Category Archives: Politics: The Party of Sleaze

Andrew Sullivan totes up The Odd Lies Of Sarah Palin, and concludes,

After you have read these, ask yourself: what wouldn't Sarah Palin lie about if she felt she had to?

It's quite a list.

Vote early, vote often in CREDO's “Bracket of Evil.”

I object to the early pairing of Limbaugh and O'Reilly, as they could have been semi-finalists, easy.

AP via NYT (buried inside the paper), Rove Subpoenaed on U.S. Attorneys [emphemeral link, sorry],

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Karl Rove, a former top White House aide, to testify about the Bush administration's firing of United States attorneys and prosecution of a former Democratic governor. The subpoena, by Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan, continues a long-running legal battle and directs Mr. Rove to appear for a deposition next Monday. Mr. Rove previously refused to appear before the panel, arguing that former presidential advisers cannot be compelled to testify before Congress. Mr. Conyers said the transfer of power in the White House, with President Obama now in office, could affect the legal arguments available to Mr. Rove.

Rep. Conyers is the right sort of pit bull. If there's one thing Karl Rove wants as much as vampires want garlic and bright light, it's a chance to testify under oath.

Update: There's better coverage at the Washington Post, but I don't read that over breakfast.

Today's NYT has a buried article on some of the Bush administration's latest good-bye presents for the nation: various appointments that will last long into the next administration.

The article, White House Memo – On His Way Out, Bush Leads Others In, by Jim Rutenberg, claims that these appointments are mostly uncontroversial. If so, that's only because memories are short.

Consider this paragraph:

That same day, Mr. Bush appointed a longtime family friend and former business partner, Fred V. Malek, to the board of visitors of the United States Military Academy. Mr. Malek, who was a partner with Mr. Bush in the Texas Rangers baseball team, will serve for three years. A West Point graduate, he has donated generously to its campus; his appointment, like the others, provoked no complaint.

That's amazing. We're talking about the guy who was Nixon's hatchet man and political manipulator and who wrote the infamous Jew-counting “Malek Memo”. But then forgetting Malek's history appears to be a well-entrenched DC phenomenon.