The USA Eight: Odds and Ends

Organization Charts

I've never been good at organization charts. Usually, the only things I'm really interested in when I'm part of an organization is whom I'm working for, who, if anyone, is working for me, and who's running the show. Beyond that, it's all pretty academic to me. That's what bosses have to know.

So, it came as something as a shock when I finally realized something I'd stumbled onto the other day with the story about Tasia Scolinos' efforts to put some lipstick on the pig that was the USA Eight scandal. It was this: Tasia Scolinos, a somewhat important person in the Justice Department, found out that the US Attorneys were going to be fired from Catherine Martin, a White House official. See the third e-mail in the article. Martin apparently learned about it from William Kelley, who is according to Zimbio, the Deputy White House Counsel and Deputy Assistant to the President. According to this chart, put together by Dan Froomkin, he was Deputy Counsel in 2005. (See the second e-mail). Now, this wouldn't be the first time that someone found out something about what was going on in his, or her, organization from someone outside of it, but the fact remains that Martin found out about it before Scolinos, and she found out about it from a deputy counsel. What this implies, but certainly doesn't prove, is that the White House was out in front on this issue. It's certainly not proof, but if I were on a Senate or House panel investigating things, I'd have a few questions for Ms. Martin and Mr. Kelley.

Gonzopedia Backs Up Cohen

Yesterday, I mentioned an article Andrew Cohen wrote saying that Attorney General Gonzalez attended a meeting where they discussed the impending firing of the USA Eight. In particular, he wrote this:

On Friday night, however, after the network news broadcasts had been completed and the cable lineups already set, the Justice Department disclosed that on November 27, 2006, just 10 days or so before seven of the eight federal prosecutors were fired, Gonzales and his deputies held a formal meeting to discuss the matter. There is an email record that indicates preparations for this meeting and all of the key players, including the Attorney General’s now-departed chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson and Gonzales’ likely-soon-to-be-departed deputy, Paul J. McNulty.

On Gonzales: Defining "Discussion"

Over at the Gonzopedia, we've located some of the emails that show this. On Document 3-23-07 (9), page 2, there's an appointment reminder e-mail saying that several DoJ people, including Paul McNulty, the Deputy AG, and Kyle Sampson, the DoJ Chief of Staff, William Moschella, and Michael Elston. On Document 3-23-07 (8), page 1 is an e-mail written by Kyle Sampson explaining that those people were meeting the AG to discuss the U.S. Attorney appointments. Document 3-23-07 (8), page 2 shows that Michael Elston had to back out of the meeting due to his wife's medical appointment. Document 3-23-07 (8), page 3 shows an e-mail Sampson sent with a subject "Pls add AG to 9AM" from his blackberry. This shows why Cohen asserted that Gonzalez was at the meeting. It's all there in the documents as long as you know where to look.

Incidently, if you want to confirm that what we write in the Gonzopedia is accurate, check the source documents, which are linked at the top of every page.

Still Working

We're still enterring documents over at the Gonzopedia. Thanks to the folks who have been reading and entering data. We sure can use the help. There are still lots of documents to be recorded. No doubt there are still at least a few undiscovered treasures in there.

UPDATE: If you haven't already, check out Larry Johnson's article about John McCain's latest pronouncements on Iraq:

We already have one President barely in touch with reality. The last thing we need is another ideological nut job incapable of recognizing reality while it is kicking him in the balls.

John McCain, Crazy Bastard

Ouch.

UPDATE 2: James Wolcott has some thoughts on the folks I've called the idiots in the hall:

Imus and Williams, joshing each other the way multimillionaire media guys do, had just wrapped up a speculative tete a tete about whether Nascar drivers wear diapers or some other urine-retention device during those long races. Having wrung as much mirth from that as they could, they switched to politics, where Williams cited a comment from John Harwood about how the Democrats were more interested in investigating than legislating, and that they were running the danger of having some of the mud they dig up spatter on them.

Such solicitude. No doubt the tribunes at NBC News are flashing caution lights in the best interests of Democrats, for fear they might injure themselves lrunning around on the playground. But you have to wonder if there's a prescribed amount of political corruption--muck--that's allowed to be unearthed before it lands in the gone-too-far/boomerang effect/overplayed-their-hand category. Beltway pundits never seem to want to get to the bottom of anything. A little surface scraping suffices for them.

Rhyme Schemes (updated)

People are trying to reclaim our country from the thieves who hijacked it and all these people can do is joke about diapers.