The ongoing campaign to return integrity to government...

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Integrity in government. Ha. Ha. Ha. In NYS, we're faced with a candidate for attorney general who was working with the corrupt NYC chief of police to get her husband's boat wired so she could see if he was having an affair. She also previously said the job of AG was a "been-there, done-that" job that she wouldn't want. At her recent press conference, she paused at the beginning to remove her gum from her mouth and put it on the podium. (I know, that has nothing to do with integrity, but it was a classy touch, no?) Meanwhile, there's the guy running for re-election as STATE CONTROLLER (the guy who makes sure taxpayer dollars aren't being spent on the wrong things, right?). He just paid a hefty fine ($86K IIRC) for misuse of a NYS employee and vehicle - he had a staffer with a state car chauffeuring his wife around. So the guy running for governor on the law-and-order reform platform should have a lot to say about the Controller, right? Nope. The candidate for governor merely said that the Controller apologized and paid the fine so all's well with the world. Mind you, these last two are the folks I'm probably going to vote for because their platforms are a far closer match to my views than their opponents' platforms are.

And everyone keeps wondering why the voters don't turn out any more.

[frazzledspice]

I think that it is only natural for a Chief Executive who feels battered and beleagured and hounded on all sides to try to surround himself with a good old boy network of friends and friends of friends who will be loyal to him no matter what, and qualifications be damned...

The most important qualification becomes unconditional support of the boss and his priorities.

Could it be that if we liberals just left him alone he might nominate more qualified individuals?

[pippadaisy[$]]

MJ, you weren't going to vote for Pirro??

What a dolt. The mere fact that she is a lawyer, and yet tried to run against Hilary even though her husband was jailed for what was it again? Tax evasion? And went on for a speech, lost her notes, and was DEAD SILENT because she couldn't even remember her talking points and wing it from there?

If that's the best they can run, they deserve to lose.

[erik_kosberg]

"Remember the good old days when someone like Mehlman could get busted for such a baldfaced lie and there would be serious adverse consequences, personally and politically?"

[erik_kosberg]

"Ken just doesn't understand that it's time to move on -- and for Bill Frist to get out of Harry Reid's office."

[erik_kosberg]

brian_igo said

Too bad Ken Tomlinson quit before the ethics breifings...

Same as it ever was, same as it ever was...

[erik_kosberg]

Jack who?

[erik_kosberg]

The picture that Bush wanted you to never see:

[erik_kosberg]

"Just the thing to brighten your morning -- the Bush administration tackles the problem of political hacks having insufficient control over regulatory policy."

Raise your hand if you're surprised.

[erik_kosberg]

"Sometimes, it’s almost as if the entire administration is a Carl Hiaasen novel come to life."

[erik_kosberg]

“There’s this, ‘What else can happen now?‘ feeling going around here.”

[erik_kosberg]

Honest Conservatives Should...

I think that when the "honest conservatives" reject Bush they're just setting up their assault on the Democratic president they expect to see elected next year. Their way of digging themselves out from under the Bush disaster (and obscuring their own massive role in that disaster) will be to swear that "Never again can an American President be allowed that kind of free hand!" This will justify their fighting the new Democratic President tooth and nail for every inch of ground.

For example, Bush's politicization of the career staff in Justice and elsewhere was a very bad thing, no? And certainly this kind of thing has to stop, no? So we will forbid the new Democratic President to interfere with career personnel, with the result that all of the political hacks Bush put in civil service positions will be untouchable.

True dat.

[brian_igo]

erik_kosberg said

Honest Conservatives Should...

I see the same thing, but I have a little different take.

To make extra sure that no future administration abuses power the way Bush has, I trust Republicans will support continued criminal investigations after Bush leaves office. If they are horrified by what we are learning, I'm sure they will be just as anxious for the full truth to come out - and for anyone who broke the law to be prosecuted and sent to prison if they are convicted.

Right?

[erik_kosberg]

Count on it.

[brian_igo]

#2 at Interior sentenced to 10 months in prison for obstruction:

WASHINGTON: The former No. 2 official at the Interior Department was sentenced to 10 months in prison Tuesday for lying to U.S. senators in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, the highest administration official sentenced in the probe.

