Stonewall

Hot off the AP @ 6:41 pm EDT. One of Gonzo's aide is Taking the Fifth. So when can we expect Gary Trudeau to resurrect his Watergate-era cartoons of a brick wall being built up around the White House. Hell, when can we expect Trudeau to get viciously political again? Considering that the White House Gang (2007 incarnation) are in real danger of being hauled off in leg irons, why the silence?

Anyways, the AP news release:

By LAURIE KELLMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' liaison with the White House will refuse to answer questions at upcoming Senate hearings about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, citing her Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, her lawyer says.

"I have decided to follow by lawyer's advice and respectfully invoke my constitutional right," Monica Goodling, Gonzales' counsel and White House liaison, said in a statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The revelation complicated the outlook for Gonzales, who is traveling out of town this week even as he fights to keep his job and his agency's investigatory power.

The House was to vote late Monday on stripping him of his authority to appoint U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation, similar to a measure the Senate passed this month. Bush has signaled he would not veto it.

John Dowd, the lawyer for Gonzales counsel Monica Goodling, who plans to take the Fifth, suggested in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., that the Democrat-led panel has laid what amounts to a perjury trap for his client.

Goodling, one of several aides involved in the firings of federal prosecutors, will refuse to answer senators' questions.

"The potential for legal jeopardy for Ms. Goodling from even her most truthful and accurate testimony under these circumstances is very real," Dowd said. Goodling was key to the Justice Department's political response to the growing controversy. She took a leave of absence last week.

"One need look no further than the recent circumstances and proceedings involving Lewis Libby," Dowd said, a reference to the recent conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff in the CIA leak case.

Gonzales had promised to let his top aides testify under oath before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.

"The American people are left to wonder what conduct is at the base of Ms. Goodling's concern that she may incriminate herself in connection with criminal charges if she appears before the committee under oath," said Leahy.

Dowd shot back in a second letter that Leahy's comments were a good illustration of why testifying was "perilous" for Goodling.

"It is the politically charged environment created by the members of the committee ... that has created the ambiguous and perilous environment in which even innocent witnesses would be well advised not to testify," Dowd wrote.

Democrats allege the firings were a purge of those deemed by the Justice Department not to be "loyal Bushies" - and a political warning to other prosecutors to fall in line with the administration. Gonzales has denied that.

The news of Goodling's refusal to testify toughened an already daunting week for Gonzales, who retains President Bush's support, apparently on condition that he patch things up with Congress. There was little sign of that happening.

Republicans over the weekend lobbed new criticism at Gonzales and more Democrats called for his resignation. Gonzales, meanwhile, was in Denver on Monday, leading a round-table discussion on curbing child sex abuse. He was expected to remain out of town most of the week.

But Goodling's announcement appeared to be an unforeseen piece of bad news for Gonzales' agency, which had no immediate comment.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who is leading the Senate's investigation into the firings, said Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty told him Goodling misled him before he testified to Schumer's panel on Feb. 6.

A day earlier, Goodling was among aides who helped McNulty prepare his testimony. Schumer has said McNulty may have given Congress incomplete or otherwise misleading information about the circumstances of the firings.

A little more than two weeks before that, she helped organize the response to senators asking whether the firings were politically motivated, the e-mails show. Specifically, she wanted to show that one of the fired prosecutors, Carol Lam of California, had been the subject of complaints by members of Congress.

On Jan. 18, 2007, Goodling sent an e-mail to three Justice staffers titled: "I hear there is a letter from (Sen. Dianne) Feinstein on Carol Lam a year or two ago."

"I need it ASAP," Goodling wrote.

She was later sent two letters, from Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., dated Oct. 13, 2005, and 19 House members, on Oct. 20, 2005, which both complained that Lam was too lax in prosecuting criminal illegal immigrants.

Additionally, Goodling was involved in an April 6, 2006, phone call between the Justice Department and Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who had complained to the Bush administration and the president about David Iglesias, then the U.S. attorney in Albuquerque. Domenici had wanted Iglesias to push more aggressively on a corruption probe against Democrats before the 2006 elections.

Iglesias told Congress earlier this month that he turned down what he believed to be pressure from Domenici to rush indictments that would have hurt Democrats in the November elections.

Gonzales' truthfulness about the firings of seven prosecutors on Dec. 7 and another one months earlier also have been questioned. At a March 13 news conference, Gonzales denied that he participated in discussions or saw any documents about the firings, despite documents that show he attended a Nov. 27 meeting with senior aides on the topic, where he approved a detailed plan to carry out the dismissals.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Monday that Gonzales "might be accused of being imprecise in what he was saying," but maintained that the attorney general was not closely involved in the firings.

"I understand the concern. I understand that people might think that there are inconsistencies," Perino said. "But as I read it, I think that he has been consistent."

Gonzales is not scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee until April 17 - three weeks away.

"Karma, Interrupted"

I just read that former Reagan Budget Director David Stockman has been charged with securities fraud and cooking the books.

From the AP- The indictment said the crimes occurred as Stockman served on the board of directors of Collins & Aikman- one of the world's largest auto parts companies- from 2000 through May 2005. He was chairman of the board from August 2003 until May 2005.

