Filibusted Judge's Wife a Swift Boats Contributor - Grrrrrrrrrrr!

[Pirate Smile]

Filibusted Judge's Wife a Swift Boats Contributor
by Plutonium Page
Tue May 3rd, 2005 at 13:58:33 PDT

From The Next Hurrah:

Last week I pointed out the irony that one of Bush's filibustered judicial nominees is the son of the former Republican Senator who led the last filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee. Today we'll look at another of Bush's filibustered nominees and his connection to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
Michigan Court of Appeal Judge Henry Saad was nominated in 2001 for the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal. His confirmation was blocked, Bush renominated him, and his appointment is again stalled in the Senate. Saad's wife is Mara Letica, an attorney and vice president of her family business, Letica Corporation. In 1992 she was nominated by the elder Bush as ambassador to Croatia, but the nomination occurred late in Bush's presidency, and like her current husband, she wasn't approved by the Senate, in that case so incoming President Clinton could appoint his own ambassador. In 2004 Letica was one of 105 members of Small Business Leaders for Bush-Cheney '04.

The small business group was not, however, Mara Letica's only contribution to last year's presidential contest. In addition to some contributions to congressional candidates, she gave $25,000 to the Republican National Committee. (Some of her donations were recorded as "Mara Letica," others as "Mara Letica Saad," and her home address on Michigan campaign finance disclosures is identical to Judge Henry William Saad.) While some people may wish that judges and their familes come to the bench having been above partisanship, that's just not a realistic expectation, and probably shouldn't be. But after all the protests by George W. Bush, his campaign and the White House about being shocked--SHOCKED--to learn about the Swifties' scurrulous attacks against John Kerry, and their denials about any associations between the Swifties and the Bushies, some enterprising reporter might want to ask Bush or Scott McLellan or somebody else at the White House what they think about the wife of one of his filibustered judges giving $10,000 to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to help them spread lies about John Kerry's military service in Vietnam.

On August 31st of 2004 Rush Limbaugh said "if you really dig deep, you might find some Clinton PAC money, laundered three or four different ways, found its way to the Swift Vets. But that's just me." As usual, it was just Limbaugh. In reality, you don't even have to dig that deep to find money getting to the Swift Vets straight from the Bloomfield Hills, Michigan home of a filibustered Bush judicial nominee.

Nice job of connecting the dots. Busted, indeed.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/5/3/165833/5890

[CBHagman]

1. Sometimes people are really what you expect them to be.

Somewhere there's a Kerry foe who doesn't prove to be somewhere below the belly of a snake, but I haven't found him/her yet.

Besides, it often seems that everything connected with today's GOP leadership is incestuous to the point of making one's head spin.

[whometense]

3. I hear you.

Feel exactly the same way. I can't wait for the new Vanity Fair to arrive. It looks like the Gannon/Guckert article may tie a few more of those snakes together in a big slithery knot of rethug perfidy.

[TayTay]

2. It's so sad that I'm not surprised

The depth of the Right Wing spin machine is just amazing. This one strata of wingnuts is just so well-connected and keeps popping up everywhere.

On the other hand it can sometimes be an advantage. I heard Howard Fineman on Al Franken today talking about the problems that Tom Delay is having. Fineman said that Delay might be cut adrift from all White House support (and REthug support) soon because his connections with Abramoff are starting to reach into the White House. (something Larissa said not so long ago.) Karl Rove and Cheney have Abramoff connections and the longer that Abramoff pulls on Delay the more risk that those connections are going to get exposed. So for the sake of some WH folks, Delay might just get the ax.

Ah, the wingnut mind in action. Get as much as you can while you can because eventually you will be thrown over board for someone higher up. What a fine and Fristian way to live.