Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Even Washington Post Says Gonzales Must Go (3:46 am)

From the editorial in WaPo, “Credibility Collapse; Once again, Alberto Gonzales is unable to offer straight answers to simple questions”:

At what point does someone lose so much credibility that he should no longer serve in public office? In the case of Mr. Gonzales, we believe that time has come and gone.

posted by Brian Zick | 2 comments

Don Young Joins Fellow Alaska Republican Ted Stevens as Subject of Criminal Inquiry (3:28 am)

John Wilke for the WSJ reports:

Rep. Don Young of Alaska, the former chairman of the House Transportation Committee, now is the subject of a continuing criminal inquiry involving possible political favors for a company in Alaska, people close to the case said. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, the powerful former chairman of the Appropriations Committee and the longest-serving Senate Republican, is also now under criminal investigation, these people said.

Federal investigators are examining whether Rep. Young or Sen. Stevens accepted bribes, …

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Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Waxman and Davis Make Bipartisan Request for Tillman Documents from White House (2:49 pm)

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has announced:

Today Chairman Waxman and Ranking Member Davis sent a letter to the White House requesting specific documents related to the death of U.S. Army Corporal Patrick Tillman, who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004.

The White House has made available for staff review approximately 400-450 pages, which had previously been redacted or withheld. Following this review, the Committee is requesting that the White House provide the Committee several internal e-mail communications as well as drafts of the President’ s remarks about Corporal Tillman at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

In addition, the Committee has announced its intention to interview or depose former White House officials, including Dan Bartlett, Scott McClellan, and Michael Gerson, regarding when and how White House and Pentagon officials learn of Corporal Tillman’s death.

posted by Brian Zick | 1 comment

Here’s One Reason Why Conservative Republican Ideology Is Doomed to Failure (11:44 am)

Elemental human nature is just too big an obstacle for sex-hating self-appointed moral superior right wingers to overcome.
Andrew Adam Newman for the NY Times reports on MrSkin.com.

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Gonzales Visits the Senate Judiciary Committee Again (11:27 am)

Christy at firedoglake has been live blogging the hearings.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
update:
Part 4
update 2:
Part 5

Paul Kiel at TPM Muckraker has posted highlights and video.
Leahy, Specter Lay in to Gonzales
Gonzales: NSL Abuses Weren’t Really Abuses
Gonzales: “That’s a Good Question”
Gonzales: I Only Visited Ashcroft’s Hospital Bed Because Congress Wanted It
Gonzales Unsure of How Many USAs He Fired
update:
Gonzales: “Not So Clear” That Waterboarding Violates Geneva Common Article 3
update 2:
Gonzales: Witness Tampering? No, It Was Witness Consolation.
Senators Signal Gonzales Perjury Inquiry over Spying Testimony
Gonzales Stonewalls on President Involvement in Hospital Visit

posted by Brian Zick | start the discussion

Monday, July 23, 2007

House Judiciary Committee to Vote on Contempt Citations for Miers and Bolton (1:12 pm)

Jesse Lee at The Gavel reports:

Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) announced that the Committee will meet Wednesday, July 25, at 10:15 am in 2141 Rayburn House Office Building to vote on contempt citations for former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolton, following their refusal to comply with subpoenas issued in the U.S. Attorney investigation.

“This investigation, including the reluctant but necessary decision to move forward with contempt, has been a very deliberative process, taking care at each step to respect the Executive Branch’s legitimate prerogatives,” Conyers said. “I’ve allowed the White House and Ms. Miers every opportunity to cooperate with this investigation, either voluntarily or under subpoena. It is still my hope that they will reconsider this hard-line position, and cooperate with our investigation so that we can get to the bottom of this matter.”

The contempt of Congress citations are being considered in response to Miers and Bolton’s failure to comply with subpoenas issued by the Committee for documents and testimony, including Miers’ refusal to even appear at her scheduled hearing on July 12. White House Counsel Fred Fielding alerted the Committee on June 28 that the White House would not provide the documents as required by the subpoena, asserting the President’s executive privilege.

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Clinton, Webb, Byrd and Bayh Want Hearings On Contingency Planning for Troop Withdrawal (11:54 am)

Greg Sargent at TPM Muckraker reports:

Ratcheting up her war with the Pentagon, Hillary Clinton is joining with Senators Jim Webb, Evan Bayh, and Robert Byrd to demand that the Senate Committee on Armed Services hold hearings to determine the status of the Pentagon’s contingency plans for withdrawal with Iraq.

“Such a hearing could solicit the views of outside experts who have experience in the redeployment of large numbers of troops as well as administration witnesses,” the Senators have written in a letter — an advance copy of which was emailed to Election Central — to Armed Services chair Carl Levin.

The demand could dramatically increase the public attention on the standoff between Senator Clinton and the Pentagon over Defense Department contingency plans for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq — a standoff that carries obvious political benefits for Hillary in the context of Democratic Primary politics.

posted by Brian Zick | start the discussion

Condoleezza Who? (11:37 am)

Joel Brinkley for the San Francisco Chronicle reports on Condoleezza Rice’s “waning influence.”

A few months ago, she decided to write an opinion piece about Lebanon. She enlisted John Chambers, chief executive officer of Cisco Systems as a co-author, and they wrote about public/private partnerships and how they might be of use in rebuilding Lebanon after last summer’s war. No one would publish it.

Think about that. Every one of the major newspapers approached refused to publish an essay by the secretary of state. Price Floyd, who was the State Department’s director of media affairs until recently, recalls that it was sent to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and perhaps other papers before the department finally tried a foreign publication, the Financial Times of London, which also turned it down.

As a last-ditch strategy, the State Department briefly considered translating the article into Arabic and trying a Lebanese paper. But finally they just gave up. “I kept hearing the same thing: ‘There’s no news in this.’ ” Floyd said. The piece, he said, was littered with glowing references to President Bush’s wise leadership. “It read like a campaign document.”