Larisa Alexandrovna: Constitutional Crisis? Way Beyond That Now

[Hissyspit]

http://www.atlargely.com/2007/04/constitutional_.html

Constitutional Crisis: Way beyond that now

I am not sure what else to call this latest revelation from the Washington Post (albeit buried), but see how far down past a Constitutional Crisis we are in:

"A fourth adviser -- Sampson -- had an even more influential position. He was in charge of U.S. attorney selections in the White House counsel's office and later at Justice, where he eventually became Gonzales's chief of staff. Sampson also coordinated the firings, and last month he resigned as the controversy swelled.

Sampson sought to be a U.S. attorney, too, and he was the administration's preferred choice last year to be chief prosecutor in his native Utah. But he was nudged aside for another GOP lawyer, Brett L. Tolman, who was favored by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). Tolman was counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee in late 2005 when, at Justice's request, he had language inserted into USA Patriot Act legislation that allowed Gonzales to circumvent Senate confirmation by appointing interim U.S. attorneys indefinitely. Congress is in the process of repealing the provision."

Thanks to KoKo for pointing this out. So, Senator Hatch helped fix the patriot act so his man could then be appointed as a US attorney? But wait, not only did Gonzales work with Hatch to insert this language into the Patriot Act, they are both working extra hard to cover it up.

I have to ask, because frankly this boggles the mind: what kind of staffer earns such devotion as to require this kind of corrupt and likely criminal activity? And you know, when things perplex me, such as this, I have to dig and see what the story is. I have to ask, what is in it for Senator Hatch? Don't you have that same question?

[keopeli]

1. So, that's why we see Orin Hatch crawl out of his closet all of a sudden.

Hatch got his guy in over Sampson by giving Gonzales the power to ignore the Senate. Hatch is the one who got the language into the Patriot Act.

Did Sampson quitting have anything to do with sour grapes? He certainly is getting the short end of the deal.

Well, it seems certain that this brawl is happening behind closed doors. Hatch has been given a warning for seceding the Senates power to Bush and the Gonzales. Hatch is a safe seat - so other heat must be applied. Hmmm...

There are people who know exactly what happened when Leahy found out what Hatch had done. I hope we learn about it some day.

Peace

[Lasher]

4. Specter got the blame but probably didn't know about the coup.

I think you're right, Hatch must have known. Specter has come out against the Patriot Act provision in question. Hatch has been defending the whole mess as 'nothing to see here' and 'Boo hoo, this is a mean old witch hunt'. Makes him look guilty as hell. I was shocked to see Tim Russet kicking Hatch's ass on the subject yesterday on Press the Meat.

On Feb. 6, when the Senate held hearings on the issue of prosecutorial independence, former judiciary committee Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., proudly claimed to have been as clueless as the rest of us. Denying New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer's claim that he or his staff had "slipped the new provision into the Patriot Act in the dead of night," Specter asserted, "The first I found out about the change in the Patriot Act occurred a few weeks ago when Sen. Feinstein approached me on the floor."

Specter added that he only looked into how the provision was altered after Feinstein told him about it. As he explained, "I then contacted my very able chief counsel, Michael O'Neill, to find out exactly what had happened. And Mr. O'Neill advised me that the requested change had come from the Department of Justice, that it had been handled by Brett Tolman, who is now the U.S. attorney for Utah, and that the change had been requested by the Department of Justice because there had been difficulty with the replacement of a U.S. attorney in South Dakota."

http://www.slate.com/id/2161260

Sampson was Speedy's Chief of Staff in the DoJ. Tolman had spent the previous three years working for the Senate Judiciary Committee staff. Apparently it was these two who conspired with Specter's chief counsel, Michael O'Neill, to slip the provision in. The White House wanted to reward their boy Sampson with the Utah US attorney job but Hatch managed to give that prize to his key conspirator.

If I were Specter I would be somewhat annoyed at O'Neill for being complicit in the Tolman/Sampson scheme, and/or for stupidly allowing himself - and therefore Specter - to be taken for a ride.

[Hissyspit]

5. "Press The Meat"

Heh.

[Lasher]

6. I didn't invent it. I saw it here at DU and have used it ever since.

Did you notice I misspelled Russet's name? I do that intentionally. Get it?

[Hissyspit]

7. Doesn't matter. You spelled it Russet, but I read "Tweety"

Although Russert gets on my nerves more than Matthews.

"It's spelled Raymond Luxury Yacht, but it's pronounced Throatwobbler Mangrove."

[DemReadingDU]

12. Maybe this is why Sampson was willing to testify

Sampson wanted the U.S. Attorney position, but Hatch via Gonzales gave it to Tolman. So Sampson testifying, is letting the cat out of the bag. Seems like a similar situation when Brownie testifed about Katrina.

[shance]

2. How many military bases have been built now by Halliburton with our taxpayer dollars?

While our education systems and healthcare and homeowner institutions are intentionally destroyed/dismantled?

Don't believe it? Look at those wonderful gas prices you're paying.

[Bitwit1234]

3. I think the bush administration was intentionally trying to overthrow

the government and have a dictatorship. If you look at all the things they have done and are trying to do. They have privatized about half of the government departments. They have built an army of mercenaries. They have created chaos over the middle east. They have dumbed down the schools. They have cut the wages and benefits for the middle class. Thereby trying to create a void for contributions to the democrats. Every single solitary thing they have done is to build a secret government and army.

