More sleaze from the AG files -- Is there anything too low for this administration?

[Tricky]

Two items on CNN today, one new, one old.

The old one (http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/05/15/ashcroft.nsa/index.html)is that according to the former Deputy Attorney General, James Comey the White House sent people (one of whom was Alberto Gonzales) to visit John Ashcroft while he was in the hospital gravely ill, asking him to sign off on wiretappings.

Calling it "the most difficult time in my period of life," Comey discussed publicly for the first time a hospital visit then-White House chief of staff Andrew Card and then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales made to Attorney General John Ashcroft on March 10, 2004.
...
Ashcroft had become sick the week before, and Comey had been designated the acting attorney general.

Comey refused to say publicly that the White House officials came to the hospital to discuss the NSA program. However, government officials previously confirmed to CNN that Comey had "vigorously opposed" aspects of the surveillance program and refused to sign off on its continued use, prompting Card and Gonzales to make the hospital visit.

And the new one (http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/05/15/fired.prosecutors/index.html), Alberto Gonzales blames the newly resigned second-in-command for the firings of the US attorneys.

"The recommendations reflected the views of the deputy attorney general. He signed off on the names," Gonzales said while responding to questions at a forum on the Justice Department's Safer Communities Initiative.

"The deputy attorney general would know best about the qualifications and the experiences of the United States attorneys' community, and he signed off on the names," Gonzales said.

Paul McNulty, the aforementioned resignee in turn blamed Monica Goodling.
McNulty later told the committee that he was not briefed properly before that hearing -- and blamed his testimony on former aide Monica Goodling, who invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination rather than discuss the matter with Congress.

Wow, what a classy organization, top to bottom. I used to think that this administration was coated with a thin layer of slime. I don't think that any more. It is a thick layer. Very thick.

[Kopji]

If a tree falls in the forest and there is nobody around to hear it, did it make a sound? :D

http://forums.randi.org/imagehosting/1061464a62ccb5f45.jpg

[corplinx]

On the McNulty stuff I think you are dead on. However......

The old one is that according to the former Deputy Attorney General, James Comey the White House sent people (one of whom was Alberto Gonzales) to visit John Ashcroft while he was in the hospital gravely ill, asking him to sign off on wiretappings.

Here you are trying too hard. Comey himself made a visit to the hospital to talk to Ashcroft about it as well. (Comey being on the other side of the issue). So was Comey being a douche too? Or did Ashcroft probably have an agreement that they could see him about big national security issues?

[fishbob]

Wow, what a classy organization, top to bottom. I used to think that this administration was coated with a thin layer of slime. I don't think that any more. It is a thick layer. Very thick.

I think it's slime all the way down.

[ponderingturtle]

On the McNulty stuff I think you are dead on. However......



Here you are trying too hard. Comey himself made a visit to the hospital to talk to Ashcroft about it as well. (Comey being on the other side of the issue). So was Comey being a douche too? Or did Ashcroft probably have an agreement that they could see him about big national security issues?

Well comey's claim is that he only went there after refusing to sign it and he found out that Gonzalez was heading there.

[President Bush]

Comey himself made a visit to the hospital to talk to Ashcroft about it as well. (Comey being on the other side of the issue). So was Comey being a douche too?



On Capitol Hill, Comey took pains not to identify what he termed the "classified program" that prompted the race to the hospital. But lawmakers said they believed he was referring to the Terrorist Surveillance Program that the Bush administration secretly launched after the Sept. 11 attacks.

...

A week before the attorney general fell ill, Comey said, he and Ashcroft decided that there were legal problems with the program and that they would oppose recertifying it.

With the program set to expire on March 11, 2004 — and with Ashcroft in the hospital — administration officials approached Comey to get the Justice Department's blessing for reauthorization, but he refused to give it. That touched off the flurry of late-night maneuvering on March 10 that ended up in Ashcroft's hospital room and, later, at the Justice Department and White House.

Comey said he was being driven home when he received a call from Ashcroft's chief of staff, David Ayres. Ayres relayed the fact that Ashcroft's wife, Janet, had just received a call from the White House that Gonzales and then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. were en route to the hospital.

Mrs. Ashcroft was upset because she had forbidden visitors and phone calls; her husband was recuperating from surgery the previous day.

...

Shortly thereafter, Comey said, Gonzales — carrying an envelope apparently containing the presidential spying order — arrived with Card.

