Archive for the 'U.S. Attorneys Scandal' Category

Ben Chandler co-Sponsors Resolution to Impeach AG Gonzales

Joe Sonka July 30th, 2007

(crossposted at BlueGrassRoots)

Tomorrow at 2:00, six Congressmen, all former prosecutors, are holding a press conference to announce their resolution for the Judiciary Committee to investigate whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should be impeached.

The resolution is sponsored by Jay Inslee (D-WA) and co-sponsored by Xavier Becerra (D-CA), Michael A. Arcuri (D-NY), Dennis Moore (D-KS) and Bruce Braley (D-IA) and, I’m proud to say, our own Rep. Ben Chandler.

It’s good to see Ben stand up for the rule of law and against the mockery that the Bush administration has made of our Justice Department.

Go give him some love.

(h/t our departed KY blogmaster)

Hell, Hast Thou Frozen Over?

Terri Whitehouse June 27th, 2007

Laurie Kellman of the AP reports:

The Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney’s office Wednesday for documents relating to President Bush’s warrant-free eavesdropping program.

Also named in subpoenas signed by committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., were the Justice Department and the National Security Council.

The committee wants documents that might shed light on internal squabbles within the administration over the legality of the program, said a congressional official speaking on condition of anonymity because the subpoenas had not been made public.

Oy! Executive immunity, anyone?

Addendum: Nope, that didn’t take long at all!

Courier-Journal: Mitch McConnell’s senate leadership “impish” and “disturbing”

Matt Gunterman June 15th, 2007

The Louisville Courier-Journal slams the leadership of Senator Mitch McConnell in an editorial today, with particular reference to McConnell’s efforts to save Attorney General Alberto Gonzales but on broader trends as well.

The larger problem? Essentially, it’s that Senator McConnell has decided that if he and his fellow Republicans can just sit out the rest of the Bush administration for another year or so, then the GOP can begin rebuilding and reinvigorating itself around a new presidential candidate. You know McConnell goes to bed ever night telling himself that it can’t get any worse — but Bush has a way of defying expectations, doesn’t he?

It’s a dangerous game to play, really; it’s like that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer sees how far he can drive his car without refilling on gas: as such, there is a chance for the thrill of victory for McConnell, but more than likely he and his party are going to be stranded on the side of the road while the rest of the nation passes them by at high speed.

When the Bush administration is said and done, the energy of the GOP will be consumed for years just coming to terms with the meaning and mess of George W. Bush. He will hang around their neck like an albatross for a long, long time, and the Republicans will still have to deal with all the religiously fanatic nutcases that he’s filled the party’s ranks with. How successful can the Republican party be when it’s dominant faction is one that sees the Second Coming around every corner?

Here’s what the C-J had to say:

Serving justice or self?

It is only natural for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to serve as a partisan henchman, but when does it become necessary to forgo impish politics and actually serve with the interest of the country in mind?

Sen. McConnell was successful this week in building a strong enough GOP bloc to avoid a Senate no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. (A motion to end debate passed, 53-38, but required 60 votes.) Or at least he built the illusion of a Republican bloc, because what spoke volumes was the lengths to which Republican senators resorted in order not to defend Mr. Gonzalez. Sometimes what isn’t said is all that anyone needs to hear.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, called the Democrats’ push to force Mr. Gonzales from office “political theater” while Sen. McConnell attacked them for wasting time on “a meaningless resolution.”

Although President Bush stood by his man, not a word was uttered in the Senate in defense of Mr. Gonzales’ leadership at the Department of Justice. Why? Because Mr. Gonzales is indefensible.

What has been lost amidst the Republican claims this has been nothing but “political theater” is that Mr. Gonzales’ ethical backbone has become even weaker in recent weeks. While he insists he’s forgotten nearly every executive decision on his watch over the last year, he has been accused of trying to force his predecessor, John Ashcroft, to support illegal secretive wiretappings that Mr. Ashcroft considered unconstitutional. Former Gonzales aides Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson have resigned for their roles in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, all Bush appointees who refused to follow the partisan and legally shaky objectives of the White House.

