Robert Novak builds a whole theory of Hillary’s candidacy on an absurdly transparent falsehood.
On the Rudy front, what about Bernie Kerik?
I mean, where to start and where to stop? As Mayor Rudy put a cop with numerous alleged mob ties in charge of the NYPD. And Kerik’s main credential going in was that he’d been Rudy’s driver.
Here’s a clip from a post I did on December 12th, 2004, cataloguing everything that had then come out at a relatively early stage in his ill-fated nomination to be Secreatary of DHS …
They seem to be stipulating to their knowing about and being untroubled by a) Kerik’s long-standing ties to an allegedly mobbed-up Jersey construction company (see yesterday’s piece in the Daily News and tomorrow’s in the Times), sub-a) that Kerik received numerous unreported cash gifts from Lawrence Ray, an executive at said Jersey construction company (Ray was later indicted along with Edward Garafola, Sammy “The Bull” Gravano’s brother-in-law, and Daniel Persico, nephew of Colombo Family Godfather Carmine “The Snake” Persico and others on unrelated federal charges tied to what the Daily News called a “$40 million, mob-run, pump-and-dump stock swindle.” b) that Riker’s Island prison became a hotbed of political corruption and cronyism on his watch, c) that he is accused by nine employees of the hospital he worked at providing security in Saudi Arabia of using his policing powers to pursue the personal agenda of his immediate boss, d) that a warrant for his arrest (albeit in a civil case) was issued in New Jersey as recently as six years ago, e) that as recently as last week he was forced to testify in a civil suit in a case covering the period in which he was New York City correction commissioner, in which the plaintiff, “former deputy warden Eric DeRavin III contends Kerik kept him from getting promoted because he had reprimanded the woman [Kerik was allegedly having an affair with], Correction Officer Jeanette Pinero,” or f) his rapid and unexplained departure from Baghdad.
Needless to say, after his tenure as mayor ended he went into business with Kerik and then after that helped get him a nomination to be in charge of domestic security for the entire country.
Pretty much the most generous interpretation of all this is that Giuliani was guilty of amazingly poor judgment in giving Kerik all these plum assignments. And it strongly points to a tendency on Giuliani’s part of bad judgment with a strong penchant for surrounding himself with cronies and yes-men.
All of this goes to the heart of the 9/11-Mayor of the Universe hagiography that Rudy has made the centerpiece of his campaign. So it should be at the center of the coverage of his campaign.
Late Update: TPM Reader RR notes that the list above is by no means exhaustive. And he’s definitely right. This was just the most convenient catalog of sins and ridiculousness that I found with the TPM search function. For instance it doesn’t include the Judith Regan/Luv Shack scandal that broke I think the day after post above ran. This was the case in which an apartment near ground zero — made available by a New York real estate developer — for off-duty cops to relax while taking a break from clean up duties ended up being commandered by Kerik so he could use it as his off the books bachelor pad for doing the wild thing with celebrity book editor Judith Regan. Ahhh, those were the days …
Fresh from his non-appearance at CPAC, McCain is now snubbing another big gathering of conservatives.
TPM Readers are telling us that on Hardball Andrea Mitchell just said that polls show the public supports a pardon of Scooter Libby. Were you watching Hardball? Did you hear her say that?
Late Update: TPM Reader MK says she TIVOed it and the exact quote was “and appeal to the polling which indicates that most people think, in fact, that he should be pardoned, Scooter Libby should be pardoned.” We’ll work on confirming that and getting you video. But where’d Andrea hear that? My impression is that that’s wildly at odds with the actual polling data. More soon.
Later Update: TPM Reader NA and NG heard it too.
Still Later Update: I’m curious where Mitchell heard her numbers. Maybe the EOP poll? CNN came up with 18% of Americans supporting a pardon and 69% opposing.
The State Department just can’t seem to find enough room to put up three auditors in Iraq.
Accused terror financier linked to GOP campaign contributor Alishtari nabbed in Spain.
