It appears that Republicans were playing games with yesterday's hearings

[whistle]

.....calling an end to the hearings after only an hour or so of testimony from Kyle Sampson, Schumer gaveling the hearings to a halt, the witness Kyle Sampson then disappearing for a period or to return for the balance of his testimony producing no fewer than 122 separate responses of "I don't know/I can't remember".

<snip>
Taking One for the Team, When He Could Remember
By Dana Milbank
Friday, March 30, 2007; A02

Kyle Sampson, the former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, was in his fourth hour testifying yesterday about the firing of federal prosecutors when Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy cut him off.

"We've just received word that the Republicans have objected, under the Senate rules, to this meeting continuing," Leahy (D-Vt.) announced before angrily bringing down the gavel.

<.....>

"The purpose is, as they said in 'Dragnet,' just the facts, ma'am," Schumer advised the witness. Sampson, however, was a little fuzzy.

"I can't pretend to know or remember every fact that may be of relevance," he warned at the start -- and he wasn't kidding. He used the phrase "I don't remember" a memorable 122 times.

It may have been a tactical effort to limit his risk of perjury, but Sampson displayed the recall of a man who recently fell off a ladder.

"Since the 2004 election, did you speak with the president about replacing U.S. attorneys?" Leahy asked.

"I don't ever remember speaking to the president after the 2004 election," he said. (He later remembered that he had.) "Did you have further communications with the White House regarding the plan to regard and replace several U.S. attorneys?"

"I don't remember specifically."

"I wish you did remember," Leahy finally said. "I would hope that you would search your memory as we go along."

Sampson searched. He came up empty.

After Schumer elicited three consecutive I-don't-remembers, John Cornyn (R-Tex.) objected to the questioning style.

Leahy overruled him. "We're trying to find what in heaven's name he does remember," the chairman said.

Schumer persisted, eventually asking the witness a question about Rove's role. "I don't remember," Sampson said. "I don't remember anything like that. I don't think so. I don't remember. I don't remember."
<MORE>

http://www.rawstory.com/showoutarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fwp-dyn%2Fcontent%2Farticle%2F2007%2F03%2F29%2FAR2007032901366.html

[kirby]

1. Misleading

".....calling an end to the hearings after only an hour or so of testimony from Kyle Sampson, Schumer gaveling the hearings to a halt, the witness Kyle Sampson then disappearing for a period or to return for the balance of his testimony producing no fewer than 122 separate responses of "I don't know/I can't remember"."

First, it was more than an hour into the testimony. It was well beyond 2 hours, into the afternoon session. Second, it was Leahy, not Schumer. Third he was saying 'I don't know/I can't remember' before the Republican shenanigans.

[whistle]

4. Thank you for clearing up the time-line and players list, and also supporting

...the conclusion that these were "Republican shenanigans" going on both at the hearing and behind the scenes.

Did anyone else notice in the video replays whenever Kyle Sampson offered one of his failed memory responses that the corners of his mouth would strain to keep from breaking into a full smile? In fact a couple of times the stern forced parsing of his mouth seemed to suggest he was focused on controlling not laughing out loud. The guy sure looked and sounded like he was lying a lot IMHO!

[kirby]

9. He reminds me ...

If Limbaugh and Rove had a child, it would look like Sampson, I thought.

[whistle]

11. You mean had their semen commingled during a three way? I suppose

...Maybe though it was more like the Josef Mengele Boys of Brazil breeding experiments to come up with the perfect Nazis. If that is what has been going on, we can take comfort in the fact that such programs never worked, except to produce much evil.

<snip>
November 7, 2006
Human Breeding Experiments Didn’t Work
I love this story in the New York Times that traces the fate of children born from Nazi Germany’s Lebensborn program, intended to breed a Master Race, and reports where they are today. Here’s a brief background: Back when the old scientific consensus supported eugenics, there were two approaches taken to improve the human stock. The first was “positive” eugenics, by which the “fit” were encouraged to breed and multiply abundantly. At the same time, “negative eugenics,” prevented the “unfit” from procreating at all. Negative eugenics led to 65,000 forced sterilizations in the USA, sanctioned by the U.S. Supreme Court in Buck v. Bell (1927), in which Oliver Wendell Holmes infamously wrote, “Three generations of idiots is enough.”

The Times reports on the results of Germany’s positive eugenics policy, in which Aryan-looking women were impregnated by Aryan-looking men (most often, SS officers), toward the end of creating a new Master Race. It turns out that these Lebenborn children ended up as good and decent people–but certainly no indications of their being uber menchen. Indeed, most are deeply ashamed of the circumstances surrounding their conceptions.

I bring this up both because it is an interesting story and because of the relevance of the history of eugenics to us today: First, the scientific consensus is often proved wrong. Second, and more importantly, great harm can be caused when science is transformed into quasi-religion and policies pursued as dogma. Third, we always go badly off the rails when we create hierarchies of human worth. Fourth, eugenics is back–with teeth–due to the potential of genetic engineering, making the consequences that flowed from its first incarnation well worth pondering.

It may be a cliche, but it remains true, nevertheless: We forget the lessons of history at our own peril. If eugenics thinking is allowed out of its cage, it will again lead to the kind of evil that results whenever we reject the principle that human life has equal moral value simply and merely because it is human.

http://bioethicsnews.com/2006/11/07/human-breeding-experiments-didnt-work/

[Robbien]

10. Lying is an everyday sport for Bushies. That is why so many call it a culture.

Karl Junior was having fun lying, just as Doan was the day before.

They are the GOP.

[mediaman007]

2. Speaks well of the University of Chicago Law School and who they admit...

and who they graduate!

I can't understand how a bunch of 30-somethings are running our justice system!

[wordpix]

3. you can't understand? These are wide-eyed bush-babies, that's why they're running DOJ!

They kowtow to BushCo. End of subject. :grr:

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

6. They chose those 30-somethings...

Because they would be good soldiers and idealogues. They would do whatever was wanted and some of what hadn't even been considered. Yet.They had much in the way of motivation but little wisdom.

Just the kind of people you want and need when you want to create a police state.

[bdamomma]

5. Sampson just wasted everyone's time, with his "I don't recall"

statements, geez, if he was that incapable to remember anything why was he put in that position. unbelieveable, again using bush loyalists to do dodge questions and do bush/rove/cheney dirty work.

[whistle]

7. Because Kyle Sampson was put up there perhaps by Karl Rove

....to create diversion, distraction, sow doubt and throw a cloud of uncertainty over the hearings and the investigations. I think he should be charged with contempt of congress!

He brought six lawyers to the hearing, but not one document, not one piece of new evidence, not one further insight to what was going on regarding the firings of the eight U.S. attorneys.

[bdamomma]

8. Kyle Sampson, just a little unqualified boy.

all these guys are pre adolescent, like Mike Malloy said last nite, their testicles have not grown!!!