And just this week, The Washington Post reported, due to Gonzales’ hiring practices, the country’s newest immigration judges are underqualified GOP partisans. Former White House counsel Harriet Miers and Sara Taylor, Karl Rove’s former top political lieutenant, were subpoenaed by the Senate in order to find out why the White House was meddling in the work of federal prosecutors.

Almost as disturbing as Mr. Bush’s loyalty to Mr. Gonzales is Sen. McConnell’s characterization of all this as “meaningless.” Mr. Gonzales should have been removed from the Justice Department months ago, though it now appears he could make it through 2008, just like his boss, with very little support or moral clout. And the Republicans’ silent support does nothing but undermine those who actually want the Justice Department to dispense justice.

McConnnell cracking the whip on caucus for upcoming Alberto Gonzales vote

Matt Gunterman June 4th, 2007

From Think Progress today:

If the Senate moves ahead with a no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales next week as planned, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has already made clear he will “tie up the Senate floor with all kinds of procedural mischief and introduce any number of amendments.”

McConnell has also cracked the whip and brought his caucus into line. Roll Call reports today that none of the six conservative senators who have called for Gonzales to resign have said they will vote for the measure.

Six GOP Senators have gone on the record essentially demanding Gonzales’ resignation, and one of them — Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.) — already has declared he’ll vote against the nonbinding no-confidence resolution.

The five others — Sens. John Sununu (N.H.), Chuck Hagel (Neb.), Gordon Smith (Ore.), John McCain (Ariz.) and Norm Coleman (Minn.) — were unwilling to tip their hands about how they will vote, despite repeated attempts to contact them last week.

All five undeclared senators have offered harsh words for Gonzales in the past, garnering press attention and bolstering their image:

Sen. John Sununu (R-NH): “The president should fire the attorney general and replace him as soon as possible with someone who can provide strong, aggressive leadership.”

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE): “The American people deserve an Attorney General, the chief law enforcement officer of our country, whose honesty and capability are beyond question. Attorney General Gonzales can no longer meet this standard. He has failed this country. He has lost the moral authority to lead.”

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ): “I think that out of loyalty to the president that that [resignation] would probably be the best thing that he could do.”

Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR)- “For the Justice Department to be effective before the U.S. Senate, it would be helpful.”

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN): “I don’t believe that Gonzales has the type of leadership that the department needs.“

Now, forced to choose accountability over party loyalty, these senators have gone silent.

Subpoenas: Now With Immunity

Terri Whitehouse May 25th, 2007

Happy Friday!

Runnin’ on Fumes: McConnell Quick Hits

Terri Whitehouse May 24th, 2007

Well, fumes, Red Bull, and Diet Coke, and Citrus Drop, that is. A lot have things have flown under my radar as I am entering my very last week of school before graduation. My sincere apologies.

Senator Mitch McConnell has introduced an amendment requiring a government-issued photo I.D. be shown in order to vote in any federal election. Of course, this proposed amendment makes no such provision for absentee ballots, which is how most voter fraud is committed, if I’m not mistaken. Read the long-winded press release from Sen. McConnell if you’re up to it. Does anyone else wonder if this is his passive-aggressive way to vote down the immigration bill without having to vote it down?

Sen. McConnell also introduced a bill called the the “Stop Over-Spending Act.” I like it. Simple. Forceful. Imperative. Just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? Our senator then goes on to talk about Dems’ willful disregard for the economy and what have you. The press release is available here.

President George W. Bush nominated U.S. Attorney Amul Thapar for a post as Federal Judge U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

Discuss at will and please comment if I’ve missed anything else, as I’m sure I have. I’ve been looking at glaring screen and printed material for 14 hours or so, time to uncross my eyes.

Kentucky Prosecutor and Former McConnell Aide on DOJ Firing List

Shawn Dixon May 18th, 2007

With more information coming to light about politically motivated firings of United States attorneys an increasingly bi-partisan groupof Senators are demanding that U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resign.

Yesterday the national scandal moved closer to home as it was revealed that David Huber, the U.S. attorney for Louisville and Western Kentucky, was on the list of attorneys to be fired.

From the AP story

Huber, in a statement, said he was unaware of Sampson’s memo until a reporter brought it to his office yesterday morning. Huber said he has not been asked to resign.

