Then Again…

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Perhaps it was just a confluence of events that convinced Trent now was the time to quit.

After Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-MS) announced his resignation this week, it was widely speculatedthat Lott was quitting in order to dodge Senate ethics standards thattake effect next year. The new rules require senators to wait two yearsbefore entering “the lucrative world” of lobbying Congress. Lott deniedthe rumor at a press conference, saying the new law “didn’t have a big role” in his decision.

Atthe same press conference, Lott was also asked about Senate ethicsrules regarding “negotiating with a future employer,” to which hereplied that he’s “not really involved in negotiation,” but that “thereare some opportunities out there” that he wants “to be able toconsider”:

QUESTION: Senator, I understand there’s arule in the Senate that if you’re negotiating with a future employer,that you must register with the Ethics Committee. Have you been down tothat committee yet?

LOTT: Well, I have not yet, but I’mnot really involved in negotiation. I’ve tried to stay away from that.There are some opportunities out there that I want to be able toconsider, but I have nothing that we’ve agreed to or lined up.

One of the “opportunities” that Lott is considering, according to his son, Chester Lott — who is also a lobbyist — is “a partnership” with former Sen. John Breaux Read more →

Sure Looks Like It Was Trent’s Brother-in-Law

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Any speculation on whether Trent knew this was coming down when he resigned the other day?

ProminentMississippi trial attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, the brother-in-lawof outgoing GOP Sen. Trent Lott, was indicted by a federal grand juryWednesday on charges that he and four other men tried to bribe aMississippi state court judge.

According to the 13-page indictment, Scruggs and three otherattorneys — including Lott’s nephew Zach — attempted to bribeMississippi Third Circuit Court Judge Henry L. Lackey with at least$40,000 in cash.

Lackey was assigned to hear a lawsuit in which Scruggs’ firm wasnamed as a defendant in a dispute involving $26.5 million in attorneys’fees stemming from a court settlement with State Farm Insurance overHurricane Katrina claims.

The indictment alleges that the bribe was intended to resolve the case in Scruggs’ and his firm’s favor.

Now, as bmaz pointed out on yesterday’s thread on Scruggs, Scruggs was due to hold a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton–so it’s not like Scruggs espouses the same politics as his brother-in-law, and it adds this to a long list of cases in which Trial Lawyers who support Democrats get into legal trouble. Also note, this is not the Paul Minor case, as I suggested it might be yesterday. This has to do with Scruggs’ efforts to help a lot of Katrina victims get their money from State Farm.

I have no Read more →

Who Has Been Lobbying Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell?

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McConnell doesn’t want you to know, no doubt fearing there will be the same kind of firestorm when we learn who has been schmoozing him as there was when we learned who was schmoozing Jello Jay Rockefeller. Thankfully, a Federal Judge thinks we ought to know this information before Congress passes its amendment to FISA (h/t Mad Dog for the heads up).

The Director of National Intelligence must quickly release documentsrelating to 2007 meetings with telecoms concerning proposed amnestybills for companies that helped government’s secret domestic spyingprogram, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. The Northern CaliforniaDistrict Court judge ruled that the government must produce thedocuments by December 10 so that the public can be informed about theextent of telecom lobbying before Congress votes on immunity.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is leading a lawsuitagainst AT&T for the telco giant’s alleged cooperation withinternet monitoring and call record data-mining, asked for thedocuments in September via a government sunshine request.

The group asked for documents detailing meetings between telecomsand the nation’s top spy office, as well as meetings between the spiesand legislators. The government agreed to the civil liberties requestto ‘fast-track’ the request.

But months later the DNI still hadn’t released any of the 250unclassified pages of documents or the 65 pages of classified material,prompting the EFF to ask for a judge to force a document dump Read more →

The Infintite Recursion of Asset Seizures

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Steven Aftergood must have had an extra dose of turkey over the weekend, because it seems like Steven Aftergood week here at TNH. Today, he has a liberated CRS report on the implementation of Bush’s EO 13438, which authorizes the seizure of the assets of people determined to "threaten stabilization efforts in Iraq." At least according to the Congressional Research Service, the EO allows for incredibly broad application, since it allows for the asset seizure of people who financially support people who financially support people who financially support the destabilization of Iraq–you get the idea.

The scope, objectives and precedents of the order — Executive Order13,438, "Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who ThreatenStabilization Efforts in Iraq" — were examined in a new report (pdf) from the Congressional Research Service.

"Thebroad language of this executive order has been the subject of a degreeof criticism as potentially reaching beyond insurgents in Iraq to thirdparties, such as U.S. citizens, who may unknowingly be providingsupport for the insurgency," the CRS report noted, citing prior reports in the Washington Post, TPM Muckraker, and elsewhere.

