Category Archives: Politics: The Party of Sleaze

Don't go near Dick Cheney.

If you say something he doesn't like, however calmly and respectfully, he may have you arrested by the Secret Service and charged with “assault” — and threaten to have your child taken away by Child Services.

If you're a public official, it's harder to have you arrested, so he'll just swear at you and a couple of years later make up a claim that you got within kissing range of him:

In a “chance meeting” on the Senate floor with Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) in June 2004, Vice President Cheney told Leahy to “f*ck yourself.” According to Leahy’s spokesman, the “exchange began when Leahy crossed the aisle at the photo session and joked to Cheney about being on the Republican side.” Cheney then “‘lashed into’ Leahy for remarks he…made criticizing Iraq contracts won without competitive bidding by Halliburton.”

In the new biography of the Vice President by Stephen Hayes, Cheney claims that the reason he shouted the expletive was because Leahy had been too “close” to him:

Leahy came over and put his arm around me. And he didn’t kiss me but it was close to it. So I flashed and I told him — I dropped the F-bomb on him. … It was heartfelt.

Leahy was not “close” to kissing Cheney; all he did was try to shake his hand.

(There's more where that came from, and plenty of witnesses.)

Moral of the story: Don't go near Dick Cheney. He's dangerous, and might be contagious.

AG Gonzales is testifying before congress at present — it's live on CSPAN. It's not pretty. His position is that he can't testify about anything on which he's recused. And he can't recall much else — including how much attention he paid to approving a death penalty request. Were it not for the cavalier way in which he and his boss treated death warrants in Texas, this would not be credible. But unfortunately, it might be the truth.

Senator Specter did not look happy — but will this actually spur him to support a call for impeachment of Gonzales? Nothing less will do.

The Republican Party of Minnesota is in for a spot of bother: Read the “confidential memo” from the Minnesota Republican Party that is the basis of CREW's FEC complaint.

“Classic Scandal Hamonic Convergence”! That Joshua Micah Marshall sure has a way with words.

Wasn't it him that invented dingbat kabuki? Yes, it was.

Oh yes, the new scandal. Well, it seems that the new scandal about Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ), this week's allegedly corrupt Republican Congressman, is tied to the old scandal of the US Attorney purge. In multiple ways.

My favorite cross-connection is the suggestion that in order to cover up the connection, DOJ failed to release relevant emails to Congress.

Weeks before election day 2006, word leaked to the press in Arizona that Charlton's office was investigating Renzi. Renzi's top aide Brian Murray then called Charlton's office and asked Charlton's spokesman, Wyn Hornbuckle.

Unlike what happened with David Iglesias, Charlton's chief investigator did report the contact to the Department of Justice, as DOJ regs dictate.

Now, here's the key: after all Congress's document and information requests to DOJ, the Justice Department had not revealed the Renzi-Charlton contact. For some reason, they've held that back

That's serious stuff. And it suggests there's more lurking under the rocks.

The US Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is a free-standing agency which should not be confused with the US DOJ Office of Special Counsel.

The OSC is headed by a presidential appointee with a five-year term named Scott J. Bloch. That he has been somnolent in this job is beyond dispute. That he has been positively active in sabotaging investigations that might annoy the Bush administration has been repeatedly alleged, and has even led to a formal complaint charging sabotage of investigations and retaliation against those who sought to pursue them.

Thus, it's a shock to discover the news that the OSC is launching a “high-profile inquiry” into Karl Rove and others — indeed into a number of the scandals that are currently being investigated by Henry Waxman and others in Congress.

One's first reaction might to think, “about time”.

I wonder, though, if one might think again.

As the LA Times notes,

The 106-person Office of Special Counsel has never conducted such a broad and high-profile inquiry in its history. One of its primary missions has been to enforce the Hatch Act, a law enacted in 1939 to preserve the integrity of the civil service.

Back in 2005, the Government Accountability Project was noting serious problems in Bloch's OSC including,

a torrent of criticism over wholesale dismissal of hundreds of whistleblower cases, gag orders he has issued to his own staff, a wave of forced resignations as part of an ill-fated effort to open a Mid-Western Field Office in Detroit, and cronyism in his hiring practices.

I wonder if the purpose of this move isn't to insulate Rove and others. Now, they have an excuse not to answer any questions. If Congress calls, they all take the 5th — “Would love to talk but I'm being investigated by the OSC.” Ditto for the White House press office — “we never comment on pending investigations” (afterwards they say, “we already dealt with that,” but I'm getting ahead of myself).

Is it too paranoid to expect a memo saying that they failed to prove anything beyond reasonable doubt — in Dec 2008? Or maybe just before the Nov 2008 election? After all, the OSC has a record of just closing cases without review in order to be able to report a lower number of backlogged cases.

So far, everything about this administration has been worse than anyone might reasonably have expected. Why should this be any different?

I can see Rove chuckling now, 'Please OSC, don't throw me in that briar patch!'

OK, maybe I was too pessimistic in the previous post: four Senators have written Gonzales asking a series of pointed questions about the claim that he blocked an investigation into his own conduct.

Looks like new majority is starting to feel its oats. I could get to like this.