House panel defies Bush, votes for subpoenas

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by estranged4life

I just blew chuncks on my keyboard from that statement ^^^^




Btw, not to nit-pick, but it's I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T


I will be honest, though I think Al Gore has the personality of a toothpick, I would prefer him over Hillary "I wonder if Tyson Foods' Chicken **** smells good in the Illinois River that runs through Tahlequah, OK?" Clinton

Sorry to make you blow chunks

Also, I cannot type for shiite

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

The Evangelicals ain't coming out for Rudy. That's at least 30% of their base.

If he is their only shot against Hillary - who IS the devil to them, they will support him. Maybe not publicly, but in the voting booth perhaps. Her best bet is to make RG look so liberal that they abstain, which will make her win, which was my original point in this thread.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by The Tower

Rudy Giuliani is a joke.

As if any social conservative would ever support a twice divorced supporter of Roe vs. Wade who lived with his partnered gay friends for a time.

Don't forget he is for gun control and from New York City (NEW YORK CITY)

[The Tower]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

Je likely will get the R nomination. Who else so they have that can possibly beat Hillary? McCain is their only other shot and he cannot beat her.

There are no republican candidates capable of winning 2008. None. They would have to be of the highest calibur to overcome the shadow of Dubya and Iraq. And they don't exist. Chuck Hagel might have a shot (dark horse, at best), but he is stammering on the issue right now- and his shot would only be against the weakest of the Dems.

Any one of the current Democratic candidates would be able to beat Rudy, that idiot McCain, or that slime Mit Romney. Don't even get me started on the incredulous idea of Gingrich running.


Hey Cajun Jason- why you quotin' Longfellow's "Evangeline" in your siggy?

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by The Tower

. . . Hey Cajun Jason- why you quotin' Longfellow's "Evangeline" in your siggy?

Feeling that way lately.

Of course, I grew up around that poem and her oak was like 20 minutes from my house as the crow flies.

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by The Tower

Rudy Giuliani is a joke.

As if any social conservative would ever support a twice divorced supporter of Roe vs. Wade who lived with his partnered gay friends for a time.

He also like to dress in drag, which isn't going to go over well with the church crowd either.

[gldstwmn]

Now this is interesting:

http://www.missouridems.org/newsroom...y.asp?prID=135

Fired U.S. Attorney Fears that Public Corruption Investigation of Gov. Blunt Cost him his Job

Jefferson City, MO — Fired U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins told the LA Times in a story today that he fears he was fired because we was investigating criminal charges against Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt concerning his awarding of lucrative motor vehicle fee offices.

Cummins began investigating public corruption charges against Blunt in January 2006. Most of the seven other U.S. Attorneys that were fired by the Bush administration were also leading public corruption investigations against Republican office holders. The politically fueled firings have led both Republican and Democratic lawmakers to call on President Bush to fire Attorney General Gonzales.

The story also reveals that a private attorney for Gov. Blunt contacted Cummins during the investigation and made it clear to the prosecutor that the investigation was hurting the Republican governor politically in Missouri. Cummins told the LA Times, “The attorney said it was creating a lot of media in Missouri about political pressure and other allegations that the governor was under investigation."

The story goes on to say, “He (Cummins) said the attorney wanted assurances that the governor was not the target ‘because we’d like to be able to say that.’”

“It now becomes clear that the Bush administration was willing to fire a U.S. Attorney just because he was doing his job and investigating corruptions charges against fellow Republican Matt Blunt,” said Jack Cardetti, Missouri Democratic Party spokesman. “The Bush administration has gravely endangered the integrity of our justice system all in an attempt to protect fellow Republicans like Matt Blunt and their potentially illegal behavior.”

The LA Times story reads:



Cummins fears corruption investigation led to his firing

By Richard A. Serrano, Times Staff Writer
March 16, 2007

WASHINGTON — Still uncertain exactly why he was fired, former U.S. Atty. H.E. "Bud" Cummins III wonders whether it had something to do with the probe he opened into alleged corruption by Republican officials in Missouri amid a Senate race there that was promising to be a nail-biter.

Cummins, a federal prosecutor in Arkansas, was removed from his job along with seven other U.S. attorneys last year.

In January 2006, he had begun looking into allegations that Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt had rewarded GOP supporters with lucrative contracts to run the state’s driver’s license offices. Cummins handled the case because U.S. attorneys in Missouri had recused themselves over potential conflicts of interest.

But in June, Cummins said, he was told by the Justice Department that he would be fired at year’s end to make room for Timothy Griffin — an operative tied to White House political guru Karl Rove.

In an interview Thursday, Cummins expressed disgust that the Bush administration may have fired him and the others for political reasons. "You have to firewall politics out of the Department of Justice. Because once it gets in, people question every decision you make. Now I keep asking myself: ’What about the Blunt deal?’ "

Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill have cited the firing of Cummins and the corruption investigation he was supervising as evidence that the dismissals were politically motivated.

What happened to Cummins appears similar to the termination of U.S. Atty. David C. Iglesias in Albuquerque. Iglesias, who was in the midst of a long government corruption case against New Mexico Democrats, has said he believes some GOP lawmakers in Washington wanted the probe speeded up to help the Republican candidate in a tight House race there.

"As we examine how these U.S. attorneys were fired, we must not lose sight of the real story," Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said Thursday. "The fired U.S. attorneys were aggressively investigating public corruption cases, and they were fired ostensibly for job performance — which in this White House means you’re guilty of doing your job."

The Missouri corruption allegations centered on a change in the law that allowed for privatization of the state’s license fee agencies. In 2005, Missouri newspapers began reporting that some of the contracts went to Blunt’s supporters, including the wife of the U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Todd Graves.

When Cummins started investigating, he said, he followed Justice Department protocol by refusing to acknowledge whether his office had opened a probe. Policy also stipulates that when an investigation ends with no charges, it should never be publicly acknowledged.

As the months wore on, Cummins said, he "had no communication with anybody in any senior level" at the Justice Department in Washington.

But, he said, the governor had hired a private attorney who called and inquired about the status of the investigation. "The attorney said it was creating a lot of media in Missouri about political pressure and other allegations that the governor was under investigation," Cummins said.

He said the attorney wanted assurances that the governor was not the target "because we’d like to be able to say that."

Cummins said he did not comment to the attorney because the investigation was confidential. He declined to identify the governor’s lawyer.

In June, Cummins was notified that he was being fired. Around that time, he said, the investigation was nearly over. But he said FBI agents were tied up with other priorities and could not get to the remaining interviews right away.

In October, Cummins announced that the investigation was over. He broke with precedent, he said, because of all the media reports in Missouri.

"The matter has been closed with no indictments sought or returned," he said on Oct. 4. He added that "at no time was Gov. Blunt a target, subject or witness in the investigation, nor was he implicated in any allegations being investigated. Any allegations to the contrary are uninformed and erroneous."

In the Thursday interview, Cummins denied that he took that extra step as a favor to Blunt. "I didn’t know what the politics were up there in Missouri," he said. "I couldn’t pick Matt Blunt out in a lineup."

The announcement came just four weeks before the Missouri Senate vote in which Democrat Claire McCaskill very narrowly upset GOP incumbent Sen. Jim Talent. McCaskill’s office declined to comment about whether the closed investigation helped her campaign.

[GypsySorcerer]

Regarding Rudy G., I agree that initially, he won't appeal to social conservatives. His biggest challenge would be winning the primary. However, it he does take the primary, they'll vote for him. There is no possible way they'll vote for Hillary or Gore over him. Obama, maybe. Or perhaps they just won't vote at all. One could hope.