Because I can.
Tom DeLay, Arbiter of Morality
Tom DeLay was just on Hardball pushing his book, and received the obligatory fellatio that Chris Matthews seems to reserve for disgraced former pols. The book apparently highlights DeLay’s recovery from alcoholism (he cops to swilling 10-12 martinis and driving home on a regular basis, as well as cheating on his wife), which he attributes to his being saved by Christ.
Which is all well and good, but I am not sure why MSNBC needs to reserve primetime hours for the rehabilition of crooks and thugs- Stanley “Tookie” Williams was also saved by Christ, but apparently did not deserve a primetime slot. Regardless, despite being saved, DeLay managed to devote a portion of his on-air rehab to Clinton bashing, calling him slimy and attacking his character.
I guess DeLay hasn’t worked his way up to the Gospel of St. Matthew.
And yes, there really was no point to this post other than to offer me a platform to once again shit all over Tom DeLay, who I think embodies everything that is wrong with the current GOP.
The Gap
The WH and Bush have trumpeted their document dump of emails, stating that if the Democrats and others want to know what happened, they should read the emails. Which is great and everything, except for one little detail- three weeks of messages appear to be missing:
I think a commenter in our document dump research thread may have been the first to notice that the emails released by the Justice Department seem to have a gap between November 15th and December 4th of last year.
(Our commenter saw it late on the evening of the dump itself — see the comment date-stamped March 20, 2007 02:19 AM in the research thread)
The firing calls went out on December 7th. But the original plan was to start placing the calls on November 15th. So those eighteen days are pretty key ones.
I blame Democratic overreach.
HELP THE CAPTAIN, HE IS GOING DOWN!
Someone throw the Captain a life preserver, as he is going down:
That, to me, indicates a problem with Domenici and Wilson more than the White House, which seems to have caved to Congressional pressure on Iglesias. Will Congress demand a public explanation, under oath, from their own? Unlikely, since many of them stick their noses into ongoing investigations, including Chuck Schumer on the Plame investigation. However, it still reflects poorly on the DoJ and Gonzales’ administration, which showed no loyalty to someone they considered a star, pitching him under the bus when someone griped about his handling of one particular case.
The entire issue shows political hackery all the way around — and if the Democrats aren’t careful, they may come out as the biggest hacks of all.
A lot of things can be said about this scandal, but the notion that the Democrats might come out looking the worst is a particularly silly one (we’ll chalk it up to wishful thinking). This isn’t Monica Lewinsky and a blowjob they are aggressively pursuing- it is what looks to be the firing of several US Attornies for not using their offices as part of the Rove apparatus to defeat Democrats.
People get that. People understand why that is inherently wrong. And just in case they didn’t, here is fired USA David Iglesias in the NYT to explain it all to them in gory detail:
United States attorneys have a long history of being insulated from politics. Although we receive our appointments through the political process (I am a Republican who was recommended by Senator Pete Domenici), we are expected to be apolitical once we are in office. I will never forget John Ashcroft, then the attorney general, telling me during the summer of 2001 that politics should play no role during my tenure. I took that message to heart. Little did I know that I could be fired for not being political.
Politics entered my life with two phone calls that I received last fall, just before the November election. One came from Representative Heather Wilson and the other from Senator Domenici, both Republicans from my state, New Mexico.
Ms. Wilson asked me about sealed indictments pertaining to a politically charged corruption case widely reported in the news media involving local Democrats. Her question instantly put me on guard. Prosecutors may not legally talk about indictments, so I was evasive. Shortly after speaking to Ms. Wilson, I received a call from Senator Domenici at my home. The senator wanted to know whether I was going to file corruption charges — the cases Ms. Wilson had been asking about — before November. When I told him that I didn’t think so, he said, “I am very sorry to hear that,” and the line went dead.
A few weeks after those phone calls, my name was added to a list of United States attorneys who would be asked to resign — even though I had excellent office evaluations, the biggest political corruption prosecutions in New Mexico history, a record number of overall prosecutions and a 95 percent conviction rate. (In one of the documents released this week, I was deemed a “diverse up and comer” in 2004. Two years later I was asked to resign with no reasons given.)