“While I was surprised to be mentioned, I personally consider the list to be a minor distraction, at best,” Huber said. “As a matter of fact, I have never had at any time a conversation of any sort, including e-mail or written correspondence, with anyone in the Department of Justice about my job performance or being on any type of list — period.”

Turns out Mr. Huber once served as general counsel to Senator Mitch McConnell. I wonder if McConnell had to personally step in and save Mr. Huber’s job?

The Senate is poised to overwhelming pass a vote of no confidence on the Mr. Gonzales. Now the question is: will Senator Mitch McConnell do what’s right by following many of his Republican colleagues in calling on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign and supporting a vote of no confidence?

Interesting Developments in McConnell protégé J. Scott Jennings scandals

Matt Gunterman April 24th, 2007

This development is very interesting, and the activities of Senator Mitch McConnell protégé J. Scott Jennings are at the center of the entire investigation. You can read Tom Hamburger’s entire article from the LA Times here.

Low-key office launches high-profile inquiry
The Office of Special Counsel will investigate U.S. attorney firings and other political activities led by Karl Rove.

WASHINGTON — Most of the time, an obscure federal investigative unit known as the Office of Special Counsel confines itself to monitoring the activities of relatively low-level government employees, stepping in with reprimands and other routine administrative actions for such offenses as discriminating against military personnel or engaging in prohibited political activities.

But the Office of Special Counsel is preparing to jump into one of the most sensitive and potentially explosive issues in Washington, launching a broad investigation into key elements of the White House political operations that for more than six years have been headed by chief strategist Karl Rove.

The new investigation, which will examine the firing of at least one U.S. attorney, missing White House e-mails, and White House efforts to keep presidential appointees attuned to Republican political priorities, could create a substantial new problem for the Bush White House.

First, the inquiry comes from inside the administration, not from Democrats in Congress. Second, unlike the splintered inquiries being pressed on Capitol Hill, it is expected to be a unified investigation covering many facets of the political operation in which Rove played a leading part.

[...]

How long until Bush fires the entire office for not being loyal Bushies? I’m sure they serve “at his pleasure,” and surely he’ll find this process terribly displeasing.

Question of the Week: While at the center of three major scandals, how long can corrupt McConnell protégé J. Scott Jennings keep his job?

Matt Gunterman April 16th, 2007

Given President George W. Bush’s history of standing proudly at the side of every loser in his administration until the very end, my guess is that J. Scott Jennings won’t be going anywhere soon.

Sounding off on what The Hound Dog just posted below, it does make you stop to think about how Senator Mitch McConnell protégé J. Scott Jennings managed to get himself at the center of three major scandals. You know, you just don’t end up in the midst of three major scandals without being scandalous by nature and nurture, quite frankly. We all know where J. Scott Jennings learned the tricks of the corruption trade: at the political teat of Senator Mitch McConnell.

Just to remind you what those three scandals are: first, there’s the U.S. Attorney firing scandal, where the continuing release of Jennings’ emails are providing important revelations about how high and how deep the scandals goes; second, there’s the RNC Email scandal, where Jennings, like many other political operatives in the White House, was using a private, Republican-sponsored email account to get around email archiving regulations; third, there’s the scandal, which the Washington Post editorialized about today, about Jennings using the resources of the United States government, through his PowerPoint presentations, etc., to do the political bidding of the Republican Party to the detriment of the American people.

With a record like this, no doubt President Bush believes that Jennings is doing a heck of a job.

The J. Scott Jennings/Mitch McConnell Scandal

The Hound Dog April 16th, 2007

Joseph Gerth’s Political Notebook in the Courier Journal today was a start piece, but we have yet to see more written on what is really going on with the missing emails in the US Attorney scandal: One political operative of Senator Mitch McConnell is protecting another. Is anyone else surprised that the banker from Inez, Kentucky who is now RNC Chairman, Mike Duncan, is protecting the former political director to Sen. Mitch McConnell from Dawson Springs, Kentucky, J. Scott Jennings?

Jennings is the former political director for Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and is now the White House’s deputy director of political affairs under Karl Rove.

E-mail messages handed over to a congressional committee show Jennings used a Republican National Committee e-mail address to discuss the firings with aides to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales…

On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee authorized its chairman, Patrick Leahy, to subpoena Jennings and compel him to reveal his role in the firings.

