Democracy for New Mexico

Sen. Schumer Nails Domenici, Wilson; Lays Out Lies in Attorney Firings

Video clip from Sen. Chuck Schumer's press conference earlier today. He also says,

The latest revelations prove beyond any reasonable doubt that there has been unprecedented breach of trust, abuse of power and misuse of the Justice Department. And that is very serious and very important.

About the Iglesias firing:

Political operatives and elected officials in New Mexico complained about one U.S. attorney's failure to indict Democrats quickly enough. Those complaints were passed on to Karl Rove and to the president himself.

The president weighed in with Attorney General Gonzales. And within weeks, that U.S. attorney, David Iglesias, was fired.

Indeed, today's reports make clear that Mr. Iglesias was not on the hit list until October, just when he was staving off inappropriate pressure tactics.

So if he wasn't on the list when the list was made up, and then you get the phone calls from the White House and from legislators, and then he's added to the list, what conclusion other than political interference can one come to? [emphasis mine]

Here he lists the lies uncovered so far:

From transcript. Schumer: Here are some of the falsehoods we've been told that are now unraveling.

First, we were told that the seven of the eight U.S. attorneys were fired for performance reasons.

It now turns out this was a falsehood, as the glowing performance evaluations attest.

Second, we were told by the attorney general that he would, quote, "never, ever make a change for political reasons."

It now turns out that this was a falsehood, as all the evidence makes clear that this purge was based purely on politics, to punish prosecutors who were perceived to be too light on Democrats or too tough on Republicans.

Third, we were told by the attorney general that this was just an overblown personnel matter.

It now turns out that far from being a low-level personnel matter, this was a longstanding plan to exact political vendettas or to make political pay-offs.

Fourth, we were told that the White House was not really involved in the plan to fire U.S. attorneys. This, too, turns out to be false.

Harriet Miers was one of the masterminds of this plan, as demonstrated by numerous e-mails made public today. She communicated extensively with Kyle Sampson about the firings of the U.S. attorneys. In fact, she originally wanted to fire and replace the top prosecutors in all 93 districts across the country.

Fifth, we were told that Karl Rove had no involvement in getting his protege appointed U.S. attorney in Arkansas.

In fact, here is a letter from the Department of Justice. Quote: "The department is not aware of Karl Rove playing any role in the decision to appoint Mr. Griffin."

It now turns out that this was a falsehood, as demonstrated by Mr. Sampson's own e-mail. Quote: "Getting him, Griffin, appointed was important to Harriet, Karl, et cetera.

Sixth, we were told to change the Patriot Act was an innocent attempt to fix a legal loophole, not a cynical strategy to bypass the Senate's role in serving as a check and balance.

It was Senator Feinstein who discovered that issue. She'll talk more about it.

So there has been misleading statement after misleading statement -- deliberate misleading statements. And we haven't gotten to the bottom of this yet, but believe me, we will pursue it.

(Thanks to TPMmuckraker for the terrific work on this.)

The Gift That Keeps On Giving: Document Dump in U.S. Attorneys Scandal

Local blogger New Mexico FBIHOP is scanning the large volume of emails and documents related to the firing of the eight U.S. Attorneys that was just made available by the U.S. Department of Justice. He's related to New Mexico's David Iglesias, Sen. Pete Domenici, prominent Republican Mickey Barnett and more, plus he provides links to the pdfs of the documents. I'd say it's a must read ....

I see that Heath Haussamen down in Las Cruces is also poring over the emails. Here's his contribution to the dissection of this scandal. Nobody can read everything or read it fast enough so it's helpful to have so many all over the web plowing this ground from differing angles.

TPMmuckraker is tossing out new info on this scandal by the hour. I checked the FeedBurner tracker for the site, which provides short summaries of their posts, but I can't get into the site itself at the moment. Maybe you'll have better luck. TPMmuckraker must be overwhelmed with hits as the damning facts of this story explode. They've definitely been one of the best sources of breaking info on the firings and the unfolding story of White House and Justice Department political involvement.

