Tag: Scandals

Judge Dismisses Wilsons’ Lawsuit against Cheney and Leakers

Jon Ponder

No justice:

A federal judge dismissed former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s lawsuit against members of the Bush administration Thursday, eliminating one of the last courtroom remnants of the leak scandal.

Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had accused Vice President Dick Cheney and others of conspiring to leak her identity in 2003. Plame said that violated her privacy rights and was illegal retribution for her husband’s criticism of the administration.

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates dismissed the case on jurisdictional grounds and said he would not express an opinion on the constitutional arguments. Bates dismissed the case against all defendants: Cheney, White House political adviser Karl Rove, former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.

Plame’s attorneys had said the lawsuit would be an uphill battle. Public officials are normally immune from such lawsuits filed in connection with their jobs.

NFL Quarterback Accused of Hanging, Drowning, Electrocuting, Shooting and Beating Dogs

Jon Ponder

A raid on a kennel in Virginia co-owned by Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick on Wednesday uncovered a horrendous animal abuse operation:

The news focus on this story is all about what these allegations will do to Vick’s career and his $100 million-plus NFL contract, not to mention product endorsements.

Vick, 27, and three others are accused of violating federal laws against staging dogfights, gambling and engaging in unlawful activities across state lines. According to the indictment, they ran Bad Newz Kennels out of a property the quarterback owns in Surry, Va., and executed pit bulls – by methods such as hanging, drowning, electrocution, shooting and beating – that didn’t perform well as fighters.

How involved was Vick?

The indictment identifies Vick as a key player in an operation that dated to 2001, just before his rookie season with the Falcons. Listed are at least 30 fights that Vick or other members of the kennel arranged or participated in, including details such as the names of the dogs and the amount of money — often thousands of dollars — awarded to the owners of the winners of matches that were frequently fought to the death.

Peace, Phillips and Vick also allegedly executed “approximately eight” dogs that did not perform well during so-called “testing” sessions in April. Later, authorities seized from the property 60 dogs — most of them pit bulls — along with treadmills, a stick used to pry fighting animals apart, and a “rape stand” device used to hold down aggressive females for breeding.

The news focus on this story is all about what these allegations will do to Vick’s career and his $100 million-plus NFL contract, not to mention product endorsements. But it’s hard to see what football has to do with this — other than providing the revenue that funded this horror.

One interesting side note is that Al Sharpton, along with music producer Russell Simmons, have teamed up with PETA to send a letter of protest to the NFL, which says, “dogfighting is unacceptable. Hurting animals for human pleasure or gain is despicable. Cruelty is just plain wrong.”

Larry Flynt Says He’s Found Five Hookers ‘So Far’ Who Had Sex with Sen. Vitter in New Orleans

Jon Ponder

Vitter is also rumored to have a diaper fetish, and sources say he fathered a child with one of the prostitutes

On Monday, near the end of Sen. David Vitter’s apology for consorting with call girls, he practically dared the media to prove allegations that he had ongoing relations with hookers in New Orleans in the 1990s.

According to sources, the mother and child live in suburban D.C., where they secretly receive support from Sen. Baby-Daddy.

Last night, Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt answered the challenge:

FLYNT: [I] want to point something out very important. [Vitter] lied on TV when he apologized to the nation. He…

[LARRY] KING: Lied how?

FLYNT: … well, he’s using his wife and kids as a shield and said what happened. Those rumors out of Louisiana where he had a small brothel of hookers. That was not true. Well, it is true. I’m working with the major Louisiana media down there.

KING: You say he had a brothel of hookers in Louisiana?

FLYNT: There’s been about five we’ve been able to track down so far. So you see what happens when you’re a guy like him and you’re not completely honest, see, he didn’t even have to bring that up. And now that he’s brought it up, everybody is all over it, including us.

Other developments include widely reported stories that Vitter has a diaper fetish and would pay the women to dress him up like a baby, as well as a story that he had a child with one of the prostitutes, Wendy Cortez, and that mother and child live in suburban Washington, where they receive financial support from Sen. Baby-Daddy.

Vitter Challenges Media to Prove He Consorted with New Orleans Hooker

Jon Ponder

His number appeared five times in DC Madam’s call lists but now he says reports that he frequented a New Orleans brothel in the 1990s are “not true”

“Unfortunately, my admission has encouraged some longtime political enemies and those hoping to profit from the situation to spread falsehoods too, like those New Orleans stories in recent reporting.”
– Sen. David Vitter

In the spring of 1987, Colorado Sen. Gary Hart held a commanding lead in early polling in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. But two questions dogged the candidate: How would he deal with the large debt carried over from his 1984 run for the presidency — and what about the rumors that he was, as they said back then, a “womanizer.”

