Here Comes the Subpoenas

Karl Rove and Scott Jennings have been subpoenaed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Democrats sent a letter to Solicitor General Paul Clement. They have asked special counsel to investigate to investigative if Alberto Gonzales perjured himself to Congress.

Gonzales made claim that he visited John Ashcroft's hospital room. There have been news stories that Gonzales was seeking approval to continue a classified surveillance program. Gonzales wished to circumvent acting Attorney General James Comey. Ashcroft turned down Gonzales's request.

Gonzales testified that he visited the hospital on the behave of Democrats. Tom Daschle, Jay Rockefeller, Jane Harman and Nancy Pelosi stated that is false. Futhermore, an Office of the Director of National Intelligence document reveal that Democrats did not dicuss reauthorization of the domestic surveillance program during the March 10, 2004 meeting. Gonzales's cover story has been blown by eyewitnesses and documentation.

Testifying before a Congressional committee is the same as testifying in court. The laws of perjury apply. Elliott Abrams pleaded guilty to Congress to two felonies for perjuring himself to Congress. Abrams said these word to John Kerry about Contra funding.

"I can say that while I have been assistant secretary, which is about 15 months, we have not received a dime from a foreign government, not a dime, from any foreign government."

Prince Bandar bin Sultan of Saudi Arabia funneled 32 million of his country's money to the Contras. The current President gave him the nickname Bandar Bush.



In other news: The House Judiciary Committee voted to file contempt charges against Joshua Bolton and Harriet Miers. Bolton accompanied Gonzales to visit Ashcroft. Miers was part of the email exchanges dealing with the U.S. Attorneys purging.

“In our system of government, no one is above the law,” Rep. John Conyers, the committee’s chairman, said in a letter to the White House.

Tony Snow responded by kicking out a Yiddish diss. I swear I'm not making this up.

“This is pathetic,” said White House spokesman Tony Snow. “We have hundreds of hearings that have produced bupkis.”

The literal definitions of bupkis is beans. Perhaps Snow is confusing the judiciary committees the House Committee on Agriculture.

If that was the case then Mr. Snow wouldn't be in full spin mode.

Karl Rove's Disrespect for Hatch Act

Karl Rove and the White House need to brush up on the Hatch Act.

The Hatch Act restricts the political activity of executive branch employees of the federal government, District of Columbia government and some state and local employees who work in connection with federally funded programs.

The Office of Special Counsel is investigating 20 private briefings. Karl Rove conducted one such briefing at the General Services Administration. Rove briefed GSA staffers on GOP candidates that were vulnerable and targeted Democrats.

"Politicization of departments and agencies is a serious issue. We need to know more about these and other briefings," said Chairman Henry Waxman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

There are criminal penaties for using nonpartisan federal agencies for political gain under the Hatch Act.

Except as permitted by subsection (b) hereof, whoever, being an officer or employee of the executive branch of the United States Government, or of any independent agency of the United States, a Federal Reserve bank director, officer, or employee, or an officer or employee of the District of Columbia, including a special Government employee, participates personally and substantially as a Government officer or employee, through decision, approval, disapproval, recommendation, the rendering of advice, investigation, or otherwise, in a judicial or other proceeding, application, request for a ruling or other determination, contract, claim, controversy, charge, accusation, arrest, or other particular matter in which, to his knowledge, he, his spouse, minor child, general partner, organization in which he is serving as officer, director, trustee, general partner or employee, or any person or organization with whom he is negotiating or has any arrangement concerning prospective employment, has a financial interest - Shall be subject to the penalties set forth in section 216 of this title.

The White House is busted on this. They aren't trying to deny the meetings. Their strategy is to downplay them and that little thing called breaking the law.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said that he was not familiar with the details of the briefings for other agencies, but that the projected fate of specific candidates was "certainly" discussed. He also said that in addition to the 20 briefings given in 2006-2007, "there were others throughout the last six years," making clear that this was a common Bush administration practice during each election cycle.

Stanzel said that Rove "occasionally spoke to political appointees at departments and agencies" but that his presentations were more "off the cuff" and were meant to convey "their importance to advancing the president's agenda."

