Ethics: Jefferson Should Resign

ADMINISTRATION — RIGHT WING PRESSES BUSH TO PARDON LIBBY: Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton sentenced Scooter Libby, Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff, to 30 months in prison for lying during the investigation into the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity. He is the “highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since the Iran-Contra affair.” The sentence was a “a victory for prosecutors,” who asked that Libby serve up to three years in prison; Libby’s lawyers had asked for no prison time. Next week, Walton will decide whether Libby will remain free pending appeal. He has indicated that he “is not inclined” to do so, which means that President Bush may have to decide “in a matter of weeks” whether to pardon Libby. The Washington Post reports that the “prospect of a pardon has become so sensitive inside the West Wing that top aides have been kept out of the loop, and even Bush friends have been told not to bring it up with the president.” Yet the right wing is heavily pushing for a pardon. During last night’s Republican presidential debate, six of the candidates said they would likely pardon the former White House aide, with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney accusing Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald of abusing “prosecutorial discretion.” The conservative National Review quickly posted an editorial on its website yesterday headlined “Pardon Him.” Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol posted a similar piece, arguing, “George W. Bush can do something to begin to make up for the injustice a prosecutor appointed by his own administration brought down on Scooter Libby.” But as Walton noted in the sentencing yesterday, there is no evidence that Fitzgerald acted improperly. “Your lies blocked an extremely serious investigation, and as result you will indeed go to prison,” he told Libby.

ETHICS — FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY ADMITS TO POLITICIZING JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: Yesterday, former U.S. attorney Bradley Schlozman, who emerged as a central figure in the U.S. attorney scandal due to his contribution to the politicization of the Department of Justice, testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and “defended his decision to bring a controversial indictment before last year’s elections.” In a testy exchange with Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), Schlozman inadvertently admitted that he thought minority-advocacy groups such as MALDEF and NAPAB were the “liberal” counterparts to right-wing organizations like the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society. That admittance suggests that his decision to bring voter fraud charges in Missouri against ACORN, another group which advocates for minority voter protection, prior to a hotly contested Senate election, was an attempt to tilt the election. Schlozman also attempted to rig elections in Minnesota, killing an investigation into Native American voter suppression, although he claimed he could not remember such an incident. Schlozman’s politicization also pervaded his hiring practices in the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department. During questioning by Schumer, Schlozman testified that he “boasted about the number of Republicans he had recruited for the [Civil Rights] division” and admitted to telling some applicants to remove Republican credentials from their resumes. Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) lambasted Schlozman for this politicization, scolding him for purportedly reading the U.S. attorney’s manual, but using it “as a doorstop” throughout his tenure in the Department.

HUMAN RIGHTS — GUANTANAMO CHILD SOLDIER RULING RENEWS HABEAS CORPUS DEBATE: A day after a military judge dismissed charges against a “Canadian who was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan” and who has been described as “the first child fighter in decades to face war-crimes charges,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) expressed willingness to bring legislation to the floor that would “restore the right of those held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to challenge their detentions.” The then-conservative Congress “eliminated that right last year while redesigning the military tribunals after the Supreme Court struck down the [Bush administration’s] first plan.” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) criticized the administration’s tribunal system — outlined in the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) — as “rushed” and “arbitrary,” remarking that “even conservative courts say no to” their approach. Likewise, the New York Times called the MCA a “national disgrace” and called on Congress not to allow the Bush administration to “tinker with the review tribunals so they produce the desired verdict.” In addition, Human Rights Watch noted that while the military tribunal system has taken nearly six years to “prosecute one person, the federal courts have successfully prosecuted hundreds of terrorism cases, including dozens of international terrorism cases.” Sen. John Warner (R-VA), who was “closely involved” with writing the MCA, argued that instead of rewriting laws “every time a federal district court judge or someone changes their view,” Congress should “give it some time.” The White House said only, “We certainly disagree with the ruling.”

A bipartisan group of senators, including “several conservative Republicans,” introduced legislation Tuesday to use the Iraq Study Group’s recommendations “as the foundation for future U.S. policy in Iraq.” The bill aims to “begin the withdrawal of U.S. combat brigades by early 2008 if certain benchmarks are met.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has approved a proposal that would allow an independent outside panel to decide which ethics complaints merit investigation by the House ethics committee. “This is gigantic,” said Sarah Dufendach of the watchdog group Common Cause. “If they really do this, it will be a very serious step forward.”

The House oversight committee is expanding its investigation “into ties between jailed GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the White House and have contacted several Abramoff associates recently about testifying to Congress.”

“The United States will refuse to agree to targets and timetables for cutting greenhouse gases” at G8 summit, President Bush’s science adviser reiterated yesterday. “At this point in time we are not prepared to adopt that proposal,” James Connaughton told reporters. 

Iraq and Afghanistan “have overstretched the U.S. foreign service, damaging its staffers’ morale and threatening its performance around the world,” diplomats’ advocates charge. They say the State Dept. needs 1,100 new foreign service officers “simply to restore the capabilities it had” when Condoleezza Rice took her post in 2005.

Yesterday, the House unanimously passed a resolution calling on China to “act consistently with the Olympic standard of preserving human dignity in Darfur, Sudan and around the world.” It urges China to “stop selling Sudan arms and suspend economic cooperation with Sudan until Sudan ‘stops its attacks on civilians’ in Darfur.”

“Oman and Iran girded for heavy flooding and winds today as the strongest cyclone ever recorded by scientists in the northwestern Arabian Sea began to hit coastlines that have little experience with such powerful storms.”

Ignoring a veto threat, a House spending committee yesterday approved a homeland security bill that includes “about $50 million more for customs and border protection than Bush sought and $2 billion more than his February request for security preparedness and disaster relief.”

And finally: Does David Hyde Pierce’s (best known as Niles on the television show “Frasier”) accent in the new Tony-nominated show “Curtains” sound familiar? Pierce said he based his “highly acclaimed Boston accent” on Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA). “It sort of comes from almost an English accent — you lose your R’s and your A’s get a little bent,” said Pierce. Markey’s reaction? “He sounds like me, but I don’t know if that is good or bad.”