Reid-Feingold being debated on C-SPAN 2 now.
On the Comey front, please read Glenn Greenwald this morning -- it's indispensible:
There is one other aspect of Comey's testimony worth highlighting. This is part of what he said when describing the scene in Ashcroft's hospital room:
I tried to see if I could help him get oriented. As I said, it wasn't clear that I had succeeded. I went out in the hallway.
Spoke to Director Mueller by phone. He was on his way. I handed the phone to the head of the security detail and Director Mueller instructed the FBI agents present not to allow me to be removed from the room under any circumstances.
Comey repeatedly stated that it appeared that Ashcroft was not even oriented to his surroundings. Compare that to Tony Snow's disgustingly dismissive defense yesterday of the behavior of Andy Card and Alberto Gonzales: "Trying to take advantage of a sick man — because he had an appendectomy, his brain didn't work?"
But more revealingly, just consider what it says about this administration. Not only did Comey think that he had to rush to the hospital room to protect Ashcroft from having a conniving Card and Gonzales manipulate his severe illness and confusion by coercing his signature on a document — behavior that is seen only in the worst cases of deceitful, conniving relatives coercing a sick and confused person to sign a new will — but the administration's own FBI Director thought it was necessary to instruct his FBI agents not to allow Comey to be removed from the room.
Comey and Mueller were clearly both operating on the premise that Card and Gonzales were basically thugs.
The Washington Post calls it this morning "an account of Bush administration lawlessness so shocking it would have been unbelievable coming from a less reputable source."
If anyone hasn't seen it, PoliticsTV has the YouTube up . It really is shocking.
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zed?
WOW! and I even read the post first!
Yay dakine!
Wow, the testimony must have been something to get the Compost to admit to their favorite preznit doing something lawless.
How to take back your flag:
http://freewayblogger.blogspot.....-flag.html
Maybe even your country too.
Hello Jane.
lawless thugs, grrr
but glad to see some Republicans with honor
‘Twas Mueller who convinced the Pres, … Think NG, Drivers License, …
I just finished reading lhp’s previous post. I really need to get some work done today, guys, so please keep the earth shattering revelations to a minimum,ok? ;-)
I am not surprised by any of this. These people have been blatant crooks from the beginning, starting with engineering the 2000 election.
Seriously, I was so riveted by Marcy’s live blogging and then all the stuff that came later that I did not get anything done until late in the afternoon. I had to work until midnight. This was even better than the Libby trial because so much came out so quickly.
watching reid now…
please, senator reid, end the occupation of iraq now! action, not kabuki is what i want.
Did someone give LHP the link to the Comey transcript in the previous thread?
Comey transcript
[Link repaired by mod]
Gnome de Plume @ 11
I got almost nothing done yesterday myself. Sigh. Nor today so far.
good morning!
i will clean the house today i will clean the house today
This is from Boston.com on the GOP/Warner Amendment Harry’s talking about right now. From the AP.
Reid said Reid-Levin has been withdrawn …
tommy yum @ 15
hahahaha. good luck!
Am I stating the obvious if I say that they poisoned Ashcroft thinking they’d have better luck with Comey?
I can’t believe that spin that comes out of the WH. Gonzo’s testimony proved he’s doing a good job. Wolfie’s crime isn’t worthy of getting him fired. Now, they are saying that it was OK to go to Ashcroft because his “brain was working”?
It doesn’t matter. The authority had been passed to Comey. And besides, Ashcroft refused to sign it too. What kind of defense is this? It’s disgusting no matter how you look at it.
Siun @ 17
wow.
what do you think this means?
One thing that occurred to me (from reading Glenn): if the reason that Comey could later feel that the legalities of the NSA program were now OK if the AUMF was the second justification for it, then it really makes it even more imperative that that Authorization be repealed/ended by Congress.
Can we impeach yet? We, the people, deserve/demand NOTHING LESS!
lest we forget–was it not Ashcroft who anointed himself with (holy?) oil when he assumed office as AG?
Feingold Reid cloture vote now!
Feingold has such crisp clarity. I would love to see him as President.
Mr. TJ was unexpectedly understanding that I hid from him and accomplished nothing during the testimony. I gave him the transcript last night, and I just gave him the You Tube link. I think I’m going to try to spread the You Tube link to everyone I know.
Who was the last person to see Falwell alive?
