It was Alberto Gonzales’ last day as attorney general. So what better way to end his embarrassing tenure than with a DOJ inspector general audit. From the AP (thanks to TPM Reader HL for the tip):
An internal Justice audit, released Friday, showed the department spent nearly $7 million to plan, host or send employees to 10 conferences over the last two years. This included paying $4 per meatball at one lavish dinner and spreading an average of $25 worth of snacks around to each participant at a movie-themed party. . . .
The report, which looked at the 10 priciest Justice Department conferences between October 2004 and September 2006, was ordered by the Senate Appropriations Committee. It also found that three-quarters of the employees who attended the conferences demanded daily reimbursement for the cost of meals while traveling — effectively double-dipping into government funds. . . .
Six of the 10 conferences were approved by the department’s Office of Justice Programs, whose assistant attorney general, Regina Schofield, resigned this week. It could not immediately be determined whether the report had anything to do with that, but Carr said Schofield left to take a job with a nonprofit child welfare services organization.
An audit ordered by Senate Democrats. A suspiciously timed resignation by an assistant attorney general. Gonzo was under siege until the bitter end. Just for old times’ sake, here’s one last look at the Top 10 Moments of Alberto Gonzales Ridiculousness.
Retiring Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace:
Offering a blunt assessment of the decisions and recommendations he made back in early 2003, an introspective Pace told Pentagon reporters that with the aid of 20-20 hindsight, it’s clear he made “errors in assumption.”
“One of the mistakes I made in my assumptions going in was that the Iraqi people and the Iraqi army would welcome liberation, that the Iraqi army, given the opportunity, would stand together for the Iraqi people and be available to them to help serve the new nation,” said Pace, who will leave the chairman’s job on Oct. 1. “If I knew that the Iraqi army was not going to be available, then I probably would have made a different recommendation about the total size force going in.”
In retrospect, he said, “you say you wish you knew, but you didn’t know on the way in.”
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan:
In a withering critique of his fellow Republicans, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan says in his memoir that the party to which he has belonged all his life deserved to lose power last year for forsaking its small-government principles. . . .
Mr. Greenspan, who calls himself a “lifelong libertarian Republican,” writes that he advised the White House to veto some bills to curb “out-of-control” spending while the Republicans controlled Congress. He says President Bush’s failure to do so “was a major mistake.” Republicans in Congress, he writes, “swapped principle for power. They ended up with neither. They deserved to lose.”
Images of Gen. David Petraeus appeared in an ad the Giuliani campaign began running yesterday attacking Hillary Clinton. The Pentagon says the use of the Petraeus images was done without Petraeus’ consent. Military personnel are barred by Pentagon regulations from appearing in political ads in uniform. Greg has more at Election Central.
Former U.S. District Court Judge Michael B. Mukasey is emerging as President Bush’s possible nominee to replace Alberton Gonzales, The Times reports. The Politico goes farther:
White House officials signaled to influential conservatives this weekend that Michael B. Mukasey, a nominee of President Ronald Reagan who is the former chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, is the likely choice to replace Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, several Republicans close to the process told The Politico.
“It came down to confirmability,” said a former Justice Department official close to the conversations.
The anticipated move was originally reported last night by The Weekly Standard‘s Bill Kristol, in what looks like a preemptive attempt to mollify disgruntled conservatives: the piece was titled, “Michael Mukasey to be Attorney General . . . And conservatives should be happy.”
If the Bush (Cheney) White House is willing to put Judge Michael Mukasey between them and a clutch of felony indictments I come into the discussion more than a little skeptical of the guy. But Glenn Greenwald notes that as Chief Judge for the Southern District of New York, the very conservative Mukasey repeatedly sided with the rule of law over the Bush White House in the Padilla case. Worth a read.
State-controlled Iranian television is currently airing a miniseries about an Iranian diplomat working from the Iranian Embassy in Paris who helps Jews escape deportation to the concentration camps by issuing them Iranian passports. The story is fictionalized but is apparently based on a true story of Iranian diplomats who helped about 500 Jews escape France during the German occupation. The AP has more on the response the series is getting in Iran.
Walter Pincus teases out this little gem:
A week ago today, Gen. David H. Petraeus started his rounds on Capitol Hill, reporting that security in Iraq was improving to the point that a small number of troops could begin coming home by year’s end.
But 10 days ago, his commanders in Baghdad began advertising for private contractors to work in combat-supply warehouses on U.S. bases throughout Iraq because half the soldiers who had been working in the warehouses were needed for patrols, combat and protection of U.S. forces.
“With the increased insurgent activity, unit supply personnel must continue to pull force protection along with convoy escort and patrol duties,” according to a statement of work that accompanied the Sept. 7 request for bidders from Multi-National Force-Iraq.
The Iraqi interior ministry wants U.S. security giant Blackwater out of the country following a weekend incident involving Blackwater helicopters.
Will there be a confirmation battle over Judge Michael Mukasey for attorney general?