The Dirty truth is that George W. Bush did NOT win either of his presidential elections, based on the intent of those legal voters who turned out to vote on election day in 2000 and 2004, (but whose votes in Florida in 2000, in Ohio in 2004, and almost certainly minority voters in other states like Iowa and New Mexico in either or both elections WERE NOT COUNTED);
....that Karl Rove is NOT a genius but simply a liar and bully who is willing to break the law to win elections;
....and that the Democrats have been unable, or more likely unwilling, to PROTECT AMERICAN CITIZENS from those gross abuses of the law, and chronic lawbreaking, by the Bush-Cheney administration.
Senator PATRICK LEAHY is now the FACE of that Democratic BETRAYAL of the obligation and responsibility to UPHOLD THE RULE OF LAW and the US Constitution.
This tendency on the part of the Democrats, of course, stretches back for over a century. For almost 100 years the FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT demanded that "THE RIGHT TO VOTE SHALL NOT BE ABRIDGED" for ex-slaves and other minority Americans.
But until President Lyndon Johnson rammed the Voting Rights and Civil Rights Acts through an OBSTRUCTIONIST CONGRESS (dominated by the veto power of segregation-state senators), the rights to vote _WERE_ ABRIDGED for millions of potential voters. That is, ALL of America was COMPLICIT in "abridging the right to vote" of minorities, in DEFIANCE of the Constitution, at least in the Deep South, because the American government is at core about the concentration of power in the hands of Congress and the executive branch, and diffusing power to minority voters benefitted few members of that Congress or government.
Today, the institutional Democratic Party - the "INSIDE THE BELTWAY DEMOCRATS" of the DLC, DSCCC, and DCCC ("Democratic Leadership Counsel," the "Democratic Senate Campaign Committee," and the "Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee," respectively) HAVE RETURNED TO THEIR SEGREGATION-ERA ROOTS, aligning with the Radical-Right who once filibustered any attempt to overturn segregation, and who now push an agenda of theocratic dogma (overt racists Jerry Falwell, Pat Roberston, and Bob Jones, to name three), wars of imperial conquest, and a wholescale assault on the US Constitution, under the blanket of "war on terror" fearmongering and wartime powers.
Senator Leahy is emblamatic of the "BELLY OF THE BEAST" tendency of the Democratic Party. He may have "progressive," liberal, or democratic tendencies - BUT HE IS NOT WILLING TO PUT HIS COMMITTEE ON THE LINE to PROTECT American voters from the PURGE, intimidation, smear, and DISENFRANCHISEMENT TACTICS of KARL ROVE.
Mr. Leahy, YOU ARE BEING MEASURED AGAINST KARL ROVE.
This is your OPPORTUNITY to go down in history, not just as a (potential) VICTIM of the deadly anthrax letters (sent to your office just 2 weeks after the traumatic and even deadlier 9-11 attacks), but as a courageous senate chairman who FOUGHT FOR and UPHELD the RULE OF LAW, against the one individual who is at the core of EVERY episode of election chicanery during the entire tenure of the Bush administration.
Your leadership thus far mimics that of Senator and Senate Committee Chairman Joe Leiberman, who WET BLANKETED the ENRON INVESTIGATION which landed in his Government Affairs Committee in the summer of 2002. Mr. Lieberman was in such a rush to support the pending INVASION OF IRAQ by President Bush and Vice President Cheney, that he short-circuited the Enron investigation in his committee - THEREBY ROBBING Democratic voters, candidates, and activists of their BEST ISSUE in 2002, the opportunity to LINK President George W. Bush to ENRON FRAUD. And that link was huge. Enron Chairman Ken Lay was Bush's single biggest and most important donor through two Texas gubernatorial races, the 1999-2000 Republican presidential primary race, the 2000 presidential campaign, and the November-December 2000 Florida recount legal battle. In the summer of 2001, just as Enron was crashing down from the disclosure of massive fraud in its financial statements, President Bush snatched Senior Enron executive Thomas White out from under the collapsing company, to make him Secretary of the Army - to do to Army accounts what Enron executives had done for Enron accounts. (Namely, siphon off legitimate profits into privately owned subsidiaries that transferred wealth to a handful of executives, or in the case of the Army, "PRIVATIZE" functions that would guarantee huge profits for politically connected suppliers and contractors.)
Joe Lieberman's FAILURE to aggressively and honestly INVESTIGATE ENRON in the summer of 2001 _ROBBED_ Democratic candidates of their best issue in November of 2002... and that election, American voters handed CONTROL OF THE SENATE _BACK_ to the Republicans.
Mr. Leahy, YOU are in that SAME position today as Joe Lieberman was in 2002: IF you do not do SOMETHING to hold the Bush-Cheney-Rove administration to account, in a real, tangible, and non-rhetorical mannner, YOU will TURN OFF Democratic voters by the droves in 2008, and give Republicans the opportunity to take back control of one or both houses of Congress.
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It’s Subpoena Time
June 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/08/opinion/08fri1.html
For months, senators have listened to a parade of well-coached Justice Department witnesses claiming to know nothing about how nine prosecutors were chosen for firing. This week, it was the turn of Bradley Schlozman, a former federal attorney in Missouri, to be uninformative and not credible. It is time for Senator Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to deliver subpoenas that have been approved for Karl Rove, former White House counsel Harriet Miers and their top aides, and to make them testify in public and under oath.
Mr. Schlozman was appointed United States attorney in Missouri while the state was in the midst of a hard-fought Senate race. In his brief stint, he pushed a lawsuit, which was thrown out by a federal judge, that could have led to thousands of Democratic-leaning voters being wrongly purged from the rolls. Just days before the election, he indicted voter registration workers from the liberal group Acorn on fraud charges. Republicans quickly made the indictments an issue in the Senate race.
Mr. Schlozman said it did not occur to him that the indictments could affect the campaign. That is hard to believe since the Justice Department’s guidelines tell prosecutors not to bring vote fraud investigations right before an election, so as not to affect the outcome. He also claimed, laughably, that he did not know that Acorn was a liberal-leaning group.
Mr. Schlozman fits neatly into the larger picture. Prosecutors who refused to use their offices to help Republicans win elections, like John McKay in Washington State, and David Iglesias in New Mexico, were fired. Prosecutors who used their offices to help Republicans did well.
Congress has now heard from everyone in the Justice Department who appears to have played a significant role in the firings of the prosecutors. They have all insisted that the actual decisions about whom to fire came from somewhere else. It is increasingly clear that the somewhere else was the White House. If Congress is going to get to the bottom of the scandal, it has to get the testimony of Mr. Rove, his aides Scott Jennings and Sara Taylor, Ms. Miers and her deputy, William Kelley.
The White House has offered to make them available only if they do not take an oath and there is no transcript. Those conditions are a formula for condoning perjury, and they are unacceptable. As for documents, the White House has released piles of useless e-mail messages. But it has reported that key e-mails to and from Mr. Rove were inexplicably destroyed. At the same time, it has argued that e-mails of Mr. Rove’s that were kept on a Republican Party computer system, which may contain critical information, should not be released.
This noncooperation has gone on long enough. Mr. Leahy should deliver the subpoenas for the five White House officials and make clear that if the administration resists, Congress will use all available means to get the information it needs.