"Domenici Is So Busted"

More, more, more. Today's articles on the U.S. attorney firing scandal in the Washington Post and the New York Times provide additional revelations about the political nature of the firings and the involvement of Justice Department officials close to Gonzales, was well as then White House Counsel Harriet Miers. Mahablog does a great job of gleaning the facts from both the articles and weaving them into a clear narrative. Under the title, "This is Huge," Mahablog concludes:

A White House document dump has provided new revelations about the U.S. Attorney purge. And the biggest revelation — although not a surprising one — is that the idea to fire U.S. Attorneys and replace them with politically compliant toadies originated in the White House.

On the Domenici angle:

Eggen and Solomon, WaPo:

On the day of the Dec. 7 firings, Miers’s deputy, William Kelley, wrote that Domenici’s chief of staff “is happy as a clam” about Iglesias.

A week later, Sampson wrote: “Domenici is going to send over names tomorrow (not even waiting for Iglesias’s body to cool).”

Domenici is so busted. [emphasis mine]

The New York Times article also reports that Domenici spoke directly to Bush on Iglesias:

Last October, President Bush spoke with Mr. Gonzales to pass along concerns by Republicans that some prosecutors were not aggressively addressing voter fraud, the White House said Monday. Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, was among the politicians who complained directly to the president, according to an administration official.

In following the paper trail, Mahablog reports:

... In early 2005, White House legal counsel Harriet Miers asked D. Kyle Sampson, a justice department official, if it would be feasible to fire and replace all 93 U.S. attorneys. It appears the White House was unhappy with the attorneys because Republicans were alleging widespread voter fraud on the part of Democrats, and the attorneys were unwilling to bring indictments against the Democrats, most probably because the allegations were a fantasy. (Josh Marshall provides an archive of his posts on the voter fraud allegations going back to 2001.)

However, as Johnston and Lipton note, the documentation isn’t clear if the voter fraud issue was the real or only reason.

The documents did not provide a clear motive for the firings. Some suggested that department officials were dissatisfied with specific prosecutors, but none cited aggressive public corruption inquiries or failure to pursue voter fraud cases as an explicit reason to remove them.

As has been widely noted in the recent past, the pattern suggests that the White House and the Republican Party generally have been using the Justice Department as part of their election campaign process. In other words, Karl and Co. have been turning our criminal justice system into a Republican Party machine. [emphasis mine]

Sampson — who resigned yesterday, btw — replied to Miers that filling that many jobs at once would be too big a job. (The Washington Post reports that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the same thing at the time.) Instead, Miers and Sampson began working together on a select list of attorneys to replace. As they did this, Karl Rove and other White House officials helpfully relayed the complaints they were getting from Republican officials about the attorneys’ failure to indict Democrats on voter fraud.

Eggen and Solomon, WaPo (emphasis added):

The e-mails [between Miers and Sampson] show that Rove was interested in the appointment of a former aide, Tim Griffin, as an Arkansas prosecutor. Sampson wrote in one that “getting him appointed was important to Harriet, Karl, etc.”

Sampson sent an e-mail to Miers in March 2005 that ranked all 93 U.S. attorneys. Strong performers “exhibited loyalty” to the administration; low performers were “weak U.S. attorneys who have been ineffectual managers and prosecutors, chafed against Administration initiatives, etc.” A third group merited no opinion.

In January 2006, Sampson sent a first list of attorneys to be fired to the White House. Four of the attorneys who would be fired were on this list: Chiara, Cummins, Lam and Ryan. This list also suggested Tim Griffin be one of the replacements.

Delving into the Iglesias firing, Mahablog says:

Notice this little detail, from Eggen and Solomon:

Iglesias, the New Mexico prosecutor, was not on that list. Justice officials said Sampson added him in October, based in part on complaints from Sen. Pete V. Domenici and other New Mexico Republicans that he was not prosecuting enough voter-fraud cases.

