Romney: You know I’m the real conservative in the race ’cause the media’s out to get me.
House committee votes to issue subpoenas to fired prosecutors.
Attention, Congressional Dems: A new poll finds that more respondents favor Congressional defunding of the war than oppose it.
Two candidates: Barack Obama and John McCain. Same mistake: Saying lost American lives in Iraq are “wasted.”
Media coverage of both: Very, very different.
I’m sorry. But I don’t think that cuts it as a denial. That roving band of reporters finally caught up with Sen. Domenici (R-NM) regarding the Iglesias firing matter. So was he one of the guys who called?
According to the AP he said, “I don’t have any comment. I have no idea what he’s [i.e., Iglesias] talking about.”
The AP called that a denial. But I’m sorry. That’s not a denial. Each of the other members of the New Mexico congressional delegation had little trouble making a clear denial. ‘I don’t know what he’s talking about’ is almost the definition of a non-denial-denial.
And Heather Wilson (R-NM), the other probable caller? Heck, she wouldn’t even get that close to the flame. “You should contact the Department of Justice on that personnel matter,” Wilson told the AP.
The House has now issued a subpoena for Iglesias to come and testify about what he knows. The senate seems certain to do the same. There are only five members of the New Mexico delegation. Iglesias says two pressured him with calls. Three of them have categorically denied it. The leaves Wilson and Domenici.
Someone’s lying. There are only six players involved. It shouldn’t be hard to find out who.
U.S. Attorney David Iglesias tells his story to NPR.
McClatchy still running that ball down field …
Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson of New Mexico pressured the U.S. attorney in their state to speed up indictments in a federal corruption investigation that involved at least one former Democratic state senator, according to two people familiar with the contacts.
The alleged involvement of the two Republican lawmakers raises questions about possible violations of House of Representatives and Senate ethics rules and could taint the criminal investigation into the award of an $82 million courthouse contract.
The two people with knowledge of the incident said Domenici and Wilson intervened in mid-October, when Wilson was in a competitive re-election campaign that she won by 875 votes out of nearly 211,000 cast.
Further down into the article we learn that Wilson called first. That was followed up by Domenici who … well, listen hear how Marisa Taylor of McClatchy puts it …
Domenici, who wasn’t up for re-election, called about a week and a half later and was more persistent than Wilson, the people said. When Iglesias said an indictment wouldn’t be handed down until at least December, the line went dead.
When I first heard about this latest development in the USA attorney story, I could believe that Wilson pulled something like this. I’m not saying she strikes me, or struck me, as particularly unethical. And I’m not saying that someone like Pete Domenici — who must basically own the New Mexico Republican party — would be above it. But I’m surprised someone who’s served in the senate for 35 years or so wouldn’t know to put a little distance — an intermediary or two — between him and the US attorney he was trying to muscle under.
Anyway, I think at this point we basically know that Wilson and Domenici are the culprits. They tried to pressure Iglesias into issuing an indictment of a prominent local Democrat to help Wilson win reelection. And if you really don’t believe that Iglesias’s firing had anything to do with his not lending Wilson a prosecutorial helping hand last fall, well, then you’re probably one of those goofs who was still believing we’d find the WMD well into 2004.
Now we know Wilson and Domenici were the first links in the chain. Who they’d talk to? Walk it back.
Iglesias not the only one with a story to tell?
Remember Bud Cummins. He was the US Attorney from the Eastern District of Arkansas who got canned so Karl Rove’s opposition research chief could take over the job. Look closely at what he just told the Associated Press …
Cummins, U.S. attorney for Arkansas’ Eastern District from 2001-2006, said Thursday that he and other fired attorneys had “politely declined” previous requests from the committee. He said he “didn’t have any desire to stir up the controversy any further.”
“If given the choice, I’d elect to stay home and mind my own business,” Cummins told The Associated Press. “Now that I’m under subpoena, I’ll go and give cooperative, truthful answers.”
When asked if officials in the Justice Department or White House had asked him to decline the earlier requests, Cummins said he had no comment.
Again, one of those ‘no comments’ that says plenty.
While this story has been unfolding, has the White House been leaning on these fired US attorneys not to come before Congress?
And what might they have said?
Consider what Sen. Schumer (D-NY) said on Wednesday on the floor of the senate. He said pretty clearly that his staff has talked to other fired US attorneys, beside Mr. Iglesias, and that they believe nefarious motives prompted their suspicions too …
And before going further, let’s be clear about one thing. I suspect many of the press lords haven’t awoken yet to the potential magnitude of this story. The Iglesias story could drag down a member of Congress. On its own though it’s a small matter. What makes it a big deal is that it’s the tell about what happened in San Diego.