It turns out, contrary to what Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other Justice Department officials told Congress, that the White House was involved in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. Big surprise.
Presidential adviser Karl Rove fielded a politically motivated complaint about one of the fired attorneys and participated in some discussions about firing attorneys. President Bush passed on complaints about some attorneys to Gonzales last October, shortly before seven of the attorneys were asked to resign. And former White House counsel Harriet Miers (in photo) recommended in February 2005 that all 93 U.S. attorneys be dismissed and replaced, the Washington Post reported.
Gonzales rejected Miers’ idea as impractical and too disruptive. But his chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, who resigned Monday, wrote to Miers in January 2006 that a "limited number of U.S. attorneys could be targeted for removal and replacement, mitigating the shock to the system that would result from an across the board firing."
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Presidential historian Michael Beschloss (in photo) sees a valuable lesson in the problematic wars since World War II — the last time a president followed the constitutional instruction to go to Congress for a declaration of war. Without such a congressional declaration, he said Sunday on NBC’s "Meet the Press": "We often don’t have a full debate before the war begins. And the result is, I think, these wars are not fought as well as they would be if a president did what the Constitution says, which is go to Congress, have a big debate, let the public understand what this might mean, what it might cost them. And the result, I think, would be that wars are fought more effectively and the public would be more willing to be with a president over the long run."
Posted by Rhonda Holman
“American conservatism is a house divided against itself,” wrote Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson. “It applauds the radicalism of the economic changes of the past four decades — the dismantling, say, of the American steel industry (and the job and income security that it once provided) in the cause of greater efficiency. It decries the decline of social and familial stability over that time — the traditional, married working-class families, say, that once filled all those churches in the hills and hollows in what is now the smaller, post-working-class Pittsburgh.
“Problem is, disperse a vibrant working-class community in America and you disperse the vibrant working-class family.
“Which is how American conservatism became the primary author of the very social disorder that it routinely rails against, and that Republicans have the gall to run against.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, who was appointed in January to a House task force to study whether an independent ethics panel is needed, is strongly opposed to the idea, saying that such a panel could be manipulated for partisan purposes, according to the Hill.
“Should we let MoveOn.org decide who to investigate?” Tiahrt asked. He went on say that wrongdoers are being caught and sentenced. “The system is working,” he declared.
But is the system working when former Rep. Mark Foley’s sexual obsession with pages is common knowledge but goes unaddressed for years by House leaders?
The House Ethics Committee’s independence and integrity will get a new test with the unfolding furor over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, allegedly for political reasons.
One of those attorneys, John McKay, was fired after he refused to intervene in an election recount case in Washington state. He had received a call from the staff of Rep. Doc Hastings, who is the ranking Republican on the House Ethics Committee.
Calls by members of Congress to influence U.S. attorneys are considered unethical. If anyone should have known that, it was Hastings. But there’s no move in the committee to investigate him.
“This case points to everything that is wrong with the ethics process,” said Mary Boyle of the watchdog group Common Cause.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Former Sen. Bob Dole deftly dodged his opportunity to endorse his successor, Sam Brownback, for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination Sunday on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.” When asked whether he has a candidate yet in 2008, Dole said: “We have a Kansas senator running for president, Sam Brownback. But, you know, there are — I’m a great, good friend of John McCain’s, and I don’t know (Rudy) Giuliani quite that well, or Mitt Romney. But how convenient — we have a lot of candidates. . . .” Dole’s sole praise was for former Sen. Fred Thompson: “He’d be a very exciting, interesting candidate.”
Dole saved his best line for the question about whether Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee: “I thought so, and I still think so. But, you know, I would have bet the farm on it two months ago. Now I think I’ll just maybe hedge a bit and bet, you know, part of the farm, maybe the barn, the house, not the whole farm.”
Meanwhile, former Kansas Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker reportedly is supporting John McCain for the nomination, according to her husband, former Tennessee Sen. Howard Baker.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The Swedish furniture company IKEA is charging customers at its U.S. stores 5 cents for a plastic bag in which to carry their purchases home. The company is hoping that other retailers will follow their lead.
When the charge for bags was introduced at their Great Britain stores, bag use dropped by 95 percent. IKEA says that 70 million bags are used by its U.S. stores alone. More than 100 billion plastic bags are thrown away each year in the United States, according to Worldwatch Institute.
IKEA is offering alternatives. For 59 cents, customers can purchase a large blue plastic bag, which can be reused 1,000 times, or they can bring their own bag.
Although thin plastic bags are offered free by most stores, the hidden costs are high when you consider the numbers of bags that are produced on a yearly basis — not to mention the emissions released during their manufacture, the degradation they can cause to aquatic wildlife habitat and, oh, yes, the amount of coal, petroleum or natural gas used as the raw materials to make them.
Posted by Patrice Hein
