More Campaign Whatever.

The so-called "left" became the mirror image of the radical right when it embraced the filth and smears directed at the Clintons this campaign season.

The word "scandal," whether singular or plural, should be in quotes when writing about the Clintons. There were no real scandals during the Clinton years.

Part two is here.
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Alberto Gonzales giving candidates advice on how to win the Hispanic vote is like Karl Rove lecturing on election reform.
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Just Because

Fredo is gone, that doesn't mean the administration's assault on civil liberties, including the right to fair elections, won't continue.

Since Turd Would No Longer

be around to further rig the Justice Department for partisan political reasons, Fredo simply had to jump ship as well.

Rove's reign of terror was a six-year long exercise in corruption:

Rove ran the Department of Justice like a personal fiefdom as Gonzales reigned there as his vassal lord. The civil rights division was gutted, more than 60 percent of its professional staff forced out; and since 2001, not a single discrimination case was filed. The antitrust division became a favor bank. Rove granted dispensations to companies, including those seeking to override laws involving foreign purchases of U.S. assets with national security implications, a former government official involved in such a case told me.

Typical of the political interference was the 2005 federal racketeering case against big tobacco companies in which government witnesses were suddenly withdrawn, suggested penalties lessened and lawyers ordered to read a weak closing statement prepared for them. Sharon Y. Eubanks, the 22-year veteran federal prosecutor in the case, revealed to the Washington Post in March 2007 that the chain of command ran directly through the attorney general's office. "The political people were pushing the buttons and ordering us to say what we said," Eubanks said. "And because of that, we failed to zealously represent the interests of the American public ... Political interference is happening at Justice across the department. When decisions are made now in the Bush attorney general's office, politics is the primary consideration ... The rule of law goes out the window."

Fredo may have had the title of attorney general, but he didn't run the goddamned department.

Gonzalesgate.

Fredo decided to get the hell out of Dodge.

He told our dictator he was through being his fall guy on Friday.

Harry Reid insists investigations will continue.

Gonzalesgate.

It goes without saying Gonzales needs to be impeached:

For all its emotional appeal, this

column has always opposed wasting

time and energy on the impeachment of President Bush. That’s not to say one couldn’t draw up a list of impeachable offenses, from taking the nation to war on false premises to countenancing such outrages against the Constitution as warrantless wiretaps, false imprisonment and torture. The votes, however, simply don’t exist. Congressional Republicans remain committed to Bush / Cheney, along with the party’s hard-core base. Dragging the nation through another fruitless, made-for-TV spectacle like the Clinton impeachment would look like cheap revenge. It would threaten to turn a grave constitutional remedy into a commonplace political sideshow. That said, Congress should quit pussyfooting around and impeach Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at once. Halfway measures like a special prosecutor would only produce more of what Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N. Y., characterizes as Gonzales’ strategy of “the half-truth, the partial truth and anything but the truth.” For once, I agree with Newt Gingrich. Appearing on “FOX News Sunday,” he declined to defend Gonzales against accusations of repeatedly lying to Congress.

Lotsa luck getting that done.

Gonzalesgate.

I am beginning to wonder if impeachment is in the cards now that it is clear beyond all doubt Fredo lied in front of Congress.

I mean he's cooked.

Gonzalesgate.

There are still more hearings going on today with Fredo being under oath, I guess, but he continues to try and get around telling the truth as much as he can.

Gonzalesgate.

Iglesias had a lot to say about his firing.

John Dean

has some commentary about Gonzalesgate and argues why Fredo has to go.

As the World Turns.

He risked it all for love and lost.
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Old Fredo is on borrowed time, I'm afraid.
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Not Surprising

is this report that the White House was involved in attempts to suppress voter turnout last election by pressing for bogus "voter fraud" investigations.

Although the Justice Department has released thousands of documents related to the inquiry, officials haven't said whether they considered firing more prosecutors.

McClatchy Newspapers has reported that the department targeted at least four other prosecutors, including Biskupic.

Another former U.S. attorney, Todd Graves of Kansas City, Mo., revealed this week that he was asked to step aside for another candidate. He also said he had refused to sign off on a voting-rights lawsuit, which another Justice Department official later approved in Washington. The official, Brad Schlozman, later became Graves' temporary replacement.

Gonzales denied that the department considered removing Graves as part of the same firing plan.

Here

is an article about Gonzalesgate.

