This is getting way too interesting. With so much coming out and with the Congress and White House deeply married to their positions, hard to see how this will end without some big heads rolling. Maybe, just maybe this time, shit rolls uphill.

One can always hope...

$5 says as soon as Gonzales resigns, the major news organizations are going to decide this story is over and drop it. Or alternately, they'll see that this story is about suppressing minority voters but won't pursue it because it would appear "partisan."

Funny how this GOP strategy stole the 2000 election in Florida and the only person who reported it was Greg Palast for the BBC. But he was a left wing whacko back then.

How you like them apples?

Aricept is helpful in early memory loss as is a quiet, predictable environment, regular exercise, frequent, small, nutritious meals, and plenty of rest.

None of these seem likely with Senate hearings, Bush tantrums, the slavering press, and Friday night email dumps.

May I suggest, Mr. Gonzales, that you follow Mark Foley's example: resign and immediately enter rehab. I believe that the American Psychiatric Association is formalizing the diagnostic criteria for Corrupted by Power Syndrome-Unitary Executive Variant even now.

Unfortunately, your case is at a late stage, and treatment is still experimental...but surely you are willing to try? We'll all help.

Clio - It is an Axis II personality disorder, known by the acronym SCAMD - Social Conservative Authoritarian Mental Disorder.

Final thought before I turn in for the evening - it has been one hell of a day! Two news dumps!

All roads lead to Rove.

He has to testify. Under oath. And if the Congress has to have the Capitol Police bring him to the well of one or both chambers, so be it. If we have not seen wanton disregard for the rule of law from this crew, what the fuck are we looking at, exactly?

Golly, he lied? Who could have anticipated that?

Al, Hawk, over to you...

Astounding.

But unsurprising, given that the Chief Political Advisor in the White House learned the art at the feet of Daniel Sagretti, and is a self admitted liar and leaker of classified information: in essence a unconvicted criminal who should not be allowed to be within miles of 16 Pennsylvannia Avenue.

Clinton did it too! And he got a BJ to boot! Back to you people living in the real world....

Thank God Knight Ridder went to McClatchy and wasn't swallowed up and neutered by some "liberal media" conglomerate...

All roads lead to Rove.

Yep.

Rove is surely behind this selective doc release as he positions Gonzo to take the fall, like he did with Libby.

Has there been a moment - any single moment - when the retards in charge were actually running the country, instead of being busy stepping on their dicks?

It's a fair question.

One audience member asked Rove whether he'd "thought about using the bully pulpit of the White House to talk about election reform and an election integrity agenda that would put the Democrats back on the defensive."

"Yes, it's an interesting idea," Rove responded.

The irony is almost too much for me to take.

Ed Gillespie, then the RNC chairman, said the Republican Party was following election laws and trying to investigate voter fraud by sending out mailers to addresses of registered voters. If the notices came back, he said, the names were entered into a database and checked to see if the voters were listing actual residences.

"The Republican National Committee does not engage in voter suppression," he said. "The fact that someone was trying to prevent voter fraud should not disqualify someone from being U.S. attorney."

So the RNC itself was doing this shit, working hand in glove with the DOJ? Someone get copies of those mailers?

This is a story that's going to play very well on television. They show the clip of AG's March 13th press conference. Then they run a graphic showing AG was lying. Game set match as far as that goes. And the weekend actually works against BushCo here - gives the MSM a chance to get the story 'right' - to the point that almost anyone reading this blog is at right now.

And it's very bad timing for Bush. I wouldn't be suprised if his approval gets down to the lows 20s next week.

Now let's see if any of the Presidential candidates wants to knock this one out of the park this weekend - it's all teed up. All they have to do is speak the simple truth about what's going on here with clarity and the right amount of righteous anger.

I'm confused about your headline for this post, Kevin. It implies that someone in the Shrub maladministration actually knows something. The evidence of the past 6 years clearly shows that's never been true.

What's really interesting to me is that I'm beginning to get new information on this first from the TV or newspapers, instead of blogs. It's moving fast and the blood in the water has brought in the professional sharks...

