Tuesday, March 13, 2007

THE US ATTORNEY FIRINGS: ROVE RELAYED COMPLAINTS FROM N.M. GOP REPS (ON LYING)

"From what we've been hearing for weeks it seems he [Karl Rove] might have relevant information. ...He's clearly one of the White House officials we've been intending to question. The revelations from Mr. Weh certainly give us something else relevant and salient to talk about." --Rep. John Conyers, chair of the House Judiciary committee yesterday (McClatchy Newspapers, 03.12.2007)

WASHINGTON D.C./NEW MEXICO--This is something-else! Allen Weh (wha?), the GOP's party chairman in New Mexico is doing this backwards-forwards pedalling--these people never stop, do they? Stop what? Well, lying, of course, what else do Republican politicians do for-a-living? Here's the offending discourse by an ersatz human being (expletives deleted):

McClatchy Newspapers reported that Allen Weh said he complained in 2005 about then-U.S. Attorney David Iglesias to a White House liaison who worked for Rove, asking that he be removed, and followed up with Rove personally in late 2006 during a visit to the White House. "Is anything ever going to happen to that guy?" Weh said he asked Rove at a White House holiday event. "He's gone," Rove said, according to Weh. "I probably said something close to 'Hallelujah,'" said Weh. Weh told The Associated Press later Saturday that "Rove has little or nothing to do with this." (AP, 03.12.2007)

Strange how Weh's recounting of the incident doesn't support his contention of what was said and what was meant, eh? His contention is that Iglesias was doing a bad-job, but that's not in the purview of a state chairman to involve-himself in the investigative process...or any politicians in congress, aides, or even the president. Prosecutorial discretion is sacrosanct in a democracy, and a legal system with any pretensions of expediting a modicum of justice. US Attorneys have to be insulated at all-times from political pressures to ensure that the laws of the land are upheld and apply to everyone. It's a crime to obstruct or to impede any federal investigation, and improper for any politician to pressure a federal prosecutor. This was common under the GOP-majority, so this whole affair is just one in an ocean of criminality and obstruction.

Yes, the president can fire these folks--the people he picked, incidentally--at any time, but considering the revelation today that they were considering firing all 93--hey, that's news.No matter how good you are at lying, if you're busted cold, you appear to be lousy at it. There's the stammering, the misleading-comments used for misdirection ("It wasn't a political decision, we don't make those."), the denials, and the final-stage of the grieving-process of acceptance and those little morsels-of-truth that trickle down (couldn't resist it) as it becomes obvious that the jig is up.

Rove said he did not suggest that any of the U.S. attorneys be forced to resign, Perino said. The new details about Rove's involvement in the firings emerged as the top Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee declared their interest in talking to him. The committee is trying to determine whether the firings were part of an effort to exert political influence over federal prosecutions. (McClatchy, 03.12.2007)

We're about at the end of the process, and now it appears that Harriet Miers and Karl Rove are going to be speaking before the House Judiciary committee, and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mi.) and Linda Sanchez (D-Ca.). It's about time. Once it became clear they were going to have to testify, they start talking. Of course, once the investigations begin, they'll stop. It's all about covering-yourself, another aspect of the Bush administration's "preemptive-strike" stratagem. You know, one that's failing in Iraq and everywhere else.

Weh is saying all of these revealing statements to cover himself if he's questioned later. He can now say he was transparent and forthcoming. Only he wasn't, he's sat on this since 2005. So, we have two congresspersons from New Mexico and the GOP state party chairman, as well as the president's political adviser (Rove), and his legal adviser who had been slated for a seat on the Supreme Court (Miers). This is bad for any standing administration. It's Nixon time. Thanks again Jerry Ford. He's still dead, you know. I checked. Right now, Attorney General Gonzales is hemming-and-hawing, and making more contradictory statements:

Obviously I am concerned about the fact that information — incomplete information was communicated or may have been communicated to the Congress," Gonzales said. "I believe very strongly in our obligation to ensure that when we provide information to the Congress, it is accurate and it is complete. And I very dismayed that that may not have occurred here. (AP, 03.13.2007)

That's great, but you had to be dragged before Congress after a washout midterm election that demolished your ability to ignore any accountability on these issues. Alberto Gonzales has a peculiar logic, like his boss. He's saying two-things: that he stands-behind the decisions, but that "mistakes were made in the process." Wrong. The whole-process was unethical, illegal, and just another crime by this administration that's going to sink them. Gonzales accepted responsibility today by firing his top aide, Kyl Sampson. They all knew, and there were no miscommunications, unless you count ones that get you caught breaking-the-law. The president knew this because he and the Vice President ordered it, that's why Rove was relaying the messages. Jesus.


AP Yesterday: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070311/D8NPUETG0.html

AP Today: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070313/ap_on_go_co/congress_prosecutors

McClatchy 03.11.2007: http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/16878479

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