The Pony Express passes Walter Reed

Whether you are in the field, deployed, or at a Temporary Duty Station the biggest morale booster is always mail call. In basic training, mail call signaled the end of a long and stressful day, and was our only contact with the outside world. The same holds true for deployments and other military duties.

Getting mail from loved ones is always a morale boost.

The Strib has a story today that is disturbing on many levels.

Soldiers at Walter Reed were not receiving their mail.

The Army said Friday that it has opened an investigation into the recent discovery of 4,500 letters and parcels -- some dating to May 2006 -- at Walter Reed that were never delivered to soldiers.

And it fired the contract employee who ran the mailroom.

Recall that it was Donald Rumsfeld who had a fetish to privatize most activities at Walter Reed.

I would hope that the investigation includes whether or not outgoing mail was impacted as well.

Finding out that these problems were because of a privatized mail room are even more disturbing. My old Bradley Driver, Matt Maley, ended up in the mail room while we were in Germany, because of an injury and surgery. I remember the vetting process to get him in there as well as the intimidating stature of those in charge of the mail room.

Accountability was there.

In the Bush Whitehouse, accountability is a 20 point word in Scrabble. Hence, problems with US Attorney's, no-bid contracts, access to Veterans care when VA members are getting $30,000 bonuses...and on and on and on.

2006 marked the time when Americans were sick of political leaders marching carte blanche across the Bill of Rights and our Constitution. Scandals like Walter Reed and the US Attorney dealings may not have come to light without the 2006 Democrat victories and a resurgence of democracy.

2008 looks to be a continuance of the 2006 trends towards holding out elected leaders accountable.

I sure hope Congress doesn't mail subpoena's over to Walter Reed...

Coleman draws national attention with Paulose case

Think Progress has a national spin on Coleman's flip flop on US Attorney Rachel Paulose.

However Minnesota Campaign Report has an even better local perspective on the issue!

Senator Coleman had plenty of opportunity to review Paulose's
qualifications before helping push her from "interim" to
"Senate-confirmed". She has a glossy legal resume -- Dorsey and Whitney,
Department of Justice -- but is that resume thick? Precedent says that
even Assistant U.S. Attorneys should have several years of jury trial experience
before being considered for a job. Did Paulose have such pointed
experience that it warranted a catapult shot to the front of the class?

This question doesn't address the management aspect of being a U.S.
Attorney. As reported, the mass resignations were caused mainly by
Paulose's management style (or lack thereof). Where in her resume did it
say she had experience in a legal management environment? Three months
serving under Alberto Gonzales and Paul McNulty at the DoJ? That's it?

Rachel Paulose's failings are her own, and we will learn more about
them in the coming weeks. But don't let Norm Coleman off the hook,
either. He had at least nine months to review Paulose's experience for all
aspects of the job into which she was thrust. Being disappointed in her
performance doesn't absolve the Senator from his responsibility for helping
confirm her appointment.

Senator Coleman should assume that responsibility, and accept that it
is himself, and not only Paulose, in whom he should be disappointed.

And we have more from the diaries at Minnesota Campaign Report. This work by mswsm asks some very important questions, including Paulose's campaign contributions to Senator Coleman totalling $1500, $1000 after she secured his support.

As this scandal unfolds, should Coleman return this money?

Minnesota's US Attorney Office under fire too

While it's been covered at all the good lefty blogs across Minnesota, Think Progress and Wonkette have picked this story up as well.

According to news reports, the staffers’ dramatic moves were “intended to send a
message to Washington — that 33-year-old Paulose is in over her head.” The Bush
administration tried to prevent the resignations by sending a “top justice
official to Minneapolis Thursday to mediate the situation. The mediation
failed.”

Do they have a fueled jet just waiting to intervene now? Wow...this is going to get ugly!

Pelosi transcripts vs. Rove transcripts

I think Bachmann will host Jason Lewis's show tonight. Former US Senator Rod Gramms was on yesterday and almost unbearable.

This woman from Delano called in and was whining incessantly about Speaker Pelosi's trip to the Middle East. She demands transcripts of the conversations she is having with world leaders.

Tell you what, I'll agree to this.

We'll give you a transcript.

Allow transcripts in White House staffers and leadership testimony before Congress.

I'd rather know what's going on in our own White House with regards to the Judiciary scandal and the inside baseball knowledge than what Speaker Pelosi and Rep Ellison talked about with the Syrian President.

Seriously, Republicans want transcripts for these conversations yet want to protect their own from transcripts in Congressional testimony?

Liar, Liar II: Starring the Republican Party and Justice Department

Listening to the radio on the way home from work, I heard some of the testimony from Kyle Sampson, former Chief of Staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Seems that the Attorney General has lied about his involvement in the US Attorney's firings. Most of us figured that was coming.

What I found to be interesting though was Sampson's testimony about one former Attorney.

Carol Lam was one of the eight that were fired, mostly for "performance reasons". Yesterday, Sampson testified under oath that Lam was fired because of her ineptness in prosecuting immigration cases.

