Ethics

Just in time for the next election cycle:

The Senate Ethics Committee has begun issuing subpoenas to those caught up in the sex and lobbying scandal surrounding Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) and his former aides, Doug and Cindy Hampton.

Several people close to the scandal said they received document subpoenas on Thursday from the committee asking for any records they have related to Ensign and the Hamptons.

The subpoenas from the Ethics Committee do not preclude the possibility that the Justice Department will get involved in the case —, and there are some indications that the department has already begun looking into it.

Despite Palin’s announced resignation, she is still getting hit with ethics complaints:

Zane Henning -- a conservative government watchdog from the governor's hometown of Wasilla and an oilfield worker on Alaska's North Slope -- asserts in a letter to Alaska Attorney General Daniel S. Sullivan that Palin has "been charging and pocketing per diem to live in her home and has used the process for a personal gain since being elected."

Got that? This is a conservative filing the complaint, not “some liberals”. And if you read the entire thing, you will also question this practice Queen Sarah partook in. Now I just wonder if I will get sued by Palin for mentioning it?

That seems to be the reason gaining the most traction, that Palin couldn’t work and the cost of defending herself against all the ethics complaints was too much to handle. Here’s a segment from FOX News where Sean Parnell, Palin’s successor, repeats just that.

I can buy that as a reason, but does that mean she is ready for the White House? Absolutely not. Think of Bill Clinton. During his tenure in the White House he faced over 50 ethics investigations, from Monica Lewinsky to who was on their Christmas card list, with only the former sticking. Throughout all that Clinton was able to  remain one of the most popular Presidents ever and do thinks like turn the deficit into a surplus.

So knowing that then who would be lay blame for these investigations on? Would it be the Democrats and liberal groups, who most likely filed most of the complaints against Palin, or would it be the Republicans, who started the entire culture of investigating our leaders? I would say the former. It would be nice if Republicans could also remember that. They thought it would be fun to bring ethics complaint after ethics complaint against our leaders, but when the tables are turned and the leader happens to be from their own party those investigations aren’t so much fun. It’s a level of hypocrisy that has very serious political consequences. 

That's what the FBI is wondering:

FBI agents investigating government watchdog Scott Bloch have subpoenaed any records that would reveal whether concerns about the 2004 elections prompted him to clear Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of ethics violations.

Bloch, the U.S. special counsel who investigates federal employee whistleblower complaints, found no merit to allegations that Rice, then President Bush's national security adviser, timed some of her trips to boost Bush's 2004 reelection campaign.

The FBI is investigating whether Bloch obstructed justice by destroying computer files to hinder an outside inquiry into allegations that he retaliated against employees who opposed his policies. He's also suspected of making false statements to investigators.

Please let McCain pick her for VP. Please!

This time it is a former democratic staffer:

A former office manager for Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.) and two other House Democrats pleaded guilty yesterday to fraud for taking $200,000 in public money by submitting phony expense reports, according to Justice Department and House documents.

Laura I. Flores, 47, of Arlington pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in federal court in Alexandria and is scheduled to be sentenced May 2, officials said. She faces as much as 20 years in prison.

It's always good for the country to see these crooks get busted.

Comes this little gem:

In a case some say reveals political backscratching at the courthouse, a Texas Supreme Court justice saw his arson-related indictment thrown out Friday at the request of a scandal-plagued, but fellow Republican, prosecutor.

The move outraged the grand jury foreman, who threatened to reconvene the panel and issue the charges again.

State District Judge Brian Rains dismissed the indictment handed up Thursday against Justice David Medina and his wife related to a fire last summer that burned down their suburban Houston house and damaged a neighbor's. The Medinas were in serious financial trouble.

And the Republicans wonder why their base is staying at home or just leaving their party? It's because they have bred this culture of corruption deep into their roots. Thank people like Tom Delay for that.

Looks like the senior Republican in the Senate is in some big trouble.

So what is HR 451 you ask? Well it deals with corruption. Here is how Pelosi's site describes it:

The House has passed HR 451, introduced by Democrats, which calls on the ethics committee to either empanel an investigative subcommitee or report to the House describing its reasons for not doing so within 30 days any time a Member of the House is indicted or otherwise formally charged with criminal conduct. The resolution passed, 387-10.

It is evident this was a jab back at Boehner for his aggressive stand at getting William Jefferson kicked out of Congress. This is the same John Boehner that praised the indicted Tom Delay, which is the same Tom Delay that put the ethics committee in limbo.  Interesting how things work out.

Sorry John - the Democrats are not going to fall for your partisan/racially motivated plans. Instead of going after just the black Democrat, they will also be going after the white Republicans who are currently in trouble (and there are a lot more of them out there).

About time we get another corrupt politician taken care of:

An indictment charging Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., in a long-running bribery investigation is being announced Monday, federal officials said.

The indictment is being handed up in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. A press conference was being organized for late Monday in Washington to discuss the case.

A Justice Department official familiar with the case said the indictment outlining the evidence against Jefferson is more than an inch thick and charges the congressman with crimes that could keep him in prison for up to 200 years. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case.

True we can look forward to the right justifying all the corruption on their side of the aisle because of this one bad egg. Their math - 1 bad Democrat = dozens of bad Republicans. We have already seen this in action for the past several months.

In the eyes of the White House:

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sought more information yesterday about a presentation by a White House aide given to political appointees at the General Services Administration that discussed targeting 20 Democratic congressional candidates in the next election.