The debt quickly became a non-issue after Hart made a miscalculation in handling the second question that has become a classic “what not to do” in politics — he challenged the media to prove he was having an affair:

“Follow me around … I’m serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They’d be very bored.”

Reporters from the Miami Herald took Hart up on the challenge and quickly outed his extramarital relationship with an attractive young woman named Donna Rice. After photos surfaced of Hart and Rice looking both intimate and disheveled on the deck of a yacht called Monkey Business, he dropped out of the race.

Yesterday, Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican with a penchant for pompous moralizing, may have made the same mistake Hart did 20 years ago. After waiting a full week to address revelations that he used the services of the DC Madam five years ago, he appeared before the media and dropped the gauntlet, all but challenging reporters to prove he had relationships with other prostitutes:

Unfortunately, my admission has encouraged some longtime political enemies and those hoping to profit from the situation to spread falsehoods too, like those New Orleans stories in recent reporting. Those stories are not true. Now, having said all of this, I’m not going to answer endless questions about it all over again and again and again and again.

Vitter was referring to stories that surfaced in New Orleans last week that he had been in a relationship with a working girl in the 1990s:

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Christian Lobbyist on DC Madam’s List

Jon Ponder

Jack Burkman:

Burkman, a former staffer for Rep. Rick Lazio (R-NY) and a Bush-Cheney ’04 staffer, recently worked as a lobbyist for groups such as the Family Research Council, Caring To Love Ministries, and America’s Heroes of Freedom.

This guy is the poster boy for rightwing unctuousness. Here’s a typical over-the-top statement in which he pontificates about morality:

“But [the issue of gay marriage] and the moral fabric of the country is five times as important as the war on terror and the war in Iraq combined because … America will never be defeated in the field. Just like the Roman legions, we will never fall in battle. I mean, if Osama bin Laden thinks he can defeat the United States by knocking over buildings, he‘s crazy. But where we will fall and where we are falling as a civilization is from within.

Last summer, Wonkette reported that a young woman who was in Washington for gay pride events said Burkman tried to pick her up, gave her his real name and a business card. She told him that she was gay and said he asked if she ever made exceptions for men. She told him, “Not for Republicans.” She also described him as a “CREEEEEEEP.”

Video: Serial Adulterer Sen. Vitter Pontificates against Gay Marriage

Jon Ponder

“Marriage is the most fundamental social institution in human history,” Sen. David Vitter says in the video clip above. This statement came as part of the debate last summer over amending the U.S. Constitution to prevent gay people from marrying each other.

At the time, Vitter told CNN,”I don’t believe there’s any issue that’s more important than this one.”

Over the years, of course, Vitter has degraded and defiled his own marriage by hiring prostitutes, including at least one call girl from the D.C. Madam.

Prior to that, Wendy Cortez, a prostitute in New Orleans, claimed in 1999 that Vitter had an ongoing affair with her. Maybe he met her at this brothel:

In New Orleans, meanwhile, the madam of a high-priced brothel that was shut down by federal authorities in 2002 told a local television station, WDSU, that Mr. Vitter was one of her clients in the 1990s. The woman, Jeanette Maier, called him “one of the nicest and most honorable men I’ve ever met.” Mr. Vitter’s office did not immediately return a call for comment Tuesday night.

Serial Adulterer Giuliani Is Disappointed That Sen. Vitter Had Sex with Hooker

Jon Ponder

Presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani’s reaction today to news that one of his supporters, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) admitted he procured at least one prostitute from the so-called D.C. Madam six years ago, has raised the bar in Republican hypocrisy about adultery:

“I’m a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary. If he does something like that, I’m walking away with one thing, and it’s not alimony, trust me.”
— Wendy Vitter

On Vitter, Giuliani … emphasized “this is a personal issue” and highlighted that he couldn’t have achieved so much in the campaign and during his years as mayor without the good character of his staffers and supporters. “But,” Giuliani added, “Some people disappoint you.”

While he was mayor of New York, Giuliani had at least two affairs outside his marriage to Donna Hanover. He made headlines when Hanover learned that Rudy planned to divorce her when he announced it at a news conference.

Vitter serves as a regional chairman of Giuliani’s campaign in the South. Recently, Giuliani’s South Carolina finance chair, Tom Ravenel, quit the campaign after it was announced he had been indicted on federal cocaine distribution charges.

Vitter was elected to the House in 1999, filling the seat vacated by Rep. Bob Livingston, the would-be Speaker of the House who was ousted at the eleventh hour when porn purveyor Larry Flynt obtained evidence about Livingston’s kinky extramarital sex life.

(Livingston was taking over the speakership from Newt Gingrich, who was removed from the leadership when it was revealed he was having an affair with a staffer. In the background of all this, Gingrich, Livingston and the House GOP were busy impeaching Pres. Bill Clinton over a sex lie.)