You may remember that in October 2006 — shortly before the elections — Domenici had called U.S. attorney David Iglesias and asked him about the status of an investigation into a Democratic state senator. Domenici also spoke to President Bush. Then Bush spoke to Gonzales “to pass along concerns by Republicans that some prosecutors were not aggressively addressing voter fraud,” Johnston and Lipton write. Thus Iglesias was added to the purge list, even though he had received a “strong performer” rating from Miers and Sampson in the earlier stages of their list-making. [emphasis mine]

No wonder Sen. Domenici hired Duke Cunningham's lawyer on February 28, as soon as he heard about David Iglesias talking to the media about his firing, even though Pete was claiming he had no idea what Iglesias was talking about.

The Mahablog summarizes many more compelling details from the WaPo and Times articles and is definitely worth reading in its entirety. The steady emergence of new facts in this scandal on a daily and sometimes hourly basis can only mean growing legal and ethical problems for Sen. Domenici, Rep. Wilson, Alberto Gonazales, Karl Rove and who knows who else with offices in the White House. I guess Gonzales is rethinking his pronouncement that this is nothing more than "an overblown personnel matter."

NM Domestic Partnership Act to Senate Judiciary TODAY

From Equality New Mexico:
HB 603, the Domestic Partner Rights And Responsibilities Act, is scheduled for the Senate Judiciary Committee TODAY, March 13, 200. Last night, by a vote of 5-4 along party lines, HB 603 finally passed out of Senate Public Affairs. We have one more committee to get through before we are heard on the Senate Floor. HB 603 will be heard tonight, March 13th, in Senate Judiciary. We ABSOLUTELY need as many people there as possible to show our support for this legislation.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to tell exactly what time the Bill will be heard. Therefore, to be safe, we are asking people to show up at 4:00 PM to Room 321 at the Roundhouse for the hearing.  Be prepared to wait around for a while. Only four and a half more days of this, we promise. The national news is already reporting that this legislation has a good chance of passing and that Governor Richardson has promised to sign it. We are so close!

Editor's Note: HB 603 has already passed the NM House of Representatives by a margin of 33-24. Click for contact info on members of the NM Senate Judiciary Committee, who are expected to vote on this bill sometime today, and urge them to vote yes on HB 603. You might also want to contact your Senator and urge their support should the bill gain passage and move to the Senate Floor.

Sen. Leahy to Target Gonzales and White House in Attorney Firings; Key Gonzales Deputy Resigns

According to a post today by Bob Geiger, Sen. Patrick Leahy, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, just issued the following strongly worded statement. In no uncertain terms, Sen. Leahy gives notice that the partisan maneuvers of the White House and the inaccurate statements given under oath by AG Alberto Gonzales related to the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys and other matters will be scrutinized as never before:

"The White House and the Attorney General have dodged Congress’s questions and ducked accountability as if they still were dealing with a rubberstamp Congress. They are discovering that those days are gone.

“I am outraged that the Attorney General was less than forthcoming with the Senate while under oath before the Judiciary Committee. It is deeply disturbing that this plan appears to have originated from high-ranking officials at the White House and executed in secret with a complicit Department of Justice.

“This is not how justice is served, nor is it how our system of checks and balances is designed to work. It is an abuse of power committed in secret to steer certain outcomes in our justice system, and then to dust over the tracks. The President of the United States and the Attorney General are responsible for setting the moral standard for this Administration. Apparently this matter does not bother them but it does bother me, and we will summon whoever we need in our hearings to get to the bottom of this.” [emphasis mine]

Meanwhile, Bloomberg is reporting on the resignation of Gonzales' top aide, and Sen. Schumer's response to the resignation:

The chief aide to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned amid new revelations about the Bush administration's ouster of eight U.S. attorneys.

The Justice Department announced the resignation of Kyle Sampson, who was Gonzales's chief of staff. Sampson may be called to testify by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee who are demanding to know more about the firings. Democrats have likened the dismissals to a political purge.

