In 2004, Gonzalez (as WH counsel) & DOJ targeted Edwards contributors

[BrainGlutton]

A federal court has ordered the DOJ to produce discovery on the matter. Story here.

Senior Republican operatives appear to have targeted John Edwards early in the process of the 2004 presidential election as the most likely Democratic nominee and opponent of the Bush-Cheney reelection effort; extensive efforts were apparently launched within both FEC and DOJ to go after Edwards’s campaign funding resources, with a particularly ferocious focus on trial lawyers. At the same time, the Justice Department took quite extraordinary steps to camouflage its conduct, for fairly obvious reasons—it was sensitive to the potentially adverse consequences for the Bush Administration and its re-election efforts that would result from the disclosure of its use of the machinery of the criminal justice process to attack a political adversary.

<snip>

Improper White House manipulation of criminal justice machinery took a consistent form: political appointees, acting on White House instructions, would “allocate resources” and “deny resources.” When Rove wanted people “taken out,” copious resources—FBI investigators and prosecutors—would be allocated to concocting a case. When Rove wanted to shield Republican operatives who came under suspicion, federal prosecutors would be fired, transferred, retired or reassigned with regularity. The so-called U.S. Attorneys scandal is one manifestation of this process, but in fact it is reflected in a consistent pattern of dealings that stretch back to the beginning of the Bush Administration.

<snip>

Papers filed in the Beam case provide further evidence of how the scheme was surreptitiously carried out. It appears that Justice Department lawyers involved in the scheme improperly issued subpoenas to financial institutions designed to collect information on campaign fundraisers for Edwards. The subpoenas were marked with a legend saying that their existence was to be treated as a secret. Since the subpoenas were issued in violation of federal laws protecting the secrecy of information by financial institutions, one has to suspect that this extraordinary step was taken because the Justice Department officials involved knew their conduct was unlawful and sought to obscure that fact by avoiding detection. In any event, the existence of the subpoenas was not a fact entitled to protection. The prosecutors also invoked grand jury secrecy requirements as a reason for maintaining secrecy, a contention which is sure to raise eyebrows in light of the aggressive leaking of grand jury materials in a wide array of political prosecutions. More likely, the prosecutors were extremely anxious to insure that the full breadth of the scheme targeting the Edwards campaign be kept out of public knowledge.

The stench surrounding these prosecutions is enormous and one particular passage of the plaintiffs’ brief stands out to me:

Gonzales personally authorized a small army of nearly 100 federal agents to raid a law office and simultaneously raid the homes of its employees and their families. Indeed, one agent commented about how he had been flown in from Iraq to help find out why American citizens had made contributions to the John Edwards campaign.

:mad: Impeachment, hell! It’s time for indictments!

[Tuckerfan]

I am Jack’s total lack of surprise.

[Liberal]

These are the people to whom Congress has entrusted the Patriot [sic] Act.

[Tuckerfan]

@Liberal

These are the people to whom Congress has entrusted the Patriot [sic] Act.

What was it Ben Franklin said, “You’d better give up all essential liberties or we’ll all hang.”?

[silenus]

Is there a wall large enough for all those involved to be stood up against?

[running_coach]

@silenus

Is there a wall large enough for all those involved to be stood up against?

Yeah, the one on the border.

[Evil_Captor]

I think this calls for a Congressional investigation! We need more subpeonas. Gonzales belongs in a jail cell along with Rove, Cheney and Bush!

[BrainGlutton]

@silenus

Is there a wall large enough for all those involved to be stood up against?

This one should suffice.

[askeptic]

Goes to show the Bush Co. strategery is a success. After all that has been done it could come out that they fuck goats and sacrifice children to Baal and we would all just shrug. And as long as they said it was done to defeat terrorism many people would defend it. Meanwhile the Dems seem to think now is the time to get all concerned with Armenian genocide commited by the Ottoman Fucking Empire a hundred fucking years ago. Excuse me while I vomit…

[samclem]

@Evil Captor

I think this calls for a Congressional investigation! We need more subpeonas. Gonzales belongs in a jail cell along with Rove, Cheney and Bush!

From your lips, to the…

[tomndebb]

Gov. George W. Bush, October 27, 2000:

‘‘In my administration, we will ask not only what is legal but also what is right, not just what the lawyers allow but what the public deserves,’’ Mr. Bush told more than 1,000 boisterous supporters at the Soldiers and Sailors Museum here in Pittsburgh. ‘‘In my administration, we will make it clear there is the controlling legal authority of conscience.’’

