The smoking gun?
May 10, 2007 6:23 PM   Subscribe

The Bush administration has withheld a series of e-mails from Congress showing that senior White House and Justice Department officials worked together to conceal the role of Karl Rove in installing Timothy Griffin, a protégé of Rove's, as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. (Analysis here, via the always excellent Talking Points Memo.)
posted by EarBucket (32 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: talking points memo has its own blog. -- jessamyn



 
/me pokes Franco with a sharp stick

Still dead.
posted by trondant at 6:34 PM on May 10, 2007


Hey wait, shouldn't our magical no-privacy post Patriot Act "All your email are belong to us" Homeland Security have caught this...

Oh wait. Right. I guess what we really need is MORE FOXES to guard the henhouse, right?
posted by yeloson at 6:36 PM on May 10, 2007




1. No they didn't.

2. Look!! A terrorist!!!

3. Even if they did, it's legal anyway.

4. Look! A Terrorist!!!

5. John Edwards got a haircut!!!
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 6:40 PM on May 10, 2007 [4 favorites]


pancakes
posted by spicynuts at 6:47 PM on May 10, 2007


I hate summer reruns.
posted by DU at 6:48 PM on May 10, 2007


Apropos of nothing, Karl Christian Rove is an anagram of anal cork, shit river.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:51 PM on May 10, 2007 [17 favorites]


Pogo_Fuzzybutt, you forgot 'Clinton Did It Too'.
posted by Firas at 6:52 PM on May 10, 2007


Surely...
posted by eyeballkid at 6:59 PM on May 10, 2007 [1 favorite]


ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
posted by fire&wings at 7:01 PM on May 10, 2007


I've never understood why Bush doesn't hold a press conference and say, "Yeah, I fired a bunch of attorneys because they weren't making enough voter fraud accusations, and Karl Rove advised me to make a specific appointment of a colleague of his." I mean, Cheney and Bush both consistently make the argument in favor of a "unitary executive" that can do whatever it wants without any congressional input or oversight, so what's the downside of Bush declaring, "Yeah, I did it" ?
posted by deanc at 7:02 PM on May 10, 2007


STWBTTTBTGD
posted by pompomtom at 7:06 PM on May 10, 2007


Much of the fun of being a unitary executive is never having to explain yourself.
posted by brain_drain at 7:07 PM on May 10, 2007


Arkansas. Always Arkansas.
Why?
Is it the silent "s"?
Are there other states with stealth consonants?
There are NOT.
posted by Dizzy at 7:09 PM on May 10, 2007


Illinois begs to differ, actually.
posted by EarBucket at 7:12 PM on May 10, 2007


Wait, they deliberately hide the emails? Isn't that a crime?
posted by IronWolve at 7:13 PM on May 10, 2007


The T is silent?
posted by Dizzy at 7:17 PM on May 10, 2007


I suck, but with a silent "s".
posted by Dizzy at 7:19 PM on May 10, 2007


"Uta" would be pronounced differently than "Utah", so I don't think that counts as a silent letter.
posted by agropyron at 7:22 PM on May 10, 2007


The second "c" in Connecticut is silent, as well.

Why the hell are we talking about this while our constitution burns and our freedoms are eroding?
posted by yhbc at 7:26 PM on May 10, 2007 [2 favorites]


Did anyone here think that the emails they released were complete? Anyone? Farris?

(Actually I remember being surprised they released anything)

I hope congress does not grant Monica Goodling immunity. It seems like her, Kyle Sampson and the Gonzo are basically the ones who actually performed the acts, and if Goodling is granted immunity she'll just take all the blame herself. I say prosecute the three of them and see what happens.

And then amend the constitution to make it so that the president cannot pardon political appointees who commit crimes while on the job.

I actually like the pardon idea, but I think it should be curtailed in that very limited way. In my vision, only a few hundred people would be ineligible, but they would be all the right people
posted by delmoi at 7:32 PM on May 10, 2007


"Utah" doesn't want to cause any kind of commotion, so if you would please just mark us as "just like everyone else" and move on we would really appreciate it.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:32 PM on May 10, 2007


Why the hell are we talking about this while our constitution burns and our freedoms are eroding?

Commish, why do you hate America?
posted by eyeballkid at 7:32 PM on May 10, 2007 [3 favorites]


I've never understood why Bush doesn't hold a press conference and say, "Yeah, I fired a bunch of attorneys because they weren't making enough voter fraud accusations, and Karl Rove advised me to make a specific appointment of a colleague of his."

Because they are extremely stupid.
posted by delmoi at 7:34 PM on May 10, 2007


We must wait until all the facts are in!
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:45 PM on May 10, 2007


There will be criminal charges before this all is through.
posted by caddis at 7:46 PM on May 10, 2007


Surelythisfilter.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:48 PM on May 10, 2007


Some of the consonants in Massachussetts are silent, yes?

Everytime I read more about this (and the crew at TPM should really win a Pulitzer), I walk around for hours afterwards, saying "Dose fuckin' guys", like someone out of a bad mafia movie.

When the story first started to break, I was all gleeful and schadenfreudenful. But the magnitude of what they've done is starting to sink in, and now it just depresses me. (And infuriates me.)

How many days left, again?
posted by rtha at 7:50 PM on May 10, 2007 [1 favorite]


The silent t in Texas is not the first letter.
The silent t is somewhere else--maybe before the s.
It's hard to tell because, besides being silent, it's invisible.
posted by hexatron at 7:52 PM on May 10, 2007


I don't know if it's been posted to the blue or not, but TPM uncovered a 9th fired prosecutor, Todd Graves of Missouri. Here's more on his replacement, Bradley Schlozman from TPM. Here's Todd Graves' statement:
This would be humorous if we were not talking about the United States Department of Justice. First, you tell me that DOJ staffers were making secret hit lists and my name was on one of them. Then, you tell me that a staffer for Missouri’s senior Senator had a hit list so secret that not even the Senator knew about it.

I was an elected state prosecutor before I was appointed US Attorney. As a prosecutor I was always fiercely independent--I just called balls and strikes. For instance, when I gave now Senator Claire McCaskill her non-prosecution letter in 2004, I didn’t ask for permission, I just did the right thing. I thought that was my job.

When I first interviewed in 2001 with the United States Attorney screening committee at DOJ, I was asked to give the panel one attribute that describes me. I said independent. Apparently, that was the wrong attribute.

Public office is not an entitlement. I served nearly 12 years as a public prosecutor. It was a privilege. I loved every minute, but it is far better to take a graceful exit than to do something that you should be ashamed of.
Via Obsidian Wings.
posted by Kattullus at 7:53 PM on May 10, 2007


Some of the consonants in Massachussetts are silent, yes?

Mississippi has a bunch of extra (and silent) consonants, too (two).
posted by ericb at 8:08 PM on May 10, 2007


Okay, we need to resolve this. I don't think a "doubled" consonant can be included in the same group as a "silent" consonant - yeah, you might pronounce "masachusets" and "misisipi" ths same way they are ordinarily, but the doubled consonants are there for a reason, methinks. Whereas (I think) the second "c" in "connecticut" is there for no reason other than it used to be pronounced, but it's not any more.

Where the hell is languagehat when you need him?
posted by yhbc at 8:14 PM on May 10, 2007


Remember when he was going to restore dignity to the office?

Hey W, it takes more than preferring suites to business casual, ya fucktard
posted by Mick at 8:14 PM on May 10, 2007


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