"U.S. attorneys have always been above politics, and this administration has blatantly manipulated the U.S. attorney system to serve its political needs,'' Senator Charles Schumer of New York said at a news conference in Washington today. Schumer said Sampson's departure "does not take the heat off the attorney general. In fact, it raises the temperature.''

Bloomberg also reports that Sen. Leahy plans to summon Gonzales, Sampson and Harriet Miers to testify saying, "We will have hearings and there will be subpoenas, and people will be under oath." Leahy hasn't yet decided whether or not to summon Karl Rove.

Iraq: Beyond Quagmire

The latest Rolling Stone features a truly frightening story by Tim Dickinson about what's really going on in Iraq and what we can expect in coming weeks and years. Bottom line: no matter what we do, it's going to be a continuing horror show.

The article features the opinions of a long list of diplomatic, counter-terrorism and Iraq experts: Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to President Carter; Richard Clarke, counterterrorism czar from 1992 to 2003; Nir Rosen, author of In the Belly of the Green Bird, about Iraq's spiral into civil war, speaking from Cairo, where he has been interviewing Iraqi refugees; Gen. Tony McPeak (retired), member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War; Bob Graham, former chair, Senate Intelligence Committee; Chas Freeman, Ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War; president of the Middle East Policy Council; Paul Pillar, former lead counterterrorism analyst for the CIA; Michael Scheuer, former chief of the CIA's Osama bin Laden unit; author of Imperial Hubris; and blogger Juan Cole, professor of modern Middle East history at the University of Michigan.

The panel's best-case scenario: civil war in Iraq and a stronger Al Qaeda. Their most-likely scenario: years of ethnic cleansing and war with Iran. Their worst-case scenario: World War III.

Excerpts:

General Tony McPeak: "Even if we had a million men to go in, it's too late now. Humpty Dumpty can't be put back together again ... We're going to see a full-scale intercommunal war that may not burn out until one side is all dead, all gone. The Kurds would like to sit on the sidelines, but I don't see how they stay out, especially up in the Kirkuk area, where they sit on a lot of oil. This is going to be ethnic cleansing like we had in Kosovo or Bosnia -- but written big, in capital letters. And we can't stop it."

Nir Rosen: "There is no best-case scenario for Iraq. It's complete anarchy now. No family is untouched by kidnappings, murders, ethnic cleansing -- everybody lives in a constant state of terror. Leaving aside Kurdistan, which is very different, there's nobody in Iraq who is safe. You can get killed for being a Sunni, for being a Shia, for being educated, for being part of the former regime, for being part of the current regime. The Americans are still killing Iraqi civilians left and right. There's no government in Iraq; it doesn't exist outside of the Green Zone. That's not only the government's fault, that's our fault: We deliberately created a weak government so that we would have final authority over everything in Iraq."

Bob Graham: "This administration seems to be getting ready to make -- at a much more significant, escalated level -- the same mistake we made in Iran that we made in Iraq. If Iraq has been a disaster, this would be multiple times Iraq. The extent to which this could be the horror of the twenty-first century is hard to exaggerate."

Don't you wish we could somehow force every cowering Democrat in Congress to read this piece? Along with every person who thinks impeachment is a joke? How about those who are going about their lives -- or supposedly representing us in the government -- as if it's business as usual?

Many Democrats had a hand in allowing the madmen in this administration to creat this situation. Can we really afford the luxury of allowing these same madmen to take us through the last years of Bush's second term? And what makes anyone think this bunch will actually give up their hold on the imperial presidency ever IF the Congress passes something with teeth to stop the war, or even IF we impeach, or even IF we wait until 2008 to elect a new team? Sometimes it can seem that every road leads to the same horrific place and that it's too late to stop the inevitable no matter what we do. Still, the only hope we have is to try. And keep on trying. Every damned day. Even when we constantly come across more news like this:

Top House Democrats retreated Monday from an attempt to limit President Bush's authority for taking military action against Iran ... Officials said Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of the leadership had decided to strip from a major military spending bill a requirement for Bush to gain approval from Congress before moving against Iran. Conservative Democrats as well as lawmakers concerned about the possible impact on Israel had argued for the change in strategy.