Two things occur to me. The first is how much in disarray the White House is over this. They must have known what was in the emails before they sent them out... how is it possible that Gonzo doesn't come out ahead of this and at least try to float some kind of defense? The level to which the WH has misunderstood just how bad this is staggers me. I've never bought into the Rove as dark genius thing, hate is too easy to sell to people when they have been attacked and are scared, but even someone barely schooled in the art of getting a message out there has to look at this and see it for the disaster it is. Were they this unprepared for opposition control in Congress engaging in even the slightest amount of oversight?
The second thought is if ginning up the machine to try and expolit potential Democratic election fraud in 2008 is the real endgame here, how sad and how pathetic this crowd truly is. You can't win on your ideas because you are bankrupt in that department, so you try and stack the deck and make stuff up. Anyone who had anything to do with this should be deeply ashamed.

What's really interesting to me is that I'm beginning to get new information on this first from the TV or newspapers, instead of blogs.

Shocking, isn't it?

So, the party in power is trying to guarantee that they'll remain in power by using the powers and policies of the government to rig elections through a variety of strong arm tactics and dirty tricks. It all sounds sort of...familiar.

Purge and surge.

There must be a memo.

Too bad they never tried on courage.

Nathan, they have always been about killing the messenger and gaming the system. There isn´t one original thought or public-minded impulse among this pack of jackals and the only thing that has saved us, in the end, is that they are too stupid and venal to know when to stop.

Now we´re all going to be branded racists because the Weasel General got caught. But something tells me the public has had it with Rove´s hall of mirrors. On top of their crimes, they´ve commited the even worse sin of becoming boring through repetition.

My husband left this story up on my screen as a little mash note for me to find this morning. Liberal love.

clio, funny!

Kenji made me laugh with: On top of their crimes, they´ve commited the even worse sin of becoming boring through repetition.

Speaking of boring through repetition, I know I should knock off the Nixon references, but I started laughing out loud when I read that Cornyn was begging the White House: "No surprises." It's so like what Nixon loyalists were pleading to him in the last few months.

Now we´re all going to be branded racists because the Weasel General got caught.

Oh, yeah. But the efforts will be laughable.

All of that early fungo practice is paying off for Shortstop, as she hits solid liners once again.

Tell us how that Conrad Black trial is progessing. Shame rdw could not have been a "fair and balanced" juror for a fellow Anglospherian. Could have compared three car garages with lavish parties, multiresidences and a hatred of Muslims and the hoi polloi.

What they need to do is hire a well respected USA, say that Griffin guy, as special prosecuter. He can pull together a team and get to the bottom of this.

-----
Final thought before I turn in for the evening - it has been one hell of a day! Two news dumps! All roads lead to Rove.

You associate the dumps with turd blossum?

This scandal illustrates how political corruption transcends issues of legality. The legal system becomes meaningless if it ceases to be impartial.

Similarly, it shows Bush and his people are at bottom gangsters with no belief in democracy. They see government as merely one more theatre for warfare against any and all who don't pay tribute to their 'organization.'

Let's be clear: IF Gonzales lied (a big, unproven if) it was about a mere administrative matter.

Clinton brought the entire presidency into disrepute by trying to conceal the fact that he was having oral sex performed on him by a young woman.

When will you liberals see the difference?

The reality is that there is an "all the president's men" situation remniscent to the Nixon era, and we have Kyle Samson's sacrifice fly of stepping down--and being willing to testify under oath about the series of events, and the attorney general being caught in a web of lies, misrepresentations. Even the mainstream media is pointing to obstuction of justice as the motive. And now it is clear that Gonzales attended a previously undisclosed conference on ousting the U.S. attorneys, with Samson present.
Gonzales' statement of March 13th denying involvement in discussions with what was going on is what will doom him.

Yes, Al, the Attorney General of the US, does serve at the pleasure of the Commander of Sleaze.

I'm sure that they have had many a moment of pleasure together since ye olden days of Texas.

To me, a very crucial impact of this story will go well beyond the resignation of Gonzales, which seems nigh inevitable now. The story's greatest consequence may well be its erosion of any attempt by the Bush WH to hide behind executive privilege as a justification for stonewalling.

