Meanwhile, John Cole points to a separate Houston Chronicle story on a particular aspect of DeLay's defense strategy.
U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's chief lawyer says he has no evidence that Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle participated in grand jury deliberations, despite having made that allegation in motions to dismiss DeLay's indictments.
But Houston attorney Dick DeGuerin said there have been enough public comments by grand jurors in news media reports to raise suspicions that Earle may have violated laws in his efforts to indict one of the most powerful Republican politicians in the nation.
DeGuerin is seeking access to grand jury records to develop possible evidence of misconduct on Earle's part. He has subpoenaed records from two of his assistant district attorneys related to their dealings with three grand juries that investigated DeLay.
The article claims that DeGuerin has an uphill battle ahead of him if he wishes to press this point--leading me to think this is a PR move.
In other scandal news, Kevin Drum finds a story that says Bush is pissed at Karl Rove...for not doing a good enough job on the cover-up.
An angry President Bush rebuked chief political guru Karl Rove two years ago for his role in the Valerie Plame affair, sources told the Daily News.
....[T]he President felt Rove and other members of the White House damage-control team did a clumsy job in their campaign to discredit Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, the ex-diplomat who criticized Bush's claim that Saddam Hussein tried to buy weapons-grade uranium in Niger.
As Drum notes, if true this proves a connection between this whole scandal and President Bush. It also, as Hilzoy of Obsidian Wings argues, gives lie to Bush's claims that he is serious about finding the roots of the leak. If the story is true (and according to Josh Marshall, the reporter who wrote it has very deep links with the administration), Bush knew about the source of the leak and collaborated in the cover-up.
But while Rove may be getting heat, many folks say it's Cheney that's truly in trouble. Eric Muller, Andrew Sullivan, and Michael Froomkin all are positing that Cheney will either be indicted or, in Froomkin's case, be at least an "unindicted co-conspirator" (which is what Nixon was in the Watergate scandal).
And finally, what does it say about the current administration that I can write a full-length post dealing with separate scandal stories about the Vice President, the President's top aid, the House Majority Leader (emeritus), without ever quoting a site like The Daily Kos and while letting about a dozens "minor" scandal-ers off without mention (Scooter Libby, Bill Frist, and Roy Blunt all jump immediately to mind).
The culture of corruption makes blogging too easy.
Don't get your hopes up. They usually protect criminals from being photographed while they are being fingerprinted.
ReplyDeleteNow what would wiggle my waggle would be a high-speed chase across Austin with a news helicopter overhead....
To anyone that may be able to HELP!
ReplyDeleteI recently had a $70,000 Mercedes and 3 laptop computers forfeited by the Vancouver police department or an agency of the Vancouver police department. I’m still very unclear why my stuff was taken.
It began when I called the police to take a mentally unstable person that I was taking care of out of my home. During the visit, one of the officers took interest in my car and began asking questions strange question while provoking the situation by purposely leaning and setting things a top the car.
Several hours later he came back with some different friends, handcuffed me and took me into one of my back bedrooms, where they began asking me questions about something I knew nothing about. An hour or so later, they calmly uncuffed me leading me into the living area where they politely apologized and stated they were leaving. In the same polite manner they asked that I sign a form. As if it meant nothing, an officer quickly armed me with a pin and said your signature is all we’ll need and you’ll never have to see us again. Preparing to sign but keeping conversation, I asked what it was I was signing. Again, very calmly he stated that it was nothing… just sign the form and we would be on our way. Suspicious, I raised the pen and again asked what the form was and how did it pertain to me. Stern but still very calm he again replied, don’t worry about it, it’s nothing, I will explain everything before we leave. This continued back and forth until finally I was escorted back to the bedroom explained what effects my prior felony would have if something were to happen and I was to go to court and stand before a Judge, facing another felony charge.
Still confused and now threatened, I told them that this must be a big misunderstanding. I had a felony18 years ago and my life has changed completely. Today, I sit on the Board of a local Ministry, I’ve had article after article written on my behalf for contribution made to this community and if I’m being arrested, maybe I should have an attorney present before anymore questioning. The officers calmed me down and told me that I wasn’t being arrested but did tell me that it didn’t matter what I‘ve done or what I’m doing, it only mattered what they said I’ve done or I’m doing and they assured me that all this can be avoided if I you'd just cooperate. They continued on, making it very clear that I could easily spend many years in prison if I was ever accused of another felony or found to be involved in illegal activity. They said some judge is expecting them to bring me in. Knowing that it was important that I not sign the paper, I began to work with them. I made excuses while promising not to request a hearing if aloud not to sign. This continued for another hour or so when finally the paper was thrown in my face and I was told that even if I did request a hearing, they were in charge of the hearings and would make sure it was denied. I just kept assuring them that I wouldn’t mention anything that happened that day and agreed that no one would believe me anyway. They finally left, jumping into my car like if going to pick up some friends on a Friday night, rubbing it into my face even more. They even took my soap and waxes.
Scared and not knowing if they would be true to their word, I waited a couple of weeks see how things would play out. Not taking any chances, I packed up some things and went to a friends the week I requested the hearing. Remembering what they said about how they would deny me a hearing, I figured it might be worth a shot. I didn’t have to mention anything about that day to request a hearing and it would give me an idea of how much they said was true. Having 45 days or till Sept 30th 2005 to request a hearing, I thought it be wise that I have the letter clearly postmarked (Sept 23rd 2005) the day it was mailed.
To no surprise it was returned, stating my hearing was denied because the letter wasn’t received until Oct 1st 2005 and was to be delivered on or before Sept 30th 2005. The letter was opened 1 day too late, imagine that. I know they had to see the postmark it was only half the size of the envelope and it doesn’t take a week to send a letter a few blocks.
I’m still very scared and I’m having a hard time finding someone to help. My mother is very sick with cancer and I’m all she has right now. Every dime I have is used to keep her in chemotherapy treatment and that car was going to be sold to raise more funds to cover other medical expenses. It like those guys knew that I wouldn’t have the funds to even attempt to fight.
Please keep this to yourself if you can’t help, I don’t want to take any chances.
Thank you;
Michael
360-721-3829