The Daily Muck

The Bush administration’s strategy to bar the Justice Department from pursuing congressional contempt charges against White House officials is buttressed by a DoJ legal opinion released under the Clinton administration. The opinion argued that Congress cannot force a U.S. attorney to pursue contempt charges when executive privilege is invoked. As legal questions abound, Democratic lawmakers do not have an “immediate strategy” to respond to the White House’s actions. (Washington Post)

Jeffrey A. Taylor may soon become a central figure in the US Attorney scandal. Taylor, the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, is required by law to pursue any and all contempt-of-Congress charges, but the White House and the Justice Department have suggested that they will bar him from prosecuting these charges. (LA Times)

A second conviction has come down this week in a case of widespread corruption involving former employees and contractors from the Halliburton subsidiary KBR. Investigators claim that at least six more individuals are likely to face charges in a scheme that included bribing federal officials in order to inflate the price of cargo shipped to Iraq. The focus of scrutiny has been a $20 billion contract awarded to KBR at the start of the Iraq war. (NY Times)

The government must turn over all information on Guantanamo Bay detainees who are challenging their detention, according to a federal court decision last week. The court said “meaningful review” of military tribunals would be impossible without all the information. But all is not peachy for the detainees: the ruling also allowed the Pentagon to limit the topics of discussion between detainees and lawyers and allowed the Pentagon to review lawyers’ mail to remove unauthorized comments. (NY Times)

Suspicions of biased investigations continue to plague the Justice Department. A veteran prosecutor has acknowledged that he was suddenly removed from a three-year investigation of massive insurance fraud involving Berkshire Hathaway, and that the case was dropped despite what those familiar with the case identified as sufficient evidence to bring suit. (McClatchy Newspapers)

Joe and Valerie Wilson are appealing a federal court decision to throw out their lawsuit against Vice President Dick Cheney and other top government officials. (CREW)

Fortunately, the Bush administration is finally focusing on Iraq. Unfortunately, the administration can’t multitask; the rest of the diplomatic world is being virtually ignored, with several visits already abruptly canceled or postponed. (McClatchy Newspapers)

Sen. McConnell (R-KY) is still hoping that the ethics bill will go to conference, and he is working to appease fellow GOP Senator Jim Demint (R-SC), whose intransigence on earmark reform is leading Democrats to consider avoiding a conference altogether. (Roll Call)

Over the past seven years, the USDA has distributed over one billion dollars to the firms of deceased farms. No, these payments weren’t due to the estate in anyway; the USDA just never checked to see if the people they were paying were still alive. (Washington Post)

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reviewing decisions made on at least eighteen species because of information that former Bush appointee Julie MacDonald inappropriately influenced scientific findings. If you’ll recall, one of MacDonald’s more charming decisions was to show classified information to the young child of an online virtual friend because she was seeking an unfiltered opinion. Meanwhile, the Union of Concerned Scientists is lamenting that MacDonald was not the problem (though she certainly wasn’t helping the cause) and they are calling for an open and transparent process of identifying endangered species. (Washington Post, The Hill Blog)

The Army is investigating claims that thousands of soldiers have been cheating on their promotion exams, including those for high-tech weaponry. (Associated Press)

Truly shocking. This is the only way to describe the fact that a top official has taken the blame for the massive backlog of passport processing this summer. It is not clear, of course, what it means these days to “accept complete responsibility,” but for now, the official is sticking around. (Associated Press)