They have, of course, already been found out to be lying in general about all manner of things in the past, obviously greatly damaging their overall credibility. Yet now they have been caught red handed lying about the very subject matter that they are declaring off limits because of "executive privilege".

The political pressure to allow access to Rove and others, along with relevant documentation from inside the WH, will become enormous and, in the end, irresistible.

frankly0: The story's greatest consequence may well be its erosion of any attempt by the Bush WH to hide behind executive privilege as a justification for stonewalling.

Yes, exactly. The irony is that, while the corruption and subversion of justice they're seeking to cover up here is enormous enough, they almost certainly chose this hill to die on as a way to set precedent for stonewalling investigations of even larger transgressions. One wonders what else is coming down the pike if Congress maintains its newly stiff spine.

And thanks, Paolo--as noted separately, you know more than I do about the Black case. However, I wouldn't mind taking a fungo bat to him myself.

...Clinton...Ran Rather...some Democrat did something or other...

fuck it, I give up.

Also at McClatchy, they have a story putting together some evidence that the point of the purge was to install new U.S. Attorneys who would be more aggressive at ginning up Democratic voter fraud cases for the 2008 elections.

I thought the point of the purge was to fire underperforming U.S. Attorneys, who apparently were all performing well above average.

Froomkin has posted a important point:

Or, as White House Watch reader Charles Posner wrote to me in an e-mail yesterday: "Dan - I think everyone is looking at the Justice Dept. scandal form the wrong end - it's not the firing, but the hiring that's the crux of the issue. Rove has a plan and a list. The plan is to install partisans in the prosecutors' office in order to target Democratic congressmen. Of course, Rove can hand pick each prosecutor without Congress's involvement as allowed by the secret provisions of the Patriot Act. Now, where's his list?"

So we know there has to be a list, (I guess we could call that list Bush's Watergate tapes and Nixon was after dirt on the Dems too as I recall).

Remember were it was said that the Bushies were contemplating FIRING all 93 US attorneys right? Right before elections too - I mean Bush was that desperated for Dem dirt becomes of mounting Repug Scandals so as Froomkin points out there has got to be list of loyal Bushies waiting in the docks.

So with the comity of Alberto saying it wasn't political - Please, its never been anything but political with the evidence has become overwhelming.

But then as Kinsley would point out, we are merely to roll our collect public eyes and not investigate for the sake of peace. We all know it's merely a Tom DeLay's Texas style act of redistricting. And certainly, I would think Kinsley could understand why Dems might be upset, and fight back, cause you know, it's kind of a survial thing.

And here we see that Bush believes it's his duly elected prerogative to rig elections since US attorneys serve at his pleasure, and nothing would have please Bushie more that not ever be accountable.

I'm wondering if Chief Justice Roberts will be saying it's okay to use US attorneys in this manner? Do the US attorneys serve at Bush's political pleasure to rig the election process? I sure hope not, but one would never know until the issue is brought to the high court. I kind want to know if Justice Scalia will go on another all expensed paid Duck hunt with Dick Cheney before ruling in Bush's favor on this very possible up and coming court challenge.

I want to know if the Chief Justice Roberts will recuse himself or have enough guts to tell Bush, you can't use US attornerys to pleasure you in this manner, sorry Bush.

Dems can't really afford to just bury their collect heads on this one. Bush only knows how to be nasty and how to play nasty, with people like that, you just have get nasty right back at em. Lying like this isn't something anyone should ignore, it's harmful and you know, it ruins other peoples lives, even IF Kinsley would have anyone believe that's completely irrelevant.

Drip, drip, drip, drip....

TPM has a good catch - a memo that looks a hell of a lot like (as in exactly like) a DOJ public affairs flack trying to work out an after the fact justification for the firings with a White House flack.

Two more people to add to the subpeona list...

Ed Gillespie, then the RNC chairman, said the Republican Party was following election laws and trying to investigate voter fraud by sending out mailers to addresses of registered voters. If the notices came back, he said, the names were entered into a database and checked to see if the voters were listing actual residences.

"The Republican National Committee does not engage in voter suppression," he said. "The fact that someone was trying to prevent voter fraud should not disqualify someone from being U.S. attorney

Did they try this on all voters or just Democrats? Somehow I doubt Ann Coulter got a mailer.

