The dismissal of New Mexico U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias in December 2006 followed extensive communication among lawyers and political aides in the White House who hashed over complaints about his work on public corruption cases against Democrats, according to newly released e-mails and transcripts of closed-door House testimony by former Bush counsel Harriet Miers and political chief Karl Rove.
A campaign to oust Iglesias intensified after state party officials and GOP members of the congressional delegation apparently concluded he was not pursuing the cases against Democrats in a way that would help then-Rep. Heather Wilson in a tight reelection race, according to interviews and Bush White House e-mails released Tuesday by congressional investigators. The documents place the genesis of Iglesias’s dismissal earlier than previously known.
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[…] DoughJ has details. […]
SGEW
From the House Judiciary Committee’s statement (via TPM, natch):
“Iglesias criticized by Rove aide for not “doing his job on” Democratic Congressional Candidate Patricia Madrid – An October 2006 e-mail chain begun by Representative Heather Wilson criticized David Iglesias for not bringing politically useful public corruption prosecutions in the run up to the 2006 elections. Scott Jennings forwarded Wilson’s email to Karl Rove and complained that Iglesias had been “shy about doing his job on Madrid,” Wilson’s opponent in the 2006 Congressional race. Just weeks after this e-mail, Iglesias’ name was placed on the final firing list.”
“Karl Rove phoned Harriet Miers during a visit to New Mexico in September 2006 – according to Miers’ testimony, Rove was ‘agitated’ and told her that Iglesias was ‘a serious problem and he wanted something done about it.'”
Those guns are smokin’.
Punchy
But we’re looking forward, not backward, so just ignore the wanton lawlessness and precedent-establishing executive malfeasance w/r/t the judicial system and its effects on local elections.
Libtard.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
And to compound the irony, fast forward several years – there is not a single elected GOP rep of any consequence left in New Mexico. The governor is a Dem. All 3 Congressional districts and both Senate seats are Dems, and the state went to Obama by a huge margin in 2008 after being a coin flip in 2000 (Bush would have won by a thin margin except a freak election day snowstorm depressed turnout in the conservative SE corner of the state narrowly tipping it to Gore) and narrowly going to Bush in 2004.
Heckuva job, NM GOP! Moar cowbell!
Calouste
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Just checked wikipedia: The GOP holds one out of seven statewide elected office (Land commissioner). House is 45 D – 25 R and Senate is 27 D – 15 R.
We’re talking about a 2-1 Dem advantage here.
General Winfield Stuck
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Yep. Ain’t it beautiful!
Demo Woman
Tom Cruise has a tear.
Demo Woman
@Demo Woman: shed a tear upon hearing the news. Sorry hit submit before I was done.
Cat Lady
I hope Nora Dennehy comes out soon with indictments – she must have the goods on Rove and Gonzalez in those thousands of pages of documents she has. The wingnuts will fly into a new rage and give up the Death Panel nonsense, it will distract the media and force them to look back at the Bushies’ crimes, and Obama will calmly get a health care bill passed under the radar. Timing is everything.
Miriam
Punchy, I bet you are right unfortunately – no one will actually be held accountable and this kind of nonsense will just get worse – maybe not under Obama – but in the future.
thefncrow
This is awesome.
The White House needed some positive PR on moving in Tim Griffin, who was Rove’s boy, in over top of the existing Arkansas USA Bud Cummins. An email from Sara Taylor, WH political director:
The next part I’ll just quote from TPM, because I couldn’t put this any better:
kay
Madrid was the first woman district court judge in NM, first woman attorney general and ….Latina Lawyer of the Year.
Do we know why they were insisting she be indicted?
Other than the suspicious activity inherent in a bio like that, I mean.
thefncrow
Gah, that blockquote got me. There’s supposed to be two lines in both of those quotes, with “Your thoughts?….” being part of the first, and “Ouch.” part of the second.
WyldPirate
Off topic: but Tweety just said “goddamn gun” while grilling the yo-yo that took the gun to Obama’s town hall. ROTFLMAO.
JK
OT -Unfucking Believable
Chris Matthews is interviewing a NH resident who brought a gun to the townhall rally that Obama attended today.
This NH resident sounds like a major league asshole
More details
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/08/armed_and_dangerous.php
The Grand Panjandrum AKA Americans for America
@Calouste: Dems have controlled the state legislature since statehood.
Wilson was very good at winning elections in the majority Dem Congressional districit she represented and really did not need the “help” they tried to provide her. Her opponent that year, Patsy Madrid, was one in a long line of mediocre Dem candidates who couldn’t seal the deal. But, alas, Wilson was defeated in the Republican Senate primary because she wasn’t a real conservative. She was defeated by a Steve Pearce, a guy who was so conservative he had zero chance of winning a state wide election.