Infact, the potential application of the order appears to be technicallyunlimited since it includes a recursive clause that has no definedendpoint.

Thus, section 1(b) of the Orderstates that any person who provides goods or services to a person whoseactions are proscribed under section 1(a) is himself subject to section1(a). But then, anyone who provides similar support to that person could likewise be swept up in the expansive terms of the order. And so on, without end. [my emphasis]

Now, if the Administration’s standards for this kind of thing were rational, it might not be a problem. But its behavior in similar circumstances has proven to be anything but. Consider this story from the LAT. It describes how a businessman who had long been blacklisted as a financial backer of terrorism got magically removed from the list recently–with no explanation.

Read more →

“I Was Under Sedation”

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That was the answer John Ashcroft gave to Kathleen when she asked him whether David Addington called Ashcroft’s wife to pressure her to let Alberto Gonzales and Andy Card into Ashcroft’s hospital room, or whether Dick Cheney called personally.

I asked Former Attorney GeneralJohn Ashcroft EW’s question "did President Bush call your wife directlyto tell her that Gonzales and Andrew Card were on the way to thehospital" I then asked "or was it Vice President Cheney or DavidAddington" He answered as he peered down at the stage "I was undersedation".

His talk at the Univ of Colorado was focused on 9/!!, terroist andhow we will deal with this "paradigm" shift in the threat to the U.S.He was still pushing we are the best country in the world "we’re numberone" propaganda. Repeating that the reason that they hate us is due toour liberty. Sure the opposite of what Micheal Scheuer(the resignedhead of the Osama bin Laden unit who has said they hate us because ofour policies, military bases and the unbridled support of Israel nomatter what they do.

Ashcroft and Scheuer’s thinking are miles apart.

The Univ of Colorado audience were rowdy and disrespectful at times.  This left less time for pertinent questions.

" I was under sedation"  Yeah right      

Give Ashcroft credit for this–it’s a new twist on that old favorite: "No Comment." Read more →

And Speaking of Missing Emails

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So far the RNC has spent $231,615 looking for Turdblossom’s missing emails.

The Sleuth has learned, the hunt for those missing gigabytes has cost the RNC more than $250,000.

According to an RNC filing with the Federal Election Commission, the committee paid $231,615 in October to Stroz Friedberg,a forensics firm chock full of former FBI agents hired to retrieve thelost electronic data. The report shows the committee also paid $41,217in October to Covington & Burling, the law firm representing the RNC on the missing e-mail controversy.

[snip]

But now that we know the RNC has paid Stroz Friedberg nearly aquarter million dollars, does that mean they’ve found the missinge-mail messages?

The RNC isn’t saying, nor is Stroz Friedberg.

So add that $231,615 to the $90,000 that Congressman Tom Feeney has paid to FTI to (apparently) recover his own missing emails.

This habit of deleting emails is beginning to cost the Republicans. How long do you think it’ll be before they start a special kind of defense fund, the email reconstruction fund (and celebrity golf tournament)?

What Is It about those GOP Appointees and their Email Computer Files?

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In the latest episode in the ongoing saga of disappearing GOP emails, the WSJ reports that Scott Bloch, the head of the Office of Special Counsel, invited Geeks on Call in last year, apparently to delete a bunch of emails computer files.

The head of the federal agency investigating KarlRove’s White House political operation is facing allegations that heimproperly deleted computer files during another probe, using a privatecomputer-help company, Geeks on Call.

[snip]

Recently, investigators learned that Mr. Bloch erasedall the files on his office personal computer late last year. They arenow trying to determine whether the deletions were improper or part ofa cover-up, lawyers close to the case said.

Bypassing his agency’s computer technicians, Mr. Blochphoned 1-800-905-GEEKS for Geeks on Call, the mobile PC-help service.It dispatched a technician in one of its signature PT Cruiser wagons.In an interview, the 49-year-old former labor-law litigator fromLawrence, Kan., confirmed that he contacted Geeks on Call but said hewas trying to eradicate a virus that had seized control of his computer.

Now, this happened last year, well before Bloch incurred the wrath of Ranking Member on the House Oversight Committee, Tom Davis, for being mean to Lurita Doan (Bloch’s meanness started in January, according to Davis). But it is, perhaps, worth noting that as of August, Davis was demanding all of Bloch’s emails pertaining to Doan–or to any Read more →

More Intriguing than a Boy-for-Hire

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There was a rumor floating the Toobz yesterday that Trent Lott got out of the Senate in a hurry because of boy trouble–perhaps something that Larry Flynt dug up. That rumor has since been denied by the boy in question.