Solai @ 19
After yesterday’s testimony, I can imagine BushCrew taking out Falwell to get rid of him and his death floods the news covereage for at least a week.
no one is in the chamber - this will take a while
If I may go juvenile for a moment, Russ makes my heart go pitty-pat. Integrity and principles are so sexy. I guess because it’s so rare these days.
I don’t believe for one minute that when Bush said to do what they thought was right, that it changed anything about how the program was operating. That little show was a CYA, you know they always do what they want to after the correct mask has been put on.
Siun @ 17
Does anyone have a link to that? Or are we liveblogging CSPAN?
TJ - that was from Reid’s statement on the floor - I’ll look for more after the vote
Solai @ 19
There’s a long list of drugs that can induce pancreatitis:
Pancreatitis caused by drugs accounts for about 5% of all cases. Some drugs that are definitely related to pancreatitis include:
Azathioprine, 6-mercaptopurine (Imuran)
Dideoxyinosine (Videx)
Estrogens (birth control pills)
Furosemide (Lasix)
Pentamidine (NebuPent)
Sulfonamides (Urobak, Azulfidine)
Tetracycline
Thiazide diuretics (Diuril, Enduron)
Valproic acid (Depakote).
Some drugs that are probably related to pancreatitis include:
Acetaminophen (Tylenol)
Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (Capoten, Vasotec)
Erythromycin
Methyldopa (Aldomet)
Metronidazole (Flagyl, Protostat)
Nitrofurantoin (Furadantin, Furan)
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) (Aleve, Naprosyn, Motrin)
Salicylates (aspirin).
pancreatitis
epu’d from previous thread…
and the very end of yesterday’s hearing, someone (Leahy?) while praising Comey noted that Comey would not have been there without a subpoena.
*****************
I’m really curious about Gonzales’ attempt to pin the USA firings on McNulty, who claims to have had little input. Is it possible that McNulty was given the same message as Lam (I think it was her); i.e. that when Sampson handed McNulty the final list, McNutly was told that the firing instructions were coming from “the highest levels of the government” and that McNulty realized that “resistance is futile”.
It is amazing to me how they keep these things a secret. This took over three years to get out.
As I listened to Comey’s testimony it struck me how many people would have had some knowledge of this. Comney’s security detail, the agents in the Hospital command center, attorneys and staff at the DOJ, hospital staff, the Ashcroft family and on and on.
If we had an aggressive and competent press covering this administration, this would have seen the light of day much earlier.
old gold @ 36
A lot of people have known about this, but perhaps without such specific and dramatic detail. Naturally, the traditional media has never mentioned it, because that sort of thing just isn’t done, you know.
Elliott @ 28
Or Falwell collapsing after seeing what had become of justice on the back of his pro-life, moral majority vote. What happened to the morals (or the majority)?
bushbehindbars @ 23
Maybe, maybe the Democrats will see fit to convene a committee to study appointing a special prosecutor who further investigate the issue for 3 and a half years and we’ll all know the full story in late 2010.
Impeachment = off the table.
Pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons against a country that does not threaten the USA = on the table.
therefore, further support for this passive, enabling disgrace of an opposition party = off the table, deal?
Re: Feingold-Reid:
Of course the Leiberman for Leiberman party votes with the rethugs.
I’m watchng cspan on mute (at work). Not showing a vote yet. What’s going on?
If you go back and watch John McKay’s interview on local Seattle TV, you will hear him use the term “thug” repeatedly, emphatically and pointedly when he discusses his call from Elston. It is really powerful stuff. Here’s the clip:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.c.....php#013981
p.lukasiak @ 35
I would go along with something like that, although he may honestly have been fed everything, a blind cut-out.
Solai @ 42
it’s on CSPAN 2
The Warner Amendment:
Solai - roll call going on.
Biodun - for more on Feingold-Reid and the presidentials (including some discussion of Clinton and Obama)see our post from last night.
old gold @ 36,
I completely agree with you, The press for the most part have been very negligent.
What’s goin’ on here? There are a whole raft of “No” votes from folks that I would have expected to vote “Aye.” WTF?
Just got back from reading Greenwald. Abu makes Ashcroft look as good as Bush makes Nixon look. I must admit to thinking impure thoughts when Ashcroft was hospitalized with pancreatitis. My dad had it and survived, as did a close friend, but I have known several others who died from it. It is a horrible and painful illness.