Even more ironic is that David Iglesias is a dyed in the wool no shit conservative. Think about it — they have a young HISPANIC US Attorney with very serious conservative credentials and they fuck him over for political reasons.These positions are usually handed out to people they want to groom for political campaigns. Many Congress critters started out in politics as a USA.
BTW any bets on when are they start purging the people of Eastern European descent from the party? It can’t be too far off, can it?
kay
I don’t think this will get much media play.
Media weighed in real early and dismissed any pending charges. Remember that? They made up that standard, and announced that the President could influence prosecutors, and, I guess, prosecutions.
They’re not going to overturn their decision. I believe it was unanimous.
RandomChick
@WyldPirate:
I noticed that too. Think its worse than “blowjob”?
Zifnab
@Cat Lady:
Health care isn’t getting passed quietly. If we’re lucky, all this real news will just break the MSM and we’ll be treated to another round of Shark Week and missing white women. But, honestly, my money is on this whole thing spit balling into a massive conspiracy theory.
I foresee any attempt at investigation, much less prosecution, being greeted with “They’re trying to criminalize politics!” and “This is all just a trick to intimidate Congressmen into voting for health care!”
I also foresee the media once again laying back and feeding it’s fat ass at the trough of GOP talking points. We’ll find out Iglesias was a terrible attorney no one liked. Republicans are being persecuted by government thugs in the Obama Administration. Everything being done is “unprecedented” and Obama is being “Just like Bush! (but worse!)”
And I have no doubt that should these cases make it to the SCOTUS, we’ll see a neat little 5-4 decision that declares everything that was done as perfectly legal so long as a Republican was doing it.
amorphous
Eh, Glenn Beck just went 90% Godwin. Ho hum, must be Tuesday.
The Dangerman
These boots were made for
walkingburying into Rove’s ass.media browski
I’ll take things everyone knew but we could not prove for $300 Alex!
I’m becoming very optimistic that we’re going to get the ratfuckers.
amorphous
Oh, just went 99% Godwin.
JK
OT – The stupid keeps coming
“I don’t want this country turning into Russia” – asshole at Arlen Specter’s townhall meeting
amorphous
@amorphous: And I should add we’re just discussing health care reform on the Glenn Beck Program… and that’s two Nazi comparisons (including a full blown Hitler reference) in five minutes. The 1% he’s missing is screaming NOBAMA IS HITLER then crying.
kay
Why was Dana Perino having trouble breathing?
They were talking about appointing a coupla of US Attorneys. Why would defending that send her into a panic attack?
Punchy
Sometimes I’m just dead-on.
This morning, I commented to a co-worker that I would bet a decent amount of money that someone at the networks (I guessed Fox) would decide that carrying a gun to a town-hall deserved a whole bit on a national broadcast. Ya know, to reward such gun-toting behavior with a possible JTP gig down the road…..
Looks like all I missed was the network
Wow.
Seebach
It’s so cute that the Ron Paul supporters think Obama is a greater threat to the constitution than Bush. And I’m sure race has nothing to do with it.
The Grand Panjandrum AKA Americans for America
@Zifnab: My irony meter is going off the charts with this one. The guy they wanted prosecuted, a local prominent Dem named Manny Aragon, is now either in prison or getting ready to report. (I can’t remember.) Thanks to the careful and tenacious work of investigators and prosecutors in the USA’s office they finally got the SOB. Had it not been for the tedious, boring work of tying up every little detail Aragon may well have slipped through the hands of law enforcement–again. He had a long sordid history of shady deals but no one could ever quite get all the evidence to get him to trial. Iglesias’s office had him and they were meticulous in their handling of the case. That timeline didn’t meet the political needs of the state GOP.
JenJen
@JK: That gun nutter really raised my blood pressure today, and I’m saying that as a progressive liberal Democrat who supports gun rights.
I realize he moved to New Hampshire from Arizona a year ago because of their gun rights, and had a conceal-carry, but that’s not some kind of blanket immunity. In most states, you can’t walk into a bar with a gun, conceal-carry or not, so why can you walk into a politically-charged crowd environment where the President of the United States is about to appear, with a loaded weapon?
Combine the weapon with his sign, which literally encouraged the spilling of blood, and I think the guy was essentially brandishing.
I just can’t wrap my head around law enforcement these days. You can get arrested in your own home, like Skip Gates, but god forbid someone tells a complete whack-a-doodle that he really should take his gun and his stupid ass home.
mai naem
I heard a clip of an idjit at a townhall last night. Idjit said she “didn’t want the socialization of this country” WTF is wrong with these people? I know they are morons but still “socialization” and then watching the idjit on Chris Matthews’ today. Oy vey. They really should have Jim Webb do one of these. I am not quite sure these supposed “manly men” would heckle Webb.