And House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers wrote another Kentuckian, RNC Chairman Mike Duncan, an Inez banker, asking him to provide all firing-related e-mail from government employees to his committee before turning them over to the White House.

Cross-posted at CliffSchecter.com

McConnell protégé J. Scott Jennings’s Career is about to End

Matt Gunterman April 14th, 2007

McConnell protégé J. Scott Jennings

Wow. The crisis of corruption in the White House just intensifies day on day. I wonder if Senator Mitch McConnell protégé J. Scott Jennings learned all these tricks of the corruption trade during his time in Sen. McConnell’s office? What’s below is bad news for J. Scott Jennings, but likely worse news for Republican Senator Pete Domenici.

From Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo (And this is the link to images of the incriminating emails that the excerpt below is referencing):

(April 13, 2007 — 11:35 PM EDT)

J. Scott Jennings, Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director, Office of Political Affairs to Karl Rove, Kyle Sampson, Fred Fielding, et al., February 28th, 2007: “[Sen. Domenici's Chief of Staff Steve] Bell said Domenici’s idea is not to respond [to Iglesias's accusations], and hopefully make this a one day story. They have already been contacted by McClatchy … They have not confirmed to the reporter they were one of the Members.”

AP, March 1st, 2007 …

In a brief interview Thursday, Domenici also denied the accusation. “I don’t have any comment,” he told The Associated Press. “I have no idea what he’s talking about.”

Sen. Mitch McConnell again subjugates himself irrationally to Bush

Matt Gunterman April 2nd, 2007

From today’s L.A. Times:

WASHINGTON — The White House on Sunday called on Senate Democrats to move up the appearance of embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales before the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying the longer the scandal continues over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, the more damage will be done to federal law enforcement operations.

At the same time, the GOP leader in the Senate, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, offered the attorney general only tepid support, joining a number of Republican lawmakers no longer willing to put their personal imprimatur on Gonzales keeping his job.

Asked directly if he had confidence in Gonzales, McConnell responded: “I can honestly say the president does.”

Gonzales’ testimony before the Senate panel is set for April 17.

First, if the scandal’s going on too long, then there’s one quick way to end it, right? Fire Alberto Gonzales.

Second, Sen. McConnell offering tepid support is irrelevant because he’s already said that it’s President Bush’s confidence that trumps all other measures and indicators, even the law itself, and Sen. McConnell clarifies this in his final comment in the article.

What’s strange about this entire Bush/McConnell dance is why Sen. McConnell would throw away all his personal credibility and congressional authority for the likes of George W. Bush, whose administration is crashing and burning before us and who will be gone in the time of 22 months.

Why? It’s as if McConnell can’t see past three feet in front of his face.

The Gavel: Waxman has questions about J. Scott Jennings

Matt Gunterman March 29th, 2007

Jesse Lee at Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s blog, The Gavel, has posted a letter from Rep. Henry Waxman to Karl Rove that has lots of questions about Sen. Mitch McConnell protégé J. Scott Jennings.

Here’s the letter:

Dear Mr. Rove:

Yesterday, the Committee held a hearing into allegations of misconduct at the General Services Administration (GSA). One of the allegations involved a political presentation that your deputy, J. Scott Jennings, made to the GSA Administrator, Lurita A. Doan, and approximately 40 GSA political appointees in the GSA headquarters building on January 26, 2007.

The basic facts of this event are not in dispute. The GSA White House liaison scheduled Mr. Jennings to speak at a meeting that took place on January 26, 2007, at the GSA headquarters building, although some appointees participated by videoconference. After a brief introduction, Mr. Jennings presented a 28-page slide briefing that reviewed the 2006 election results and outlined the Republican Party’s top electoral targets in upcoming federal and state elections. This slide presentation included:

    * A list of the 20 Democratic House districts the White House views as the most vulnerable to Republican takeover in 2008;

    * A list of the 36 Republican House districts the White House views as the most vulnerable to Democratic takeover in 2008; and

    * A map showing the Senate seats up for election in 2008 and whether the White House believes Republicans will have to play “defense” or “offense.”

After the presentation was over, Ms. Doan asked her staff to discuss how GSA resources could be used to help “our candidates” in the next election.

