Comments Posted By jukeboxgrad
Displaying 11 To 19 Of 19 Comments
GONZALEZ: CAN EVERYONE BE RIGHT?
Rick, thanks very much for fixing my dangling tag in #4. I also see that you're fixing what I mentioned in #2.
Comment Posted By jukeboxgrad On 29.07.2007 @ 13:04
rick: "other career DOJ attorneys threatened to resign if it was given the go ahead without modifying some of its 'technical' aspects."
More of those pesky quotes ("technical"). You seem to be suggesting that Comey used that word. Trouble is, he didn't.
Also, you're understating the situation when you say "other career DOJ attorneys threatened to resign." According to Comey, it was Ashcroft, Mueller and a bunch of other senior people who were ready to resign. That's a much stronger statement than just "other career DOJ attorneys." And Comey himself wasn't just a "career DOJ attorney[s]." He was DAG, and acting AG.
"Robert Comey"
James, not "Robert."
"Ashcroft preferred allowing his deputy Comey to do his duty"
Not just that. Ashcroft and Comey had already "agreed on a course of action." I see you later acknowledge this.
"Not being aware of this, the White House’s Andy Card and Gonzalez went to the hospital hoping the AG would over ride Comey’s decision."
First of all, it wasn't just "Comey’s decision." That implies Ashcroft was being led around by the nose by Comey. Not exactly fair.
Also, you don't know that Gonzales was "not … aware of this [not aware that Ashcroft had already made the same decision as Comey]." As far as I can tell, Gonzales has not made this claim, and there is nothing in the record to suggest such a claim. I think you're simply making a charitable assumption.
By the way, if at the moment he entered the hospital room, Gonzales really didn't know if Comey was acting with Ashcroft's explicit support, then Gonzales had a simple way to find out: ask Comey. If Gonzales didn't do this, then he should have done this.
The circumstances seem to indicate that Gonzales knew quite well where Ashcroft stood, and was simply hoping that a sedated Ashcroft could be convinced, one way or another, to scribble his name anyway. This is appalling, to say the least.
Comment Posted By jukeboxgrad On 29.07.2007 @ 13:03
rick: "the slew of illegal fundraising cases that the Clinton Justice Department, according to an Inspector General’s audit, simply 'blew?' "
By putting that word ("blew") in quotes you seem to be suggesting that word is a quote from the Inspector General.
As far as I can tell, the report you're talking about is here:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/1999/07/dojoig.html
And it doesn't use that word.
Then again, maybe you meant those as scare quotes, and I'm being too fussy.
Comment Posted By jukeboxgrad On 29.07.2007 @ 12:40
Oops, sorry about that. Hopefully it's obvious that I forgot to close the italics tag at the end of "George Washington Hospital."
Comment Posted By jukeboxgrad On 29.07.2007 @ 12:22
rick: "Ashcroft begged off making the decision … thought it best that Comey … was in a better position to make the call."
That's a distortion of what we learned from Comey's testimony:
a week before that March 11th deadline [for the renewal of the program], I had a private meeting with the attorney general for an hour, just the two of us, and I laid out for him what we had learned and what our analysis was in this particular matter. And at the end of that hour-long private session, he and I agreed on a course of action. And within hours he was stricken and taken very, very ill … We had concerns as to our ability to certify its legality, which was our obligation for the program to be renewed. The attorney general was taken that very afternoon to George Washington Hospital.
http://gulcfac.typepad.com/georgetown_university_law/files/comey.transcript.pdf
You're suggesting that Ashcroft had not yet made a decision, or was avoiding making a decision. That's not so. Before he got sick, Ashcroft and Comey had already "agreed on a course of action."
This is an important point. Before entering the hospital room, Gonzales either did know, could have known or should have known that Ashcroft had already made a decision. This supports Comey's perspective, that Gonzales was specifically trying to take advantage of Ashcroft's condition to get Ashcroft to reverse a decision that Ashcroft had already made.
Comment Posted By jukeboxgrad On 29.07.2007 @ 12:21
rick: "Comey himself confirmed this in his own testimony"
No. The quote you attribute to Comey is actually from AGAG.
No need to make a confusing situation even more confusing.
Comment Posted By jukeboxgrad On 29.07.2007 @ 12:09
Ace: "was Power Line given the blog of the year award because of their conservative influence?"
Yes.
Comment Posted By jukeboxgrad On 5.03.2007 @ 20:58
Rick, you said "her influence in conservative ranks is nil – absolutely nil ... no one takes her seriously." Here are some more signs your statement is false.
From Power Line: "COULTER BOOK DEAL RUMORED ... Matt Drudge reports that Ann Coulter is about to sign a $3 million deal for her next book, the most ever for a conservative writer."
From Mark Steyn: "Ann Coulter's new book Godless: The Church of Liberalism is a rollicking read very tightly reasoned and hard to argue with ... hooray for Miss Coulter."
By the way, Coulter's book currently has an Amazon sales-rank of 1,158. That indicates sales far above "absolutely nil."
More Power Line praise for Coulter: "I enjoyed the posts about Ann Coulter. I've never met her, but two close friends of mine know her well and think the world of her. What strikes me is how much better she is on television than when she started out. To be sure, a New York Times best seller (don't you love it?) will add luster to anyone. But even before that, she had transformed herself from just another talking head into a skillful and powerful polemicist. She deserves enormous credit for that."
And there' this gem, which they quoted approvingly: "I can’t help but wonder if five to ten years from now, some Iraqi soldier will be teaching himself to read English with the words of Ann Coulter or Bill Bennett."
(Minor typo in my prior post: I meant to type "folks," not "folk.")
Comment Posted By jukeboxgrad On 3.03.2007 @ 17:38
Rick: "every single conservative blogger I have seen this morning has roundly condemned her"
Power Line, Time's 2004 Blog of the Year, is silent on the subject, today. And they have defended her on many occasions. Example: "I love Ann Coulter." Another example: "I had always viewed ridiculing Coulter as the left's province, and I don't understand why this is something that conservatives would want to do."
"Her influence in conservative ranks is nil – absolutely nil. No one takes her seriously"
The Power Line folk apparently do take her seriously.
Comment Posted By jukeboxgrad On 3.03.2007 @ 16:38
