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Memo Pad

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Republicans Swoon Over Holder’s ‘Partisan’ Leak Probers (And Forget Ken Starr)

June 15th, 2012 12:05 am Joe Conason

This week, Republicans on Capitol Hill opened yet another front in their continuous sniping against the Obama administration, the Justice Department, and Attorney General Eric Holder. Having demanded a federal investigation of intelligence leaks, they now claim to be outraged because Holder has asked two United States Attorneys to conduct that probe — and one of the two happens to be a Democrat.

Angry Republicans (and their media enablers at Fox News, et al.)  insist that the White House must have leaked information about the President’s terrorist “kill list,” the success of drone strikes, and the killing of Osama bin Laden to improve the President’s martial image and re-election prospects. Never mind that they fawned over the Bush White House, regardless of its leaks and even its unlawful disclosure of CIA officer Valerie Plame’s identity. That was then, of course – and now the alleged leaks of national security material from a Democratic administration enrage them.

Whether those stories emanated from the Obama White House or not, someone must have tipped off the New York Times, which first reported the “kill list,” among other things. So consistent with President Obama’s evident obsession about stanching leaks, Holder appointed Ronald Machen, the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, and Rod Rosenstein, the US Attorney for the District of Maryland, to oversee an investigation and potential prosecution of the leakers.

Immediately, a loud claque stretching from Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) to the Fox Nation website began whining about Holder’s appointments. First, they said that the job ought to handled by a special counsel, not a pair of prosecutors subject to presidential appointment. And second, they complained that Machen had supported the president in 2008 and donated about $4500 to his campaign. (They never mention that Rosenstein was a Bush appointee, held over by Obama with bipartisan support in Maryland. But then appointment by a Republican president isn’t much protection against smears from the right — just ask Patrick Fitzgerald, who prosecuted the Plame case.)

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  • bernieo

    I clearly recall the “liberal” media swooning over Starr when he was appointed. They lauded him as non partisan even though they knew – or should have known had they been doing their job – that he was anything but.

    • DurdyDawg

      Just goes to show.. Golden words of what we want to hear can fool even the best of us. Do you think maybe the media was fooled just as we were or do you think everybody has their price? It’s really six of one and a half dozen of the other. And what about this back step from Caroline Kennedy.. Loving Obama like a surrogate daddy then turning 180° when he fails to endorse her mediocre run for State senator.. Guess she got pissed because he wouldn’t honor her idea of a ‘favor’ in putting another incompetent in office.

  • William Deutschlander

    Well you just summed up the Republican legacy, LIE, DECEIT, CONTORTION, HYPOCRICY, MALASE and LACK OF FIDUCIARY RESPONSIBILITY!

    It developed with Tricky Dicky Nixon and has been professionalized by Rove and the Koch Bros and as long as the electorate is to dumb to recognize this fact, they will perpetuate this sickness with their trove of cash!

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Larry-Brown/1097607845 Larry Brown

      “FIDUCIARY RESPONSIBILITY!” that maybe the richest of all. Ya mean like Obama seeing that his HAMP program is carried out so Americans quit having their homes stolen by banks that forged documents to claim ownership because they never made a loan in the first place? You wouldn’t know “fiduciary” if it bit ya on the fetlocks

  • CPANY

    If you want to find governmental leaks, start with the leaders, regardless of party affiliation. As an actor in an old Britcom once observed, The ship of state is the only ship that leaks from the top.”

  • Eleanore Whitaker

    I clearly recall Republican “paybacks”…Swiftboating that turned out to be political tripe. The Republicans are into big time “paybacks” with Holder over Alberto Gonzalez being forced to resign from the Justice Dept. At what point do Republican vigilante Wussy Bois do they jobs they are paid to do? Or is getting even all they KNOW how to do? They got even for Bush ’41′s one term by one after another destruction of the Clinton administration. Now, they are getting even with President Obama for daring to upset the carnage the GOP perpetrated on this country for 8 years. Bush ended up a failure so now to get even these Wussy Boi GOP monsters are forcing failure on this administration.