And then there’s the lame Cochran Amendment:
In Iraq today - 9 mortar rounds hit the green zone, wounding 6 and yesterday one hit, wounding 5 … 45 Iraqi’s were killed in a chlorine bomb attack in Diyala.
Note the green zone attacks - I suspect these will continue and get larger or more frequent. Green zone workers are now required to wear armor when outside I believe.
Siun @ 47:
Thanks. I’ve never visited the Lake at night.
Anyone know offhand what it takes to appoint a Special Prosecutor? Simple majority? Super majority? With DOJ being non-existent, who does it?
Rayne @ 44
OT but a comment for one you made on a thread yesterday about how some commenters seem to appear only when certain pols or topics discussed:
FWIW, I think you are spot on with that…
ATTAAAAAAACKKKK!
If now is not the time for torches and pitchforks at the White House, people, then I don’t know what the hell is.
Time to take out the trash, once and for fucking all.
What do you think the odds of this happening at WH presser today?
Q Tony, yesterday you dismissed bothering sick man as *what, he had an appendectomy, his brain doesn’t work?* Now, we know he was in IC, his wife had left strict instructions he wasn’t to be disturbed. How, in the light of all this, can you justify the strongarm technique of Card and Gonzales, especially since Ashcroft wasn’t legally AG at the time? Can you answer that, please?
Greenwald’s piece is stunning … wow!
So when do we get that special prosecutor?
ap @ 43
Thanks for bringing this back up. I’d seen it the first time, and as with re-watching Comey from yesterday, a 2nd viewing adds a lot.
Both McKay & Comey’s accounts made me think of the fact that Bushco is pulling this crap with highly trained investigators. It apparently never occurred to Karl & team that these intelligent professional skeptics might see through it, have suspicions, ask questions.
The hubris and arrogance of it all are almost as breathtaking as the total absence of decency and integrity.
Gnome de Plume @ 54
Independent Special prosecutor law expired in late’90s/early “aughts,”
I believe now would require AG to appoint and give powers over similar to what was done with Fitz. Like THAT’LL happen with these guys. But IANAL.
From Leahy’s site
So, what is next?
29 - 67
damn!
Warner amendment up now…
Cloture fails Y-29, No-67, Reid-Feingold withdrawn.
McConnell points out that the Surrender Date Bill was easily struck down…
Me @ 53:
Re Lake visits at night: I love Trex’s occasional daytime posts (we all know he’s an owl who’s also awake during the day). It’s just that I have too many things going on at night. I average about 4 hours at the Lake during the day. TMI, I know, in the scheme of things happening in our republic. My apologies.
Even Republics must be shaking their heads on this shameful act. If only there had been some some sexual act between consenting adults to spark their interest in investigating! If so, Republics would have had launched into detailed investigations long before now.
Siun @ 62
Siun, any idea why so many D’s voted No? Perplexing to say the least…
Gnome de Plume @ 54
actually this is another legacy of the repubs’ clinton fetish, the demise of the independent counsel’s office. when it was time to renew authorization of this watergate-era reform, few dems had the stomach for it after ken starr.
not incidentally, this of course opened the way for the truly unchecked abuses in the bush administration.
tommy yum @ 15
if you get done early, I will be happy to help you clean the senate.
Dakine - a lot of Ds since we have the majority. I’ll add the roll call as soon as we get it.
snowbird42 @ 61
Yeah, that’s yesterday, and no papers, no response. What’s next? Can’t they just go over and take the papers?
Am I correct that until some kind of a money bill passes, the admnistration does not have the funds it needs to pursue the war?
Siun @ 71
It included a lot of D’s that I thought were against this mis-begotten war and all of its attendant foolishness.
ken melvin @ 8
What what what? Pls explain.
Fern - they have money for the interim and can move funds from other accounts so they will not run out of cash and be forced to bring troops home. In fact, W made it clear he would move money as needed - raid on social Security anyone?
old gold @ 36
Well, just think how long it has taken for stuff that all of us who have been getting our news from alternative sources have known for years (manipulated intelligence on Iraq WMD’s, for example) to bubble up to the msm surface.
Of course, I still wonder where the outrage is on that one and many other stories of Republican and Bush administration countless transgressions hidden in plain sight. Everyday I wake up I have to ask myself if I’m the one who’s insane. Then I log onto FDL and realize I’m not alone. I really hope you all aren’t fig newtons of my imagination.
GeorgeSimian @ 20
Yes! And the Preznit saved the day by single-handedly reauthorizing NSA program deespite the fact that both the Act and his authorization are unconstitutional! What a guy!!