As regards Vitter, it turns out that this is not the first time he has been caught paying for sex:

…Vitter was accused of an extramarital affair in 1999 with a New Orleans prostitute, Wendy Cortez. Wendy Cortez contacted former Governor Treen’s office during the 2002 campaign for governor that year, because she was unhappy he was claiming to be a family values candidate and cheating on his wife with her.

He says it’s all behind him now, which sounds like a good idea, considering this quote from his wife:

“I’m a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary,” Wendy Vitter told Newhouse News. “If he does something like that, I’m walking away with one thing, and it’s not alimony, trust me.”

“I think fear is a very good motivating factor in a marriage,” she added. “Don’t put fear down.”

Lorena Bobbitt, you may recall (and I was fuzzy on the details, which Trish pointed out), cut off her husband’s offending member after he cheated on her and repeatedly assaulted her:

In the years following their 1989 marriage, the relationship between John Wayne Bobbitt, 26, and his Ecuadorian wife, Lorena, 24, grew increasingly strained. Their marital problems allegedly stemmed from a combination of the couple’s financial troubles, John’s extramarital affairs and his intensifying emotional and physical abuse of his wife. Their troubles peaked on June 23, 1993 when John came home to their Manassas, Va., apartment intoxicated after a night of partying and allegedly forced his wife to have sex, Lorena later testified during a 1994 court hearing.

Better watch out, Senator.

Three Solid Sources: Valerie Wilson Was a Covert Agent When Team Cheney Outed Her

Jon Ponder
“I worked in the Counterproliferation Division of the CIA, still as a covert officer whose affiliation with the CIA was classified.”
— Valerie Wilson, under oath, March 2007

Bashing their victims is a tried and true Republican tactic. Now, desperate to divert attention from suspicions that Pres. Bush petit-pardoned Scooter Libby to buy his silence on White House malfeasance, they’re doing it to Valerie Wilson — again.

Last week they trotted out the thoroughly debunked claim that Wilson was not covert at the time Team Cheney outed her. If her status was covert, the men who betrayed her identity — Richard Armitage, Karl Rove Scooter Libby and Ari Fleischer, under the direction of Vice Pres. Dick Cheney — could have violated the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA).

Here are three solid sources that make it clear that Valerie Wilson was a covert CIA agent in July 2003:

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Let’s Have a Look at Scooter Libby’s ‘Exceptional Public Service’

Jon Ponder

When Pres. George Bush commuted Scooter Libby’s prison sentence on Monday, he cited Libby’s “years of exceptional public service.” A casual observer might be surprised to learn Libby has been an “exceptional” public servant, since what is generally known about him is that he was a necon bureaucrat whose claim to fame prior to his crimes was his role in assisting Pres. Bush and Vice Pres. Dick Cheney in taking the country to war under false pretexts.

Having been found guilty of lying to a federal grand jury and FBI investigators and obstructing an investigation into an alleged White House conspiracy to reveal the identity of a covert CIA specialist in WMD, Libby has secured his place in history as the first sitting White House official to be indicted since the administration of U.S. Grant, a Republican, in the 1870s. He is also the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since National Security Adviser John Poindexter, also a Republican, in the Iran-Contra affair in 1990.

Libby met Paul Wolfowitz at Yale. Wolfowitz became his mentor, and the two have worked together off and on over the years. Ironically, their separate roles in the Bush administration have led both men to fall from grace on parallel tracks. While Libby was under investigation, Wolfowitz resigned from the Pentagon, reportedly because of his role in botching the war. Around the time of Libby’s trial, Wolfowitz was forced out of the World Bank amid corruption charges.

At the White House, as the vice president’s chief of staff, Libby was Cheney’s closest confidante. Libby rode to work with Cheney every morning and was by his side throughout the day. He once told CNN’s Larry King, “I’m a great fan of the vice president. I think he’s one of the smartest, most honorable people I’ve ever met.”

Here are a few highlights from Scooter Libby’s bio:
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Prophetic ’04 Bush Quote: CIA Leaker ‘Will Be Taken Care of’

Jon Ponder

On February 10, 2004, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that a criminal investigation into the leaking of the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson was underway.

The next day, Pres. George Bush addressed the new development in a brief Q & A with reporters:

“If there’s a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is,” Bush told reporters at an impromptu news conference during a fund-raising stop in Chicago, Illinois. “If the person has violated law, that person will be taken care of.

Now we know that those words were prophetic. By pardoning Scooter Libby, who was found guilty this year of perjury and obstruction of justice in the investigation into the outing of Wilson allegedly by senior Bush officials, Bush has indeed “taken care of” one of the leakers.

We also know now that Wilson was a covert specialist in weapons of mass destruction.

Here’s a more complete White House transcript:

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