J. Steven Griles, who was the department's deputy secretary, had pleaded guilty to obstructing a congressional investigation and a federal judge said he continued to make excuses about his lies.

"Even now you continue to minimize and try to excuse your conduct," U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle told Griles before doubling the five-month person prison term he and prosecutors had agreed on.

Griles admitted to lying to Senate investigators about his relationship with Abramoff, the central figure in a corruption investigation that has led to convictions of a former congressman, legislative aides, lobbyists and officials in the Bush administration.

Abramoff, once one of the most influential people in Washington, is cooperating with the government after pleading guilty in January 2006 to conspiracy and other charges and admitting defrauding clients, including Indian tribes. He had high-level contacts with many lawmakers and administration officials.

Griles had asked to be spared prison time. Under his plea deal with prosecutors, the Justice Department recommended he serve five months in prison and five months in a halfway house or under house arrest.

Huvelle seemed frustrated, however, as Griles and his attorneys tried to deflect blame for his inaccurate testimony. If lawmakers had only provided Griles with documents showing the extent of his relationship with Abramoff, defense attorneys said, his testimony would have been accurate.

"Do you really believe that?" Huvelle shot back. "You think it's the Senate's fault?"

With family and supporters holding in hands in the front row of a packed courtroom, Griles choked up and wept as he asked for leniency.

Huvelle, who questioned prosecutors earlier in the afternoon about why they accepted such a lenient plea agreement with Griles, told the former official that his deal was "very favorable."

"The testimony you gave Congress was untrue," Huvelle said

[erik_kosberg]

"I’m afraid we’re dealing with crazy people. The executive order, Cheney’s office now argues, makes a distinction between Bush and Cheney on the one hand, and executive-branch agencies on the other. Asked where the executive order says this, Cheney’s office refuses to say."

Crazy as a fox as they say...

[erik_kosberg]

From a conservative Reagan lawyer: "As Alexander Hamilton advised in the Federalist Papers, an impeachable offense is a political crime against the nation. Cheney's multiple crimes against the Constitution clearly qualify."

[AuntieEmma[$]]

Today Cheney Chief of Staff David Addington refused to renounce that reasoning, instead laughably trying to diminish the importance of the legal question at issue.

Jane Mayer at the New Yorker did an interesting profile last year of David Addington. It's long, but worth reading if you have the time. And thanks to our friendly neighborhood copyright violaters (how do they get away with it?), you can get a copy online: Jane Mayer | The Hidden Power

excerpt:

Most Americans, even those who follow politics closely, have probably never heard of Addington. But current and former Administration officials say that he has played a central role in shaping the Administration's legal strategy for the war on terror. Known as the New Paradigm, this strategy rests on a reading of the Constitution that few legal scholars share - namely, that the President, as Commander-in-Chief, has the authority to disregard virtually all previously known legal boundaries, if national security demands it. Under this framework, statutes prohibiting torture, secret detention, and warrantless surveillance have been set aside. A former high-ranking Administration lawyer who worked extensively on national-security issues said that the Administration's legal positions were, to a remarkable degree, "all Addington." Another lawyer, Richard L. Shiffrin, who until 2003 was the Pentagon's deputy general counsel for intelligence, said that Addington was "an unopposable force."

[erik_kosberg]

Democrats are a bunch of meanies -- that's the best that Team Bush can come up with?

[drmomentum[$]]

Isn't that the same argument that speeders use when they say "shouldn't the police be out catching killers!!!"

-JP

[erik_kosberg]

Federal Watchdogs Under Fire - TIME

Says Clay Johnson, Deputy Director of Management for the Office of Management and Budget and Chairman of the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, which oversees all government IGs: "By almost all accounts, this Administration has done more to improve government effectiveness than any previous Administration, ever."

If nothing else, at least these guys are funny.

[erik_kosberg]

Bush Admin: What You Don't Know Can't Hurt Us, 2007 Version

If nothing else, Bush has secured the future jobs of many historians who will get to argue about what was the worst aspect of his administration. So much to choose from, so little time.