Day: March 22, 2007

Where’s Rudy?

Trish

Almost everyone has been touched in some way by breast cancer; I have a friend fighting that battle now. So we all feel for Elizabeth and John Edwards today as they struggle with the news that her cancer is not in remission.

The list of current and former presidential candidates and their spouses sending prayers and good wishes at press time to the Edwards was notably missing someone.

Well…maybe not “all” of us. The list of current and former presidential candidates and their spouses sending prayers and good wishes at press time to the Edwards was notably missing someone.

Edwards’ 2004 democratic ticket-mate Sen. John Kerry, D-MA., himself a prostate cancer survivor, issued a statement of support…

2008 presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said, “Elizabeth Edwards is a wonderful and strong woman,” she said. “I admire her optimism and I’m encouraged by her resolve…

Other presidential candidates’ campaigns issued statements of support, including Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., Gov. Bill Richardson., D-N.M., Chris Dodd, D-Conn., the wife of Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, former Sen. Mike Gravel, D-Ak., and GOP ’08 contenders Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Ma., and former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark.

I guess Rudy was having a really busy day today and multitasking is such a drag. On the other hand, maybe the man who didn’t attend his son’s graduation or his daughter’s school plays, and informed his second wife in a press conference that he was ready for wife number three just simply has his head up his ass.

If you would like to send your good thoughts to Elizabeth Edwards, you can do so here.

Watch ‘War Zone Diary’ Tonight on MSNBC

Buck Banks

A slew of TV critics are urging Americans to watch NBC correspondent Richard Engel’s documentary of his experiences covering the war in Iraq for three years. It’s supposed to be harrowing and contains some of the most gruesome images yet broadcast in Western news media, but is being hailed as an important window into what life in Baghdad is like for journalists covering the war. Airs at 10 p.m. tonight on MSNBC.

Breaking News: George Bush Joins Navy Intelligence

Buck Banks

It’s no joke: George P. Bush, our president’s nephew who made a big splash at the Repug national convention, has joined the U.S. Navy Reserve as an intelligence officer, according to The Politico.

Bush, 30, said in a telephone interview from his office at a real estate development firm in Fort Worth, Texas, that he was moved to join the service in part when he attended the rainy commissioning in October of the aircraft carrier named for his grandfather — the USS George H.W. Bush.

“My grandfather’s my hero, and what really sold me on the ultimate decision was having the chance to see the CVN-77 be commissioned under his name,” he said. “That was pretty moving, and I had a chance to meet some Navy admirals, as well. I had a chance to talk to them briefly about the opportunity, and I was won over.”

George Prescott Bush, the oldest son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, said the death of Pat Tillman, the NFL player and Army Ranger who was killed in Afghanistan in 2004 in what was later determined to be a friendly-fire incident, “was a wake-up call for me.” He said he even “looked into active duty” and had somber conversations with his wife about the possibility.

Bush said he had not intended to announce his plans. “Honestly, I’m kind of a little disappointed that the word got out,” he said. “I was hoping to keep this as confidential as possible. I’m not doing it for political purposes or anything along those lines. I’m just doing it because I’ve been inspired by the friends of mine that have served, either through the JAG (military law) program or through the Reserves. I thought this was a small way that I could get involved.”

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

The revolutions of the future must be directed not against the rich but against the poor. The poor have been the slop-pails of capitalism, repositories for all the filth and brutality of a filthy, brutal world. Do not liberate the poor; destroy them.

— Kenneth Patchen (1911-1972), American writer

Former DOJ Prosecutor Says Bush Political Hacks Interfered with Tobacco Racketeering Case

Jon Ponder

Yesterday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy suggested that if the White House stalls on sending top aides Karl Rove and Harriet Miers to testify under oath, they risk the wrath of career employees at the Department of Justice who are unhappy about political interference from the Bush political office.

Eubanks said three political appointees were responsible for the last-minute shifts in the government’s tobacco case in June 2005: then-Associate Atty. Gen. Robert McCallum; then-Assistant Atty. Gen. Peter D. Keisler; and his deputy at the time, Dan Meron.

It appears Leahy was right. Sharon Eubanks, the former leader of the DOJ team that prosecuted the tobacco companies on racketeering charges said yesterday that Bush political hacks inside the department forced her to pull her punches at the last moment, including dropping the companies’ fines from $130 billion to $10 billion

[Eubanks said] that Bush administration political appointees repeatedly ordered her to take steps that weakened the government’s racketeering case.[She also said that] Bush loyalists in Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales’ office began micromanaging the team’s strategy in the final weeks of the 2005 trial, to the detriment of the government’s claim that the industry had conspired to lie to U.S. smokers.

She said a supervisor demanded that she and her trial team drop arguments that tobacco executives be removed from their corporate positions as a possible penalty. He and two others instructed her to tell key witnesses to change their testimony. And they ordered Eubanks to read verbatim from a closing argument they rewrote for her, she said.

“The political people were pushing the buttons and ordering us to say what we said. And because of that, we failed to zealously represent the interests of the American public,” she said.

Eubanks, who served for 22 years as a lawyer at Justice, said three political appointees were responsible for the last-minute shifts in the government’s tobacco case in June 2005: then-Associate Atty. Gen. Robert McCallum; then-Assistant Atty. Gen. Peter D. Keisler; and his deputy at the time, Dan Meron.

This story was buried on page A13 of the Los Angeles Times today. If it gains traction, Sharon Eubanks can expect to be the target of a devasting campaign of smears and lies from the West Wing.

Let’s hope that there are other courageous people inside Justice Dept. who will come forward to tell the truth about Bush political hackery at DOJ. The American people need to know the truth about full extent of George W. Bush’s defiling of the United States justice system.