Author Archive for: emptywheel

The NYT reports that Sara Taylor will come before the SJC today and testify about some things.

Sara Taylor, the former White House political director, has agreed toanswer some questions as a “willing and cooperative private citizen,”during testimony about the United States attorney firings last yearwhen she appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee later today.

But, as a former presidential adviser, she will also honor thepresident’s invocation of executive privilege to keep quiet

So says Pete Domenici, when asked by Andrea Mitchell whether he would testify before Congress if asked. ThinkProgress points out that a conversation between Rove and Domenici closely preceded David Iglesias’ firing. But I’ll go further, and raise this report.

In the spring of 2006, Domenici told Gonzales he wanted Iglesias out.

Gonzales refused.

I’ve got just a few minutes before I’ve got to pack up for DC. But I wanted to point out a curious detail about the WaPo’s story on NSLs: the centrality of PFIAB in it. The story, of course, reveals that Gonzales received reports of violations of National Security Letter procedures, and then went into Congress and said there had been no problems with the program.

Credit where it’s due. Tom Maguire hits all the right notes about this Novak book excerpt, save one. He notes that Novak’s story has a way of changing with the seasons.

Interesting. This old post has the Novak version before he was willing to name Armitage; here is Novak (post-“Hubris”) rebutting Armitage’s version.

There are subtle shifts in the story – now we are told that “Hementioned her first name, Valerie”,

I’m supposed to be doing something else entirely. But I’m going to raise a point that I’ve raised already–because it sure seems like Democrats are sleeping through the Constitution.

Paul Clement, in his explanation of why BushCo could invoke executive privilege in the USA scandal, claimed
that the President has “nondelegable Presidential power” “to nominate orto remove U.S.