another republican in lust

What do you know, another abstinence supporting family-values married Republican is quitting because he has been screwing around. Indiana Congressman Mark Souder is outtahere after admitting he was boffing a part-time staffer, Tracy Meadows Jackson. Jackson was Souder's co-host on an abstinence education video, which is sweet. (I must say from the photo on the web, Jackson is somebody it would be hard to abstain from.)

Dana Milbank has an interesting little column about the problems the Republican House of Representatives Class of 1994 has had in avoiding legal, corruption, sex and/or marital scandals. Milbanks says 15 of the 73 members of that class have had scandals revealed - so far. Per Milbank, roll call includes:

Bob Barr (sex)
Jim Bunn (marital)
Helen Chenowith (sex)
Jon Christensen (marital)
John Ensign (sex/marital and corruption)
Mark Foley (sex)
David Funderburk (legal)
Enid Greene (marital, corruption)
J.D. Hayworth (corruption)
Steve LaTourette (sex/marital, corruption)
James Longley (marital)
Bob Ney (corruption)
Mark Sanford (sex/marital)
Joe Scarborough (marital)
Mark Souder (sex/marital)

I'm not inclined to condemn people for adultery. It's a personal issue, not a scandal. But when you are a family-values pounding Christian with a capital C type politician, quick to condemn others for human frailties, it is fair to expect them to perhaps live up to that standard. Sleeping with employees is NEVER right (that applies to Bill Clinton, too). Hitting on people who are under 18 is never right (Foley). And for any politician of any party, corruption is bad, mmkay?

it's officially a republican scandal

I was sympathetic to Governor Mark Sanford (R-South Carolina, if you didn't know) for falling in love with another woman. The human heart is fickle. The fact that he charged South Carolina taxpayers for his visits to Argentina gave South Carolinians legitimate reasons to criticize Sanford or to call on him to resign. The fact that he criticized Bill Clinton for fooling around and now is seeking forgiveness makes him a Republican hypocrite - pardon me for repeating myself.

Now, we learn that Sanford, who didn't want to take Federal stimulus money and is definitely one of those who profess to support small government and less spending, doesn't advocate doing things on the cheap when it comes to HIM doing business.

Turns out Sanford and some aids have taken a couple of nice European trips over the past two years, to places like France, Germany, Estonia, Czech Republic, and Poland. Nice trips, but sure governors can travel to promote trade.

But Sanford and company didn't fly commercial. They flew in a nice little chartered aircraft. Cost the South Carolinians a total of $63,000. Now sure, commercial wouldn't have been free. But it would have been a lot cheaper and hey Sanford, I thought you were all about not wasting taxpayers money?

Mark Sanford is now officially a one-man Republican scandal, combining hypocrisy about morals and money into one quintessentially GOP package. Congratulations.

another abramoff one

A former aide to Republican Senator Thad Cochran has been charged of taking more than $25,000 in free stuff from Jack Abramoff, in exchange for helping Abramoff's clients.

Ann Copland, who spent 29 years working for Cochran, wasn't shy in making requests. For example, in 2002 she "requested tickets to Paul McCartney and Green Day concerts and Washington Capitals games. She also asked for the circus, but wrote, 'I'm only interested in the floor for that event.'"

Takes some nerve. And also, it's stupid to commit such demands for bribes to writing...

a trio of unrelated scandals

Three scandals, at different stages.

First, the end stage of a scandal. Former White House official David Safavian was convicted of obstructing justice and lying to investigators. This in connection with his good friend and former Mr. Young Republican, Jack Abramoff. Before being indicted, Safavian was in a good position to be cultivated - administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy...

Now, a scandal in its full glory. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has vowed to fight them on the beaches, to fight them on the streets, to fight them in the hills, to never surrender. Sorry, briefly possessed by the spirit of Churchill. Governor Rod is proclaiming his defiance. Now, plenty of public figures say they will fight right before they give up. But you know, in this instance it's possible Blagojevich has a point. Look, he's crass, blunt, profane, and quite possibly stupid. But the idea of trading favors (guarantees of a nice job, assistance in raising campaign funds, etc) for a plum political is hardly new. I'm not sure it was a crime. We'll see what the feds have on him.

