Iglesias Might Get His Wish, Goodling Gets Immunity

You can see here that one of the victims of U.S. Attorney-gate, David Iglesias discussed that the key to breaking the scandal wide open is to get Monica Goodling to talk. She pleaded the 5th a few weeks ago so she wouldn't expose herself to her actions that violated the law concerning the White House and the Justice Department. What she knows is extremely important.



Now Goodling was given immunity by Congress today. A few Republicans on the House Justice Committee tried to deny the immunity grant, but more than two-thirds of the committee allowed it to pass. With her testimony given under oath, she can finally come clean without fear of being held in contempt by Congress. She does indeed hold the keys to kingdom, and hopefully, to Alberto Gonzales' demise along with anyone in the White House who was connected to the scandal.

It Was Against The Law

Those words aren't just a line in a Simon and Garfunkel song, they are the actions of the Bush Adminstration in the U.S. Attorney scandal that is plaguing our nation. The Department of Justice and consequently the White House continues to boast that the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys was perfectly justifiable because they serve at the 'pleasure of the President.'

The only problem with that statement is in how they were removed. Most people know by now that these attorneys were looking into cases of corruption perpetrated by Republicans in office or not looking at certain Democrats that Republicans like Pete Domenici and Heather Wilson slyly asked U.S. Atty David Iglesias about.

A New York Times editorial looks into the matter:

The Bush administration has done a terrible job of explaining its decision to fire eight United States attorneys. Story after story has proved to be untrue: that the prosecutors who were fired were poor performers; that the White House was not involved in the purge. But the administration has been strangely successful in pushing its message that the scandal is at worst a political misdeed, not a criminal matter.

It is true, as the White House keeps saying, that United States attorneys serve “at the pleasure of the president,” which means he can dismiss them whenever he wants. But if the attorneys were fired to interfere with a valid prosecution, or to punish them for not misusing their offices, that may well have been illegal.

In law schools, it is common to give an exam called the “issue spotter,” in which students are given a set of facts and asked to identify all the legal issues and possible crimes. The facts about the purge are still emerging. But based on what is known — and with some help from Congressional staff members and Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University — it was not hard to spot that White House and Justice Department officials, and members of Congress, may have violated 18 U.S.C. §§ 1501-1520, the federal obstruction of justice statute.

As we continue to hear snippets of information about the scandal, it seems that as more details come out, the evidence becomes increasingly damning against the DoJ and their superiors in the White House. Ultimately, we should not only call for the impeachment of Alberto Gonzales, but for the heads of all the perpetrators inside and out of the White House who tried to stop justice from coming to their 'friends.'

Rove Took Care Of The 'Problem'

In an interview with the McClatchy Newspapers, Allen Weh, the party chairman of the New Mexico GOP had asked Karl Rove to dispose of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias because he was not prosecuting Democrats over a possible voter fraud incident. This poses a big problem to the White House and the Justice Department because so far they have claimed no involvement in the purge other than selecting the new attorneys.

From McClatchy:

In an interview Saturday with McClatchy Newspapers, Allen Weh, the party chairman, said he complained in 2005 about then-U.S. Attorney David Iglesias to a White House liaison who worked for Rove and asked that he be removed. Weh said he followed up with Rove personally in late 2006 during a visit to the White House.

"Is anything ever going to happen to that guy?" Weh said he asked Rove at a White House holiday event that month.

"He's gone," Rove said, according to Weh.

"I probably said something close to 'Hallelujah,'" said Weh.

Weh's account calls into question the Justice Department's stance that the recent decision to fire Iglesias and seven U.S. attorneys in other states was a personnel matter - made without White House intervention. Justice Department officials have said the White House's involvement was limited to approving a list of the U.S. attorneys after the Justice Department made the decision to fire them.

Now we have more damning evidence that the White House was personally involved and that Gonzales, having known the full story of the matter, did in fact lie to Congress when he said that the firings were not political. On top of this confession, we also have Rep. Heather Wilson and Sen. Pete Dominici admitting to talking to Iglesias about prosecuting certain political cases last year right before the midterm elections. As the pieces of the puzzles continue to fall in place, it is becoming crystal clear that there was serious foul play involved, from the White House on down to the state party apparatus.

U.S. Attorney Scandal Testimony

From the Senate proceedings on Monday, here are a few good clips of the witnesses answering key questions as to whether it was legitimate that Heather Wilson, Pete Domenici, et al. called the attorneys about their corruption cases regarding Democrats last year. Although the former U.S. Attorneys tried to play it cool since they were appointed by the Bush Adminstration, certain questions from Senators Schumer and Whitehouse helped reveal just how wrong the Republicans' actions were.

The Next Republican Ethics Scandal

This isn't about instant messages with Congressional pages one-third your age, what is happening in D.C. tomorrow pertains to something much more serious. Recently several U.S. Attorneys were fired from their positions by the Bush Adminstration, who justified the decision based on performance levels. However, all of them had performed quite well in recent reports.

Now one of these attorneys is pissed off enough to go to Congress and name names. David Iglesias worked in the New Mexico office and claims that the elected officials from his state pressured him to lay off Republicans under investigation and go after Democrats instead before the elections last November. Those officials (Republicans obviously) were Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson. At first they denied ever talking to him, but with the Congressional testimony expected tomorrow, their lips are beginning to loosen a bit.

From the Washington Post:

Iglesias, one of seven U.S. attorneys fired by the Justice Department on Dec. 7, is expected to tell Congress today that Wilson and Domenici were trying to sway the course of his investigation. Domenici acknowledged Sunday that he called Iglesias about the corruption case but said he did not pressure him. The telephone calls to Iglesias by Domenici and Wilson appear to put them in conflict with congressional ethics rules that bar contacts with federal agency officials during most active investigations.

The furor over Domenici and Wilson has rapidly become the focus of the dispute over the firings of eight U.S. attorneys and a change in law that allows Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to appoint interim prosecutors for an indefinite period of time. The Justice Department has said that seven of the prosecutors were dismissed for failing to follow Bush administration policy on multiple issues, and acknowledged that one was sacked to make way for an ally of White House political adviser Karl Rove.

If the White House is willing to admit to one story of political payoffs, you know the truth is far uglier. Most likely, all eight were let go because they did not respect the most sacred of qualities in the Bush Adminstration, loyalty. Whatever you do, do not trye to hold the government that appointed you responsible for their actions. Whether it is people within the White House or friends like Duke Cunningham, those looking for justice will be extrapolated from their positions.

Be sure to watch out for Iglesias' testimony tomorrow, this thing may go all the way to the top. From Wilson and Domenici to AG Alberto Gonzales and President Bush, the corruption that exists in the Republican machine must be brought out to face the full power of the law, that law that Bush and his cronies have worked so hard to avoid.