Year: 2007

Gonzales Testimony Drinking Game – Down a Shot Every Time He Says ‘Improper’

Jon Ponder

It is 6:40 a.m. in West Hollywood as I write this, and I am celebrating the long awaited Senate Judiciary Committee testimony of Attorney Gen. Alberto Gonzales with a drinking game. My plan is to do a shot of tequila every time he uses the word “improper.” I am doing this strictly for your entertainment, dear read, but please feel free to play along at home.

On the substance, the truthy answers he memorized are working as intended. His talks and talks but says nothing — and yet his words seem to brim with content.

Let the games begin:

7:04 – Abu says he’s done nothing improper and therefore nothing improper has been done. Gimme two. Bottoms up! Yee-ha.

7:29 – Nothing was improper, I tells ya! I was not improper, nothing improper to see here, move along. Set up three more shots, tarbender!

8:41 – Abu: I don’t recall it but I do know it wasn’t improper. Just one, barkeep.

8:51 – Improper, I was not, says Abu, and improper was not done by me. Twofer. Line ’em up, good sir, two in row.

9:30 – They have broken for lunch. During Gonzo’s three weeks of practice sessions, the Rove people must have cued him not to over-use his catch phrases — more’s the pity for the game. I’ve only had eight ounces of liquor so far!

On the substance, the truthy answers he memorized are working as intended. His talks and talks but says nothing — and yet his words seem to brim with content.

11:47 – They’re back from lunch, and we have three impropers off the bat. Line ’em up!

11:54 – Just one. Urp!

12:10 – Sen. Whitehouse calls Gonzo on over-using the word “improper.” A dozen or so uses back and forth. A round for the house, my good man!

12:56 – Hatch gives Gonzo big improper love: Four in a row – ding, ding, ding, ding.

1:37 – Gonzo tells Schumer it’s up to accusers to prove he did something improper. Set me up!

1:46 – Early reviews of Gonzo’s performance are not good:

CNN’s Dana Bash:

Loyal Republican after loyal Republican in this hearing room, and more specifically, in private to CNN today have made it clear that they are frankly flabbergasted by how poorly they think the attorney general has done in this hearing. … During the lunch break, in private, several very loyal Republicans made it clear to CNN that they were really dripping with disappointment.

CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux:

[White House officials] believe Gonzales is in trouble. … Two senior White House aides here describing the situation, Gonzales’ testimony, as “going down in flames.” That he was “not doing himself any favors.” One prominent Republican describing watching his testimony as “clubbing a baby seal.”

1:55 – Game over. I’m not sure which is more wasted, me or Gonzo’s career.

Update: We should have been playing on the phrase, “I don’t recall.” Someone counted 71 of them. That would have been staggering.

Correction: Fitzgerald Did Not Punt on Rove Emails

Jon Ponder

I was wrong: On Tuesday, I wrote, “Even so, there is some new evidence [CIA Leak case special prosecutor Patrick] Fitzgerald may have whiffed on going up the chain in the Libby trial. Either he didn’t know about Karl Rove’s secret email system, or he deliberately failed to subpoena all of Rove’s correspondence.”

That was incorrect. In January 2006, Fitzgerald made a filing that indicated he had been informed by the White House that some emails sent by senior staff had been improperly archived and were missing:

Fitzgerald revealed that his investigative team “learned that not all email of the Office of the Vice President and the Executive Office of the President for certain time periods in 2003 was preserved through the normal archiving process on the White House computer system.”

A recent audit by the Office of Administration showed that as many as 5 million emails were lost. What is unclear now is whether the White House was fully truthful with Fitzgerald about the scope of the missing emails.

FBI Raids Home of Abramoff Suspect GOP Rep. Doolittle

Jon Ponder

The timing of this is interesting, since the capo de capo of the FBI/DoJ, Attorney Gen. Alberto Gonzales, is testifying before Congress today about charges that he and Pres. Bush may have obstructed justice by firing federal prosecutors who were investigating GOP corruption:

The FBI searched the Virginia home of Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) last Friday in its investigation into ties between the congressman and his wife, Julie, and disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to law enforcement and other Congressional and K Street sources.

The search took place on the same day that his former chief of staff, Kevin Ring, abruptly resigned from his lobbying firm. Ring left Doolittle’s office to work for Abramoff at the law firm Greenberg Traurig and may have played a role in Abramoff’s decision to hire Julie Doolittle’s consulting firm. After the Abramoff scandal broke, Ring went to work for the lobbying firm, Barnes and Thornburg.

Doolittle came within three percentage points of losing his election in November after facing months of scrutiny over his relationship with Abramoff, who is in jail for an array of fraud, bribery and money-laundering charges. The lawmaker has denied any wrongdoing.

Throughout his campaign, Doolittle refused to return an estimated $50,000 he received from Abramoff clients, mostly tribes, between 1999 and 2004. Abramoff also personally donated $14,000 between 1999 and 2004 to Doolittle’s congressional campaigns.

