White House Impeding Payolagate Investigation

No shocker here. The White house is not eager to show just how far down the rabbit hole goes:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration is impeding an investigation into the Education Department's hiring of commentator Armstrong Williams by refusing to allow key White House officials to be interviewed, a Democratic lawmaker briefed on the review said Thursday.

In addition, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., said Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is considering invoking a privilege that he said would require information to be deleted when the final version is publicly released, which is expected within days.

Miller called for Jack Higgins, the inspector general at the Education Department, to delay the report until Spellings agrees not to invoke "deliberative process privilege" and the White House grants interviews with current or former officials familiar with the deal.

"The public's right to know is absolutely more important than any claim of privilege that the White House or the Department of Education might make,'' Miller said. ''The public has a right to all the facts about possible misconduct."

Miller, the top Democrat on the House education committee, received a briefing on the draft findings on Tuesday because he had requested the report. The report also had been requested by then-Education Secretary Rod Paige.

I have little doubt that the rabbit hole is deep and dark. Already, it has been revealed that at least seven columnists were on the Bush administration payroll at one point, and that nearly every single government agency has produced fake news reports under Bush's watch. Throw in the "town halls," Gannon / Guckert, and who knows what else, and it is no wonder the administration wants to impede further investigation into what appears to be an extremely widespread propaganda machine.



Display:


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by turnerbroadcasting on Thu Apr 14, 2005 at 06:43:03 PM EST

You know . . . (none / 0)

Gee-Dub kept bringing up NCLB during the debates, typically in response to questions conspicuously unrelated to schools . . .

You think maybe the Department of Education was paying him, too?

Are we safer yet?
by catastrophile on Thu Apr 14, 2005 at 08:53:14 PM EST

I like Vermont as an example here (none / 0)

In the People's Republic of Vermont, there
are town hall meetings where - typically,
if you don't show up you get the worst jobs.
They assign action items and its a moment
in which all parents are involved in the
community - its a state that has one of the
lowest per capita spending per student and
ranks sixth in the country educationally.

The kids get hurt the worst when propaganda
is used. My daughter understood bill clinton's
lie, she was very young. But my daughter never
really understood why we went to war.

Neither did I. Lets hope that when they
come to Dean with the needle, it breaks off
in his arm.

But as I was trying to allude to in my post,
too many operatives in the party simply
accept the premise that you have to pay
the media to do anything. And its just not
true.

This is the 21st century and bloggers deserve
love. And free DVD rentals of "Oceans 12". Ok
maybe thats going too far..

by turnerbroadcasting on Thu Apr 14, 2005 at 10:05:59 PM EST

privilege (none / 0)

This is easy points for us, but the fact is the executive branch ALWAYS invokes every privilege they can in any congressional investigation, whether it's being run by a Dem or a Rep.  So, yeah, they're getting what they deserve here, but it's not really a particularly good piece of evidence as to what we already know about this White House.  Our guys did that too.  Executive branch always feel obliged to use privileges against congressional investigations.
by alhill on Thu Apr 14, 2005 at 11:53:54 PM EST

Absolutely not true (3.00 / 0)

For the most part it seemed like there was full cooperation with even the most stupid of investigations (like investigatiing Mike Espy for taking a couple Final Four tickets).

It is a big internet but I would interested in any analysis that supports the assertion that the Clinton administration's attempts at invoking privilege in any way approximates the times and the scope of the Bush Administration. And Congress trampled on any that they did try. Clinton's personal conversations with his lawyers were not privileged, his conversations with foreign leaders were not priviliged - not according the the Republicans who insisted that each and every charge, no matter how little supported by the facts be investigated to the bitter end.

Whereas Cheney's every conversation with an oil executive is somehow a state secret.

Not everything gets shoved down the memory hole. Hiring your brother's professional political consulting firm for a $15,000 contract is not the same as paying your wife a half a million bucks, taking two tickets from your college roommate launched a $20 million investigation, taking repeated $70,000 all expenses paid golf junkets doesn't even merit discussion, all per the same Republicans.

This "moral equivalence" thing is bullshit. Gingrich set out to destroy Wright, he openly admitted that some of the charges had no merit even as he presented them, and none in fact of the charges he did put out were ever proven, Wright went down over a book deal that paled compared with the one Gingrich tried (how much did he earn on that book? anything that would have justified that $3 million advance?).

Now I understand that people on both sides are politicians, and that has to be associated with fund raising and delivering the goods to your district. But you know what, when Democrats get caught over the limits they go to jail (Rostenkowski, Traficant).

DeLay is tied to Abramoff at the hip and Jack is a millstone and an anvil all tield together in this one. (You don't bill your clients $42 million and then refer to them in e-mail with racial insults, and that is just the start of this thing with DeLay and his "associates".)

PollKatz: Bush Approval in 15 polls
by Bruce Webb on Fri Apr 15, 2005 at 10:49:11 AM EST
[ Parent ]

wasn't someone (none / 0)

doing a traceout of the vast right wing conspiracy?
by westsyde on Fri Apr 15, 2005 at 12:12:38 AM EST

Its not that vast (none / 0)

Its really concentrated in just a few
media entertainment companies.

by turnerbroadcasting on Fri Apr 15, 2005 at 09:13:38 AM EST

I am very interested in this (none / 0)

I am very interested in this
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by hpvv on Tue Dec 20, 2005 at 02:55:25 AM EST


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