Got Pretzels..?

One step ahead of scandal -- Karl Rove chokes up on final day at White House

Late...Breaking...News...Wash Hands Before Returning To Work

"Nasty, Bad, Naughty Boy." - Sen. Craig

Stupid Pet Tricks...

Letterman -- Top Ten Reasons Alberto is Stepping Down

NBC5.com - Durbin: Fitz Could Be Long Shot To Replace Gonzales

CHICAGO -- U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said Monday the top federal prosecutor in Chicago might be a long shot to replace outgoing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

The Illinois Democrat praised U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald for being a career prosecutor who has proven time and again that he looks at the law and not politics. Fitzgerald's Chicago office has prosecuted several high-profile cases, including former Illinois Gov. George Ryan.

Durbin has been a frequent critic of Gonzales. He said he is glad Gonzales is leaving his post next month, but he wonders about the timing of it.

Dick, the timing is perfect -- my lease is up next month.

Hey...

hey hey, hey hey hey

US Attorney General Gonzales resigns

Heaven holds a place for those who pray...

Gone Fishin'...

Come September...

No Surprises Here...

RNC Now Seeks Shelter of Executive Privilege

The Republican National Committee said it will not abide by a subpoena and turn over documents to a Congressional committee investigating the firings of at least eight US attorneys last year because the RNC is waiting to see if the White House will assert executive privilege over RNC documents at the center of the controversy, according to an outside law firm retained by the RNC. <more>

The only surprise here is that Jason has not yet won a Pulitzer...

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do...

Rove Leaving Bush

Karl "the Architect" Rove: It will be a long time before this Administration falls apart. It was built to last forever like the Pyramids in Egypt.

You can't compare the Pyramids to this White House. The Pyramids were designed to be tombs.

Sing it, Turdblossom...Audio

Oopsie...

file this under...?

Dick Cheney '94: Invading Baghdad Would Create Quagmire

The Good Fight...

Ex-DOJ employees spar with administration

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales knows well the ways of sparring with the Senate Judiciary Committee, but increasingly he is facing an uncommon and more effective adversary: former Department of Justice career attorneys who are out to settle the score with Gonzales and the administration.

After months of scandal, firings and some testimony from Gonzales that many on Capitol Hill found wholly unsatisfying, these ex-Justice Department employees are taking a rare step and fighting back. <mas>

Think "rope-a-dope."

Abu Gonzales Visits Baghdad...

How Quaint.

AG Gonzales arrived in Baghdad on Saturday for his third trip to Iraq to meet with department officials who have been there to help fashion the country's legal system.

"I am pleased to see firsthand...the progress that the men and women of the Justice Department have made to rebuild Iraq's legal system and law enforcement infrastructure while affording all Iraqi citizens the full protection and rights of the Second Amendment," Gonzales said in a statement released by the department.

His optimistic assessment came despite the frequent sectarian lawlessness and killings in the country. <more>

FLASHBACK - "In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions."

Gonzales also argued that dropping Geneva would allow the president to "preserve his flexibility" in the war on terror. His reasoning? That U.S. officials might otherwise be subject to war-crimes prosecutions under the Geneva Conventions. Gonzales said he feared "prosecutors and independent counsels who may in the future decide to pursue unwarranted charges" based on a 1996 U.S. law that bars "war crimes," which were defined to include "any grave breach" of the Geneva Conventions. As to arguments that U.S. soldiers might suffer abuses themselves if Washington did not observe the conventions, Gonzales argued wishfully to Bush that "your policy of providing humane treatment to enemy detainees gives us the credibility to insist on like treatment for our soldiers."

The Dog Days Of Summer...

TGIF -- or is everyone still still grumpy from when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies in 2001?

Blowin' In The Wind...

is the answer my friends...

Looking For a Whistling Leaky Leaker

Aug. 13, 2007 issue - The controversy over President Bush's warrantless surveillance program took another surprise turn last week when a team of FBI agents, armed with a classified search warrant, raided the suburban Washington home of a former Justice Department lawyer. The lawyer, Thomas M. Tamm, previously worked in Justice's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR)—the supersecret unit that oversees surveillance of terrorist and espionage targets.

The agents seized Tamm's desktop computer, two of his children's laptops and a cache of personal files. Tamm and his lawyer, Paul Kemp, declined any comment. So did the FBI. But two legal sources who asked not to be identified talking about an ongoing case told NEWSWEEK the raid was related to a Justice criminal probe into who leaked details of the warrantless eavesdropping program to the news media. <more>

Clarice, how do you feel about sharing that recent award with others?

Cheap Eats...

beat making dinner.

CHICAGO - Hundreds of officers and local law enforcement leaders turned out to send off retiring Chicago Police Superintendent Phil Cline. <video>

...and a good gathering to "serve" a few local officials. ;)

No Cooler for the Scooter...

Dick sings one for his Libby, and one for the road.

Equal Time...

for the Hypocrite of the Year - Clarice Feldman

Alberto Gonzales Agonistes

Democrats are playing political games with national security and mongering phony scandal. It amounts to a program of harassment of the Bush Administration's efforts to defend us against attack by uncovering terror plots using intelligence agencies.

It has been nothing short of a miracle that we have been spared another attack after 9/11; this has occurred through the Administration's use of various techniques almost all of which were leaked to the press. National security secrets were disclosed with no punishment to the leakers or publishers at all.

I'm talking about leaks of real national security significance--<more>

This is the year of the boar, yes?

Call Me Like This...

and you will be lucky if you only need OxyContin.

U.S. Attorney Became Target After Rebuffing Justice Dept.

The night before the government secured a guilty plea from the manufacturer of the addictive painkiller OxyContin, a senior Justice Department official called the U.S. attorney handling the case and, at the behest of an executive for the drugmaker, urged him to slow down, the prosecutor told the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday.

John L. Brownlee, the U.S. attorney in Roanoke, testified that he was at home the evening of Oct. 24 when he received the call on his cellphone from Michael J. Elston, then chief of staff to the deputy attorney general and one of the Justice aides involved in the removal of nine U.S. attorneys last year. <more>