Bending the Third Rail
Because We Should, We Can, We Do
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Another Summary
This time, Chuck Schumer provides us with a nice round-up of the administration lies on ProsecutorGate:
Schumer: Here are some of the falsehoods we've been told that are now unraveling.

First, we were told that the seven of the eight U.S. attorneys were fired for performance reasons.

It now turns out this was a falsehood, as the glowing performance evaluations attest.

Second, we were told by the attorney general that he would, quote, "never, ever make a change for political reasons."

It now turns out that this was a falsehood, as all the evidence makes clear that this purge was based purely on politics, to punish prosecutors who were perceived to be too light on Democrats or too tough on Republicans.

Third, we were told by the attorney general that this was just an overblown personnel matter.

It now turns out that far from being a low-level personnel matter, this was a longstanding plan to exact political vendettas or to make political pay-offs.

Fourth, we were told that the White House was not really involved in the plan to fire U.S. attorneys. This, too, turns out to be false.

Harriet Miers was one of the masterminds of this plan, as demonstrated by numerous e-mails made public today. She communicated extensively with Kyle Sampson about the firings of the U.S. attorneys. In fact, she originally wanted to fire and replace the top prosecutors in all 93 districts across the country.

Fifth, we were told that Karl Rove had no involvement in getting his protege appointed U.S. attorney in Arkansas.

In fact, here is a letter from the Department of Justice. Quote: "The department is not aware of Karl Rove playing any role in the decision to appoint Mr. Griffin."

It now turns out that this was a falsehood, as demonstrated by Mr. Sampson's own e-mail. Quote: "Getting him, Griffin, appointed was important to Harriet, Karl, et cetera.

Sixth, we were told to change the Patriot Act was an innocent attempt to fix a legal loophole, not a cynical strategy to bypass the Senate's role in serving as a check and balance.

It was Senator Feinstein who discovered that issue. She'll talk more about it.

So there has been misleading statement after misleading statement -- deliberate misleading statements. And we haven't gotten to the bottom of this yet, but believe me, we will pursue it.
Very nicely done Chuck. Well said. Now what are you going to do about it?

Oversight is nice. And it's much better to be in this place than with a Republican majority in Congress hiding the steaming piles for the administration.

But I'm getting a bit impatient.

Here's the deal. If everyone agrees to play by some honorable rules of democracy, then oversight (including the fourth estate) can be very powerful. But what happens when you have dictatorial jerks like we have in the administration who have no respect for voters, polls, majority views or anything other than perpetuation of themselves and their power? That's right. They pretty much thumb their noses at you because they fundamentally don't believe in you. Oh sure, Abu had a news conference today, mea culpa mea culpa and so on, but what will really happen? Yeah, one chief of staff is gone, Abu had to cancel his travel plans today, but what else?

Nada.

Until they are truly held accountable, they will continue to ignore everyone and do exactly what they please. This has been true since day one, and shows no evidence of losing any steam whatsoever in the sixth year of this godforsaken Presidency.

So Chuck? Go ahead an hold a hearing. But until I see articles of impeachment, a special prosecutor named, or felony perjury charges filed, it's just all a bunch of hot air.