Doolittle used Abramoff’s luxury sports box for a fundraiser without initially reporting it to the Federal Election Commission.

Christian Group to Protest Gays at VA Tech Funerals

Jon Ponder

Here they go again:

If I were a Christian, I’d be outraged and ashamed that a hate group like the Westboro Baptist Church operated in the name of Christ.

Never missing the opportunity to take advantage of a tragedy, Fred Phelps and his gang of haters at Westboro Baptist Church plan to picket the funerals of those killed in the Virginia Tech shootings.

On its website the hate group issues a warning:

“WBC will preach at the funerals of the Virginia Tech students killed on campus during a shooting rampage April 16, 2007. You describe this as monumental horror, but you know nothing of horror — yet. Your bloody tyrant Bush says he is ‘horrified’ by it all. You know nothing of horror — yet. Your true horror is coming. ‘They shall also gird themselves with sackloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads’ (Eze. 7:18).

Why did this happen, you ask? It’s simple. Your military chose to shoot at the servants of God today, and all they got for their effort was terror. Then, the LORD your God sent a crazed madman to shoot at your children. Was God asleep while this took place? Was He on vacation? Of course not. He willed this to happen to punish you for assailing His servants.”

If I were a Christian, I’d be outraged and ashamed that a hate group like the Westboro Baptist Church operated in the name of Christ.

Nobody Said Impeaching Cheney Was ‘Off the Table’

Jon Ponder

During last year’s campaign season, Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared impeachment to be “off the table.” But everybody knew she meant impeaching Pres. Bush was off the table. It’s not too great a stretch to say that she didn’t mean it was off the table for Vice Pres. Cheney.

Now Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) is proposing just that — impeaching Cheney:

Earlier this week, according to media reports Kucinich emailed House colleagues with a note that began, “I intend to introduce Articles of Impeachment with respect to the conduct of Vice President Cheney.”

Kucinich put the plan on hold after the Virginia Tech shooting massacre. But the general expectation is that he will raise the issue anew after a decent interval.

Cheney’s office sees no grounds for impeachment. “The vice president has had nearly 40 years of government service and has done so in an honorable fashion,” says Megan McGinn, Cheney’s deputy press secretary.

McGinn got that line out with a straight face.

Americans of who are not on the vice president’s payroll are inclined to recognize Cheney’s manipulation of intelligence prior to the Iraq War, his active role in going after administration critic Joe Wilson and Wilson’s wife Valarie Plame, and his ongoing links to the Halliburton war-profiteering cartel as arguments against giving the vice president any prizes for “honorable” government service.

Impeachment activists have in recent months pushed an “Impeach Cheney First” message, in part to counter the complaint that impeaching Bush would put an even darker figure in charge. Of course, going after the most powerful vice president in history has consequences, as well. In the unlikely event that Cheney were removed from office, one line of reasoning goes, Bush would for the first time find himself in charge.

Attorney Pay-Back Firing Goo Bound to Stick to White House

Trish

Damn good editorial in the Palm Beach Post on the Attorney General hearings, now set for Thursday.

The vice president, speaking on Face The Nation, pronounced the official White House spin: “This took place inside the Justice Department. The one who needs to answer to that and lay out on the record the specifics of what transpired is the attorney general.” But Mr. Cheney’s claim that “this took place inside the Justice Department” is ludicrous.

Cheney’s claim that “this took place inside the Justice Department” is ludicrous.

Even though hundreds of e-mails concerning the firings might be missing, enough exist to show that the White House was heavily involved…David C. Iglesias of New Mexico was fired after Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., complained to the White House about Mr. Iglesias’ failure to indict Democrats before last November’s elections. Before the firings were announced, Karl Rove assured the chairman of the New Mexico GOP that Mr. Iglesias “was gone.”

Not only does Mr. Gonzales have to claim that the White House didn’t play an improper role, he has to repeat the equally unbelievable claim that he didn’t play a central role – despite testimony to the contrary from his former chief of staff Kyle Sampson and Michael A. Battle, director of the office in charge of U.S. attorneys.

Even as Mr. Gonzales prepared last week for his testimony, another cover story was contradicted. Bush administration officials had claimed that no replacements for the attorneys had been chosen in advance. In fact, they had been. The White House wants to confine the scandal to Justice. But in all this, Alberto Gonzales clearly isn’t on his own.

The big question is, how much less approval can George Bush earn and still finish his term? We’re betting his ratings will go still lower, as even Republicans are repelled by his incompetence and deceit.

Our Nominee for Next Bush AG: Patrick Fitzgerald

Jon Ponder

Assuming Attorney Gen. Alberto Gonzales is asked to resign over the purge of U.S. attorneys, we would nominate the USA who is probably best known to the public: Patrick Fitzgerald of Chicago, the special prosecutor who successfully tried Cheney aide Scooter Libby for perjury in the CIA Leak scandal.