And a scandal that isn't quite a scandal, a scandal manqué. Remember Bristol Palin, the teenage-unwed-mother daughter of Sarah Palin? Well, her beau's mom Sherry Johnston has been arrested on drug charges. I learned during the candidacy of Winkin' Sarah that Wasilla is the meth capital of Alaska - but apparently Johnston was abusing Rush Limbaugh's favorite drug, Oxycontin so shouldn't she get the same sweetheart slap on the wrist old fat liar Rush got? I feel bad for her - if her son hadn't knocked up the daughter of the almost vice president of the United States, we wouldn't have heard of Johnston and this wouldn't be mentioned on page 7 of the Washington Post. Naturally, Mudflats has all the gory details.

But just think - we were THIS CLOSE (holds fingers really close together) to having a drug abuser present at a presidential inauguration. Gosh, that hasn't happened since de facto President George W. Bush was sworn in in January of 2004.

obama and blagojevich, not exactly bosom buddies

An interesting article about the relationship - rivalry - between Barack Obama and Rod Blagojevich in Illinois politics. Really, Blagojevich's grasp on reality seems pretty feeble - even with the whiff of corruption about him and his cool relations with Obama, he expected a speaking role at the Democratic Convention?

Oh and it is absolutely bizarre that he and his Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn, a fellow Democrat, haven't spoken in over a year.

Given his feeble grasp on reality, I would not be at all surprised if Blagojevich tries to stick this out, even as his own party considers impeaching him...

mahoney baloney

So that Democratic Congressman down in Florida, Tim Mahoney, has confessed to multiple affairs, including the one with a woman he subsequently hired, Patricia Allen.

Infidelity in itself doesn't disqualify you from public office. But it ain't a good look. And HIRING somebody you are cheating on your spouse with is far, far worse. I think hiring somebody you're boffing is pretty bad. Bad enough to be grounds for removal from office, I'd say. Because that's an example of corruption, I think.

For what it's worth (not much), Mahoney is right when he says his situation is different from that of former Congressman Mark Foley, who's former seat Mahoney for now holds. Mahoney is having sex with consenting adults; Foley was soliciting underage people (the fact that they were the same sex as Foley isn't a factor).

But I can't bring myself to support whatever Republican Mahoney is running against, on the assumption he is a typical one. Still, looks like a seat the Democrats will lose. Good thing this won't be a 218-217 Congress.

a perfect metaphor for the republican way of government

This news out of Denver about the royalty-in-kind program of Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) enjoying cash, sex, and drugs provided by the kind folks of Big Oil is kind of funny.

But it is also a perfect metaphor for the Republican Party's approach to governing in the 21st century.

First, the scandal involves Big Oil. You know, Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin's favorite industry. To realize that Big Oil is involved in corrupting American government is akin to realizing that Corn Flakes taste better with milk on them rather than vodka. It's pretty obvious. It's very Republican.

The MMS was a pilot program to make things easier for Big Oil. Okay, whether a good program or not, that's Republican.

The places these companies drill for oil and gas are federal lands; that's Republican.

Officials in charge "steered contracts to favored clients"? That's Republican.

A former big-wig in the MMS, Lucy Querques Denett, is married to Paul Denett, who is the procurement policy administrator at the Office of Management and the Budget in the White House. Cozy family relations? That's Republican.

And the two Denett's will NOT be charged by the Department of Justice for their crimes while lower-level non-political types are being charged? That's quintessentially Republican.

paranoid about spitzer?

Maybe I was NOT paranoid after all about the odd circumstances of the FBI investigation into the prostitution ring used by New York governor Eliot Spitzer. Talking Points Memo wonders about the Feds having enough to bust the call girl operation ... but waiting till they could get Spitzer on tape, having learned he had been a past customer.