Interesting. Senator Feinstein has the Mother of all Letters of Commendation waiting for Sampson.

According to the director of field operations of the United States Customs and Border Protection Agency, Lam had been a highly effective prosecutor.

To address the alien enforcement issue, your office supported the implementation of the Alien Smuggling Fast Track Program, and has demonstrated a commitment to aggressively address the alien smuggling recidivism rate.

In support of Border Patrol referrals for prosecution, your office maintains a 100 percent acceptance rate of criminal cases while staunchly refusing to reduce felony charges to misdemeanors and maintaining a minimal dismissal rate and supporting special prosecution efforts.

100% acceptance rate by the US Customs and Border Protection Agency and she was deficient on immigration issues?

The deeper the Democrats dig on this issue, the more skeletons they will find. It truly is the tip of the iceberg here.

Strib Commentary: Why seven prosecuters and I were fired

David Iglesias, a fired Federal Prosecuter/US Attorney, has a commentary on why his and the other firings occurred.

U.S. attorneys have a long history of being insulated from politics. Although we receive our appointments through the political process (I am a Republican who was recommended by Sen. Pete Domenici), we are expected to be apolitical once we are in office.

I will never forget John Ashcroft, then the attorney general, telling me during the summer of 2001 that politics should play no role during my tenure. I took that message to heart. Little did I know that I could be fired for not being political.

Iglesias talks about the phone calls...

Politics entered my life with two phone calls that I received last fall, just before the November election. One came from Rep. Heather Wilson and the other from Domenici, both Republicans from my state, New Mexico.

Wilson asked me about sealed indictments pertaining to a politically charged corruption case widely reported in the news media involving local Democrats. Her question instantly put me on guard. Prosecutors may not legally talk about indictments, so I was evasive. Shortly after speaking to Wilson, I received a call from Domenici at my home. The senator wanted to know whether I was going to file corruption charges -- the cases Wilson had been asking about -- before November. When I told him that I didn't think so, he said, "I am very sorry to hear that," and the line went dead.

A few weeks after those phone calls, my name was added to a list of U.S. attorneys who would be asked to resign -- even though I had excellent office evaluations, the biggest political corruption prosecutions in New Mexico history, a record number of overall prosecutions and a 95 percent conviction rate. (In one of the documents released this week, I was deemed a "diverse up and comer" in 2004. Two years later I was asked to resign with no reasons given.)

The Senator called this US Attorney at his home, in an obvious attempt to manipulate a Federal Prosecuter, asking about corruption charges.

Anyone else see the irony there?

This scandal is not going away anytime soon.

Tony Snow: Flip Flopper

I heard these quotes yesterday while I was trekking across the Twin Cities, I am glad that Think Progress has picked up on this.

When Democrats control Congress

There’s another principle, which is Congress doesn’t have the legislative — I mean oversight authority over the White House. [CNN, 3/22/07]
First, the White House is under no compulsion to do anything. The legislative branch
doesn’t have oversight. [MSNBC, 3/22/07]
Congress doesn’t have any legitimate oversight and responsibilities to the White House. [Fox, 3/22/07]

When Republican's controlled Congress

QUESTION: What is the president’s opinion of a request by Republican leaders in the House to launch an investigation of Sandy Berger’s involvement in the removal of classified documents from the National Archives?

SNOW: There were questions last week, about investigations involving Republican members. Members of Congress have their own oversight obligations. They may proceed as they wish. They’re a separate and co-equal branch of government and I’m not going to tell them what they can and can’t do. [Briefing, 10/16/06]

The 08 elections cannot come quick enough...

Activist Judges=Bad

Activist US Attorney's=Good

Depending on who appointed them.

Last summer, we heard Congresswoman Bachmann and Mark Kennedy talk about activist judges and their nefarious plot to ensure that abortion is widely available and that same sex marriage would be legal, thus eroding the sanctity of marriage.

It was fun calling both the campaign offices of Congresswoman Bachmann and Mark Kennedy, asking for them to give me the name of an activist judge.

The silence was deafening.

Right wing pundits like Jason Lewis and Sean Hannity hammer home the fact that Bill Clinton fired all 93 US Attorney's in his first term. Lewis went so far as to allege that Clinton fired them all to cover up the fact that he wanted to fire the Little Rock Arkansas US Attorney, who had been investigating Clinton.

As Ed Schultz says, the righties have gone to "Rule #2 in the playbook, blame Bill Clinton".

Many of us are pissed off that 8 US Attorney's were fired without cause, other than the fact that they would not persecute Democrats, held true to standard jurisprudence, and upheld the rule of law, regardless of political affiliation.

I'm more concerned about the other 85 that are "doing a good job", following the Bush and neo-con GOP plan to an end.

When US Senator's start calling US Attorney's and attempt to get their opponents investigated, we have a serious problem in the judiciary.

Subpoena all those sons of bitches, put them all under oath and figure out what is really going on here.

It's sad that when I utter the words "Justice Department" I actually use the little quote's above my head...sad and very scary!