Say Hello
I’ve recruited a great blogger to fill in for me for a few days since I’m unable to lay my pearls before you with the frequency you deserve.
For your blog reading pleasure, welcome Tristero back to the blogosphere. He’ll be turning up as he has time over the next few days.
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Lone Star Parallel
It’s been done before. Is it something in the bar-b-que sauce?
If confirmed, Miers will have to recuse herself from potentially dozens of cases concerning this administration; but that will not be her biggest problem on the Court. Rather, her most significant challenge will be her ability to do a professional u-turn. Can she take the one quality that means the most to the president who just nominated her–loyalty–and leave it completely behind as her work address moves several blocks east?
To weigh her chances of success, consider the lesson of Abe Fortas, the last justice to be elevated to the Court after enjoying such a close relationship with a sitting president. Fortas had been Lyndon Johnson’s personal lawyer for years prior to Johnson becoming president. In 1948, when Johnson found himself in court over a closely contested Texas Senate race, he turned to Fortas, and Fortas delivered. Seventeen years later, LBJ put Fortas on the Supreme Court.
The problem was that Fortas could never leave his sense of loyalty to the president behind. On many cases where he had served a role advising Johnson in the matter before the Court, Fortas neglected to recuse himself. Worse than that, he continued to play an advisory role to LBJ even after ascending to the high Court. Johnson’s key advisors, including Bill Moyers, Jack Valenti, and Joe Califano, continued to count on Fortas, sending directly to his Supreme Court chambers drafts of legislation and even State of the Union addresses for Fortas to sign off on. All this eventually caught up to Fortas. When LBJ nominated Fortas to be chief justice in 1968, his inappropriately close relationship to the president came under congressional and public scrutiny, and he later resigned in disgrace.
The article goes on to speculate that Miers may be more independent than Fortas because she broke glass ceilings in her career. I’m not holding my breath.
It is interesting, although irrelevant, that the only supreme court justice the senate actually ever threatened to filibuster was Abe Fortas’ nomination to chief — by Republicans.
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Litmus Test
Q: What do you say when people will say he put his own lawyer on the Supreme Court? That’s definitional, cronyism.
MR. McCLELLAN: I’d say look at her record. As I said, she is someone that he knows well. But look at her record. Her record is one of being a trailblazer for women in the legal profession and a record of being a tough and strong litigator who has represented clients before state and federal courts on a broad range of issues. She is someone who brings the exact kind of experience and qualifications needed on our nation’s highest court, and that’s why the President selected her.
But does she have any horse show experience?
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The Machine Justice
I think it’s kind of cute that so many conservatives are expressing such angst at the choice of Harriet Miers this morning. Seems they thought that the Bush administration was about conservative ideology. Funny.
The Bush administration is about setting up the legal and institutional framework for a Republican majority for the next generation. That is Karl Rove’s raison d’etre, beyond Junior, beyond conservatism, beyond ideology.
Harriet Miers is the official machine justice, a made woman, the one whose only committment and loyalty will be to Karl Rove and George Bush. I’m sure they would have preferred Alberto Gonzales but he is too much of a known quantity to easily finesse the varying political requirements within the base. She will do just fine. She is their creature. Her purpose on the court is to assist the Republican party in any way necessary, not to advance conservatism.
Voting for business interests is, of course, a given. Now the Texas mafia and the spawn of the college Republicans have their own seat on the highest court in the land for the next 20 years. But having one on the court for the next 10 years is crucial. With the election fixing, gerrymandering, corruption and executive power cases coming before the court over the next few years, her position will be very important to the GOP machine. It may very well be personally important to Karl Rove himself. (One hopes that the Democratic senators will, at least, take the PR opportunity to extract a bunch of public statements from her that she will recuse herself if and when specific criminal cases involving big name Republicans she’s worked with come before the court.)
It’s important to recognize, finally, what Karl Rove and the Bush administration, with the help of the modern Republican apparatus under Tom DeLay, Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed is all about. They are building a political machine, not a political movement. I find it very amusing that the right wing “intellectuals,” from their ivory tower think tanks and millionaire supported sinecures at political magazines, have still failed to recognize that.
“She’s the kind of person you want in your corner when all the chips are being played,” said one friend, Joseph M. Allbaugh, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Here’s a little insight into Miers’ involvement with the Texas mafia, from buzzflash.
Update: Regarding Roe vs Wade, I think she will vote to overturn Roe vs Wade if the leadership of the Republican Party feels it is in the party’s best interest to overturn Roe vs Wade.
It’s my belief that the GOP would love to overturn it as a payback for their base, and they will “arrange” for her to overturn if they feel it’s time. But what they are most interested in is getting someone on the court who will not independently decide that the interests of democracy require that they vote against whatever GOP electoral schemes come down the pike. There can be no daylight on that. Miers can be guaranteed to do what is best for the GOP.