Glenn Greenwald raises some very good questions in a couple of posts. He quotes from the Wall Street Journal: It isn't clear why the FBI sought the wiretap warrant. Federal prostitution probes are exceedingly rare, lawyers say, except in cases involving organized-crime leaders or child abuse. Federal wiretaps are seldom used to make these cases; search warrants usually suffice. Wiretap applications generally are reserved for serious crimes, such as drug, weapons and terrorism-related cases. There typically are no more than 1,400 wiretaps in use nationwide at any given time.

As Greenwald and others ask - isn't it odd that the Bushian Department of Justice and FBI spent so much effort investigating a crime the Feds rarely prosecute. That they went out and got wiretaps for a routine prostitution case. Why they even went out and got a new wiretap warrant to make sure they got Spitzer even though they already had enough info to bust the call-girl ring.

I think it's clear somebody's interest went beyond the ring. They saw this as a way to get Client Number 9, who was unpopular with the Republicans for two reasons. One, for being a popular Democrat. Two and perhaps more importantly, for having busted plenty of the Bush elite types on Wall Street for insider trading and the like, enforcing crimes because the Bush regime refused to.

None of this is to defend Spitzer - though it's curious he had to resign while David Vitter didn't (yes, I understand Spitzer's image was of a crime-fighter. Vitter cast himself as a protector of the family - he gets to stay?).

But this stinks. And the de facto Bush Administration has already demonstrated its quick resort to politicizing prosecutions and investigations. Just witness the Great US Attorney Massacre and the railroading of Don Siegelman.

today's REAL scandal

No it isn't the revelation that New York Governor Elliot Spitzer enjoyed the company of prostitutes. That's between him and his wife, assuming he didn't use state funds.

The real scandal is an ongoing one - the refusal of the de facto Bush Administration's so-called Department of Justice to acknowledge that Congress has a right to compel testimony.

So now the House Judiciary Committee is suing to force Josh Bolten (White House chief of staff) and Harriet Miers, Bush's former lawyer, to come and talk to them about the Great US Attorney Massacre.

Love the advanced legal reasoning now being advanced by Alberto Gonzales' spiritual heir, Michael Mukasey. Mukasey says that Bolten, Miers and others "cannot be prosecuted because they were following legal advice from the Justice Department."

What? Where is THAT written? Legal advice to do something that turns out to be against the law is no shield from the law - even if it is from lawyers (actually, almost certainly from political appointees not career lawyers) at the Department of Justice.

If the Department of Justice advised the White House that sending Karl Rove on a secret mission to kidnap Nancy Pelosi and ship her to Guantanamo, would that immunize Rove from testifying about the plot?

This is absurd. They are playing out the string, hoping to delay Congress until the Bush Administration finally leaves town. I hope Congress doesn't just drop it then. There were crimes committed, by people in the White House and at Justice. Remember, this is about firing competent attorneys because they failed to show adequate loyalty to the Fuehrer, sorry I mean Decider. And THAT lack of loyalty was based on their refusal to bring questionable legal cases against DEMOCRATIC candidates right before elections.

In other words, they were fired for putting the rule of law ahead of the cult of personality that the Bush Republican Party has exalted these past 7-plus years (and longer if you consider their unthinking love for St Ronald of Reagan). And for not recognizing Bush/Cheney's theory of the Unitary Executive which roughly translated means "personal rule of the President and all loyalty owed to him, not the Consitution or law or country." You know, like Louis XIV enjoyed in France or Henry VIII in England, hundreds of years ago.

hush - the theme song to the bush regime

Are you just utterly shocked that de facto President George W. Bush the Dishonest doesn't want to reveal who is contributing to his Presidential (sic) Library, that will soon stain the campus of Southern Methodist University?

Of course you aren't. This is the non-disclosure administration. They don't reveal any details on who was involved in Cheney's energy group. They don't reveal White House emails - technically "lost" but the dates they are missing for, such as the week that the Valerie Plame scandal hit, are entirely too convenient to be truly technical glitches. They don't admit that the Great US Attorney Massacre was part of their ploy to politicize the Department of Justice by using its powers to prosecute political enemies, better known as "Democrats who stand a chance of beating a Republican in a key election." They don't admit to mistakes - I still laugh at Frances Townsend's characterization of something, I think the capture of Bin Laden, as "a success that hasn't happened yet." They don't reveal who is on the payroll in the Office of the Vice President. They don't even admit that the Vice President's office is part of the Executive Branch. These guys make Nixon look like the very epitome of open government and sunshine.