Zifnab
@The Grand Panjandrum AKA Americans for America:
Loyal Bushies have a history of botching cases. Senator Stevens in Alaska walked because the Bush DoJ completely dropped the ball on investigation. Attempts at charging Ex-Governor Seagel of Alabama were comically inept. I’m still not sure whether they go took a bribe, but the GOP prosecutors and judge really had to bend over backwards to make any of the charges stick.
One of the big reasons for the ridiculous Gitmo policies stemmed from Bush official incompetency in investigating and prosecuting their catches. Better to rely on indefinite detention than bring a “known terrorist” to trial with nothing but innuendo and torture confessions to support your case.
JenJen
@mai naem: Ooooh. Jim Webb! They could sell pay-per-view tickets to that; I’d definitely buy in!
mai naem
@Zifnab: What do you expect when you are hiring Regents University Law School graduates?
JK
@JenJen:
I support rational gun laws, but this NH guy was such an obnoxious, smarmy asshole I wish he had gotten arrested. He sounded like a diehard Palin supporter.
@Seebach: Ron Paul supporters, like Ron Paul himself, are assholes. The only good thing about Ron Paul was his opposition to the Iraq War. Whenever he addressed any other subject, he sounded like a moron.
What kind of person would claim to know nothing about the content of a newsletter that bore his name? For years, the Ron Paul newsletter published vile, disgusting, racist, anti-semitic, and homophobic columns. Naturally, this came as a great shock to Ron Paul when he was questioned about it. He had no idea that such garbage was being published in his own newsletter.
JK
Email: Rich Lowry Offered To Help White House Spin Firings
h/t http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/email_rich_lowry_offered_to_help_white_house_spin.php?ref=fpb
lamh31
OT, but OMG I hate to use this word, but “this bitch is crazy”.
I already suspected she was nuttier than a fruit cake with that birther nonsense ,but we didn’t even scratch the surface:
Orly Taitz — not just a birther!
Basically, and Esquire reporter tagged along with Taitz & her followers in Kentucky.
Check it:
lamh31
btw, whole last part of post should be in blockquotes
Roger Moore
@JenJen:
The reason is obvious. Gates was harmless but personally annoying, so it was fine for a cop to arrest him to show him who was boss. This crazy with a gun is a crazy with a gun, so confronting him would be too dangerous. Besides, he’s a white conservative crazy with a gun, so he’s OK. If he were a scary negro with a gun, he’d be dead right now.
JenJen
@JK: Ha! Best part by far, as TPM noted, was when White House political director Sara Taylor responded, “Anyone better?”
Awww. Poor Little Starbursts. :-(
Demo Woman
This afternoon I listened to Arlen and Claire hold their town hall meetings. What I learned was that there are wackos in PA and MO which makes me feel better about living in GA. Misery loves company! I also learned something else, Claire was prepared for her meeting by asking those who had medicare to stand up and then asking them who wanted to do away with medicare to stand. She spoke about tort reform being a state right and then pointed out the states that passed strict tort reform including MO. She then asked how many saw their insurance cut because of tort reform. She gave the earnings of the health insurance companies from 2000 to 2007. Her audience was rude and she asked them to be respectful of their fellow patriots. She had total command of her facts. Do I agree with her about abortion, hell no but I did have a lot of respect for her command about the facts.
Arlen took questions from 30 people and seemed loss about the basic facts. He had no answer about tort reform, he had no answer about anything except to say well I would not vote for that. Do I agree with Arlen about abortion issues, hell yes, if I lived in PA would I would for him this fall, hell no.
MikeJ
Why do people who claim to be in favour of personal responsibility want to make sure you can’t get redress for harms done to you by an irresponsible person?
Balconesfault
@JK:
LOL – not only asshole … but idiot.
I can say that I wouldn’t have wanted to sit through that entire meeting with two or three crosshairs painted on my forehead.
It would have been really cool if the snipers who kept watch on him had used laser sights.
A Mom Anon
@mai naem:
On one of the Atlanta “news” morning shows today,there was some dipshit woman saying that she didn’t want the government telling her when she could have a pap smear. They kept playing that clip every 15 minutes,which was hilarious and apalling all at once. All the people they showed at the town hall who wanted a public option were black,all the ones aganst,white.
As of this morning,the hospital bill for my husband’s heart attack is about 5K. That is just for the assorted doctors(it looks like the insurance company is barely paying half),this doesn’t count the cardiac care unit fees. Throw in my medical bills from earlier this year and our savings and the kiddo’s college fund is gone. So much for working and getting ahead.
None of these fucking morons realize they’re one illness or accident away from financial ruin. We’re wiped out after this,there won’t be a dime left to better our lives and to help our son have some shot at a “normal” life with autism.
tammanycall
Do I agree with Arlen about abortion issues, hell yes, if I lived in PA would I would for him this fall, hell no.
@Demo Woman:
If he won the primary, I’d vote for him. I’m not a Specter fan, but we have too many anti-choice Democrats in office as it is.