[emanymton]

8. Keep This Kind Of Talk Up And You Will Be Making ...

confessions at Guantanamo Bay.

Agree with you. This is where it is all heading. The only real question is when?

[hwmnbn]

9. I watched Meet the Press....

and Hatch became very excited. He lost his cool, mixed his metaphors, and raised his voice. Methinks he doth protest too much.

He went ballistic under questioning. At the time it felt very strange

[PA Democrat]

10. Anyone catch the rumor about Hatch being nominated to be Gonzo's replacement

as Attorney General? It came up on Meet the Press yesterday.

[DemReadingDU]

11. I saw that!

At the time, I thought it odd. But it makes a bit more sense now.

[PA Democrat]

13. I guess the lesson to be learned is that "loyal Bushies" will be well rewarded. n/t

[Hissyspit]

14. .

[ToeBot]

15. I would point you to Hatch's business dealings...

No not his (laughable) music endeavors; I hear he's involved with the Herb trade. He's already attempted influence the legal situation of Herb peddlers - He was instrumental in getting David Kessler appointed to head up the FDA (guess that one didn't work out so well). He is also credited with loosening advertising restrictions regarding what advertisers can claim about the efficacy of their products. Yes, he's the reason everyone has to endure those wretched penis enlargement commercials. I'm sure there are many and varied reasons to want 'your man' in the prosecutors chair, but I'm not sure exposing them would do much good. The 'good' people of Utah will never vote him out of office.

[leveymg]

16. Hatch resigned as Judic. Comm Chair after his aides were caught wiretapping Democrats

Hatch is unlikely to be confirmed if he's picked to take Gonzo's place as AG. Remember this story?:

ANNALS OF GOP SPYING: The Senate e-mail Hack & Leak
by leveymg
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/3/9/112130/2397
Thu Mar 09, 2006 at 08:21:30 AM PDT

A response to today's Diary by "Daisy Cutter", Is Bush Spying on His Political Opponents? caught my eye. http://www.dailykos.com/...

"Wary" reminds us of an example of Republican political spying that was kept so quiet by the mass media that you probably never heard about it. In November 2003, GOP staff to Senator Hatch, then the Chair of the Judiciary Committee, intercepted and leaked the e-mails of Democratic members. For reasons that weren't made clear, Hatch gave up that powerful post and Arlen Specter took over the Chair.

In addition to fact that this tawdry incident of political spying was all but ignored by most papers, there is a very familiar side to the story -- Robert Novak picked up the story, and spun it in his November 29, 2003 column.

There is a persistent M.O. to these GOP dirty-tricks. Plamegate wasn't the first hack and leak attack, and since passage of Patriot-2 gives the White House even more power to conduct warrantless surveillance, it likely won't be the last.

MORE Below . . .

[pat_k]

17. No crisis. Just impeach. It's the Constitutional means of. . .

. . .enforcing the dictates of our Constitution. Very simple.

Impeachment is NOT a "Constitutional Crisis." It is the political process by which we -- through our representatives in Congress -- withdraw our consent for whatever reasons we deem it necessary.¹ It is the means by which those we elect to represent us fulfill their oath to defend our Constitution against attacks that come from within the Halls of Power.

The only crisis is the stubborn and irrational refusal of Members of the House to do their duty by standing up, telling the truth, and doing what that truth demands of them (i.e., impeach Bush and Cheney).

From day the felonious five on the Supreme Court violated the principle of consent -- the sole moral principle on which the Constitution, and therefore the nation rests -- to install Bush in the executive office, the Constitution has been in breach.

Since that day, it has been obvious to an ever increasing number of Americans that Bush and Cheney are advancing a relentless campaign to turn the American presidency into an Un-American and Unconstitutional unitary authoritarian executive with unbounded power. Like squatters, they are trespassing in plain sight. They are laying claim to unconstitutional power through openly hostile possession. Members of Congress, who we empowered and charged with the duty of evicting (impeaching) such trespassers, are refusing to act.

By refusing to stand up for We the People, the true owners of this nation, Members of Congress have created a national crisis graver than any natural disaster or social ill. It is bigger than any international crisis. By tolerating the intolerable, they are surrendering our capacity to recover from disaster with humanity, solve our common problems in ways that reflect our common values, and serve as a force for good in the world. When the good will of the American people is cut out of the loop, no peoples, not our fellow Americans, not other nations, can look to us for help.

___________________________________________

1. GQ, March 2007
   The People v. Richard Cheney
   Wil S. Hylton
   
   When the Founding Fathers crafted the U.S. Constitution, they wanted to be sure that the president, vice president, and other ranking officials could be evicted more easily than the British monarchy. To ensure that the process would be swift and certain, they made it simple: Only two conditions must be met. First, a majority of the House of Representatives must agree on a set of charges; then, two-thirds of the Senate must agree to convict. After that, there is no legal wrangling, no appeal to a higher authority, no reversal on technical grounds. There is not even a limit on what the charges may be. As the Constitution describes it, the cause may be “treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors,” but even these were left deliberately vague; as Gerald Ford once pointed out while still serving in the House of Representatives, the only real definition of an "impeachable offense" is "whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history."
   
   http://men.style.com/gq/features/full?id=content_5402">More. . .

[Hissyspit]

18. .