HI everyone, Can’t stay but wanted to make sure everyone saw this Video from Brad blog.
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4551
Remember all the missing emails from DOJ to Rove? Greg Palast, an american working for the BBC, has a bunch of then and they explain the connection between Rove and the firing of the USAs and the placement of hacks in key states. It’s about 2008!!!
twolf1 @ 63
Wake me when it’s over.
Zzzzzzzzzz . . .
Siun @ 76
Okay, so Congress sitting on their hands is not a solution.
Edited for an additional thought - it also means that anything congress passes is pretty much pointless. Bush can veto or ignore and continue to reatively fund his war. Is de-authorizing the war the only solution?
Warner Amendment - if Iraq says that the U.S. should leave - we will leave - sounds good to me - why are D’s against?
Anyone want to explain what Greenwald’s main point was? Salon’s ads are evil and I don’t even bother trying to get through them to read his posts anymore.
laurie9 @ 22
DING!
dakine01 @ 55
I went and double-checked; the one in question only shows up here at FDL, and only when two candidates are mentioned, and always with the same kind of commentary.
It’s not my blog, mind you, so it doesn’t matter what I think. But IMO, it’s one thing to have an opinion about candidates AND to be engaged in the topics that affect progressives, but another to show up solely to attack specific candidates. That’s the kind of stuff people may be paid to do, you know?
The Liebercrats and Reaganites are trying. (Very trying.) I wonder who the 60,000
suckers‘delegates’ are.A third party? This could be the time
Voter discontent with Democratic and GOP presidential contenders drives a Web-based move to field a bipartisan pairing. A Bloomberg campaign is rumored.
[snip]
Unity08.com, created in part by former political operatives for the 1976 Ford and Carter campaigns, thinks it has the answer.
[snip]
The group’s backers include Angus King, former independent governor of Maine; Hamilton Jordan, President Carter’s chief of staff; and Doug Bailey, longtime Republican political consultant and a co-founder of the Hotline political news digest.
With 60,000 delegates already signed up online, Bailey anticipates 2 million or more delegates to the virtual convention — many driven by whatever decisions are made in the major parties’ early primaries and caucuses, which begin in January.
“We anticipate, frankly, at that point a lot of people will be very upset over the choices that were made, a lot of buyer’s remorse,” Bailey said. “The country confronts too many serious issues at the very time its political train has sort of left its tracks. You can’t get anybody to work with anybody …. We can’t afford four more years like that.”
Now this is truly disgusting and signed by DiFi
Right- wing radio host Rush Limbaugh recently received an invitation from Congress to speak at the 2007 Summer Intern Lecture Series. The letter states that the lecture series is specifically “for interns to hear prominent members of government speak about their personal experiences in public services.” Rush said he plans to “ponder this invitation” and sarcastically remarked, “Do you realize what a golden opportunity this would be for me to have access to these young skulls full of mush and to go up there and just give them our agenda here, folks, of things that we talk about each and every day?
Think Progress
Where’s redhead been??
Siun @ 62
damn. haven’t they been reading Tom Shaller?
there’s not enough pandering to the base… we want our congress to end the occupation of iraq - now!
So far it sounds like a straight party line vote on Warner.
Heirofpatriots - no ad on the Salon link, so go ahead and read - it’s worth it.
ccmask - Redd is at a convention with Mr Redd and hopefully having a blast!
TJ @ 13
TJ, there was an extra http in that link. This one should work.
Have been out of the news loop for three days. Just found out that Paul McNulty resigned. I had predicted this several months ago (Bill Kristol and David Frum were just too excited by this AG scandal) and had asked attorneys or anyone else here at FDL who would know how his resignation would effect the upcoming A*P*C Rosen/Weismann ESPIONAGE trial?
Will McNulty’s resignation “cast clouds” over this trial? Will it take any of the punch, power or justice out of the espionage trial?
Knew this would likely happen, (some told me that I was jumping too far ahead). Kristol must be tickled yellow!
Jayt - Warner funds the war and gives W waivers of any benchmarks as I understand it.
Siun @ 91
thanks.
Elliott @ 34
True, they can cause pancreatitis but not with such certainty that one would administer them in order to cause pancreatitis.
re: Warner amendment: I guess it would only be worth supporting if it requires that the Iraqi’s actually vote as to whether or not the U.S. should stay.