At the hearing, many questions were raised about the legality and appropriateness of Mr. Jennings’s presentation and the discussion that followed it. The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service issued an 11-page report that found that both the presentation itself and Ms. Doan’s comments could be violations of the federal Hatch Act. According to CRS, the White House presentation alone may cross the line into being an impermissible “political activity” under the Hatch Act when “the sponsor or presenter is closely affiliated/identified with a partisan political campaign, invitations are directed only to ‘political’ employees of a department, and the objectives and agenda of the program appear to have a partisan slant.”

As part of the Committee’s investigation into Mr. Jennings’s presentation, I ask that you answer the following questions:

    * Did you approve of the slides in Mr. Jennings’s presentation? Did you approve of Mr. Jennings’s participation in this meeting?

    * Does the White House Office of Political Affairs or the White House Counsel have a policy addressing when and where White House employees can make political presentations such as the one Mr. Jennings gave at GSA headquarters on January 26, 2007? Please explain the legal authority you believe allows you to make such presentations on federal property during business hours.

    * Did Mr. Jennings, you, or any other employee of the White House Office of Political Affairs consult with the White House Counsel or the Office of the Special Counsel about whether delivering this presentation to federal government employees in a government building during business hours violated the Hatch Act or any other rules, policies or procedures?

    * Have you, Mr. Jennings, or other employees of the White House Office of Political Affairs given this political briefing or any similar briefing mentioning future elections or candidates on other occasions? Please provide the Committee a list of the dates, times, and locations of any of these presentations at which federal officials were present, whether they occurred on federal property or not, as well as a list of the people and organizations who participated.

    * Have you, Mr. Jennings, or other employees of the White House Office of Political Affairs provided Mr. Jennings’s PowerPoint presentation or any similar presentation to federal officials mentioning future elections or candidates to people or organizations outside of the White House Office of Political Affairs? Please provide the Committee a list of who received the presentation, as well as the dates, times, and locations the presentation was provided.

    * Who prepared the PowerPoint presentation given by Mr. Jennings? Did your office use federal funds to prepare this briefing? If so, please explain the legal authority that you believe allows you to use federal funds to prepare political briefings such as the one Mr. Jennings presented at GSA headquarters on January 26, 2007.

    * Why did Mr. Jennings and his staff assistant use private “gwb43.com” accounts rather than their “eop.gov” accounts to correspond with Administrator Doan’s office about the PowerPoint presentation?

In addition, I ask that you provide the Committee with any documents and communications relating to (1) the presentation of the PowerPoint presentation or any similar presentation mentioning future elections or candidates to federal officials and (2) the use of federal agencies or resources to help Republican candidates.

I request that you answer the Committee’s questions and provide the requested documents by April 13, 2007.

The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the principal oversight committee in the House of Representatives and has broad oversight jurisdiction as set forth in House Rule X. An attachment to this letter provides additional information on how to respond to the Committee’s request.

I will appreciate your cooperation with the Committee’s inquiry. If you have any questions about the Committee’s request, your staff can contact David Rapallo or David Leviss of the Committee staff at (202) 225-5420.
Sincerely,

Henry A. Waxman
Chairman
Enclosure

cc: Tom Davis
Ranking Minority Member

1 See e.g., Interview of Christiane Monica by House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (Mar. 13, 2007); Interview of Matthew Sisk by House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (Mar. 12, 2007); Interview of Justin Busch by House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (Mar. 13, 2007); House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Deposition of Emily Murphy (Mar. 15, 2007).
2 Memorandum from Congressional Research Service to House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Meetings, Conferences as “Political Activities” in a Federal Office, and “Hatch Act” Considerations (Mar. 26, 2007) (online at www.oversight.house.gov/ Documents/20070328154603-20874.pdf).

ThinkProgress: Waxman Reveals New Evidence (on McConnell protégé J. Scott Jennings)

Matt Gunterman March 29th, 2007

ThinkProgress just posted this little nugget about Sen. Mitch McConnell protégé J. Scott Jennings, among other revelations:

New Scott Jennings E-Mails. Scott Jennings, the deputy director of political affairs in the White House, and his assistant used “gwb43.com” e-mail accounts to communicate with the General Services Administration about a partisan briefing that Mr. Jennings gave to political appointees at GSA on January 26, 2007. When Mr. Jennings’s assistant emailed the PowerPoint presentation to GSA, she wrote: “It is a close hold and we’re not supposed to be emailing it around.”

