Archive for the 'J. Scott Jennings' Category

Karl Rove Deputy J. Scott Jennings Resigns In Disgrace

The Hound Dog October 4th, 2007

Mitch McConnell must be sweating today with the resignation of his former Chief of Staff. Scott Jennings repeatedly tried to invoke executive privilege during his past testimony after being supoenaed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Now it looks like he won’t hide behind that defense when questions about his alleged violations of the Hatch Act come up again.

Think Progress has a look back at Jennings’ scandal-ridden tenure:

[...]

Installed political cronies as U.S. attorneys: Jennings was intimately involved in installing Rove-protege Tim Griffin as U.S. attorney in Arkansas. E-mails show that “Jennings was in close contact with Griffin, even working out the logistics of getting Griffin appointed.” A former RNC research director, Griffin was allegedly involved in a voter suppression scheme in the 2004 election.

Briefed government employees on helping GOP candidates: In Jan. 2007, Jennings and GSA chief Lurita Doan held a briefing for agency employees on “ways to help Republican candidates.” Multiple other government agencies report similar briefings. The Hatch Act explicitly prohibits partisan campaign activities on federal property.

Skirted Presidential Records Act by using political e-mail accounts: Jennings was one of at least 80 White House aides who stopped using official government e-mail accounts to avoid public scrutiny. Instead, he used a “gwb43.com” e-mail address to correspond about his political — and potentially illegal — activities.

[...]


UPDATE 4.45pm: You can find a list of Peritus Public Relations clients here.

Former McConnell Political Director Refuses To Answer Judiciary Committee Questions

The Hound Dog August 3rd, 2007

Not a big surprise yesterday that former Mitch McConnell political director J. Scott Jennings refused to answer questions after being subpoenaed by the Senate Judiciary Committee:

Jennings, 29, was the first sitting White House official to appear, but he made it clear from the outset that he would not answer any questions related to the firing of the nine prosecutors.

“I hope that you can appreciate the difficulty of my situation,” Jennings told the panel. “It makes Odysseus’ voyage between Scylla and Charybdis seem like a pleasure cruise.”

However, it appears that Jennings is in clear violation of the Hatch Act if he used an RNC email account to engage in political work from the White House, in hopes that he could avoid these emails from being subpoenaed under the Open Records Act. However, the emails were subpoenaed anyway and his good friend from Inez, Kentucky, RNC Chairman Mike Duncan, claims the RNC has lost them! Were any of these emails to Mitch McConnell, perhaps in regards to David Huber:

In e-mails among top Justice staffers, obtained by the committee months ago, Jennings figured prominently in discussions about at least two of the ousted U.S. attorneys. But Jennings cited Bush’s claim of “executive privilege” in refusing to answer questions about it. Rove, whose RNC e-mail address shows up on some of the e-mails discussing the firings, cited the same privilege claim in refusing to appear.

White House Counsel: Jennings Not Protected By Executive Privilege

The Hound Dog August 2nd, 2007

White House Counsel Fred Fielding declined to make the claim that former Mitch McConnell political director (now Karl Rove deputy) J. Scott Jennings is protected by executive privilege:

Fielding did not say Rove’s aide, J. Scott Jennings, is also protected by this privilege.

Jennings was expected to appear before the committee Thursday and, although Fielding’s letter indicated the aide will decline to answer questions about the U.S. attorney matter, he could be questioned on other topics.

It now appears members of the Senate Judiciary Committee will be allowed to ask him about Mitch McConnell’s involvement (not covered under executive privilege) in the US Attorney scandal and also any actions by RNC Chair Mike Duncan of Inez, Kentucky in “losing” the emails that Scott Jennings illegally sent from a RNC email account while working in the White House.

Jennings Agrees To Testify Thursday Morning After Rove Claims Executive Immunity

The Hound Dog August 1st, 2007

CNN just broke the news that former McConnell Political Director J. Scott Jennings has agreed to testify tomorrow morning before the Senate Judiciary Committee on his involvement in the US Attorney Scandal. While Jennings is expected to claim executive privilege on many questions, any questions on the involvement of Senator Mitch McConnell should not be covered under executive privilege:

Mark Paoletta, a lawyer for Jennings, told CNN his client will appear before the Judiciary Committee but would refuse to answer questions he feels are covered by executive privilege. Former White House political director Sara Taylor testified under similar circumstances in July.

Will any Senators on the Judiciary Committee question Jennings on Mitch McConnell’s involvement of the removal of his close friend and former General Counsel, David Huber, from the list of US Attorneys to be fired?

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.”

Mitch McConnell is at center of culture of corruption in DC

Matt Gunterman April 12th, 2007

Mitch McConnell is the nation’s #1 money-grubbing, influence-mongering, Bush-enabling U.S. Senator. That’s well established. In fact, Sen. Mitch McConnell would likely wholly agree with the substance of that statement, but he’d probably use slightly more flattering words. Probably not on the “Bush-enabling,” though; he’d probably use those words. I mean, Sen. McConnell and his crazy, foaming-at-the-mouth base of supporters believe George W. Bush is some holy instrument to bring about Armageddon. I bet McConnell in his sick little head takes real pride in enabling that load of crap.

Look at how much corruption surrounds this man and look at how corrupt the people who are products of his political machine are. You’ve got McConnell’s protégé J. Scott Jennings, now the right-hand man in the White House of Karl Rove, at the center of the biggest White House scandal since Nixon’s Watergate. This trouble is just the Washington side of McConnell’s corrupt and inept organization. When you combine it with the Kentucky side, it’s a sad, sad monstrosity that is tearing down the very fabric of our nation and commonwealth.

From Paul Kiel at TPM Muckraker:

A U.S. congressional panel investigating the firing of federal prosecutors authorized subpoenas on Thursday for e-mails the White House has declared may be missing.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., challenged the White House assertion, saying, “It’s not a question of e-mails being lost, it’s e-mails they don’t want to retrieve.”

The White House disclosed on Wednesday some of its staffers, including President George W. Bush’s senior political adviser, Karl Rove, and several of his deputies, wrote e-mail messages on official business on Republican Party accounts, and some may have been wrongly deleted.

On a voice vote, the Judiciary Committee authorized subpoenas for these and other White House documents as well as for records it has sought from the Justice Department.

The panel also authorized subpoenas for Associate Deputy Attorney General William Moschella, and Scott Jennings, an aide to Rove, permitting Leahy to sign subpoenas compelling the Bush administration to surrender hundreds of new documents and force Moschella and Jennings to reveal their roles in the firings.

The votes authorize subpoenas to be issued if the administration records are not turned over and if Moschella and Jennings decline to appear before the panel.

McConnell protégé J. Scott Jennings scandal heating up again

Matt Gunterman April 11th, 2007

Remember that infamous 18-minute gap in the Nixon White House tapes?

Well, it appears some of those RNC emails that no-one outside the Bush inner circle was supposed to know existed (so that the evidence of the illegal activities that were being carried on through them would never be archived) have come up missing. They’ve been deleted.

And even though the White House supposedly instituted a policy in 2004 that those emails should not be deleted, some on the staff appear to have taken the initiative — against official policy — to delete those emails, anyway.

Wonder if Senator Mitch McConnell protégé J. Scott Jennings was one of those on the ball?

Just a mistake, I’m sure. President Bush will probably tell them that, despite their gross incompetence, they’re still doing “a heck of a job.”

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!’

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.

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.

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.