Special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh was so outraged by Sen. Bob Dole's disruption of the Iran-contra criminal cases against senior Reagan-Bush officials that Walsh "briefly considered" adding a chapter to his final report criticizing Dole's tactics. Walsh detailed Dole's strategy for hindering the prosecutions in Firewall, a book scheduled for publication next year. Walsh, a lifelong Republican, released two chapters now to show voters how Dole lobbied President Bush to pardon former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger in 1992. Because of that position, Walsh deemed Dole's recent demands that Clinton eschew pardons for Whitewater defendants a clear case of "Dole's hypocrisy." The two chapters offer other insights as well into how Bush and Dole engineered the Iran-contra end game to minimize political damage to the Republican Party. Their strategy succeeded, in part, because some leading Democrats and influential members of the Washington news media signaled acceptance of the Weinberger pardon.
that's from robert parry's 'lost history: dole nearly cited in iran-contra report' published in 1996 at consortium news. carey e-mailed it to me and asked if i would note it. sunday when the new york times felt the need to offer that there used to be more civility in the congress and 1 moron quoted in the article noted how wonderfully they got along and worked together during iran-contra. that's because the democrats rolled over. it's easy for every 1 to get along when 1 side gets what it wants because the other throws in the towel.
and we're seeing it again. note this from democracy now:
Sen. Feingold to Introduce Resolution to Censure Bush
On Capitol Hill, Democratic Senator Russ Feingold is introducing a resolution today to censure President Bush for deliberately breaking the law by ordering the National Security Agency to conduct domestic surveillance without legally required court warrants. Feingold's resolution also accuses the president of misinforming the public about the program's existence and legality. Feingold announced his plan on Sunday on ABC's This Week. "It's an unusual step. It's a big step, but what the President did by consciously and intentionally violating the constitutional laws of this country with this illegal wiretapping has to be answered," Feingold said. "There can be debate about whether the law should be changed. There can be debate about how best to fight terrorism. We all believe that there should be wiretapping in appropriate cases. But the idea that the President can just make up a law in violation of his oath of office has to be answered." Minutes after Senator Feingold spoke, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist appeared on the same program and said he hoped that the leadership in Iran was not listening because of the terrible signal Feingold's message sent to the world about President Bush.
great, right? dems are getting their act together?
wrong. either they don't know where they stand on censure yet or else they've already come out slamming like the ultimate loser joe lieberman.
as kat noted saturday, i think russ feingold is sexy. he's a fighter who fights for what he believes in. and he's also physically sexy. and don't understimate that when people start competing for the democratic nomination.
hilary? the sure thing? i don't think she's a sure thing.
evan blah? get serious.
the new york times tried to tell us sunday that mark warner stands a chance. no chance in hell.
i called c.i. sunday evening and asked about the cover photo? c.i. had pulled the main section and 'i've already sorted for recycling' but i persisted.
okay, i said, look at the cover of the sunday magazine. tell me who it looks like?
'oh my god!'
uh-huh.
he looks like a younger richard nixon.
forget the gaps in his teeth (which are really bad teeth). forget that he hasn't learned that men need to trim their eyebrows.
just the fact that he so closely resembles tricky dick is enough to tank that nomination.
here's 1 more bit of news you should know about. (besides the fact that russ feingold stands a chance at the presidential nomination and mark warner is just going to embarrass himself.) it's from democracy now:
Sen. DeWine To Propose Law Criminalizing Reporting on NSA
Meanwhile Ohio Republican Senator Mike DeWine has proposed legislation that could result in the arrest and jailing of journalists who disclose information about the government's surveillance program. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the bill which could be introduced as soon as this week. Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said "The bill would make it a crime to tell the American people that the president is breaking the law, and the bill could make it a crime for the newspapers to publish that fact."
i don't know why they need a law for this. i mean when the new york times found out about the illegal nsa spying they sat on the story when the bully boy asked them not to run it. they waited over a year before reporting on it.