"They greeted the attorney general very briefly. And then Mr. Gonzales began to discuss why they were there: to seek his approval for a matter, and explained what the matter was," Comey said.

"And Atty. Gen. Ashcroft then stunned me," Comey continued. "He lifted his head off the pillow and, in very strong terms, expressed his view of the matter, rich in both substance and fact … drawn from the hourlong meeting we'd had a week earlier … and then laid his head back down on the pillow, seemed spent, and said to them, 'But that doesn't matter, because I'm not the attorney general.'

Card and Gonzales then left, he said.

According to Comey, Card called later to angrily demand that he meet him at the White House. "I responded that, after the conduct I had just witnessed, I would not meet with him without a witness," Comey said.

"He replied, 'What conduct? We were just there to wish him well,' " Comey testified. "And I said again, 'After what I just witnessed, I will not meet with you without a witness."


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gonzales16may16,1,5854899.story?page=1&coll=la-headlines-nation


What hasn't been reported was that Washington Post opinion columnist Charles Krauthammer raced to the hospital that evening as well.

For some reason he never ran a column...

GzSw8T70qek

[daredelvis]

On the McNulty stuff I think you are dead on. However......



Here you are trying too hard. Comey himself made a visit to the hospital to talk to Ashcroft about it as well. (Comey being on the other side of the issue). So was Comey being a douche too? Or did Ashcroft probably have an agreement that they could see him about big national security issues?

I was going to post your "nothing to see here" for you last night corpix, but I see that President Bush posted this nasty fact.
Comey said he was being driven home when he received a call from Ashcroft's chief of staff, David Ayres. Ayres relayed the fact that Ashcroft's wife, Janet, had just received a call from the White House that Gonzales and then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. were en route to the hospital.


Kinda sucks the wind right out of your version of the "facts".

To answer the question in the title, no.


Daredelvis

[Darth Rotor]

post.
more detail
To sum up. Comey, as acting AG, refuses Gonzo and Card's request. Gonzo and Card head to hospital, to talk Ashcroft into overruling Comey. Ashcroft responds in force, (in what I presume was a negative) and reaffirms that Comey is acting, and it is Comey's call, and that he will not cut his acting deputy off at the knees.

That seems to be a point in favor of John Ashcroft's integrity.

Did I misread any of that story?

DR

[ponderingturtle]

To sum up. Comey, as acting AG, refuses Gonzo and Card's request. Gonzo and Card head to hospital, to talk Ashcroft into overruling Comey. Ashcroft responds in force, (in what I presume was a negative) and reaffirms that Comey is acting, and it is Comey's call, and that he will not cut his acting deputy off at the knees.

That seems to be a point in favor of John Ashcroft's integrity.

Did I misread any of that story?

DR

Well Ashcroft seems to also have been personally against it, and told people to wait to resign until he was well enough to join them. At least according to the report this morning on NPR.

ANd it is strange thinking of Ashcroft as doing something I agree with.

[bozothedeathmachine]

ANd it is strange thinking of Ashcroft as doing something I agree with.

+1. Am I the only one that feels dirty for actually favoring Ashcroft over Gonzo? I was overjoyed when Ashcroft left. Now this. Stupid karma.

[Darth Rotor]

+1. Am I the only one that feels dirty for actually favoring Ashcroft over Gonzo? I was overjoyed when Ashcroft left. Now this. Stupid karma.

IIRC, John Ashcroft was a prime architect of the Patriot Act, or at least a significant proponent. While he drew the line on this wiretapping deal, he is hardly as pure as driven snow.

But yes, Gonzo has certainly given credence to those who fought his nom as being motivated by other than the usual partisan politics.

DR

[Tricky]

+1. Am I the only one that feels dirty for actually favoring Ashcroft over Gonzo? I was overjoyed when Ashcroft left. Now this. Stupid karma.
Yeah, when we said "Anybody would be better than Ashcroft", Georgie took that as a personal challenge.

[pgwenthold]

One thing seems to missing from the comments here: after Comey (and Ashcroft) refused to endorse the wiretapping plan (which was up for renewal), the White House went ahead and renewed it anyway, despite being told by the Justice Department that it was illegal.

That's why Comey quit. They completely usurped his authority.

[pgwenthold]

What hasn't been reported was that Washington Post opinion columnist Charles Krauthammer raced to the hospital that evening as well.

For some reason he never ran a column...



I hate watching video. Summary?

[President Bush]

I hate watching video. Summary?


A motorcycle crash video which I thought might account for Charles Krauthammer's nose.