It’s certainly possible that the elite wingnuts are in cahoots creating this little backlash against Miers, but it was orchestrated going back to last week with Pod and Frum both public dismissing her as a lightweight and a hack. I wouldn’t put it past them, but I just have a gut feeling that they were taken by surprise by this one. This was a level of coordination that I’ve not seen on the blogs before, if that’s what it was. (I think it was more what Atrios said — they are disappointed because they wanted the satisfaction of telling the Dems to go fuck themselves.)
Many movement conservatives, whether from the Christian conservative base or the neocon cosmopolitans, really bought into the idea that Bush believes in something deeper than corporate power, cutting taxes for high earners and kicking ass. Yet, there is absolutely nothing in his performance in office that suggests he cares about anything else.
Rove, on the other hand, has the very public agenda of building a “permanent” Republican majority. That is what he’s trying to do. Period. Whatever it takes to get there is what they will do — neocons and Christian alike are just cogs in the machine.
Deep down they know the score. They sold their souls to this devil (don’t tell me they didn’t know what they were doing when they went after Clinton, Gore and Kerry like a pack of wild, rabid dogs) and now they are faced with the fact that they too have been punked.
The modern Republican party, at its core, is not about ideology or values or anything else that high minded mediocre intellectuals and religious zealots pretend motivates their “movement” It’s about money and power. Same as it ever was. Ask Grover.
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Plame Out
I’m busy today and won’t have time to post. So I will leave you with this tantalizing thought to chew over from my super-smart commenter Sara:
Judy is not the main course at all. What I suspect Fitzgerald had to do was eliminate the defense, namely that Miller and Cooper and other reporters were the source of the identity of “Wilson’s Wife” as CIA NOC. Remember we have already been through this defense as PR over the past couple of years — Wilson’s wife scrubbed floors at CIA, she was a lowly secretary, an apprentise in the Directorate of Intelligence — she ran the travel bureau — defenses that would all exclude her identity as a NOC. I suspect that is what transpired today, so Fitzgerald’s positive case can now emerge.
This makes sense to me. Now read the rest of her comment for a novel theory of Fitzgerald’s case. Jane at firedoglake has been following this line too…
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Channelling Scott McClellan
Judy has been released from her confidentiality agreement by her source and she is refusing to even name him publicly? Even though his own lawyer has given interviews in the press. Jesus H. Christ.
Q. Can you describe your role in this case since you didn’t file a story but did go to jail? How would you characterize your role in this whole investigation?
MILLER. I was a journalist doing my job, protecting my source until my source freed me to perform my civic duty to testify.
Q. Scooter Libby’s lawyer – and your source’s lawyer – I suspect you’re not going to tell us if that’s correct.
MILLER. I am not going to tell you if that’s correct.
Q. Your source’s lawyer has said that had you asked, you wouldn’t have had to spend any time in jail; he would have been more than willing to give you the explicit waiver you say you now accepted.
MILLER. No. Since I was not a party to those discussions, I’m going to let you refer those questions to my lawyer. I can only tell you that as soon as I received a personal assurance from the source that I was able to talk to him and talk to the source about my testimony, it was only then and as a result of the special prosecutor’s agreement to narrow the focus of the inquiry to focus on the way – on that source, that I was able to testify. I testified as soon as I could. And I will ask you to please address the questions to which I was not a party to my lawyers.
Q. But Judy, a conversation you were party to: On the steps of this courthouse, when you and Matt faced contempt of court charges, you said out here, when Matt was asked the same question, your answer was different. You said no waiver would be acceptable.
MILLER. No. I said I had not received a personal, explicit, voluntary waiver from my source – what I considered that. That was my position and I said it many times. I said it before I went to jail. I said it when I was in jail.
Q. What about the perception that you spent 85 days dancing on the head of a pin?
MILLER. I will let people draw their own conclusions. I know what my conscience would allow and I was – I stood fast to that.
Q. Beyond the narrowest of principles involved, what is this really all about? Why was your testimony so important in Mr. Fitzgerald’s . . .
MILLER. You’ll have to ask Mr. Fitzgerald why it’s important.
So this alleged reporter got a waiver handed to her on a silver platter and now refuses to tell the public what she knows? WTF???
Apparently, Judy is no longer a journalist but an official member of the Bush administration. She is using the patented McClellan non-answer “you’ll have to ask Mr Fitzgerald” and “I can’t speak to conversation to which I wasn’t a party.”
The only thing that allows Judy to pull this shit is if she’s a target herself and there is no evidence of that. Otherwise, she is abdicating her responsibility as a reporter. If Libby released her to talk to the Grand Jury she has no obligation to keep it from the public, whom she allegedly serves. Matt Cooper discussed it and wrote about it. Pincus discussed it. Only Russert hasn’t talked, but then nobody has had the balls to ask him about either. Novak has had to be restrained from spilling his lying guts. But Judy just can’t seem to say or write a word about this.
Damn. If she had been this reticent about printing every piece of bogus bullshit that Ahmad Chalabi and the Bush administration poured into her willing little gullet, a hell of a lot of people would still be alive today.
