Same news outlets who said Bill would be liability to Hillary now say he’ll need to “rescue” her.
Paul Kiel is doing more digging on the work Rudy did, especially for Hank Asher’s database company, Seisint.
Remember that Rudy’s line for some time now, years actually, has been that he never lobbied. Hence, no need to register as a lobbyist, which would trigger reporting requirements like client and fee disclosure.
So what are we to make of this?
In January of 2003, just a month after Seisint hired Giuliani, Asher gave a presentation to Vice President Dick Cheney, FBI director Robert Mueller, Homeland Security director Tom Ridge, and Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on MATRIX, according to documents obtained by the ACLU back in 2004
That’s an account first reported by Mother Jones three years ago.
You could (a) believe that a former drug runner from Florida just happens to have the ear of the Vice President and other top level officials; or (b) assume that Rudy’s name got Asher into places where he could hawk his product that otherwise he never would have been able to go.
Or as a Seisint shareholder told Time, after Rudy came on board “the doors were wide open. It was almost a flood of business opportunities.”
But no lobbying.
The final vote tally on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s contempt citation against Karl Rove and Joshua Bolten was 12-7. The two Republicans to cross over were Arlen Specter (R-PA) Chuck Grassley (R-IA).
With a stirring turn by novelty candidate Alan Keyes, you surely wouldn’t have wanted to miss the Republican presidential debate from Johnston, Iowa Wednesday, the final one before the January 3rd Iowa caucuses. But in case you did, we’ve got the highlights for you …
The last Democratic debate before the Iowa vote starts in about half an hour, but it’s likely to be overshadowed by George Mitchell’s press conference at the same time, at which he is releasing his report on steroids in baseball. From what we’re hearing, Mitchell is naming some very big names in the sport. Stay tuned.
We quickly glanced through the several hundred page Mitchell Report (.pdf), and it doesn’t seem to name names in a single concise list.
It also, somewhat surprisingly, appears to name names in some cases based on media reports of drug use as opposed to being independently verified by Mitchell’s investigators.
Late Update: Here’s the list of players.
Later Update: A muckraker (and Yankees fan) dabbles in steroid muck.
Obama and Hillary had a particularly quick-witted exchange during the debate, cloaked in humor but laced with the testiness that comes from a hard-fought campaign.
Hillary’s New Hampshire co-chair, Bill Shaheen, steps down after his remarks yesterday about Obama’s past drug use.
The White House asserts that the Justice Department will not prosecute a contempt of Congress referral–against White House officials: