Bad Deeds for 3-23-07

E-Mails Show Focused Effort to Replace US Attorney with Rove Aide – Some of the thousands of pages of e-mails released this week by the Bush administration underscore the extraordinary planning and effort, at the highest levels of the Justice Department and White House, to secure Tim Griffin – aide to Karl Rove and longtime GOP operative – a job running one of the smaller U.S. attorney’s offices in the country. Griffin has since announced that he will resign his post rather than face Senate confirmation. Meanwhile, western Michigan’s former U.S. attorney, who was ousted in the recent purge, says she was told that she was being forced out not because of management problems – the reason cited publicly by the Justice Department – but rather, to make way for a lawyer being groomed by the White House.

Why did the Tom DeLay investigation stop? – In the fall of 2005 dominos were falling fast in the Jack Abramoff investigation. And they were falling in one very clear direction, closer and closer to Tom DeLay. But since January, 2006, nothing. No Buckham plea. No indictments. Nothing…..was a U.S. Attorney fired to prevent the investigation from continuing to inexorably close in on Tom DeLay? Nope. But something very fishy did indeed take place. The lead investigator was given a Federal Judgeship, a new division chief with connections to the GOP machine was appointed (AND REPORTEDLY, TO THE DELAY DEFENSE TEAM ITSELF) and presto…no more momentum in the investigation.

Cheney and Gonzales Shot Down Attempt by Robert Gates to Close Guantanamo – In his first weeks as defense secretary, Robert Gates is said to have repeatedly argued that the Guantanamo Bay prison camp had become so tainted abroad that legal proceedings on site would be viewed as illegitimate, and advised President Bush and others that it should be shut down as quickly as possible and the detainees moved to the United States. Gates’s arguments, which were reportedly seconded by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, were rejected after Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and some other government lawyers expressed strong objections, a stance backed by the office of Vice President Dick Cheney.

Ex-Interior No. 2 pleads guilty in Abramoff case – Former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles pleaded guilty Friday to obstruction of justice in a Senate committee’s investigation, becoming the highest-ranking Bush administration official convicted in the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal.

FOX News Covers Gore’s Testimony by Trying To Paint Gore as a Hypocrite – Hannity & Colmes spent most of two segments debating whether or not he’s a hypocrite. Hypocrite or fat and wrong? With all that “news” to consider there wasn’t much time to go over Gore’s actual testimony. The portion that was played was selectively edited to reflect poorly on Gore. Hannity & Colmes said that Senator James Inhofe was “visibly upset that Al Gore was not answering his questions.” “Fair and balanced” FOX News did not mention that Inhofe would not let Gore answer the questions.

A segment of The Big Story with John Gibson on Fox News 3/21/07 purporting to be about Al Gore’s trip to Congress to testify about the urgency of global warming led off with a verbal spar between Gore and Oklahoma Senator Inhofe This exchange was described by Gibson as Inhofe taking Gore to task. But all that was involved was Inhofe interrupting Gore to lecture him on time constraints, which wasted 15 seconds of the precious time and prevented Gore from finishing his response.

Exxon Valdez spill judge had Exxon Mobil ties – Fed judge on court that reduced spill penalty took trips with Exxon-tied org.

Ex-UN Ambassador John Bolton Will Say Anything Regardless of the Facts
Tuesday on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart argued to ex-UN Ambassador John Bolton that Abraham Lincoln was a successful President because he brought his rivals into the cabinet to ensure all points of view were heard. His point was that the Bush administration is comprised entirely of yes men that share the same worldview which leads to stubborn and unpragmatic policies. Bolton quickly shot this down, telling Jon his historical account of Lincoln was flat wrong. In order to verify the point, Jon called up Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of the book, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, who told Jon Stewart the following:

“Unless Mr. Bolton knows a different Abraham Lincoln from our 16th President, which I suppose is possible, I can categorically say, and hundreds of historians will back us up, you are historically right and he is historically wrong.”

Regards,

Jim