Bush Out (by Gandhi)

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Tribe links key Democrat, lobbyist in probe

from Boston.com

WASHINGTON -- New evidence is emerging that the top Democrat on the Senate committee investigating Jack Abramoff got political money arranged by the lobbyist in 2002, shortly after the lawmaker took action favorable to Abramoff's tribal clients.

A lawyer for the Louisiana Coushatta Indians said Abramoff instructed the tribe to send $5,000 to Senator Byron Dorgan's political group just three weeks after the North Dakota Democrat urged fellow senators to fund a tribal school program for Abramoff's clients.

The check was one of about five dozen the Coushattas listed in a tribal ledger as being issued on March 6, 2002, to various lawmakers' campaigns and political causes at the instruction of Abramoff, tribal lawyer Jimmy Faircloth said.

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Bush says congressman taking bribes 'outrageous'

from Reuters

EL PASO, Texas, Nov 29 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday verbally slapped a congressman from his Republican party for taking bribes, calling it "outrageous."

Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham of California resigned on Monday after pleading guilty to taking $2.4 million in bribes in exchange for help in securing Defense Department contracts.

"Any member of Congress, Republican or Democrat, must take their office seriously and the ethics seriously," Bush said to reporters during a trip to Texas.

"The idea of a congressman taking money is outrageous. And Congressman Cunningham is going to realize that he has broken the law and is going to pay a serious price, which he should," Bush said.

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Bush ally faces 10 years' jail for $2.4mn in bribes

from Times Online

A REPUBLICAN congressman pleaded guilty last night to taking $2.4 million in bribes in exchange for steering lucrative military contracts to business associates — the latest scandal to hit President Bush’s party.

Randy “Duke” Cunningham, a Californian Republican and decorated Vietnam War veteran, later tearfully resigned from the House of Representatives, where he has served since 1988.

“I can’t undo what I have done but I can atone,” Cunningham, 63, said, wiping away tears. He faces ten years in jail after pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud and wire fraud, and tax evasion for underreporting his income in 2004.

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Lawmakers Under Scrutiny in Probe of Lobbyist

from The Washington Post

The Justice Department's wide-ranging investigation of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff has entered a highly active phase as prosecutors are beginning to move on evidence pointing to possible corruption in Congress and executive branch agencies, lawyers involved in the case said.

Prosecutors have already told one lawmaker, Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), and his former chief of staff that they are preparing a possible bribery case against them, according to two sources knowledgeable about the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

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Second Reporter Asked to Testify on Leak

from Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON - A second Time magazine reporter has been asked to testify in the CIA leak case, this time about her discussions with Karl Rove's attorney, a sign that prosecutors are still exploring charges against the White House aide.

Viveca Novak, a reporter in Time's Washington bureau, is cooperating with Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who is investigating the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity in 2003, the magazine reported in its Dec. 5 issue.

Novak specifically has been asked to testify under oath about conversations she had with Rove attorney Robert Luskin starting in May 2004, the magazine reported.

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How The Bush Administration Got Spooked

from Alternet

It's finally Wizard of Oz time in America. You know -- that moment when the curtains are pulled back, the fearsome-looking wizard wreathed in all that billowing smoke turns out to be some pitiful little guy, and everybody looks around sheepishly, wondering why they acted as they did for so long.

Starting on September 11, 2001 -- with a monstrous helping hand from Osama bin Laden -- the Bush administration played the fear card with unbelievable effectiveness. For years, with its companion "war on terror," it trumped every other card in the American political deck. With an absurd system for color-coding dangers to Americans, the President, the Vice President, and the highest officials in this land were able to paint the media a "high" incendiary orange and the Democrats an "elevated" bright yellow, functionally sidelining them.

How stunningly in recent weeks the landscape has altered -- almost like your basic hurricane sweeping through some unprotected and unprepared city. Now, to their amazement, Bush administration officials find themselves thrust through the equivalent of a Star-Trekkian wormhole into an anti-universe where everything that once worked for them seems to work against them. As always, in the face of domestic challenge, they have responded by attacking -- a tactic that was effective for years. The President, Vice President, National Security Adviser, and others have ramped up their assaults, functionally accusing Democratic critics of little short of treason -- of essentially undermining American forces in the field, if not offering aid and comfort to the enemy. On his recent trip to Asia, the President put it almost as bluntly as his Vice President did at home: "As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to send them into war continue to stand behind them." The Democrats were, he said over and over, "irresponsible" in their attacks. Dick Cheney called them spineless "opportunists" peddling dishonestly for political advantage.

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Lewis Libby's "some other dude did it" defense

from Salon.com


Shortly after Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was indicted for obstructing justice and making false statements to a government agent and a grand jury, Libby's attorneys suggested that they would use the standard he's-a-busy-man-who-can't-remember-everything defense. But now, with Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's revelation that a senior administration official other than Libby told him, in mid-June 2003, that Joseph Wilson's trip to Niger had been arranged by Wilson's CIA operative wife, Valerie Wilson, it appears the Libby team has added another favorite, the SODDI Defense -- as in, "Some other dude did it." Unfortunately for Libby, that turkey won't fly. Here's why.

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Not whether, but how, to withdraw

from The Economist

THERE was plenty on President George Bush's plate during his trip to Asia, from discussing religious freedom with China's leaders to drinking fermented mares' milk in Mongolia. But events back home kept distracting him. There's “an important debate underway back in Washington about the way forward in Iraq,” he told reporters in Beijing on November 20th. Indeed there is.

The latest storm broke after John Murtha, a Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania, said it was “time to bring [the troops] home”. In a passionate speech delivered on November 17th, he argued that American forces have “become a catalyst for violence” and are impeding progress towards stability. Sunnis, Saddamists and foreign jihadists are “united against US forces”, he said. Iraq's fledgling security forces will only be “incentivised to take control” if they are “put on notice that the United States will immediately redeploy”. He later clarified that he expected a pull-out to take about six months.
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Mr Murtha's outburst started a discussion in which neither Republicans nor Democrats are sure of their ground. The administration's first instinct was to attack Mr Murtha. Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said it was “baffling that he is endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic Party.”

Someone must have realised the foolhardiness of getting personal about a man who won a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts in Vietnam. Especially since Mr Murtha, now in his 70s, took the trouble of visiting Iraq's Anbar province—where the insurgency is at its roughest—before making his speech. When Mr Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney later stood up to rebut the congressman, they started by acknowledging that... [read more]

Abramoff Scandal Points To Corruption In Congress And Exec. Branch Agencies…

from The Huffington Post

The Justice Department's wide-ranging investigation of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff has entered a highly active phase as prosecutors are beginning to move on evidence pointing to possible corruption in Congress and executive branch agencies, lawyers involved in the case said.

Prosecutors have already told one lawmaker, Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), and his former chief of staff that they are preparing a possible bribery case against them, according to two sources knowledgeable about the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity.