Why now? Whose call was it to have Abramoff plea at this time?

[kentuck]

Just when the light was being shone on the rats in the White House for spying and breaking the laws?
What an opportune time to throw a few friends overboard? But, that's all right. The rats in the White House will be gone soon enough. The rats in the House cannot be gone soon enough. But the spin machine is whirring today. This is as pure a Republican scandal as one could find, yet the media is spinning it as a "bi-partisan scandal". That is the chess move of the day.

[quaoar]

1. Gonna be hard to maintain that 'Democrats are dirty too' spin

unless a Democrat gets indicted or is forced to resign.

But even if that happens, it's still a Republican scandal. Abscam involved congressmen from both parties but it was a Democratic scandal because most of those convicted were Democrats and Democrats were in charge when it went down.

[Trevelyan]

3. Alito on SCOTUS will make prosecution impossible - sign petition pls.

Dear Senator,

President Bush has handed the far-right special interests a special gift by nominating Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Alito's extremist record makes him a threat to civil rights protections, environmental protections, privacy rights, religious freedom, and workers rights.

I ask you to vote not to confirm Samuel Alito to a lifetime position on the Supreme Court of the United States.

http://www.democrats.org/page/petition/rejectalito

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/1/4/82550/12447

HOWARD Dean calls for rejection of Alito (Petition link inside)

[Trevelyan]

2. Just a few of Alice Fisher's Conflicts of Interests - judy miller again

LittleMissRunAMuck

=="The cynic in me say's the only reason they've gone to a plea bargain is that they would just as soon not have a public trial - and they don't intend to pursue much of anything else"

"Abramoff prosecutor has reported ties to DeLay defense"

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/1/4/14339/59110

"Mike Malloy is talking about this RIGHT NOW! He's going BALLISTIC!"

=Bush used a ''recess appointment" Wednesday to name Alice S. Fisher to lead the agency's criminal division. Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, had blocked the nomination because he wants to talk to an agent who named Fisher in an e-mail about allegedly abusive interrogations at the US military prison camp at Guantanamo.

The agent wrote that in weekly meetings with Justice Department officials, ''we often discussed techniques and how they were not effective or producing that was reliable." In the next sentence, the agent said Fisher, then the number two official in the criminal division, was among Justice officials who attended the meetings.

Fisher has said she does not recall participating in the discussions, and Justice officials have said the agent did not intend to say she had. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales declined to let senators
question the agent, saying it would violate longstanding policy.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2... =