I’m sorry. I had to laugh at that last line. So, does the intelligence of these people in Rove’s office halve as you go down each rung of the ladder? ‘Hey, you know, like, I’m not supposed to be emailing you this presentation, but, like, you know, it’s attached to this email!’

Sen. Pat Leahy serves Sen. Mitch McConnell

Matt Gunterman March 29th, 2007

Paul Kiel of TPMmuckraker is offering running commentary on the testimony of Kyle Sampson before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He includes this gem below from Sen. Pat Leahy that I think responds nicely to Sen. Mitch McConnell’s recent assertion that the will and confidence of the president usurp the law.

Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) kicks it off, sounding as unhappy as he’s sounded about this story over the past several weeks. “It does not sit well” with him, he says, when the Justice Department tries to cut the Senate out of the loop of confirming U.S. attorneys.

He also turned one of the administration’s favorite lines about the firings on its head. U.S. attorneys “serve at the pleasure of the president,” he said, but “justice does not serve at the pleasure of the president.”

J. Scott Jennings best have some answers…

Matt Gunterman March 28th, 2007

The elusive J. Scott Jennings

Sen. Mitch McConnell protégé J. Scott Jennings best have some answers because even his Republican buddies are saying ask him all the questions.

Perhaps Democrats in Congress would be so kind as to allow Mr. Jennings to use PowerPoint while testifying. It seems he’s quite handy with the application.

Well, perhaps that’s not a good idea. Obviously, if her testimony is to be believed, the presentation Jennings gave General Services Administration Chief Lurita Doan wasn’t terribly memorable or effective at getting its message across.

You MUST see this video of Doan’s testimony, if you haven’t already.

Sen. Mitch McConnell: Law is Irrelevant, all that matters is will of Pres. Bush

Matt Gunterman March 28th, 2007

I laughed out loud when I read this in the Kentucky Post. It’s sad to see Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Minority Leader of the United States Senate, abdicate all powers and pretensions of oversight to an imperial presidency. McConnell must be losing his marbles, folks.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Louisville, noted that the attorney general serves at the pleasure of the president, who has said he has confidence in Gonzales.

“For me, that ends it,” McConnell told reporters during a conference call Monday. “I think the president ought to be able to have his own attorney general. As long as he’s satisfied with Attorney General Gonzales, it seems to me that is a decision for the president.”

But McConnell acknowledged there were problems with the dismissals of the U.S. attorneys and the explanation for how it happened.

“It certainly hasn’t been handled very well, and I think that has generated a whole lot of discussion,” he said.

He declined to say who did not handle the situation very well and would not specify whether he was talking about the White House or the Justice Department.

So what if the attorney general’s a criminal? It’s irrelevant, according to Sen. McConnell. The laws of this land are meaningless. All that matters is the will and confidence of the president.

J. Scott Jennings: You’ve Got Mail

Matt Gunterman March 27th, 2007

Sen. Mitch McConnell has mail

Jason Leopold and Matt Renner provide an excellent and succinct overview of how the Bush White House, especially the office of Karl Rove along with Sen. Mitch McConnell protégé J. Scott Jennings, has abused private email accounts dating from the Jack Abramoff scandal and what’s at stake with the issue in the current U.S. Attorneys scandal.

The article notes that not only are the use of these email addresses probable violations of the Presidential Records Act of 1978, which states that the records of a president, his immediate staff, and specific areas of the Executive Office of the President belong to the United States, not to the individual president or his staff, but they are also risks to national security because the servers they’re traversing aren’t protected like those of the federal government.

I’ll be interested to see how this little episode evolves:

Weismann [who is chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington] said President Bush’s refusal to turn over communications between his staff and the DOJ regarding the US attorney firings, citing executive privilege, does not include domains and servers operated by the RNC.

“Waxman was very shrewd in contacting the RNC because the president cannot claim executive privilege for emails on their server,” Weismann said.