So why should they reveal the donors? After all, this is one of the last chances people will have to bribe George W. Bush and his de facto Administration. Nobody has held them to account yet, and face it the chance of being held to account grow scarcer every day.

is the irs targetting obama's church?

Last June, Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama gave a speech about faith at the annual United Church of Christ gathering in Hartford. The UCC says Obama had been invited the previous year before announcing his presidential race, because of his involvement in the UCC. The UCC had done its homework, and there was no overt politicking - no Obama leaflets were handed out, or anything like that. There were some Obama volunteers present, but they stayed outside.

Sounds OK, I'd say. But now the Internal Revenue Service is investigating the UCC because of that speech. The IRS sent a letter that says "reasonable belief exists" that the event "violated restrictions on political activity for tax-exempt organizations."

Apparently, the IRS letter pointed to web sites (including the church's) that reported on the event, claiming that the Obama volunteers were "outside the (Hartford Civic) center to promote his campaign."

Smells like that Republican specialty, another selective investigation to me. Another church with a liberal bent was investigated by the IRS in 2005 for allegedly being too political.

Yet somehow, the IRS seems slow to investigate churches whose ministers tell their congregations that God would want them to vote Republican.

The message? Churches are free to get involved in politics - as long as they support the Right party, the Republicans. Otherwise, they are partisan and the IRS will harass them and their tax-exempt status.

Another mark of a deeply corrupt political party.

will the real john mccain stand up?

John McCain likes to be seen as the straight-talking politician. And sometimes he says things that are good to hear. For example, he told a journalist he would "never" use a signing statement; McCain elaborated, "Never, never, never, never. If I disagree with a law that passed, I'll veto it." (Obama and Clinton reserved the right, although both said they would not do it to the extent and in the way that de facto President Bush has.)

Admirable. But then McCain has ALSO told a journalist on ABC that if elected he would NOT raise taxes, period. No matter what, Senator McCain?

What happened to the guy who in 2001 and 2003 and 2004 criticized Bush's tax cuts because they "go to the most fortunate among us, at the expense of middle-class Americans who most need tax relief"?

Answer: he's gone at least for the moment, as he panders to the far right of the GOP to convince them he is an acceptable candidate.

This doesn't make McCain unique as a politician. But it does mean he doesn't get to keep his self-proclaimed "straight talk" mantle, tarnished anyway by his Keating 5 membership and the fact that he may have been boffing a female lobbyist...

an addition to the gop scandal list

You may be shocked, shocked to hear another Republican has been indicted for corruption.  This time, it's Congressman Rick Renzi of Arizona, who collected hundreds of thousands of bucks for using his Congressional oomph to help influence a federal land-exchange deal.  Renzi is ALSO indicted of embezzling corporate money for his first run for Congress.

=

But as far as I can tell, Renzi did not follow in the footsteps (?) of fellow Arizona Republican John McCain in actually SLEEPING with any of the people he was doing business with...

another republican, another gap

Political junkies all know about the gap in the tapes of Nixon's phone calls. You call that a gap - HERE'S a real gap. The White House email system failed to save a single email on December 17, 20 or 21 of 2003 - the week Saddam Hussein was captured.

Those are just 3 of 473 days (that would be over 15 months) that the White House email system failed to store ANY emails for one or more White House offices. And THAT study was done in 2005!

Funny thing is, under Clinton (Bill), the White House had an adequate email storage system. The Bushies apparently got into it when their de facto Administration began. Partly no doubt because of the ABC syndrome (Anything But Clinton). And partly because they already had that expansive view of Presidential power where they are not responsible to anybody for anything, period.

you know who they work for

Today we have a report that the head of a federal agency (and other senior officials) took lots of trips at the expense of the various industries said agency is supposed to regulate. Just another day in Republican Land, in the de facto President George Bush wing.

