You think that's damning?

Read what jorndoff uncovered at Daily Kos.

This is the tidbit that's going to blow people's minds.

Well, I knew it was coming by June, 2002. In my case, it was just simple deduction. And not on my taxes.

For anyone who read the Senate Indian Affairs Committee emails and docs (900+ pages), Sue Ralston is old news.

However, I just sat down with the newly released emails (first time I've had a block of time) and noticed Ralston, in 2003, is using sralston@georgewbush.com, the Bush/Cheney campaign email, despite the fact she's a White House employee.  I would have expected it to have been sralston@whitehouse.gov.  I'm sure it violates some FEC law, or even the Hatch Act, and was she listed as staff for BC04?

All White House emails are permanently logged.  If a White House employee uses the campaign ISP, that anti-espionage national security measure is dodged.

Its nice to have a queue of Republican scandals waiting to move above the fold.  And I don't think the Abramoff stuff will go away anytime soon.  It seems to be a gift that keeps on giving.  Five weeks of high profile news coverage, followed by a takeover of the House (and maybe Senate) and then two years of hearings.  Sounds to me like a good runup to a Dem trifecta victory in 2008 followed by fundamental progressive reforms.

I don't know that this is going to make a big difference to the American public. It is shameful, an excellent example of the pervasive corruption and the selling of the country to corporate interests but it's not the type of thing that the average American will care about.

Unfortunately.

I think the stuff about Foley and the pages may make a small amount of difference, but I would guess the Democrats are going to keep quiet about that. To me, the fact that Hastert and other members of the Republican leadership knew about these allegations and did nothing is incredible.

I'm also curious to see if Woodward's book has any effect.

http://dontbealemming.com/2006/10/01/eag erly-anticipating-woodwards-new-book.asp x

Posted by the Lemming Herder at Don't
Be A Lemming!

from the article in the WaPo - now  relegated to tomorrow's Post (too many scandals, so little time)

Mehlman, now the chairman of the Republican National Committee, said yesterday that he talked on occasion with members of the Abramoff team but does not specifically recall the issues raised. "When they come to me with ideas and issues, I would let relevant policymakers know," he said. "The job of the political director is to meet with interested parties."

Mehlman said everything he engaged in "was aboveboard, all stuff that was appropriate."

Mehlman did favors and made things happen for Abramoff and - that is NOT the job of the political director.  

Imagine if this were Terry McAuliffe  during Clinton years making this statement - just imagine!!  

The arrogance, corruption and self-righteousness of this administration is positively stunning.  criminals on so many levels!!!

"When they come to me with ideas and issues, I would let relevant policymakers know," said Mehlman.  

That's right and then those "policy makers" would take those "ideas and issues" and make it happen for Abramoff and others.  Wow - and I just thought it was "influence peddling"!!  I'm so happy that Mehlman made it clear - he was just passing along some great ideas. Ha Ha ha!

It's not corruption - it's just brainstorming. riight!!!

Hurry,  November 7th!!

Some WaPo coverage of another topic I hope gets plenty of coverage in the next five weeks and beyond:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con tent/article/2006/09/30/AR2006093000282. html

Two Months Before 9/11, an Urgent Warning to Rice

For months, Tenet had been pressing Rice to set a clear counterterrorism policy...Perhaps a dramatic appearance...beyond Tenet's regular weekly meeting with Rice...would get her attention.

Tenet had been losing sleep over the recent intelligence he'd seen. There was no conclusive, smoking-gun intelligence, but there was such a huge volume of data that an intelligence officer's instinct strongly suggested that something was coming. He and Black hoped to convey the depth of their anxiety and get Rice to kick-start the government into immediate action...He did not know when, where or how, but Tenet felt there was too much noise in the intelligence systems. Two weeks earlier, he had told Richard A. Clarke, the National Security Council's counterterrorism director: "It's my sixth sense, but I feel it coming. This is going to be the big one."

...But Tenet had been having difficulty getting traction on an immediate bin Laden action plan, in part because Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had questioned all the National Security Agency intercepts and other intelligence.

...Tenet and Black felt they were not getting through to Rice. She was polite, but they felt the brush-off. President Bush had said he didn't want to swat at flies.

...Besides, Rice seemed focused on other administration priorities, especially the ballistic missile defense system that Bush had campaigned on. She was in a different place.

...Tenet left the meeting feeling frustrated. Though Rice had given them a fair hearing, no immediate action meant great risk. Black felt the decision to just keep planning was a sustained policy failure. Rice and the Bush team had been in hibernation too long. "Adults should not have a system like this," he said later.

...Afterward, Tenet looked back on the meeting with Rice as a tremendous lost opportunity to prevent or disrupt the Sept. 11 attacks. Rice could have gotten through to Bush on the threat, but she just didn't get it in time, Tenet thought. He felt that he had done his job and had been very direct about the threat, but that Rice had not moved quickly. He felt she was not organized and did not push people, as he tried to do at the CIA. Black later said, "The only thing we didn't do was pull the trigger to the gun we were holding to her head."

Pretty damn damning, I'd say, and a direct contradiction of Rice's recent response to Clinton's comments on Fox.  I hope this item from Woodward's book gets plenty of traction.

The piece ends with this editor's note:

Editor's Note: How much effort the Bush administration made in going after Osama bin Laden before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, became an issue last week after former president Bill Clinton accused President Bush's "neocons" and other Republicans of ignoring bin Laden until the attacks. Rice responded in an interview that "what we did in the eight months was at least as aggressive as what the Clinton administration did in the preceding years."

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