When some of my fired colleagues — Daniel Bogden of Las Vegas; Paul Charlton of Phoenix; H. E. Cummins III of Little Rock, Ark.; Carol Lam of San Diego; and John McKay of Seattle — and I testified before Congress on March 6, a disturbing pattern began to emerge. Not only had we not been insulated from politics, we had apparently been singled out for political reasons. (Among the Justice Department’s released documents is one describing the office of Senator Domenici as being “happy as a clam” that I was fired.)
I am not sure how you can read that, observe what has happened over the past few weeks regarding this issue, and then say with a straight face:
“The Democrats better be careful or they might look like hacks.”
Subpoena Powers
Just watched Bush’s presser, and my first thought was that despite Rove’s alleged political genius, this group sure steps in it a lot. The party is in shambles, the administration is a bunch of bungling incompetent boobs and under fire, and they have no one to thank but themselves.
My second thought is that I am siding with Bush on the subpoena nonsense (despite my snarky post last night, which was actually more about the other administration misbehaviors/power grabs and how they were excused), and so will the courts. They will not allow aides to come forward and testify, and the courts will side with him. The Democrats will have to use the document dumps and other means to find out what really happened, and I am not willing to throw aside a necessary precedent that has served previous Presidents well.
That doesn’t mean I think the way this was done and the reasons for firing these attornies were legit- I don’t. Something stinks here, and there is more to ithis issue than we know right now. But I think Bush is on pretty firm ground denying acceso to his aides, and I think the courts will agree, regardless the malfeasance involved.
*** Update ***
I am under the impression that executive privilege would extend to these aides in this situation. I may be wrong. Pointing out that other aides have in the past testified is interesting and everything, but it matters more whether or not they were forced to or not. If they were subpoenaed and testified is one thing, if they were subpoenaed, chose to fight it, and were forced to testify is another. If that makes any sense.
*** Update ***
To read this, I would be wrong. Which just goes to show you how much of what I think I know is just based on bullshit that was spewed in the past decade. Regardless, I just don’t think we are going to see Rove testifying. They will drag this out, etc.
Remove Oversight, Dysfunction Follows
A new report by a federal panel investigating the fatal 2005 explosion at a BP refinery in Texas criticizes the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for lax oversight of the nation’s oil and chemical refineries.
The Chemical Safety Board, an independent agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents, also provided more evidence that senior BP executives were focused on cutting expenses at the refinery prior to the accident despite indications of safety problems at the plant.
My General Theory Of Government And Everything suggests that nobody is particularly bad or evil here – business leaders just do what people always do when the guy looking over their shoulder takes a coffee break. They follow the next most imperative set of incentives, which usually means maximize revenue and cut costs. If we want them to care more about the kind of pain-in-the-ass time-consuming business practices that prevent fatal explosions then we should elect a government that has the will to do a government’s job.
Since we’re talking about basic human nature the same logic applies to not screwing up a war, wasting billions on wartime contracting fraud, treating wounded soldiers, responding to environmental disasters, preventing mine explosions, science policy, environmental policy, law enforcement and collecting taxes. While hardly the only problem, this pathological allergy to oversight makes one of the best arguments for keeping our modern Republicans well away from power.
***
Speaking of chemical safety. Spooky how just about every rock in DC has Dick Cheney under it.
Patterico Throws In The Towel
Patterico, who really does do his best to be fair and reasonable (I think, at least) while defending this administration, has finally had enough and has thrown in the towel:
Guys:
I think the press has distorted some of the aspects of this case against you. And, for that reason, at least, I want to defend you.
But you’re making it really, really hard for me to defend you.
And I’m not your defense attorney. If I think you’re full of crap, I don’t have to defend you.
And, given that 1) at least one of you gleefully boasted that you planned to deceive Congress, and 2) I keep making arguments that get shoved back in my face based on your own actions — I’m kind of tempted to tell you to screw yourselves.
Love and kisses,
Patterico
The only question that remains is how long before the AG is known as Gonezo?