Texas ought to disbar Gonzales for violating his first duty as US Attorney, that is, loyalty to his client. No attorney can be loyal when he acts for the benefit of his own, personal interest that is in conflict with the interests of his client.
It is not ok for a government attorney to go easy on a criminal to cover his own ass.
Invest heavily in Alcoa and Reynolds, kiddies! A very interesting diary at dKos connects a whole bunch of dots between Gozales, a whole slew of Bush associate counsels, in the Gonzales era and former law clerks for, among others, newly installed Chief Justice Roberts. They all seem to be members of a "shadowy group" called Citizens for the Common Defense
Bradford A. Berenson is one of the original eight associate counsels during Alberto Gonzales's tenure as White House counsel, that was described in a Washington Post 2005.01.02 article titled, Gonzales Helped Set the Course for Detainees, as being comprised of:
a tightknit group of Washington-based former clerks to Supreme Court or appellate judges, all of whom had worked on at least one of three touchstones of the conservative movement: the Whitewater and Monica S. Lewinsky inquiries of former president Bill Clinton, the Bush-Cheney election campaign, and the Florida vote-counting dispute.
This group of associate counsels exerted a great deal of control in the creation of the Patriot Bill, Gonzales' determinations regarding the legal statures of "detainees" captured in the War on Terrorism, the validity of the Geneva Conventions, and a new less stringent legal definition of torture.
Political savvy readers should recognize some of these names. Berenson, for instance, is the current attorney for key U.S. attorney scandal figure Kyle Sampson!!
It's a very interesting read! It's a small (neocon )world, after all! It seems to me that Bradford Berenson and all these turkeys should be having a conversation with Leahy and Conyers, under oath.
Posted by DeminNewJ at March 23, 2007 10:23 AMSteve is right. A special prosecutor must be appointed to prosecute the Abramoff matter.
Posted by Mister Go at March 23, 2007 10:24 AMAnd there is no reason to have "turdblossom" and Meirs under oath!?
I'm actually surprised this didn't come out later today!
Posted by Seven of Six at March 23, 2007 10:38 AMFor six f*cking years this Administration has been running around creating scandals, planning schemes of deceit, lying to cover their deceit, grabbing power illegally, accumulating wealth on a mound of dead American soldiers. For six f*cking years NOT ONE domestic issue has been on their agenda (except if it helped their rich friends). I am so tired of scandal after scandal after scandal after scandal, and here is another scandal. I'm finished. Congress, go right ahead and give Bush everything and anything he wants, not that you haven't been doing just that. Crown the MF King and let's be done with it so we can start packing for the camps.
Posted by Judith at March 23, 2007 11:02 AMSince we know from yesterday's revelations that the DOJ's Tobacco case was heavily influenced by Bushco political appointees, then why would we think this Repub corruption case wouldn't be?
It's very important to Bushco that the Abramoff case be managed from a partisan viewpoint and put into "fait accompli" status, so that, should a real attorney general ever be forced upon them, this enormous Repub scandal will have been "settled" and wrapped up with no real investigation having been accomplished and any future investigation made impossible.
Just more of the moral degeneration of BushAmerica.
Posted by euzoius at March 23, 2007 11:43 AMJosh & the crew over at TPM continue to slog through this. His latest post giving reasons for previous USA's losing their job points to the hysterical note of one of the previous administration firings was of a guy who had a habit of biting strippers...as opposed to this administration firings of some of the best and brightest to ever occupy these offices.
Posted by mainsailset at March 23, 2007 12:15 PMIn case anyone is keeping score, here is another potential scandal that the DOJ has so far suppressed. Featuring Arlen "I'm shocked, shocked" Specter:
http://www.cfo.com/printable/article.cfm/8378450/c_2984290?f=options
Shorter version:
An SEC insider trading investigation led to a Bush mega-contributor. The investigator was fired, blew the whistle, and has been rubbished by his SEC bosses and the IG for "performance" issues. Arlen Specter, presiding: "Bad SEC, bad IG. Bad, bad, bad. Now I'm out of here. Maybe the Dems will pursue this -- maybe not."
On another note, I can't wait to see those receipts for the $140,000 of computers and furniture that the OVP supposedly bought from MZM.
Posted by Chris at March 24, 2007 11:02 AM