New York Times

[Tuckerfan]

@tomndebb

Gov. George W. Bush, October 27, 2000:

‘‘In my administration, we will ask not only what is legal but also what is right, not just what the lawyers allow but what the public deserves,’’ Mr. Bush told more than 1,000 boisterous supporters at the Soldiers and Sailors Museum here in Pittsburgh. ‘‘In my administration, we will make it clear there is the controlling legal authority of conscience.’’

New York Times

Mission Accomplished!!!
What? Too obvious?

[Hung_Mung]

@tomndebb

Gov. George W. Bush, October 27, 2000:

‘‘In my administration, we will ask not only what is legal but also what is right, not just what the lawyers allow but what the public deserves,’’ Mr. Bush told more than 1,000 boisterous supporters at the Soldiers and Sailors Museum here in Pittsburgh. ‘‘In my administration, we will make it clear there is the controlling legal authority of conscience.’’

I emphasize that because I believe that he believes we really deserve all this bullshit.

[BrainGlutton]

@askeptic

Goes to show the Bush Co. strategery is a success. After all that has been done it could come out that they fuck goats and sacrifice children to Baal and we would all just shrug. And as long as they said it was done to defeat terrorism many people would defend it.

I’m thinking that might change after January 2009. Of course, there’s always the midnight blanket-pardons option . . .

[Mr.Moto]

The FEC has six commissioners, only three of whom can be from the same party, and four votes are needed to impose a rule change or penalty.

I’d like to see how this plays out, but the FEC has the right and responsibility to handle election finance law, and is set up to do so in a nonpartisan manner. I don’t know how the DOJ plays into this, and I want to know, but if it was simply referring a matter to the FEC, then there is no problem in my mind.

[BobLibDem]

How does everything in the OP boil down to “referring a matter to the FEC”? I would like to think that if a Democrat did half the crap that Bush has gotten away with that I would join the calls for impeachment and prosecution and I wouldn’t grasp at straws to find a way to blow it off.

[Mr.Moto]

@BobLibDem

How does everything in the OP boil down to “referring a matter to the FEC”? I would like to think that if a Democrat did half the crap that Bush has gotten away with that I would join the calls for impeachment and prosecution and I wouldn’t grasp at straws to find a way to blow it off.

“Seems”

“Appears”

“May”

That article weasels around a lot. And having not read anything else about it, and Harpers being an opinion journal, I’m not going to comment much until I see more.

I’ll research it later, but in the meantime, I’d just like to say I have confidence in the FEC to handle these things as an institution, I don’t have similar faith in the DOJ, and that if the DOJ did anything improper, responsible parties ought to face appropriate penalty. Furthermore, none of this ought to excuse irregularities in John Edwards campaign fundraising, if those exist. He’s responsible for following the law all on his own.

[Onomatopoeia]

@BrainGlutton

A federal court has ordered the DOJ to produce discovery on the matter. Story here.

:mad: Impeachment, hell! It’s time for indictments!

I’ve been saying FOR YEARS that Bush and his cabal of crazies should be impeached but, as others have said, no matter what this administration does, as long as they couch it as necessary in the fight against terrorism, they can, and do, get away with anything.

Back in 2006 in this post I railed about Nancy Pelosi’s then future decision to take impeachment off the table. Who knows how successful the democrats could have been had they’d pursued it when they had the momentum coming out of their success in the mid-term elections? What a disappointment she has become. Can Pelosi be impeached for ineptitude?

At this point Bush would probably have to indiscriminantly shoot people filing out of a church, at point blank range, on a Sunday morning in order to get indicted, and even then only if there were cameras recording the event.

[askeptic]

@Onomatopoeia

At this point Bush would probably have to indiscriminantly shoot people filing out of a church, at point blank range, on a Sunday morning in order to get indicted, and even then only if there were cameras recording the event.

Not even then. He would unilaterally declare them enemy combatants and the slobering multitudes would push for a constitutional amendment to make him president for life. I swear I half expect him to issue a presidential decree to the effect that due to the war on terror a state of emergency exists precluding the upcoming elections and that he must remain in office indefinately. And you know what? I bet he would get away with it.

[BobLibDem]

@Onomatopoeia

At this point Bush would probably have to indiscriminantly shoot people filing out of a church, at point blank range, on a Sunday morning in order to get indicted, and even then only if there were cameras recording the event.

We already know that if he shot a lawyer in the face, the Secret Service would keep the local law enforcement people away till he sobered up.