(Updated) Call Your Senator to Support Compromise Wage Hike

UPDATE: I'm moving this up from the comments. Excellent report on Barbara Ehrenreich's appearance this past weekend in Santa Fe. Among other things, she pointed out that a real living wage is at least $13.00 an hour! Now think about Senators trying to freeze the minimum at $7.50 an hour....

From ACORN NM:
On Saturday, the NM House of Representatives passed a compromise minimum wage bill, SB 324, sending it on to the Senate for concurrance. Now there is a move in the Senate to FREEZE wages by eliminating the right of cities to pass local wage ordinances until 2013 -- meaning that wages would almost certainly be frozen at $7.50 until then. We would oppose such a wage freeze and opt to support the Congressional wage increase instead of a state bill that freezes wages until 2013.

The amended House bill offers a compromise by raising the wage to $7.50 by January 1, 2009 and eliminating local control of wage increases (other than in Albuquerque and Santa Fe) until 2010, thereby allowing cities to consider new wage increases the year after the state and the City of Albuquerque reach $7.50.

Call your Senator today: 505-986-4600. Ask them to support the compromise minimum wage bill and oppose removing local control until 2013. We expect a close vote, so call your Senator today.

Playing Catch-Up: Gonzales, Rove, NM Repubs and the Iglesias Scandal

Sheesh, take a couple days off from politics to relax and drive up north into Georgia O'Keeffe country, and the media and blogsphere explode with new revelations about the U.S. Attorney firing scandal. New names in the mix include Karl "Rovesputin" Rove (right), NM Republican Party Chair Allen Weh and assorted New Mexico lawyers of the Republican persusasion. I've been playing catch-up today and I imagine you might be too. Where to speed read for the latest developments? Good places to start are posts on a few of our local political blogs that are chasing this story, including Joe Monahan, and Heath Haussamen.

NM Repub Party Chair Weh Brings Rove Into the Picture
Carpetbagger Report has a good rundown on the weekend's stories about Weh pushing Rove and one of his aides to can Iglesias. Today, the White House admitted Rove's involvement, as reported in another excellent story from McClatchy Newspapers, which original broke the early developments in the scandal:

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Rove had relayed complaints from Republican officials and others to the Justice Department and the White House counsel's office. She said Rove, the chief White House political operative, specifically recalled passing along complaints about former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias and may have mentioned the grumblings about Iglesias to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

We have Weh claiming he whined to Rove deputy Scott Jennings in 2005 and to Rove personally in late 2006 about Iglesias not moving quickly enough on cases of political importance to the NM Republican Party. Rove and the deputy both claim they can't remember Weh talking with them about Iglesias, though they don't dispute the content of the conversations.

Rove reportedly then passed on the complaints about Iglesias to AG Alberto Gonzales, who passed them on to Harriet Meirs, then White House Counsel. Of course there was nothing "political" about any of this. As Gonzales testified under oath to a Senate committee back in January, he would "never" fire U.S. Attorneys for political reasons. No, he was just tending to routine performance reviews and personnel matters, despite the preponderance of glowing reviews in the files of the fired U.S. Attorneys. Oops. House Democrats will definitely be questioning Rove to learn more about his involvement:

Democrats consider Rove the key source for any political interference at the Justice Department because of his role at the center of politics and policy in the White House.

Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., confirmed their plans after McClatchy Newspapers reported Saturday that New Mexico's Republican Party chairman, Allen Weh, had complained to Rove and one of Rove's deputies about Iglesias.

"Mr. Conyers and Ms. Sanchez intend to talk with Karl Rove about any role he may have had in the firing of the U.S. attorneys," Sanchez spokesman James Dau said. "The revelations from Mr. Weh certainly give us something else relevant and salient to talk about."