The agency this time? The Consumer Product Safety Commission. Yes, those people who are supposed to announce recalls when some cheap toy could put your child in danger of being blinded or killed are accepting vacations from the toy industry.

Of course, the CPSC says these trips met their conflict of interest standards. Which is true, since for the Cheney/Bush Halliburton Administration, conflict of interest is defined very generously. Basically, you'd have to be on the payroll of a corporation to have a conflict of interest - hell, just like Dick Cheney, still getting money from Halliburton.

Remember, as we add this little morsel to the handy dandy list of Republican scandals, who the GOP really works for. They work for the corporations and big business. They work for the elite. The don't give a shit about your daughter who just got sick off that toxic toy. They just need to be able to finagle or steal enough votes to keep power and to keep lining their pockets and "regulating" themselves.

a day in the life, republican-style

Another update on Republican corruption, cupidity, and sleaze...

Nobody can be surprised that another Republican operative connected to Jack Abramoff is in legal trouble. The poetically named Italia Federici (who was "romantically linked" with Steve Griles while he was the deputy at the Department of Mining And Logging I mean Interior, even as Abramoff and she were trying to influence Griles on behalf of Abramoff's Indian tribe clients, talk about full service lobbying) will plead guilty on tax evasion and blocking a congressional investigation. But the true scandal in this Washington Post article is the headline: "GOP Environmentalist Linked to Abramoff to Plead Guilty".

Federici is an environmentalist in the same way that John Yoo is an advocate for the rights of the accused. Her "nonprofit" organization, the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, was founded by Bush Environmental Protection Agency chief (and really, doesn't that say it all?) Gale Norton and that Reagan-loving drowning-government-in-the-bathtub- advocating hypocritical anti-all-taxes maggot Grover Norquist, for pete's sake. Not exactly Sierra Club material. By "environmental advocacy," these sorts of Republicans mean advocating FOR big businesses like clear-cutting loggers, wetlands-clearing developers, groundwater- polluting mining outfits and other commercial interests AGAINST environmental protection measures. I suspect CREA never met an environmental law or regulation that it liked. No, Federici isn't an environmentalist. The Post shouldn't sully that word by inaccurately applying it to her.

Turning to the ongoing scandals at the Department of Justice, turns out that Dick Cheney tried to roll Justice into approving the wiretapping program that John Ashcroft refused to approve on his sickbed. What a surprise. Cheney also denied a promotion to a career professional at Justice who was in his eyes too closely linked to the anti-wiretapping effort. Yes, the Vice President reached deep into a cabinet agency to stop a promotion of a qualified career civil servant, Patrick Philbin. And Alberto Gonzales, that paragon of integrity, didn't support his employee and cancelled the promotion. That'll build morale!

If we now know that the VP was involved in this issue to this level of detail, even to the point of exacting revenge against civil servants, is there any reason to give the White House any benefit of the doubt about their knowledge of the ongoing effort to politicize the Department of Justice (and stop eligible citizens from voting), via the Great US Attorney Massacre among other tactics? Of course not.

And now word that Alaska Senator Ted Stevens (a Republican of course) has gotten that most dreaded of requests from the FBI to please "preserve records." That ranks up there with "60 Minutes on line two, sir" as something you don't want to hear. It's all about a big political bribery and corruption scandal in Alaska that surprise, surprise, Ted Stevens' son Ben, the Senator's political buddies and his moneymen are involved in.

Stevens is famous for bringing home absurd amounts of Federal tax dollars to Alaska, the state that has no income tax, that gives a fat check drawn on oil revenues to its residents every year, and STILL has the nerve to beg for rivers of money from the Federal budget to do various pork-barrel projects while still loudly proclaiming its rugged independence. Alaska -- as independent as a three-month-old baby sucking at its mother's teats. And apparently not as pure as the driven snow.

So with all this going on, it's hardly a surprise that the Republican presidential hopefuls at the debate were all at pains to distance themselves from the de facto Bush Administration...