DOJ: against domestic spying (before they for it)

Two stories today attract attention and are repeat-worthy from their original source. First from the NYT:

The top deputy to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft refused two years ago to approve important parts of the secret program that allows domestic eavesdropping without warrants, prompting two leading White House aides to try to win the needed approval from Mr. Ashcroft himself while he was hospitalized after a gall bladder operation, according to officials knowledgeable about the episode.

"The top deputy" would be James Comey, the same guy who appointed Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate the Plame leak, and who left the Justice Department last August to become the general counsel of mega-defense contractor Lockheed Martin.

But the sinister/truly comical part is the visual of Attorney General Abu Gonzo and Bush chief of staff Andy "Deck of" Card(s) standing over the hospital bed of John "Holy Crisco" Ashcroft and trying to get him to sign off on the eavesdropping.

Daily Kos had it first, and asks the right questions: did Ashcroft commit perjury, and did the President also lie to the American people when he said:

... For years, law enforcement used so-called roving wire taps to investigate organized crime. You see, what that meant is if you got a wire tap by court order-and, by the way, everything you hear about requires court order, requires there to be permission from a FISA court, for example.

'Everything we hear about'. What about the things you're not telling us, Mr. President?

And then there's this, under the header "Fawn Hall Republicans", which refers to Oliver North's comely shredding accomplice during the Reagan administration's Iran-Contra scandal, and her testimony during the Congressional hearings that followed:

(T)here were "times when you have to go above the written law."

Just go read the whole piece, as it goes into detail about how "Big Time" Dick Cheney has reassembled a powerful executive office that had been disarmed after the abuses of Watergate.

Update: From Newsweek ...

On one day in the spring of 2004, White House chief of staff Andy Card and the then White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales made a bedside visit to John Ashcroft, attorney general at the time, who was stricken with a rare and painful pancreatic disease, to try—without success—to get him to reverse his deputy, Acting Attorney General James Comey, who was balking at the warrantless eavesdropping. Miffed that Comey, a straitlaced, by-the-book former U.S. attorney from New York, was not a "team player" on this and other issues, President George W. Bush dubbed him with a derisive nickname, "Cuomo," after Mario Cuomo, the New York governor who vacillated over running for president in the 1980s. (The White House denies this; Comey declined to comment.)

Update #2: georgia10 elaborates.

Inside the DeLay machine

It seems typical for an information dump on Friday afternoon during the holidays that this Washington Post article hasn't gotten more attention:

The U.S. Family Network, a public advocacy group that operated in the 1990s with close ties to Rep. Tom DeLay and claimed to be a nationwide grass-roots organization, was funded almost entirely by corporations linked to embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to tax records and former associates of the group.

During its five-year existence, the U.S. Family Network raised $2.5 million but kept its donor list secret. The list, obtained by The Washington Post, shows that $1 million of its revenue came in a single 1998 check from a now-defunct London law firm whose former partners would not identify the money's origins.

Two former associates of Edwin A. Buckham, the congressman's former chief of staff and the organizer of the U.S. Family Network, said Buckham told them the funds came from Russian oil and gas executives. Abramoff had been working closely with two such Russian energy executives on their Washington agenda, and the lobbyist and Buckham had helped organize a 1997 Moscow visit by DeLay (R-Tex.).

The former president of the U.S. Family Network said Buckham told him that Russians contributed $1 million to the group in 1998 specifically to influence DeLay's vote on legislation the International Monetary Fund needed to finance a bailout of the collapsing Russian economy.

...

Whatever the real motive for the contribution of $1 million -- a sum not prohibited by law but extraordinary for a small, nonprofit group -- the steady stream of corporate payments detailed on the donor list makes it clear that Abramoff's long-standing alliance with DeLay was sealed by a much more extensive web of financial ties than previously known.

And there's a whole lot more at the link, including how DeLay's wife went on the payroll, how the cabal purchased a townhouse and went into contortions to wriggle around the financial and disclosure rules, and so on and so on.

This is another example of Tom DeLay's personal hypocrisy, as demonstrated in his own words, and another reason why he's a dead man walking (politically speaking only, of course -- Hello, NSA).

Because if Ronnie Earle can't nail him, Jack Abramoff will.

Update: More details about the DeLay/Abramoff/Russian connection from MSNBC, here.

Update#2: Josh Marshall summarizes.

Ben Grant for Lt. Governor

This is a mild surprise. Via BOR and Kuff, directly from the Marshall News-Messenger (a newspaper I nearly went to work for, once upon a time):

Marshall resident and attorney Ben Z. Grant on Thursday announced he will be a candidate for Texas Lieutenant Governor in the March Democratic primary.

Grant, 65, a former state representative who also served 17 years as justice of the Sixth Court of Appeals in Texarkana, said he is looking forward to the statewide race.

...

Grant retired from the Sixth Court of Criminal Appeals when his term ended in 2002. He served as a state representative from 1971 until 1981.

Grant was also a district judge for the 71st Judicial District Court in Harrison County and was appointed to the court of appeals in 1985 by then-Gov. Mark White. He said he spent 37 years in government, starting his career as a school teacher.

Grant has also been a columnist for the M N-M, giving them the scoop here. If he gets some competition in the primary, we won't know about it until the end of the filing period, which is next Monday.

Handicapping 2005 for 2008's prospective candidates

Chris Cillezza has some pretty good takes here. For the Dems, the year just past grades out as a winner for Mark Warner, and he also gives Russ Feingold high marks for having broken into the top tier. John Edwards trails them slightly, managing to keep his profile elevated and positive. Hillary Clinton and John Kerry didn't help or hurt themselves during the year, which is a net negative for them both.

Another Virginian, George Allen, tops the Republican list with Haley Barbour (!?) and then John McCain in third, mostly on the basis of how he manages to alienate the base and burnish his independent credentials at the same time. Dr. Bill Frist had the worst year among all contenders, and the jury's still out on Chuck Hagel and Mitt Romney. Cillezza rates Arkansas Republican governor Mike Huckabee as a darkhorse on the order of New Mexico's Bill Richardson on the Democratic side.

He gives the chances of Condi Rice running for president the same odds he gives Al Gore, about zero. And makes no mention of Dick Cheney standing before the voters again.

Ahahahahaha.

Seriously, though, I think he's about right on all of these, and particularly if sad sacks like Allen and Barbour enter 2006 as the GOP pols with the most momentum, then all I can say is "heh."