Today, Sen. Chuck Schumer asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to call on Rove to testify, making this statement:

The more we learn, the more it seems that people at high levels in the White House have been involved in the U.S. Attorney purge... Recent disclosures reveal that Rove talked to the NM State Party Chair Allen Weh before any public announcement of the firing was made and that Rove talked about Mr. Igleisas to the Attorney General and the White House Counsel. While the White House states not incorrectly that someone in Karl Rove’s position might get complaints about U.S. Attorneys, it is almost unheard of for a U.S. Attorney to be fired shortly after such discussions occur, when that US Attorney had received highly favorable reviews and ratings.

Gonzales Next Up in the Hot Seat
Now we've got pressure building for Alberto Gonzales to resign:

In another development, two leading Democrats said Gonzales should resign. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said Gonzales has lost credibility with his handling of the firings, his failure to catch privacy infringements by federal investigators operating under the Patriot Act and other controversies at the Justice Department.

The New York Times editorial board has even come out and called for Alberto's resignation, characterizing him as a "failed attorney general" and concluding that:

He has never stopped being consigliere to Mr. Bush’s imperial presidency. If anyone, outside Mr. Bush’s rapidly shrinking circle of enablers, still had doubts about that, the events of last week should have erased them.

And MyDD reports that national blogs are calling for the impeachment of Gonazales AND Rove.

New Mexico Scene
Talking Points Memo covers the involvement of New Mexico Republicans Pat Rogers and Mickey Barnett in the pressuring of Iglesias. Meanwhile, another McClatchy article entitled, "Firing of U.S. attorneys may be 'enormously problematic' for Republicans," has this to say:

"It would be enormously problematic if, in fact, the Justice Department or the White House were trying to use U.S. attorneys for political purposes," said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia. "The questions are now hanging in the air."

Some Democrats hear echoes of Watergate in the administration's dismissals of the prosecutors ...

A New York Times article examines the shifting political landscape in New Mexico due to the involvement of Rep. Heather Wilson, Sen. Pete Domenici and other locals in the scandal, and provides some background on how Iglesias fell from grace with our state's Republicans.

And an Albuquerque Tribune article considers the possibility that Mr. Iglesias may end up running for Rep. Wilson's or Sen. Domenici's seat -- as a primary challenger within the Republican Party. Now wouldn't that be rich?

(Rovesputin graphic above from darkblack via firedoglake.)

Officer Candidates for State and County Dem Party to Address DPBC Meeting Thursday

From, Marvin Moss, Chair, Democratic Party of Bernalillo County: The regular DPBC Third Thursday Meeting will be held on March 15, at 6:00 PM in Room 2401 at the UNM Law School in Albuquerque and will hear from candidates for State and County Party offices. Click for map. All Democrats are welcome.

State Chair candidates Brian Colon and Michael Olguin, and Bernalillo County Chair candidates Robert Aragon and Ana Canales, will address the Third Thursday meeting. Candidates for the Vice Chair positions will be given an opportunity to introduce themselves. If other candidates for these positions wish to declare, they are welcome to do so at the meeting. Questions from the audience will be entertained.

Democratic Party of Bernalillo County, 1301 San Pedro Dr., NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110, 505-830-3650 ext.22, https://www.bernalillodems.org

Reminder: March 17 Antiwar Protests and Related Events

Check out the Albuquerque March 17 website for everything related to the Albuquerque protest events commemorating the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq occupation. There's also info on additional related events before/after March 17:

• March 14, 6-8 PM, Wednesday, World Social Forum Report Back, SWOP, 820 Broadway Blvd. SE, St. Francis Xavier church. Details
• March 15, 7 PM, Code Pink coffeehouse event: Peace, Protest and Political Poems. Details
• March 17, 1 PM, Sante Fe rally and march, The Roundhouse, NM State Capitol. Details
• March 18, 10 AM - 4 PM, Eyes Wide Open Exhibition of the Human Cost of War, Old Town Plaza, 200 Romero NW. Overview and details
• March 19, 9 AM - 5 PM, Eyes Wide Open Exhibition of the Human Cost of War, Smith Plaza, UNM. Overview and details