports that “A federal judge in Idaho has ruled that former attorney general John D. Ashcroft can be held personally responsible for the wrongful detention of a U.S. citizen arrested as a “material witness” in a terrorism case.”

Well, now. There’s some mighty significant implications to consider.

posted by Brian Zick | 2 comments

GOP Torture/Dictatorship Legislation: 65 Yea 34 Nay (5:00 pm)

Matt Stoller at MyDD has the final tally.

Democrats voting Aye (12) - Carper (Del.), Johnson (S.D.), Landrieu (La.), Lautenberg (N.J.), Lieberman (Conn.), Menendez (N.J), Pryor (Ark.), Rockefeller (W. Va.), Salazar (Co.), Stabenow (Mich.), Nelson (Fla.), Nelson (Neb.)

Republicans voting Nay (1) - Chafee (R.I.)

Independents voting Nay (1) - Jeffords