These "off the cuff" meetings were also held with Environmental Protection Agency, Veterans Affairs, Department of Transportation, NASA, Housing and Urban Development, Office of Science, Technology Policy and several more. This was a wide spread plan by Rove to politize federal angencies. The damage is what we saw happen to the Juctice Department. There was a movement at the DoJ to hire 150 Regent University School of Law graduates. The school was founded by Pat Robertson and has the distinction of being the worst rated tire four law school in the nation. Many graduates have a problem passing the bar exam.

2004 - 52.5%

2002 - 48.4%

2001- 43.9%

The loyalists the Bushies placed throughout government are Michael Brown-level incompetents. They will be around long after Bush leaves the White House. The next President needs to clean house.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has put online the slides Scott Jennings was using to brief the different agencies. One must ask what the midterm election has to do with NASA's mission of space exploration? Was Rove worried about the GOP GOTV movement on Mars?

Red Flags

The Albuquerque Journal has a must-read article on Republican Senator Pete Domenici appealing to the Justice Department and White House to fire U.S. Attorney David Iglesias.

Domenici first tried to get Iglesias transferred to the White House. Domenici called Attorney General Alberto Gonzales late last year to have Iglesias fired. Gonzales told the Senator he would do so only at the request of the President. The question is did Domenici's converstation with the AG happen after the Senator had this conversation with Iglesias.

Fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias testified today that he "felt sick" after an October phone call from his onetime mentor, U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, asking whether indictments in an Albuquerque corruption case would be issued before the November elections.

"He asked, `Are those going to be filed before November?' " Iglesias told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "I said I didn't think so. He said, `I'm very sorry to hear that.' And then the line went dead.

"I felt sick afterwards," Iglesias said. "I felt leaned on to get this moving."

Domenici wanted to pressure the U.S. Atorney's office to announce Democratic corruption cases before the election. What makes the story more chilling is that the Senator called Iglesias at his home. That is unheard of. The target was Congressional candidate Democrat Patricia Madrid. She was running against Heather Wilson. She also played phone tag.

Iglesias said Wilson called him about Oct. 16 and said "she had been hearing about sealed indictments. What can you tell me about sealed indictments?"

"Red flags went up," Iglesias said. "We cannot talk about sealed indictments."

Domenici took his complaints to Karl Rove.

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.

The timing of all this reeks of political payback. The White House is in damage control mode. Everyone's favorite email buddy Scott Jennings sent out the missive.

I just received a phone call from Steve Bell, Sen. Domenici's CoC, who is urgently reporting the following:

He is allegedly going to say that he was contacted by two Members of Congress last fall regarding the investigation into the courthouse construction corruption case. Information on this is in the following article.
http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2006/dec/19/federal-attorneys-plans-step-down-iglesias-investig/

This people are introuble and they know it.

Update: Here is Iglesias's Senate testimony of the phone call.

Why Scott Jennings Used Unofficial White House Email Address

Why is Karl Rove deputy Scott Jennings using gwb43.com e-mail domain name and not an official White House email address? Jennings was involved in the email exchange to promote fellow Rove aide Tim Griffin to be a U.S. Attorney. Congressman Henry Waxman is looking into the matter.

"We're a go for the U.S. atty plan. WH leg, political and communications have signed off and acknowledged that we have to be committed to following through once the pressure comes," Jennings wrote in an e-mail from the gwb43.com domain name. Sampson noted in a related e-mail that "getting him appointed was important to" Rove, then-White House Counsel Harriet E. Miers and other officials.

The gwb43.com account, and others like it, have been traced to the Republican National Committee computer servers, Waxman's staff said.

What hurts the White House is since these emails weren't on official White House addresses; the case of executive executive privilege is harder to make. The use of nonofficial White House email is a violation of the Presidential Records Act.

Defines and states public ownership of the records

The President can shield some documents from the public. Since these emails are not official White House documents and are the focus of a Congressional investigation that isn't possible. The White House screwed themselves trying to get around the law.

Update: The Los Angeles Times posted a correction.

White House e-mail: An article in Monday's Section A on White House use of a private e-mail system incorrectly attributed to Scott Jennings, a deputy to senior advisor Karl Rove, an e-mail on that system saying, "We're a go for the U.S. atty plan. WH leg, political and communications have signed off and acknowledged that we have to be committed to following through once the pressure comes." The e-mail was written by Deputy White House Counsel William Kelley using a White House e-mail account.

Sorry about that, people.