So, the party in power is trying to guarantee that they'll remain in power by using the powers and policies of the government to rig elections through a variety of strong arm tactics and dirty tricks. It all sounds sort of...

Zimbabwean?

I had seen that Navarette piece, Shortstop and posted about it. That dedu just defines wanker, doesn't he?

This was my favorite part:

"Gonzales' persecutors are blind with rage, or maybe just blind. Surely they see that the push to dump the U.S. attorneys came from White House political adviser Karl Rove."

Ummm. That's a defense? Somehow I don't think so. If a member of my ethnic group was so useless and weak as to capitulate the entire fucking Constitution to the likes of Karl Rove...I would be the first one calling for their resignation, not the last loyalist at the battlements.

obviously dedu=dude. But you gotta admit, that's one of my more interesting typos...

Just Thursday Alberto Gonzales once again told us he is working tirelessly to be sure he has every American's back covered…especially our children. Should his alleged lying about the firing of U.S. Attorneys make us feel better?

I don't know about anyone else but I've always been suspicious of the guy that seems to go out of his way to tell you he's "got your back covered".

See a sarcastic visual that demonstrates how many Americans feel when the Attorney General reassures us that he's got our backs covered...here:

www.thoughttheater.com

Say it ain't so, Alberto! Say it ain't so!

Stare at a photo of Glenn Beck for about a minute.

The thought that floats uppermost to mind is: fruit lard.

Hadn't seen that, Blue Girl.

I had an interesting e-mail exchange with Navarrette (what is with that spelling? That is so not Spanish) a few years back. Guy's dumber than a box of rocks, and a true Bush believer. Will forgo having any dignity whatsoever to take one for The Man.

so head on over if you feel like browsing through it to look for dirt

This is a good way to annoy Republicans.

That name sounds...French!!!

I loath loyalists of all stripes. I've never been willing to check my brain at the door for any reason.

But they were brazen lies told to pleasure the President! And he didn't swallow.

Yow. This story, plus the pending subpeona of Rove, plus the lockdown of RNC e-mail servers as evidence, means these guys might be done. However soon that is, it comes with a large bill.

Political theater? Rove and company run that projector!

Sparko, I always enjoy your gift with words.

Well stated, Sparko.

(Thanks Shortstop. Saw your comment on the other thread:)

One more interesting thing to come out of this batch was the way they created the talking point post hoc
..."The one common link here is that three of them are along the southern border," she [Tasia Scolinos, the chief Justice spokeswoman] said, "so you could make the connection that DOJ is unhappy with the immigration prosecution numbers...

Another is the appointment of one of Rove's little minions to Arkansas. Why put a political hack without sufficient legal background there? For one thing, He would be positioned to be able to read sealed court decisions and depositions as well as read other depositions that may not have been put into the court records. Since there is a presidential candidate from Arkansas, this is Rove's little gift to the 2008 Republican candidate.

Global: That name sounds...French!!!

Uh-oh. Here we go again. Stepping on my delicate sensibilities.

*Takes a deep breath* *rubs some dirt on it*

"Nous sommes desoles que notre president soit un idiot. Nous n'avons pas vote pour lui."

Here in Tennessee, Gore is under attack by a group who is "stalking" the former VP. He is being lambasted for having a houxe that is too upscale and uses too much energy and being paid for mineral rights by a company that produces powdered limestone as a by product of zinc mining.
I use this as an example of what the "right" uses as a PR tactic and what they want from their Attorneys. They miss the days of having their opponents under the watchful eye of a full time, taxpayer paid investigator in the mold of Ken Starr.
That and the fact they have a lot to hide from the public at this point. that is why we see Halliburton high tailing it to UAE and spinning of KBR.

Okay, you know that my tongue was about to pierce my cheek, right? I'm one of the first to point out the absurdity of Franco-bashing.

Yes, sweetie.

I get the joke...Doh!

I wasn't comatose during the "Freedom Fries' charade.

Rolling on the floor laughing at those goons in Congress, yes.

Democrats are playing dirty partisan politics on the pretext of a fourth rate misdemeanor by a rookie AG just so they can hold on to their ill gotten power by any means.