Fitzgerald is only deficient in quality required to serve Dear Leader: he is not a loyal Bushie.

Fitzgerald has all the qualities required to be attorney general in a GOP administration: legal knowledge and experience, political savvy and membership in the Republican Party.

He is only deficient in quality required to serve Dear Leader: he is not a loyal Bushie.

It’s this deficiency, however, that would make his nomination sail through the approval process in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Even so, there is some new evidence Fitzgerald may have whiffed on going up the chain in the Libby trial. Either he didn’t know about Karl Rove’s secret email system, or he deliberately failed to subpoena all of Rove’s correspondence.

Update: In the comments, Greg Bacon suggests another candidate who would definitely clear the Senate: former Sen. Fred Thompson. As Greg points out, we know he can play a prosecutor on TV.

Evidence Mounts That Bush Is at Center of Prosecutor Purge

Jon Ponder

Sampson Says Bush Conferred with Gonzales on Firing US Attorney Iglesias

It is one of the foundational lies of the Bush era that the president doesn’t read polls. He reads them — he just doesn’t give a damn what they say. In fact, starting at the top, no one in the Bush administration cares about public opinion, especially including the opinions of the Democrats who control the Congress.

A group of USAs had to go to mask the firing of Carol Lam so Bush played his “l’etat c’est moi” card and added Iglesias, who, like Lam, had one of the best conviction rates in the country.

So why are the Bushies being so squirrely about the congressional investigation into the prosecutor purge? Why did Karl Rove delete months worth of secret emails? Why did it take A.G. Alberto Gonzales two weeks to memorize his testimony in the matter? Why did Monica Goodling, a Christian nationalist mole in the Justice Dept., say she would plead the Fifth out of fear she might be forced to lie under oath?

The answer: George W. Bush.

Unlike the Scooter Libby scandal, where the wagons were circled to protect Vice Pres. Cheney, it appears that Dear Leader himself is at the center of the prosecutor purge.

On Sunday, the Albequerque Journal reported that the president may have personally added the name of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico to the purge list at the behest of Sen. Pete Domenici, the state’s senior Republican:

In the spring of 2006, Domenici told Gonzales he wanted Iglesias out.

Gonzales refused. He told Domenici he would fire Iglesias only on orders from the president.

At some point after the election last Nov. 6, Domenici called Bush’s senior political adviser, Karl Rove, and told him he wanted Iglesias out and asked Rove to take his request directly to the president.

Domenici and Bush subsequently had a telephone conversation about the issue.

The conversation between Bush and Domenici occurred sometime after the election but before the firings of Iglesias and six other U.S. attorneys were announced on Dec. 7.

Today, the Los Angeles Times reports that Kyle Sampson, the top aide to Gonzales whom the Bushies tossed overboard like they did Libby, has confirmed Bush’s involvement in the firing of Iglesias:

[Sampson] told Senate investigators over the weekend that the attorney general told him in early March that he and Bush had discussed U.S. Atty. David C. Iglesias’ performance before the November election, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) said in a briefing with reporters.

This does not change the theory that the underlying motive in the purge was to put the San Diego federal prosecutor Carol Lam out of business in order to hobble investigations into Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., the ranking member on Appropriations, and his lobbyist cronies. A group of prosecutors had to be fired in order to avoid the appearance that Lam was being singled out.

Since a group had to go, Bush played his “l’etat c’est moi” card and added to the list Iglesias, who, like Lam, had one of the best conviction rates in the country. Now the Bushies must go to any extreme measure to protect their king, including trying to delay the endgame until the end of his term in 2009.

Exxon Breaks All-Time U.S. Profit Record — Again

Trish

The usual suspects top the list of the most profitable companies in 2006, ranked by Fortune. Your friend and mine, Exxon Mobil, again headed the pack.

The oil giant racked up $39.5 billion in earnings last year, the largest-ever profit in U.S. history. That figure topped the previous record of $36.1 billion, also set by Exxon Mobil, in 2005. Profits were up 9.3% from the previous year, while sales rose 2.2%.

The rest of the top ten included:

2. United Airlines
3. Citigroup
4. Bank of America
5. General Electric
6. Pfizer
7. Chevron
8. Conoco Philips
9. J. P. Morgan Chase
10. AIG (American International Group) Insurance

Ann Coulter Dropped F-Bomb on Edwards a Second Time – at Christian Conference

Jon Ponder

Under-reported: Did you know that on March 3, the day after Ann Coulter called John Edwards a “faggot” at CPAC, she said the same thing when she addressed the annual talibangelist “Reclaiming America for Christ” meeting? It sounds like she bombed the second time:

On the matter of gay rights, Coulter’s contribution was to describe, from the pulpit, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards as “a faggot,” a remark that did not go over as well at Coral Ridge as it had the day before at a meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C.

It’s good to know Christianists aren’t yet as craven as CPAC goons.