I appreciate and respect that witnesses are entitled to take advantage of their [tag]5th Amendment[/tag] rights. It’s a bedrock legal principle and it’s wrong to jump to conclusions when it happens. But given the circumstances, and using a little common sense, this looks awfully bad for the Bush gang. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales’s senior […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Monica Goodling, a senior counselor to Gonzales who worked closely with Kyle Sampson on the prosecutor firings, will plead the 5th. I’ll have more on this tomorrow morning. * Best wishes to Rep. Nick Lampson (D-Texas) for a speedy recovery. * Last week, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales insisted he […]
Last week, the National Review’s Rich Lowry addressed an issue that it took him several years to notice: the Bush administration’s breathtaking incompetence. “[Bush] has made a few key bad decisions about policy and personnel, compounded them by not reacting quickly enough when things go wrong, and failed to create a sense of accountability in […]
The Chris Matthews Show devoted four minutes to the prosecutor purge scandal over the weekend, which quickly worked its way onto YouTube. Glenn Greenwald called it “the most revealing” YouTube clip ever. Before watching it, I thought he was probably exaggerating. Then I saw it for myself. I know a lot of readers can’t watch […]
The Washington Post’s reporting on the prosecutor purge scandal has been impressive and informative. The Washington Post’s editorials on the scandal still need to catch up. Today, for example, the WaPo opines on the inconsistencies in Alberto Gonzales’ version(s) of what transpired and encourages him to set the record straight. But then there’s this: Mr. […]
The Bush gang seems to have a preoccupation with email, or more specifically, using email accounts that aren’t archived under law. When White House deputy political director J. Scott Jennings communicated with Justice Department officials about the appointment of a controversial U.S. Attorney, he used a private email account registered to the Republican National Committee. […]
The General Services Administration generally isn’t one of those departments that captures the public’s attention. The GSA is, by design, a behind-the-scenes agency — it helps other parts of the government function by managing federal contracts. Of course, we’re in the midst of the Bush Era, during which every government office is little more than […]
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * If you missed it over the weekend, seven Democratic presidential candidates met at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on Saturday for a forum on health-care policy. The event was sponsored by […]
The NYPD spent at least a year monitoring, infiltrating, and investigating groups planning to hold protests at the Republican National Convention in 2006. And now, wouldn’t you know it, the department doesn’t want to talk about it. The New York Times reported yesterday that the NYPD kept secret files on hundreds of GOP critics, even […]
I noticed that Atrios had labeled David Broder yesterday’s “Wanker of the Day,” and went to see why. At first, I nearly missed it — Broder wrote a largely unremarkable column about the latest poll from the Pew Research Center, detailing the Republican Party’s problems. “Six years of Republican control in Washington have taken a […]