GWB *loves* Iraqi elections - purple fingers! democratic process! smells like freedom!
Jayt - precisely. Cheney already told us the Iraqi Parliament’s call for the US to leave didn’t count coz they weren’t really real …
makes you wonder.
snowbird42 @ 87
Right- wing radio host Rush Limbaugh recently received an invitation from Congress to speak at the 2007 Summer Intern Lecture Series. The letter states that the lecture series is specifically “for interns to hear prominent members of government speak about their personal experiences in public services.” Rush said he plans to “ponder this invitation” and sarcastically remarked, “Do you realize what a golden opportunity this would be for me to have access to these young skulls full of mush and to go up there and just give them our agenda here, folks, of things that we talk about each and every day?
Think Progress
Notwithstanding the unspeakable absurdity of such an invitation, the letter specifically states the speakers are to be “prominent members of the government.”
WTF - WTF - WTF - WTF???????????? What is UP with this woman??
Auuuuurrrgghhhhhhh!!! I gotta get off the Net before I truly lose what marbles I have left.
re: Warner amendment: I guess it would only be worth supporting if it requires that the Iraqi’s actually vote as to whether or not the U.S. should stay.
given that a majority of the Iraqi parliament has already signed a petition telling the US to leave in six months, what’s the point?
Warner amendment withdrawn…
Warner withdrawn. 52 affirmative, no cloture.
52 Y 44 N cloture on Warner amendment
doesn’t get cloture
much stronger vote than Feingold-Reid …
Cochran up now - the give W everything he wants amendment
Comey really needs to be more forthcoming about the “classified” nature of the NSA spying. Remember this all occured at the start of the 2004 election campaign season, and since we all know Evangelical Ashcroft would probably never deny Bush the chance to spy on ANYONE if it related even remotely to Islamic terrorism, then what was it about this WH request and pressure that made Ashcroft refuse, in such determined fashion, to sign-off on it?
My tin-foil hat is crackling again, this time it is telling me that this had much more to do with some type of pernicious Rovian program that would allow them to somehow spy on Democratic candidates and Democratic party operatives without any legal scrutiny, then they could change it all back again once they had all the dirt and strategic info they wanted, and no one outside their loopwould ever know any better.
Where was Rove in this Card/Gonzales armtwisting event? If he was with them in some sort of meeting any time shortly before they left for the hospital, one might assume that politics was central to their desperation. And of course we know what Rove’s job is..
But, surely, those noble Republican freedom defenders would never use our national intelligence system to spy on their political adversaries… would they?
Comey could dispell this conspiracy theory with a carefully worded response, without exposing any state secrets. If he knows for a fact that there was a political agenda, not a security agenda, then he’s part of the cover-up.
Thad Cochran would have you believe that all the troop deaths are due to the dems failure to pass a spending bill…
Rayne @ 85, whispering behind hand
are you including PJ @ 86?
yesterday I was reproducing one of Glenn Greenwalds major insights, that the old political categories of left and right are askew right now, and we can think of the politcal landscape as neo-con and anti-neo-con, or War Party and everyone else.
Greenwald is respected and linked to by the site’s proprietors, so there is my appeal to credentials, ok?
So I’m an anti-neo-con, I oppose the actions of the War Party, they have wreaked untold devastation, and H. Clinton is a neo-con and would govern as one, and her nomination might result in defeat for the beloved (D) party.
Obama (Joe-Bama) was mentored in the Senate by Lieberman, and may or may not be a neo-con, but he isn’t what many fervently believe him to be.
And those two factotums aren’t my only concerns - I also think Cheney engineered 9/11!
MODS!!! over here!
Rayne @ 85
That or some of the folks who never seem to engage while a thread is up top but always leave “provocative” comments in EPU land.
OMG–Tony Snow actually said that about Ashcroft in ICU? Is this the Tony Snow who gets all weepy about his own and his mother’s cancer? OMG.
Reid calls for voice vote on Cochran Amendment - says “we’re all going to vote for it”
getting text of Cochran amendment now …
They need to not have a Memorial Day recess. There are too many awful recess appointments W could make.
Please, no recess!
djinn @ 96
And Ashcroft’s pancreatitis was caused by gallstones, an common cause of the painful condition.
But I think BushCrew is capable of anything, and yesterday they went Borgia as far as I’m concerned.
despairing @ 108
Yep, same guy. IOKIYAR.
That’s how they operate.