But Scott Horton points us to something that is rather more intriguing: The fact that Trent’s brother-in-law’s law office is presently being raided.

Sources in Mississippi law enforcement inform No Comment that FBI agents are now raiding the law office of Richard “Dickie” Scruggs in Oxford.

Horton has covered the non-indictment of Dickie Scruggs before. You see, Scruggs was the apparent mastermind of a plan behind loans to some Mississippi judges–loans for which Democratic lawyer Paul Minor is now doing time.

As Minor recounts it, and other lawyers with whom I spoke confirm, theidea of rushing in to support the judges who came under fire from theChamber of Commerce started with Richard Scruggs, probably the bestknown and wealthiest member of the Mississippi trial lawyers bar.Scruggs, like Minor, made loans to Mississippi judges and came under investigation in the original study launched by the FBI. However, there was a critical difference. Scruggs tends to support the Republicans, not the Democrats. In 2000, for instance, he gave $250,000 to the Bush-Cheney campaign and to the G.O.P., and only $20,000 to Democratic candidates.  And more significantly, Scruggs Read more →

Christian Forgiveness

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Remember how Dick Cheney very charitably forgave Harry Whittington, the old man who had the audacity to get hit by Dick Cheney’s birdshot?

Well, Aravosis catches Bush doing Cheney one better: Bush has the kindness to forgive Gore for winning the the 2000 election.

Bush forgives Gore for Bush stealing the 2000 election. What a mensch. From the NYT:

Mr.Bush made no comment when the Nobel was announced, and today, the twostood silently, and a bit awkwardly, during the photo opportunity.

Butthe president did personally telephone Mr. Gore to extend theinvitation, and the White House changed the date of the event so Mr.Gore could attend. Mr. Bush’s press secretary, Dana Perino, toldreporters the president is willing to let bygones be bygones.

“This president does not harbor any resentments,” she said. “He never has.”

No word on whether Bush also forgives Gore for believing the earth is round, and other crazy scientific theories.

They’re Still Paying for Intell Pork

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Steven Aftergood has an important post describing the squabble between the intelligence appropriations subcommittees and the intelligence committees. He explains how, even though the intelligence committees are trying to exercise more oversight over intelligence activities, the appropriators (which have increasingly become the defense subcommittee appropriators, as more intelligence activities have moved under DOD) have undercut those efforts.

The efficacy of intelligence oversight in the Senate has beendrastically undermined by procedural hurdles that enable the DefenseAppropriations Subcommittee to overrule actions taken by the SenateIntelligence Committee, Senators complained earlier this month. Toremedy this concern, a new bill has been introduced that would transfer budget appropriations authority to the Intelligence Committee.

This year, the Senate Intelligence Committee presented "four major oversight initiatives in its [authorization] bill," said Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-MO)(pdf) at a Committee hearing on November 13. But in each case, "actionsby the appropriations committee were completely dissimilar."

AMemorandum of Agreement between the Committees that was supposed toimprove coordination between the authorizers and the appropriators hasfailed in every significant respect, he said.

Aftergood links to a Kit Bond statement, complaining about the problem. Bond explains how much more oversight SSCI has over programs than the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee (SAC-D).

We have almost 50 professional staff on this Committee who spend all their time doing nothing but intelligence oversight, day in and day out. The Defense Appropriations Committee has fewer than one half dozen staff who write the intelligence appropriation which is fewer than 1/10th of their bill.

[snip]

Our Committee has held scores of intelligence oversight hearings this year; the Defense Appropriations Committee has held notably few. I think the disparity is clear and speaks for itself. What I’m saying is, let’s effectively bring the oversight power to bear on the budget; right now it is disjointed.

[snip]

But that is my point, that Committee is consumed with defense matters, not intelligence matters. That Committee is wrapped up in a nearly half a trillion dollars appropriations bill, with less than one tenth of it comprising the National Intelligence Program that the SSCI oversees. SAC-D as currently constructed cannot give intelligence the attention it deserves with all its other responsibilities.

And then Bond complains of the unauthorized programs that remain in the 08 budget.

For example, this Committee is currently conferencing our FY08Intelligence Authorization Act with the House, and we’re looking at anumber of issues where our bill is disjointed from the FY08 DefenseAppropriations Act. As recently as a few hours ago, my staff wasreceiving calls from intelligence officials worried about a number ofpotential “A not A” (appropriated but not authorized) issues. That’snot a showstopper in most fields, but when it comes to nationalsecurity and intelligence, it usually does not make a whole lot ofsense.

That’s the kind of thing, of course, that got Duke Cunningham in trouble.

Read more →