It’s all coming together

Matt Gunterman March 26th, 2007

It looks like Sen. Mitch McConnell protégé “Babyface” J. Scott Jennings is going to find himself at the center of one hot scandal. This via Paul Kiel over at TPMmuckraker.

What we’re going to find, if Congress successfully subpoenas officials or their e-mails, is that after the Republicans got routed in November of 2006 a panicked Karl Rove turned up the flame under lots of schemes that had simmered on the back burners for months or years. New orders went out - learn the lessons of the exit polling, and make sure that 2008 brings success. The White House, in its panic, abandoned caution, and got sloppy. It left its fingerprints all over the sorts of things it had generally manipulated at arms-length. And the man who headed up the effort, by all indications, was Karl Rove’s right hand, J. Scott Jennings.

Oops.

Why don’t we just call it the McConnell Crime Family?

Matt Gunterman March 26th, 2007

J. Scott Jennings is in deep shit.

This situation with Sen. Mitch McConnell protégé J. Scott Jennings at the White House in the Justice Department U.S. Attorney scandal is only getting more troubling and more criminal in nature. Scott Higham and Robert O’Harrow Jr. report in the Washington Post today:

Witnesses have told congressional investigators that the chief of the General Services Administration and a deputy in Karl Rove’s political affairs office at the White House joined in a videoconference earlier this year with top GSA political appointees, who discussed ways to help Republican candidates.

With GSA Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan and up to 40 regional administrators on hand, J. Scott Jennings, the White House’s deputy director of political affairs, gave a PowerPoint presentation on Jan. 26 of polling data about the 2006 elections.

When Jennings concluded his presentation to the GSA political appointees, Doan allegedly asked them how they could “help ‘our candidates’ in the next elections,” according to a March 6 letter to Doan from Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Waxman said in the letter that one method suggested was using “targeted public events, such as the opening of federal facilities around the country.”

[...]

The [Waxman] committee’s examination of the Jan. 26 videoconference could raise questions about the role of Jennings, the White House official who works for Rove.

Jennings’s name has recently surfaced in investigations of the firing of eight U.S. attorneys around the country. He communicated with Justice Department officials concerning the appointment of Tim Griffin, a former Rove aide, as U.S. attorney in Little Rock, according to e-mails released this month. For that exchange, Jennings, although working at the White House, used an e-mail account registered to the Republican National Committee, where Griffin had worked as a political opposition researcher.

Jennings is a longtime political operative from Kentucky. He served as political director for Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in 2002 before joining the White House.

After Jennings and Doan spoke during the videoconference, one regional GSA administrator offered the suggestion that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) could be excluded from the opening of an environmentally efficient federal courthouse in San Francisco, which Pelosi represents, according to Waxman’s letter. GSA manages the nation’s federal courthouses.

Holy crap!

James R. Carroll and Tom Loftus penned a piece on Jennings in Sunday’s Courier-Journal which featured several prominent Kentucky Republicans waxing poetic about baby-face Jennings. Come on, people, the guy was reared at the political teat of Sen. Mitch McConnell (I know it’s not a pretty picture, but this is a very serious matter) and giddily did the bidding in the White House of none other than Karl Rove. Yeah, with that CV, I’m sure he’s like some sort of Republican Mother Teresa or something.

And look at the people that came out as character witnesses in the C-J piece: Republican hack and gambling lobbyist Ellen Williams, formerly indicted and national embarrassment Republican Governor Ernie Fletcher, certified churl and homophobe State Senator David Williams, and money-grubbing & influence-mongering Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Hey, I’m convinced. How ’bout you?

New docs reveal deeper role for McConnell’s J. Scott Jennings

Matt Gunterman March 24th, 2007

Sen. Mitch McConnell and AG Alberto Gonzales share a moment

According to Lara Lakes Jordan of the AP, this new release of documents includes some interesting exchanges between Sen. Mitch McConnell protégé J. Scott Jennings at the White House and Kyle Sampson at the Justice Department.

One e-mail in the new batch of documents highlights anew the White House’s political team involvement in the firings.

“Does a list of all vacant, or about to be vacant, US Attorney slots exist anywhere?” White House deputy political director J. Scott Jennings wrote in an e-mail to Sampson last Dec. 3. The e-mail, titled “USATTY” was written from the Internet domain address of “gwb43.com,” which is registered to the National Republican Committee.