Another blatant example of liberal fascism if you ask me.

So tell why they had to change the law about USA appointments?

How did the new USAPA provision make us safer from terrorists?

Seriously, if the French are so effete, why are all of our Military Ranks derived from the French?

And those who go on about France surrendering in World War II? They show their ignorance of history. A weak Vichy government, still emaciated from WWI a mere two decades earlier surrendered. The French people fought on.

Meanwhile down in FL 13...

Another blatant example of liberal fascism if you ask me.

Nobody asked you.

More that military ranks.

Enfilade, defilade...a host of French words in the history of military theory. Dimplomacy. Ballet. Cuisine...ooh wait that's French, too!

But, no, I don't wish to talk about Sedan. Anyone interested may check out Emile Zola's 'Debacle'.

>"The French people fought on."

Indeed. They blew up train stations, ambushed military patrols, smuggled arms and explosives, attacked army camps, and killed or harassed those collaborating with the occupiers.

[Hmmm... why does this sound familiar...?]

Terrorism (def): Violence not approved by the US government.

Military terms evolving from French probably come via the Plantagenet armies.

A weak Vichy government, still emaciated from WWI a mere two decades earlier surrendered.

In that same way America hasn't lost in Iraq, the Republicans lost. America had no part in it and has been dragged in and victimized, not so much as the Iraqis, but dragged in and victimized nonetheless.

The Bush White House began as an illegitimate regime and everything they have done has followed in illegitimacy, as if to prove that illegitimacy is true.

They're all about contempt.

Military terms evolving from French probably come via the Plantagenet armies.

Plantagenet = Norman French. 1066 and so forth

The original bunch were actually the Angevin kings of England. Plantagenets are Henry II and his brood of quarrelsome sons.

All French speaking. Yes. And the point would be?

Henry II's wife was Elanor of Aquitaine.

Also French.

First Scooter Libby and now Alberto Gonzales with the memory problems. Reminds me of that old Steve Martin comedy routine about how to get out of paying your taxes. When the IRS calls, Martin says, simply use those two little words: "I forgot." On the comedy record, everybody laughed.

The point would be they all spoke French.

The Plantagenets owned a huge part of France and kept it by keeping England pacified by offloading the some huge part of the male population into France for military service where they mostly had to speak French. Which is why Joan of Arc could describe the Plantagenet armies as foreigners and invent nationalism.

And that is how English actually acquired so much French, not top-down from the aristocracy, but sideways through the army.

Henry II actually spoke English as well. he was the first to do so. Learned in part from his good friend Becket with whom he later has such an unfortunate misunderstanding...

I do not find your explanation for the large extent of French derived words in English compelling. The 100 Years War?

I suspect that enfilade, barrage and so forth are of more recent coinage than that. I'm not a military historian but I suspect a few may lurk here from time to time.

$2?

Here's an interesting little tidbit.

Our words for food animals on the hoof are of Anglo-Saxon derivation. The words for flesh of same as actually foodstuffs tend to be French.

Calf - veal
Cow/steer - beef
Deer - venison

The Plantagenets were French who inherited England, their home domain was in France. In order to hold both they needed to offload any restive element, so exporting Englishmen into France to hold down the fort there was the most practical solution.

Unlike the Royal Court this was a considerably larger number of people from all walks of life who spent the larger part of their lives in France, so French meant travel and cosmopolitanism.

When they finally go home they settle throughout society and throughout the country and that, I would say, is really how French loan words came to be so fully immersed in English.

Even for armies within England the local dialects could be near incomprehensible and French pulls it together.

Another good reason to join the army --no farming.

cld: When they finally go home they settle throughout society and throughout the country and that, I would say, is really how French loan words came to be so fully immersed in English.

But wouldn't the transmission have gone the other way as well? In France, I mean.

That's an excellent question, and I've never seen it addressed before.

In France the French naturally outnumber the English by a huge factor, and the English army is largely segregated and not settled throughout, and is engaged in a narrow range of activity.

And, in this part of the question, upper classness in France can make the difference, it's the French who have all the cachet, they don't have to go anywhere they're already in France.

And the English were ultimately seen as occupiers who had to leave so there isn't any societal advantage.