In a letter to White House political affairs director Karl Rove, the committee chairman, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), asked about the Jan. 26 videoconference by Rove deputy J. Scott Jennings, which was directed to the chief of the GSA and as many as 40 agency officials stationed around the country.

Jennings's 28-page presentation included 2006 election results and listed the names of Democratic candidates considered beatable and Republican lawmakers thought to need help. At a hearing Wednesday about the GSA, Waxman said the presentation and follow-up remarks allegedly made by agency chief Lurita Alexis Doan may have violated the Hatch Act, a law that restricts federal agencies and employees from using their positions for political purposes.

In yesterday's letter, Waxman asked Rove who prepared the presentation and whether Rove or Jennings consulted with anyone about whether it might be in violation of the Hatch Act. Waxman also asked whether Rove or any members of his staff have given the same or similar PowerPoint presentations to political appointees at other government agencies.

Considering how much grief Rove has given Bush, why hasn't he just fired him? Well that is simple. Because if Bush fires Rove, the Bush looses his brain and his brain might even get pissed and decide to talk.

Gee ya think?

Fired San Diego U.S. attorney Carol Lam notified the Justice Department that she intended to execute search warrants on a high-ranking CIA official as part of a corruption probe the day before a Justice Department official sent an e-mail that said Lam needed to be fired, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Sunday.

Feinstein, D-Calif., said the timing of the e-mail suggested that Lam's dismissal may have been connected to the corruption probe.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse denied in an e-mail that there was any link.

"We have stated numerous times that no U.S. attorney was removed to retaliate against or inappropriately interfere with any public corruption investigation or prosecution," he wrote. "This remains the case and there is no evidence that indicates otherwise."

Today will be very interesting. Another big document dump is coming and everyone is predicting some more damaging evidence.

Looks like the White House was pretty hands on with the firing of U.S. attorneys:

Presidential advisor Karl Rove and at least one other member of the White House political team were urged by the New Mexico Republican party chairman to fire the state's U.S. attorney because of dissatisfaction with his job performance including his failure to indict Democrats in a voter fraud investigation in the battleground election state.

In an interview Saturday with McClatchy Newspapers, Chairman Allen Weh said he complained in 2005 about then-U.S. Attorney David Iglesias to a White House liaison who worked for Rove and asked that he be removed. Weh said he followed up with Rove personally in late 2006 during a visit to the White House.

Weh's account calls into question the Justice Department's stance that the recent decision to fire eight U.S. attorneys, including Iglesias, was made without the White House weighing in. Justice Department officials have said the White House's involvement was limited to approving a list of the U.S. attorneys after the Justice Department made the decision to fire them.

Yeah - why not call the guy who leaks the identity of CIA agents to do your dirty work. True we got more Republican Senators outraged with the situation and the strong hand of oversight might start to come down.

Old Pete must be getting worried:

Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) has hired a top defense attorney to handle the pending ethics investigation into allegations that he pressured a federal prosecutor to bring indictments against New Mexico Democrats on the eve of the 2006 elections.

Lee Blalack, who recently represented former congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.), who is now serving time in prison for bribery and other offenses, said today that he has signed on as Domenici's attorney in the wake of allegations from fired U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias. Iglesias alleged that Domenici phoned him at his home and asked about a pending public corruption investigation.

The Senate Ethics Committee indicated Monday that it has opened a preliminary inquiry into the matter, which will examine Iglesias's and Domenici's differing accounts of the phone call.

This is how one phone call can ruin your life. You think a lawmaker in our nation would know better.

Next week the House will hold hearings on the firing of federal prosecutors. John Conyers issued the first subpoenas since the Democrats took over in this case. He subpoenaed the fired prosecutors to testify before the Judiciary Committee, which Conyers chairs. It has also come out now that Heather Wilson and Pete Domenci were the two New Mexico congressmembers that pushed one of the fired prosecutors to take action against a Democrat last fall:

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.

I haven't posted on the firing of the federal prosecutors lately, but there has been some real interesting developments in the case. Yesterday, we received this news:

The controversy flared up early Wednesday afternoon after David Iglesias, the departing U.S. attorney from New Mexico, told McClatchy Newspapers that he believes he was forced out because he refused to speed up an indictment of local Democrats a month before November's congressional elections.

Iglesias said that two members of Congress called separately in mid-October to inquire about the timing of a federal probe of a kickback scheme. They appeared eager, he said, for an indictment to be issued before the elections in order to benefit the Republicans. He refused to name the members of Congress because, he said, he feared retaliation.

All House members from New Mexico denied this, except two. Heather Wilson and Pete Domenci. Today Josh Marshall is hearing that there are quiet a few reporters staking out the offices of Wilson and Domenci. Very interesting in deed (also very troubling - its ok to flex Congressional muscle when it comes to these little political games, yet when wounded soldiers are being treated like shit, Republicans shut up).

Now remember last month when Alberto Gonzales testified before Congress about the firings and said they were not political? Well it is starting to appear more and more that they are. Was Gonzales under oath during this testimony? I am not positive, but my gut says he was, which would mean he perjured himself. Lying under oath is lying under oath. It doesn't matter if the lie is involving the firing of prosecutors or a blow job. If this is the case then it is time for the Democrats to consider impeachment against Gonzales, as well as criminal charges. This is the same man that also said the Constitution does not give the right of Habeas Corpus.

As far as Wilson and Domenci are concerned; well we do have a functioning ethics committee again. If this is true then they need to answer to them.

UPDATE:

There it is. Aravosis found Gonzales being sworn in the day he said the firings were "not political". Sounds like there might be some serious questions for him now.