The Justice Department's latest moves regarding the career prosecutor who was overruled when a political appointee decided to drop a Philadelphia voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party only heighten suspicions about its handling of the issue.
Justice is sending Christopher Coates, who's keeping silent, from its D.C. offices to the U.S. attorney's office in South Carolina for 18 months. Justice contends that has nothing to do with the Philly case.
Yet Justice also has told Mr. Coates not to cooperate with a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights subpoena. The subpoena is part of the commission's investigation of Justice's dismissal of the Philly case.
Had Justice simply kept Coates in D.C. and let the commission's probe play out, it would have avoided questions begged by those actions. Is his transfer a politically motivated demotion? An attempt to place him beyond the commission's reach? And is Justice -- how else to put it? -- obstructing justice?
Whatever the answers, Justice's actions toward Coates certainly exude more than a mere whiff of defensiveness. That's a troubling addition to a situation that already was quite troubling enough -- one that cries out for public disclosure of the truth.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/03/2010 00:00 ||
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I wish I had my own personal beach...in Hawaii. whimper
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/03/2010 18:20 Comments ||
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It's good to be king.
If you're lucky enough to die of old age.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/03/2010 18:24 Comments ||
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Referring, of course, to the kings of old - often overthrown, exiled, executed, assassinated, poisoned, etc. etc.
It'll be enough to have The One humiliated in 2010 and 2012. Then he can see if he can be as useful as Carter - who did at least found Habitat for Humanity.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/03/2010 18:36 Comments ||
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Carter, the Antisemitic, has done far, far, more harm than good since we kicked his ass out.
In fact he did a great deal of harm while he was in office. Betrayed an ally in the Shah (I know the Shah was bad - but not as bad as what replaced him). Betrayed the U.S. Embassy staff in Tehran by showing himself to be a limp-wrist. And in general Betrayed the country.
Barry hasn't reached the Carter level of betrayal yet. But then he's only been in office a year.
#5
HMMMMM, HMMMMM, so IIUC the WILLIAMS SISTERS of professional tennis have theirsisterly competition + Pizzas, whilst the FIRST DAUGHTERS get to be GIDGET????
SO which First Gidget = First Daughter gets to be the first to find their "MAD/MOON DOG"-nicknamed Surfer Boyfriend + future Hubby to worry the First Parents???
An already difficult situation for Democrats in Congress is worsening as the 2010 political season opens.
To minimize expected losses in next fall's election, President Barack Obama's party is testing a line of attack that resurrects George W. Bush as a boogeyman and castigates Republicans as cozy with Wall Street.
Wouldn't it be simply delicious were Mr. Bush to run again in 2012 and win? It's not going to happen, I know, but wouldn't it be delicious!
Four House Democrats from swing districts have recently chosen not to seek re-election, bringing to 11 the number of retirements that could leave Democratic-held seats vulnerable to Republicans. More Democratic retirements are expected.
Over the holiday break, another Democrat, freshman Rep. Parker Griffith of Alabama, defected to the GOP. "I can no longer align myself with a party that continues to pursue legislation that is bad for our country, hurts our economy, and drives us further and further into debt," said Griffith, who voted against Democrats' three biggest initiatives in 2009: health care, financial regulation and reducing global warming.
Ans thus the defecting Democrats define the Republican party platform, at least in part, for the next election and beyond. Utterly fascinating!
In the Senate, at least four Democrats -- including Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and five-term Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd -- are in serious trouble. The party could also lose its grip on seats Obama held in Illinois and Vice President Joe Biden long occupied in Delaware.
Going into 2010, Democrats held a 257-178 majority in the House and an effective 60-40 majority in the Senate, including two independents who align themselves with Democrats.
But they face an incumbent-hostile electorate worried about a 10 percent unemployment rate, weary of wars
Weary of wars not fought to be won, at any rate.
and angry at politicians of all stripes. Many independents who backed Democrats in 2006 and 2008 have turned away. Republicans, meanwhile, are energized and united in opposing Obama's policies.
The one thing that heartens Democrats is that voters also don't think much of the GOP, which is bleeding backers, lacking a leader and facing a conservative revolt.
House Democrats began an ad campaign in December assailing Republicans for opposing legislation restructuring federal financial rules and recalling the final days of the Bush presidency, when the economy tanked.
"Remember? We all know we should never let this happen again," the ad says. It lays into Republicans for voting "to let Wall Street continue the same risky practices that crippled retirement accounts and left taxpayers on the hook for $700 billion."
Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who heads the House Democrats' campaign arm, said his party wants to remind voters who was on their side at a difficult time. "The Republican Party in Washington today is no different than the Republican Party that ran the Congress before," he said.
But that was three years ago. Democrats have been in control since, and Bush is long gone. This is Obama's country now. Democrats tried to use Bush against Republican Chris Christie in the New Jersey governor's race in November -- and Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine still lost.
A top Democratic priority is minimizing losses among nearly four dozen seats the party now holds from moderate-to-conservative districts that Republican John McCain won in the 2008 presidential race. The most vulnerable in that group include Democratic Reps. Mary Jo Kilroy in Ohio, Harry Teague in New Mexico, Frank Kratovil in Maryland, Tom Perriello in Virginia and Travis Childers in Mississippi.
Reps. Bart Gordon and John Tanner, both of Tennessee, were in that group until they chose to retire. So was Griffith, before he switched to the GOP. Retirement announcements from Reps. Dennis Moore of Kansas and Brian Baird of Washington put two more Democratic seats in swing-voting districts on the GOP's target list.
Democrats insist that Gordon, Tanner, Moore and Baird are leaving for personal reasons and are not the first ripple in a wave of retirements akin to 1994 when 28 Democrats chose not to run, and Republicans won control in part by winning 22 of those seats.
Republicans don't agree.
"Democrats are beginning to see the writing on the wall, and instead of choosing to fight in a difficult political environment, they are taking a pass and opting for retirement," said Ken Spain, a spokesman for the House GOP's campaign arm.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/03/2010 00:00 ||
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Do you suppose the donks are in for a difficult time in 2010 because they are stuck on stupid?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