But I'd bet there is a lesser body of English loan words of that era, I just don't know enough about French to say.

(words associated with mayhem)

al: Let's be clear: IF Gonzales lied (a big, unproven if) it was about a mere administrative matter

al, you're slipping. The RNC rules say you're supposed to claim it is 100% certain Gonzales didn't lie.

Karl called me last night and said he is going to cut off your payments if you don't get back with the plan.

This story is getting more and more involved.

From Jane Mayer, in the current NewYorker--on the one newly installed prosecutor I have called Rove's minion:
"As early as last summer, Justice Department officials worried that Griffin’s past as an opposition researcher for the Republicans might make him unconfirmable. (A Justice Department staffer wrote in an e-mail, in reference to the plan to install Griffin, “We have a senator prob.�) In congressional hearings last month, Mark Pryor, a Democratic senator from Arkansas, raised concerns about newspaper accounts of Griffin’s political work, which, he said, has “been characterized as ‘caging’ African-American votes. This arises from allegations that Mr. Griffin and others in the R.N.C. were targeting African-Americans in Florida for voter challenges during the 2004 Presidential campaign.�

Last week, Griffin was intent upon defending himself against the charge of suppressing minority votes. “Caging is not a derogatory term,� he said, as soon as he got on the phone.“It’s a direct-mail term. It derives from caging categories of mail in steel shelves and files.� He said that the implication that he had run an operation to suppress African-American voters, which could be a violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, was “false and close to libelous.� (News accounts suggest that one reason that some of the purged U.S. Attorneys were fired is that Republican officials had complained to the Administration that they weren’t energetic enough about investigating “voter fraud�—political shorthand, critics say, for delegitimatizing minority votes.)"

Whew - BGRS says Franco-bashing and the topic turns to France.

Sure glad you weren't dissing my main man Francisco - As SNL has said, over and over, he is still dead - But, the boy sure could put away Rioja and a whole slew of innocent civilians.

Pity he is gone - Shrub could have looked very deeply into his soul and found a true bud.

It cracks me up that the French have a special society dedicated to the resistance of the assimilation of English words (the name of which group I cannot recall right now). No, I am not making that up. How successful this particular organization has been I cannot say, but last I heard it was still bitching about "le weekend."

Oh, most definitely, abject silliness is a two-way street.

Well, I should clarify--as I recall, this society has a bee in its chapeau about not just English but all non-French words. They want to preserve the purity of the French language blah blah blah. That crap is so boring whether it's coming from French linguists or Americans crying about the "dilution" of our "Western European heritage."

(Yeah, the same Western Europe they deride when it refuses to endorse Mr. Bush's war. No one accused them of being very bright.)

French have a special society dedicated to the resistance of the assimilation of English words

The Academie Francais. Much fuming at Franglais.

Stephen Clarke has an hilarious account of his tangle with them while trying to open an English style tea shop in Paris. I think it's in 'In The Merde for Love'.

I'm in the merde for love, simply because you're...well, better not go any farther with that. I hate bathroom jokes.

Not coincidentally, because this thread gave me the idea, we're off to eat some food cooked by those francais-bastardizing Acadiens. Yum!

French have a special society dedicated ... shortstop on March 24, 2007 at 5:39 PM

Here's Art Buchwald's
famous column explaining Thanksgiving to the French

Quite frankly I’ve found this Dept. of Justice firings business very complicated, and a bit boring. Thankfully, Jon Stewart keeps us up to date in this video: http://minor-ripper.blogspot.com/2007/03/jon-stewart-keeps-us-up-to-speed-on.html

Stephen Clarke's first book 'A Year in the Merde' has as a running theme the extreme difficulties in negotiating Parisian sidewalks for all the dog merde.

Bathrooms don't really come into it until he has series of disastrous encounters with a number of French showers in the second installment, the aforementioned 'In the Merde for Love'.

It's funny stuff.

Mike, thanks for the classic Buchwald column.

They want to preserve the purity of the French language

All I remember of the dust-up is seeing signs in rural France a few years back with the French verbiage on roadsigns spraypainted over with EN OC'.

all that torturing hurts the memory

Darryl Issa, the car alarm king.