Sampson answered back a few minutes later, the e-mails show. “My office. Want me to send to you tomorrow?” he wrote.

There’s Jennings using that pesky RNC email address, again. It don’t look good, folks.

Expecting a quiet weekend? Think again.

Matt Gunterman March 23rd, 2007

Sen. Mitch McConnell stinks.

I have to admit that I was expecting the national political scene to be relatively quiet this weekend.

But, you know, then sometime Friday night while I was on the town doing the whole dinner-and-a-movie routine, news broke that documents had surfaced showing that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had lied to Congress about the depth of his role in the U.S. Attorney firings.

There’s no point in linking to the story; it’s everywhere, even FoxNews.com. It’s hard to paint this one in a positive light for Republicans. However, as the FoxNews.com article on this development betrays, several prominent Republicans are clearly getting ready to distance themselves from the Administration in a very broad philosophical sense.

Let’s bring this all back to Sen. Mitch McConnell, who has hitched himself to the George W. Bush wagon (what’s the point in saying bandwagon because the only thing playing right now is taps). The sheer political miscalculation of that decision becomes clearer and clearer with each passing day.

Ladies and gentleman, let’s once and for all establish the pattern here: Mitch McConnell might be a money-raising machine and a master of the legislative process, but a political genius he ain’t. This man nearly gave Kentucky Governor Larry Forgy in 1995 (a man who’s proved himself to be less than stable in the intervening years); he recruited a spectacularly unimpressive and undistinguished class of Republican congressmen; he installed dementia-suffering Jim Bunning as junior senator; he gifted the commonwealth the Fletcher administration and in turn gifted the Kentucky GOP the civil war that’s raging through its gubernatorial primary at the moment; and now he’s drawn himself as closely as he possibly can to the “Old” in the GOP at the very moment that the nation’s about to embrace something very new.

Say it loud and say it proud, my friends: Mitch McConnell’s a damn doofus.

Bush Circles the Wagons & McConnell’s Left Outside

Matt Gunterman March 21st, 2007

You have to wonder what’s been going through the mind of Sen. Mitch McConnell the last few days or so as this United States Attorneys episode has heated up and evolved from scandal into what appears is going to be a full-blown constitutional crisis.

Sen. McConnell has been saying for some time now that Republicans lost control of Congress last November because of Americans’ dissatisfaction with the quagmire in Iraq.

And McConnell seemed pretty certain that the war in Iraq would be the biggest issue in the 2008 cycle, too.

So, what did he do? He decided that he’d bet the political farm by identifying himself extremely closely with the President in the hope that the war would turn around. It was a gamble, but I don’t really think Mitch thought losing that gamble would necessarily cost him reelection here in Kentucky. He probably didn’t think he had much to lose, but the potential political payoff if he somehow won would be enormous.

But guess what? The war may not be the biggest single issue in 2008. The war may just be one consequence — the most wicked manifestation — of the biggest problem facing the nation: the rogue presidency of George W. Bush. The nation’s attention might start to shift from the quagmire in Iraq to the quagmire in the White House and the incompetence and disregard for the law that is inherent to the Bush administration.

And Sen. Mitch McConnell has framed himself as the biggest defender, supporter, and enabler of that presidency.

George W. Bush circled the wagons yesterday, and he left Sen. McConnell on the outside.

Sec. Elaine Chao & Sen. Mitch McConnell on their way to their political funerals

House Judiciary Committee votes tomorrow on Jennings

Matt Gunterman March 20th, 2007

Via Paul Kiel at TPMmuckraker:

At 10.15am tomorrow morning, the House Judiciary Committee will vote to issue subpoenas for a number of White House officials and among them is Sen. Mitch McConnell’s protégé Scott Jennings, who currently serves as Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Political Director.

McConnell protégé J. Scott Jennings involved in AG Scandal

Matt Gunterman March 14th, 2007

The name of J. Scott Jennings, Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Political Director and Senator and protégé of Senator Mitch McConnell, is now turning up with frequency in breaking news on the U.S. Attorneys scandal. See ThinkProgress and Dan Eggen and Paul Kane in The Washington Post for more.

J. Scott Jennings isn’t returning their calls.