Tom Delay indicted, to step down as Majority Leader...

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
What Shumer's people did is a crime, and it should be investigated and possibly punished. However, it doesn't involve cheating people out of their government (or its funds), so it's not a crime against us. Thus it's not in the same league as what Delay is accused of doing or Watergate or even what Rostenkowski did.

Let's deal with the Watergate break in since that was the analogy used by WaPo.

According to your definition since the Watergate break in didn't involve public monies it shouldn't be a crime against us, no?. Ahh haa but you'll likely argue they most certainly did b/c they involved CReeP and these 5 burglars were on the payroll funded by public monies. Now Sans the rest of the coverup that ensued wherein lies the differnce between those activities and those of the DSCC. And since no investigation has really ensued it is premature to say whether the DSCC affair approximates the ensuing Watergate scandal in its entirety and not simply the Watergate breakin.

For my money it certainly approximates the Watergate breakin save the scope is the thefts were around a US senatorial race vs. Presidential race.

[chequita guevara]

The real problem behind Watergate was an abuse of power and the attempt by the POTUS to cover up the crime. In and of itself, the break-in wasn't all that important.

Can you show a cover-up and abuse of power by Shumer?

[Ted Striker]

SCROTUM

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
The real problem behind Watergate was an abuse of power and the attempt by the POTUS to cover up the crime. In and of itself, the break-in wasn't all that important.

Can you show a cover-up and abuse of power by Shumer?

I certainly can not, but the appropriate point was similarly at the point of the break in the same could be said of Nixon. Sans investigation the extent or even if a coverup was taking place was unknown.

[chequita guevara]

Yes, but at the time of the begining of the investigation into Watergate, people weren't saying that Nixon should be brought down because of it, as you are with Schumer. No one had any idea that Nixon or the Whitehouse was any part of the break-in, at first. Give me something with a little bit of heft for me to chew. Schumer's a pretty centrist Democrat, so I certainly have no love for the man.

[Dinner]

Interesting stuff in the blogosphere. It seems that Karl Rove has been MIA from all public events for the last week including the recent SCOTUS nomination press conference. Supposedly Rove NEVER misses these sort of things and he is there choreographing everything so this is a huge change of events for the White House. The scuttlebutt is that indictments will soon be coming down on the Plame CIA case so the White House has decided to distance Bush from his right hand man. Apparently, ABC is still sniffing around and dropping hits that not only were Rove and Liby behind the outing of a CIA agent as political pay back but that both Bush and Cheney were in on the meetings where this was discused.

Of course the White House has denied everything all along however they stopped commenting on the ase a few months ago. Could it be they know the gig is almost up? I remember Bush denying everything and saying he'd fired anyone suspected of being involved but no such firings have come for Rove or Libby. I can't wait for this fat pig to be tossed on the bbq.

[Theben]

chegitz here

The question is, will ROve and Libby be loyal soldiers and throw themselves on their swords, or will they cop a plea and bring down their bosses?

[Joseph]

Re: chegitz here

Originally posted by Theben
The question is, will ROve and Libby be loyal soldiers and throw themselves on their swords, or will they cop a plea and bring down their bosses?

Never happen.

[Boris Godunov]

Rove went before the grand jury again today in an 11th-hour appeal that he requested. The prosecutor refused to grant him immunity from an indictment, though. Looks like things could be getting veeeeeery interesting for Karl and Scooter soon...

[Dinner]

He's supposedly been served with a letter explaining he is now officially a target for the grand jury. Reuters is reporting that indictments will be coming with in days. It has been a good week for people who are against corruption in government.

[Drake Tungsten]

In the meantime, the case against DeLay has been falling apart. Earle had to go grand-jury shopping in order to keep DeLay indicted on something.

[Dinner]

Apparently he had a one day window before the statue of limitations cut off but after the immunity on money laundering deal had gone out of effect. He seems to have wanted to make sure everything got through in that 24 hour window.

[Sikander]

I wonder how long it will be before we know what's really going on with Rove and Libby.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
In the meantime, the case against DeLay has been falling apart. Earle had to go grand-jury shopping in order to keep DeLay indicted on something.

That's not at all what happened. Earle did a rather savvy move of hitting DeLay with the second charges. This happens in cases all the time when prosecutors want to compel a defendant to plead to a lesser charge, especially when they think they're already in the clear for worse.

The evidence is there that money was laundered, the only question now is how well Earle can tie DeLay to it.

Ah, and now Roy Blunt is getting implicated in DeLay's scandals. From the AP:

Tom DeLay deliberately raised more money than he needed to throw parties at the 2000 presidential convention, then diverted some of the excess to longtime ally Roy Blunt through a series of donations that benefited both men's causes.

When the financial carousel stopped, DeLay's private charity, the consulting firm that employed DeLay's wife and the Missouri campaign of Blunt's son all ended up with money, according to campaign documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist recently charged in an ongoing federal corruption and fraud investigation, and Jim Ellis, the DeLay fundraiser indicted with his boss last week in Texas, also came into the picture.

The complicated transactions are drawing scrutiny in legal and political circles after a grand jury indicted DeLay on charges of violating Texas law with a scheme to launder illegal corporate donations to state candidates.

The government's former chief election enforcement lawyer said the Blunt and DeLay transactions are similar to the Texas case and raise questions that should be investigated regarding whether donors were deceived or the true destination of their money was concealed.

What is it with these Republicans?

[Timexwatch]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
Rove went before the grand jury again today in an 11th-hour appeal that he requested. The prosecutor refused to grant him immunity from an indictment, though. Looks like things could be getting veeeeeery interesting for Karl and Scooter soon...

As I recall, Rove was invited back on a standing invitation that he gave to the federal prosecutor back in the early summer.

One theory that I read about why he went would be that he was fishing to see whether or not he was a target. If is a target, I believe that the prosecutor would have to inform him that his testimony would be used against him. But that's only one theory that I saw on Daily Kos.

On Earle, it's interesting that it took two grand juries to indict DeLay on the second charge. The first one refused to indict. It's also interesting that he suddenly found new evidence over the weekend to give him reson to indict again. Does this mean someone in TRMPAC rolled over on him? I doubt it's Colyrando and Ellis, both of whom DeLay has stuck by. I've had to deal with Jim Ellis before (professionally), and he seems intensely loyal and nonchalant about all this, at least publically. He is, however, making himself extremely hard to reach in DC.

Either way, it's a post-DeLay era. There is already a big leadership battle brewing for January in the House. I could see a putsch against Blunt going down, at least by a decent slice of the House Republicans. As for Frist, his days are numbered.