Corruption

Things look like they are going to get interesting next year:

“The Bush administration overstepped in its exertion of executive privilege, and may very well try to continue to shield information from the American people after it leaves office,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, who sits on two committees, Judiciary and Intelligence, that are examining aspects of Mr. Bush’s policies.

Topics of open investigations include the harsh interrogation of detainees, the prosecution of former Gov. Don Siegelman of Alabama, secret legal memorandums from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel and the role of the former White House aides Karl Rove and Harriet E. Miers in the firing of federal prosecutors.

The article says that Bush might try the same thing Truman did in 1953 to get out of testifying before Congress after his term. The argument was separation of power, even after a President leaves office. In that case the Congress just backed down, but if our Congress keeps pushing on it then maybe we can get the Supreme Court to decide once and for all what separation of power really is and when does it end.

Ted Stevens is trying to say he wasn't convicted of anything:

"I'm not going to step down. I have not been convicted. I have a case pending against me, and probably the worse case of prosecutorial ... misconduct by the prosecutors that is known," Stevens said.

How many people in jail awaiting appeals say the same thing? Perhaps we should go ahead and let all of them go. Or perhaps we should go ahead and lock Stevens up and he can wait like any other person for his appeal.

It looks like Roy Blunt's son is taking a page right out of the Bush Administrations book of administrative policies:

Gov. Matt Blunt was sued Wednesday by a former staff attorney who claims he was fired and defamed in retaliation for pointing out that Blunt's administration was destroying e-mails in violation of Missouri's open-records law.

The lawsuit by former Blunt attorney Scott Eckersley alleges that Blunt's top aides ordered staff to delete e-mails to avoid having to provide information to the media and public under Missouri's Sunshine Law.

Can we label the entire Republican Party as organized crime yet?