Okay, so we’ve just obtained parts of the long-awaited House Dem bill to end the Iraq War. The bill was inked this evening.
The House Dem leadership was said to be keeping it under tight wraps tonight — it was sent out only to a few select members of Congress — but you can view key excerpts of it right here.
Uh-oh … Bush got Iglesias axed.
From the Times …
The White House was deeply involved in the decision late last year to dismiss federal prosecutors, including some who had been criticized by Republican lawmakers, administration officials said Monday.
Last October, President Bush spoke with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to pass along concerns by Republicans that some prosecutors were not aggressively addressing voter fraud, the White House said Monday. Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, was among the politicians who complained directly to the president, according to an administration official.
Perhaps as telling, according to the new Times article, Kyle Sampson, Alberto Gonzales’s Chief of Staff and the guy who was actually in charge of drawing up the list … well, he resigned today.
Believe me, his boss won’t long outlast him.
And one other tidbit — Sampson had a partner in assembling the list: then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers.
Late Update: There’s a sub-issue emerging in the canned US Attorneys scandal: the apparently central role of Republican claims of voter fraud and prosecutors unwillingness to bring indictments emerging from such alleged wrongdoing. Very longtime readers of this site will remember that this used to be something of a hobby horse of mine. And it’s not surprising that it is now emerging as a key part of this story. The very short version of this story is that Republicans habitually make claims about voter fraud. But the charges are almost invariably bogus. And in most if not every case the claims are little more than stalking horses for voter suppression efforts. That may sound like a blanket charge. But I’ve reported on and written about this issue at great length. And there’s simply no denying the truth of it. So this becomes a critical backdrop to understanding what happened in some of these cases. Why didn’t the prosecutors pursue indictments when GOP operatives started yakking about voter fraud? Almost certainly because there just wasn’t any evidence for it.
Gonna Be A Long Night Update: The Post also got a piece of the Monday document dump. And their piece is now up too. Many of the key points are the same as what appears in the Times. But key new details are also included. Perhaps the most important of which is this: the Patriot Act provision allowing the Attorney General to appoint US Attorneys by fiat was at the heart of this. The Post quotes an email from the now resigned Sampson in which he tells Miers: “I am only in favor of executing on a plan to push some USAs out if we really are ready and willing to put in the time necessary to select candidates and get them appointed. It will be counterproductive to DOJ operations if we push USAs out and then don’t have replacements ready to roll immediately. I strongly recommend that as a matter of administration, we utilize the new statutory provisions that authorize the AG to make USA appointments. [By sidestepping the confirmation process] we can give far less deference to home state senators and thereby get 1.) our preferred person appointed and 2.) do it far faster and more efficiently at less political costs to the White House.”
And here’s the piece in the Post story which should lead to Sen. Domenici’s departure from the senate …
One e-mail from Miers’s deputy, William Kelley, on the day of the Dec. 7 firings said Domenici’s chief of staff “is happy as a clam” about Iglesias. Sampson wrote in an e-mail a week later: “Domenici is going to send over names tomorrow (not even waiting for Iglesias’s body to cool).”
As has happened so many times in the last six years, the maximal version of this story — which seemed logical six weeks ago but which I couldn’t get myself to believe — turns out to be true. Indeed, it’s worse. We now know that Gonzales, McNulty and Moschella each lied to Congress. We know that the purge was a plan that began at the White House — and it was overseen by two of President Bush’s closest lieutenants in Washington — Miers and Gonzales. Sampson is the second resignation. There will certainly be more.
And remember this key point: The ‘document dump’ is meant to get bad news out of the way fast. But it’s always a hedge. It never includes the really bad stuff. And if you’re not in deep crisis mode, ya’ never do it on a Monday.
Today’s Must Read: a timeline emerges of the administration’s scheme to oust federal prosecutors.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT): “âI am outraged that the Attorney General was less than forthcoming with the Senate while under oath before the Judiciary Committee.”