Somehow my satellite TV thing is messed up. I am trying to fix it, but to no avail so far. Therefore, I am missing out on so much.

Gonzalesgate.

The scandal ought to get really good when Goodling testifies.

Snip:

As the former senior counselor to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and principal liaison between Gonzales and the White House, Goodling is a key witness to the role of Bush and his top political aide, Karl Rove, in the politically motivated purge.

Seven of the prosecutors were fired last December 8, while the eighth was discharged a few months earlier. The firings had a clear political motivation: nearly all the US attorneys were under fire within the Bush administration and from congressional Republicans because they had either prosecuted high-level Republicans on corruption charges or declined to bring bogus vote fraud cases against Democrats in states that were closely contested politically.

Until now, Goodling, who resigned her position March 29, had refused to testify about the circumstances of the firings, citing her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. It is almost unprecedented for a top official of the chief law enforcement department of the federal government to invoke the Fifth Amendment, an action that suggests that the dismissal of the US attorneys could involve crimes, such as obstruction of justice.

Presidential Notes.

John Edwards calls on our dictator or Cheney or whoever to fire Turd Blossom and for Fredo to resign.

It's a good idea, but I doubt Turd is going anywhere.
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I Think

this post from an obscure message board sums up Gonzalesgate nicely.

A couple of snips:

In other words, Bush, Cheney and Rove want to place Republicans wholly above the law, and make it illegal (or at least prosecutable) to be an effective Democrat. They want to stamp out opposition to themselves in America by intimidating anyone who might be so rash as to stand up and speak out against them. They want to be able to threaten potential campaign contributors the same way organized crime thugs threaten small businessmen so as to collect protection money. "You never know. T'ings get broken sometimes. People get arrested and prosecuted. We'd HATE to see dis happen to you (smash!)."

But finally, Republican representatives and senators, cognizant of the fact that this is not playing too well back home, have begun to express their disgust with Alberto Gonzales's "mishandling" of these firings. This implies that somehow, had it just been "handled" more competently, then these firings would have been OK. Maybe if Gonzales had crafted a more effective PowerPoint presentation...

It isn't incompetence, although Alberto Gonzales has whole truckloads of that. It isn't a case of needing to have explained this better. It is the FIRINGS THEMSELVES and the political philosophy behind those firings that's the great scandal here, and in my opinion it may be the very greatest scandal in the entire history of the United States.

They are trying forcibly to suppress dissent. They are trying to make it highly risky for any opposing candidate even to DECIDE to run for office.

This is a direct attack against what America, in its deepest essence, was founded to be. It is part of a brazen effort to establish a monarchy in America, nothing less, and to take away from us our freedom of speech.

Yep. It certainly isn't an "executive" matter or a minor scandal. This is huge beyond belief.

Now the rerun shows Ted Kennedy asking Fredo why the U.S. attorney in Nevada was fired. We in Nevada know why. It's because Rove, etc., wanted attorneys off the back of Dipshit, despite his numerous conflicts of interest and corrupt activities.

Gonzalesgate.

If readers haven't seen the Fredo performance in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, they should. Fredo was a complete disaster. He's clearly covering up for the "big fish," meaning Karl Rove and perhaps old Cheney and even our dictator.

I am watching the rerun right now on C-SPAN with Senators Specter and Leahy grilling Fredo until he is burned to a crisp.

This is a gigantic scandal, as the crux of it is really about destroying or at the very least marginalizing the Democratic Party in this country so that there is in effect a one-party dictatorship. Republicans can't win elections by legitimate means, as the current party is so full of extremists their philosophy is unpalatable to most voters.

But what the hell. That's nothing to them. If they could just rig the voting machines, and, if that fails, coerce U.S. attorneys into going after Democrats for the simple reason they are Democrats while excusing any and all Republican corruption,then who the hell cares about what the voters' will is?

People need to wake up.

Gonzalesgate.

With the Justice Department scandal, the administration is clearly on the ropes, but predictably the WSWS makes that observation to put forth yet another attack on the Democratic Party.

I am sure all 1,200 people in this country will flock to their political party come 2008.

Gonzalesgate.

Some Republicans, no doubt with an eye on 2008, are trying to distance themselves from Gonzales.

Gonzalesgate.

Fredo testified today that he isn't a bit sorry he acted as a partisan hack over the attorney firings.

Gonzalesgate.

Is the administration using Fredo as a sacrificial lamb in order to keep Karl Rove?