Here comes the irony. You might recall that Stockman was the one who came up with the whole "supply-side economics" theory that said you could increase tax revenues by cutting taxes because the economy would then spring into action and with more economic activity, there would be more tax revenue that would surpass the revenue generated by the older tax rates.

Important historical note here. The plan was thought up in a bar and written on a cocktail napkin, so right there, there was cause for skepticism. Even then-presidential candidate Bush Sr called it "voodoo economics", although the joke was on him because we know he ended up being Reagan's VP and forced to go along with the scam.

And the numbers? The deficit went through the roof, even to the point where Stockman quit in horror at the damage wrought by Supply Side Economics.

He hasn't been heard from in recent years. But now, he's back in the news and at long last, Karma seems to be paying Mr Stockman a little visit. It's just a pity that Reagan isn't around to see and share in the party.

"And the band played on...."

The HMS Dubya sustained even more damage over the weekend.

First,in AttorneyGate, Gonzalez got nailed by a single memo sniper shot. Despite claiming he was not involved in any discussions about the firings of the Gonzo 8, records show that on 11/27/06, Gonzalez was at an hour-long meeting to review the plan to fire the Gonzo 8.

Gonzalez probably has not earned any points by tossing his then-Chief of Staff, Kyle Sampson, under the bus, saying that all the details (of the firing) were left to Sampson. But Sampson is about to get his revenge, as he is scheduled to testify about the firings before the Senate Judiciary Community on Thursday.

The reaction to this latest revelation has been quite pointed, with several GOP senators ( saying Gonzalez should step down.

Second item- maverick GOP Senator Chuck Hegel has uttered the "I" word and taken Dubya out to the woodshed where he beat his ass like a red-headed stepchild.

I'm just going to gank from AP reports and bold the especially juicy bits:

GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a frequent critic of the war, stopped short of calling for Bush's impeachment. But he made clear that some lawmakers viewed that as an option should Bush choose to push ahead despite public sentiment against the war.

"Any president who says, I don't care, or I will not respond to what the people of this country are saying about Iraq or anything else, or I don't care what the Congress does, I am going to proceed - if a president really believes that, then there are - what I was pointing out, there are ways to deal with that," said Hagel, who is considering a 2008 presidential run.

On Sunday, Hagel said he was bothered by Bush's apparent disregard of congressional sentiment on Iraq, such as his decision to send additional troops. He said lawmakers now stood ready to stand up to the president when necessary.

In the April edition of Esquire magazine, Hagel described Bush as someone who doesn't believe he's accountable to anyone. "He's not accountable anymore, which isn't totally true. You can impeach him, and before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment. I don't know. It depends on how this goes," Hagel told the magazine.

"We have clearly a situation where the president has lost the confidence of the American people in his war effort," Hagel said. "It is now time, going into the fifth year of that effort, for the Congress to step forward and be part of setting some boundaries and some conditions as to our involvement."

"This is not a monarchy," he added, referring to the possibility that some lawmakers may seek impeachment. "There are ways to deal with it. And I would hope the president understands that."


This, Gentle Readers, is some seriously heavy stuff coming from a Senator from his own party.

And Hegel has cut through the bullshit and gone straight to the heart of the matter- that Dubya does not believe he is accountable to anyone, that he truly is the King. Congress hasn't done much to dissuade him, rubber-stamping Dubya's acts in a manner that would have made the Soviet-era Politburo green with envy. Dubya was given free reign and anyone who opposed him or countered him- Richard Clark, Joseph Wilson, etc etc- were destroyed by White House attack dog Karl Rove and his minions in a manner reminiscent of G Gordon Liddy's gang back during Watergate.

Dubya doesn't care about the Congressional elections where voters said they wanted us out of Iraq. No, instead, Dubya gives the electorate a collective "Fuck You" and instead sends more troops.

And we're supposed to get the warm and fuzzies because in Baghdad some market inside a barricade is secure enough for the US's top commander to walk around in during broad daylight. Hell, I guess that means those 3200+ dead servicepeople didn't give their lives in vain.

This is cutting a bit close to the bone, but let's be brutally honest here. This is the lie that we are continuing to be fed by this Administration. And if we're going to play that game, then let's play it out all the way. Do you want your son or your friend's daughter or the kid who used to deliver your paper being killed over this?

Of course Dubya's getting edgy and hostile. It's all on the record that he lied to launch this war and he's got a helluva lot of blood on his hands.

We keep hearing that if we pull out from Iraq, then the terrorists would be emboldened over our loss and if we don't "fight them over there, we'll have to fight them over here."

Again, I call bullshit.

Everyone was convinced that if we left Vietnam, the entire Southeast Asian peninsula would turn Red Commie and we would soon be taken over by the Red Chinese and made a slave state of China.

The sick irony? In order to fund this war, we've had to go up to our necks in foreign debt, held largely by.... drum roll, please..... China!

How's that for loving freedom, selling our future to China?

Then again, nobody in Dubya's administration is all that big on irony, so it's up to us here in BlogWorld to pick up the slack.