This woman is not a journalist. She is a political operative.
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Greatest Show On Earth
David Corn offers up the “rebuke” scenario and also speculates that the White House might be flogging that poor old dead pony, “the CIA did it.” (You really have to wonder what they are giving Tenet if this turns out to be true. It would have to be on the order of a small monarchy somewhere or a trip around the world with Paris Hilton.)
I haven’t any idea if what he says is true, but this caught my eye:
When Fitzgerald first pursued Miller and Cooper, it was easy to dismiss him as an overzealous prosecutor interested more in a vendetta than in making a case. But as the Cooper portion of this episode demonstrated, Fitzgerald was after information crucial to his investigation. From Cooper he obtained material that showed Rove had discussed the CIA identity of Wilson’s wife with a reporter. Though Fitzgerald and Miller have clashed on non-Plame business previously, perhaps he has been seeking information just as critical from her.
For anyone following the matter, it’s impossible not to guess about what’s going on and what Fitzgerald will do. His grand jury expires at the end of October. He could impanel a new one and keep investigating. But all indications suggest he’s close to done. One person who recently had contact with Fitzgerald and his attorneys says that they seem confident about whatever it is they are pursuing. The Miller matter was something of a sideshow that at times drew more attention than the central issue.
Tantalizing, isn’t it? If the Punchin’ Judy play is the sideshow, the main attraction must be a doozy.
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Black Talk
I hesitate to get into this because people are sick of my preaching, but the hell with it. The fact is that Bill Bennett’s racist statement is actually just one of many that are apparently happening all over right wing radio in the wake of Katrina:
Here’s another example:
As if Hurricane Katrina victims didn’t have enough going against them, now they’re the latest targets of hate radio. Just listen to WFTL-AM (850), the 50,000-watt home of the Florida Marlins. It’s also the home of some of the most radical right-wing voices in America.
One regular syndicated host, Atlanta-based Neil Boortz, contended after the disaster struck that a “huge percentage” of the evacuees from New Orleans were “parasites, like ticks on a dog.” Then he warned, “They are coming to a community near you.”
When a caller remarked that most of the evacuees were fat, Boortz readily agreed. “They didn’t drown because you couldn’t push them underwater if you had to,” he chortled.
Then there’s Kelley Mitchell, who spent a week broadcasting at the Houston Astrodome among flood victims. Mitchell, a big-boned blond who spent years on South Florida television news stations, didn’t seem too concerned about the harrowing stories from the people in the stadium. Instead she was virtually obsessed with the reports of looting and railed for days against the alleged behavior of poor New Orleans blacks during the disaster. She took to calling the state “Lose-iana” and announced she was boycotting any monetary donations to the victims.
“If I heard, ‘I’m looking for my mom, my dad, and my baby daddy again,’ I would cringe,” she said, referring to the victims who had lost relatives. “Everybody knows it’s important to speak English but these knuckleheads.”
[…]
Another Mitchell gem: “When I see bad behavior … that’s when it became about race. Whoever got over deep-seated prejudices is now wondering if it was right to do so.”
[…]
“We need to let black America know we do want you, but we want you on the terms of the United States of America,” she explained in a voice that sometimes sounds eerily similar to that of similarly built actress Kathy Bates. “And we want you to be full and complete human beings.”
Isn’t that special? “We” do want you. Apparently, black Americans, many of whom had ancestors wwho ere here a century or two before many right wing racist assholes’ are now provisional Americans who have to adhere to certain “terms of the United States of America.” I guess she wants to send them “back” to Africa if they fail to comply.
Ugh.
And, by the way, Bennett’s crime is that he essentially said “blacks are born criminals.” Certainly, you can say that aborting any number of discrete demographic groups could have an effect on the crime rate, but attributing it to race suggests something immutable. Males commit more crimes than females at least partly because of biological characteristics. Poor people of all races commit more crimes (at least a certain kind of crimes) because of their economic circumstances and cultural influences. Statistically, Blacks may commit more crimes than whites because of both of the above reasons, but there is nothing in the color of their skin or their DNA that makes them more likely to commit crimes than anyone else.
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Libby Plus
Ok kidz. Judy’s lawyer Bob Bennett just told Wolf Blitzer that Judy’s agreement with Fitzgerald was limited to “the Valerie Plame matter” not just Libby. Wolf pressed. Fitzgerald Bennett reiterated that it was “the Valerie Plame matter.”
Judy was worried that Fitzgerald was going to pursue her bogus WMD claims.
Bolton and Cheney and Rove all the rest aren’t off the hook on Plame. Do you suppose that includes Niger?
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Condolences
My blogger friend Joe Vecchio lost his wife to illness this week. She was quite young. Any of you who have enjoyed Joe’s “the voice of the working man” blog over the years, (and those who’ve not had a chance) can go over and pay your respects — and donate little bit if you can. He’s been out of work while his wife was very ill and the family could use some help.
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