Balconesfault
@A Mom Anon:
There’s a game we used to play in track workouts – “Devil take the Hindmost”.
You start with a group on the track, and at the end of each lap the last place person gets yanked. Which leads to some really crazy pacing and sprinting as the strategy isn’t to try to keep the group as a whole going faster – but to just not end up last after any given lap.
Kind of a perfect metaphor for Republican economics. Except that they want to give people who were born wealthy motorcycles while everyone else is on foot.
JK
Gun-Toter At Obama Town Hall: ‘Who’d Be Silly Enough To Carry An Unloaded Firearm?’
h/t http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/2009/08/gun-toter-at-obama-town-hall-whod-be-silly-enough-to-carry-an-unloaded-firearm.php?ref=fpblg
Roger Moore
@MikeJ:
Personal responsibility is for little people, especially poor brown people. Powerful entrenched interests need to be protected from lawsuits. How else can they make obscene profits?
Brian J
No doubt some of these people, like Carol Lam, another fired U.S. Attorney have gone on to lucrative private sector work, but if there’s ever a need to make a bipartisan appointment, what a great symbol it would be to have a Republican who told the Bush cronies to fuck themselves when they asked him to skirt the law and shred his own integrity.
KCinDC
Imagine for a moment that a couple of years ago Bush had been having an event and a black man showed up outside with a sign about how we need to water the tree of liberty with blood, and with a (legal) gun. Does anyone, anyone at all, think that such man would hours later have been walking around free and uninjured, much less being given a national platform by Chris Matthews?
Demo Woman
@tammanycall: Hypothetically who would you vote for, Specter or Casey.
Specter might say he’s pro choice but if you look at his supreme court votes, he’s a repub first. If he wins the election, he’ll become a repub again. He doesn’t vote pro-choice.
Kirk Spencer
@A Mom Anon: I love the special trick hospitals and insurance companies have been pulling for a while now.
The hospital bill isn’t one bill. Instead you get a bill from the hospital for the room and basic supplies, then the doctor has a bill and the anestheologist has a bill and the specialty nurses have bills and, since they rent the surgery there’s a special bill for that… And every single bill is a separate item (incident) as far as the insurance is concerned. So if you’ve a cap for an “incident” you blow past it. Been there twice.
On the other hand, my daughter’s on medicaid due to my current situation. She had appendicitis about two weeks ago. The difference was phenomenal, and I have zero qualms remaining about “single payer”.
General Winfield Stuck
@A Mom Anon:
Sorry to hear that Mom Anon. Cole should set up a raffle and make BoB the prize. I wouldn’t want to win, but would play anyways.
mai naem
I don’t see how anyone in this country(okay,beyond high government officials) does not know somebody who either does not have insurance or has really really crappy insurance(think discount card insurance.) I know a bunch of people. The other thing about insurance is that you don’t know how good or bad your insurance is until you use it. The only people who have some kind of idea about their insurance is the folks on medicare,medicaid and the VA. Everybody else really is truly one serious illness away from financial ruin.
John PM
You use the tag “Bush Crime Syndicate,” but I think it really needs to be made clear somehow that the Republican party over the past 40 years has been nothing more than the Mafia. Watergate, Iran-Contra, and everything during the Bush Administration was perpetrated by Republicans! And who would be considered the Godfather? Dick Cheney!
It seems to me that at least with the US Attorneys’ firings, a special prosecutor would not be necessary. Just have the US attorney for Maryland bring RICO charges against all of the major players. The current Republican party is the epitome of a corrupt organization. Instead of using a car bomb, the Republicans used political prosecutions to take out their competitors. There was a conspiracy from the White House down to use the DOJ to destroy the Democratic Party, and anyone who did not play along also got eliminated. Certain segments of the MSM also almost certainly went along with this either willingly or through compulsion.
PhoenixRising
Do we know why they were insisting she be indicted?
Um, no–because ‘dumb’ isn’t an indictable offense in NM politics.
The idea that they would push Iglesias the GOP Fantasy (Hispanic, former JAG officer, clean as a whistle, pretty, true conservative, cute kids, etc.) over a cliff for any provocation is weapons-grade stupid. It verifies my instinctive description of the NM GOP as ‘those whose cattle are smarter than their passel o’ kids’. The fact that they did it on the reasoning that he should have been doing more for The Cause by throwing out indictments what weren’t baked yet…man, that’s stupid.
This Congressional race, which was a statistical draw won by Heather Wilson, culminated in 7 endless seconds of live-air silence when it was Patsy’s turn to speak at the end of their only debate. All you could hear was the wind between her ears. It was the sound of a New Mexico Democrat blowing yet another demographic lead that was gerrymandered to be foolproof. We nominated a better fool.
If Iglesias had done what Rove told him to, they’d have lost Manny Aragon and not affected the outcome of the race.