    Gonzalez was forced to resign from the Justice Dept. because if there is one branch of government that cannot EVER be politicized, it’s the Justice Dept. Politicize law and only Republicans get away with their never taking consequences for what they do. Gonzalez was another Bush Texas crony who thought he’d fly under the radar and hire only Republican attorneys for the Justice Dept. Big time NO NO. It’s either law or it’s politics…Only in Texas do they mix one with the other.

    • Landsende

      Living in Texas I have to agree, cronyism is alive and well. Rick Perry is probably one of the most corrupt governors around and has sold out the taxpayers time after time yet the dumblicans keep voting him into office.

    • bernieo

      What was the Swiftboating payback for? Having the audacity to run against Bush?

  • Eleanore Whitaker

    Ken Starr and his allies, Eric Prince of Blackwater (now XE) and Karl Rove were college buddies who all belonged to that Young Republicans hatchet group who detested the fact that a nobody like Clinton dared to become a Rhodes scholar. A guy from a single Mom family? With no rich Big Daddah like George W. Bush to cover up every college prank, dump Arbusto Oil and that TX sports teams debts on taxpayers? Unheard of in Little Lord Fauntleroys’ minds.
    Anyone recall how Ken Starr and his Whitewater BS cost taxpayers $12 million dollars and not a single one of those he McCarthied ended up in jail?
    And, don’t you know…this was all the preliminaries to get a Harvard MBA GWB into the White House. GOP cronies are more like frat bois on steroids.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Larry-Brown/1097607845 Larry Brown

      Yea and that Millard Fillmore was a real trouble maker too. Keep blathering about ancient history and you’ll never have to recognize the elephant that is currently crapping in your living room

      • bernieo

        You know what they say about ignoring history….. Republicans really want us to ignore the recent history of Bush’s economic policies because they want to reinstate them and then some.

      • rustacus21

        What elephant? Oh, that big red one we can’t seem to get rid of… U know, the rampaging, tax-cutting, 2-war mongering, treasonous, seditious letter-inner of enemies of the nation to do their worst, running interference for fat-cats & corp’s who implant more little red elephants in Congress, who too, are now rampaging around & crapping on the house floor w/this ‘Fast & Furious’ crap, courtesy to the same big red rampager unleashed by the Supreme Court; who ‘INVENTED’ Fast & Furious in the 1st place… Yeah, that’s the 1…

    • bernieo

      Are you talking about the same Ken Starr that our vaunted mainstream media touted as very wise and non partisan? Of course they were they same folks who thought Louis Freeh was a genius. Funny how he has slipped below the radar.

  • Eleanore Whitaker

    Right…WE did start at the top. With Cheney and that CIA outing…but…Teflon Cheney as we all know never but never takes the consequences for anything he ever does. So Scooter Libby took the rap for him. Anyone recall how Karl Rove and GWB refused to testify before the CIA outing investigation? What were they hiding? Besides the truth, that is.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_D5HPWVIJUUCDCQIWUV636LNM4A Elsa

    If the Republican party was a person, he would be locked up in a mental health facility to protect him against himself until his meds took hold.

    • joyscarbo

      Even the certifiably insane doesn’t begin to compare to the insanity of the Republican, neo-conservative, religious right wingnuts!!!!!! There IS not medication for them. How do you treat psychopathic sociopaths? You don’t- there’s not cure.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Larry-Brown/1097607845 Larry Brown

        Actually YOU should locked up. Obama has continued Bush’s worst policies almost seamlessly and all you morons says is “whewwww, glad we’re not getting screwed by Republicans.

        • joyscarbo

          What? I should be locked up? I don’t like that Obama didn’t close down Guantanimo Bay and I feel he should have been more aggressive in fighting the republicans. But I also understand taking the high road with those who only wish to do you harm. I am grateful that Osama Bin Laden was killed. Our economy is slow but recovering. It takes more than 3.5 years for a disaster the size of W to recover. I remember the recession of the 1970′s…our country didn’t rally until nearly the mid 1980′s. Obama isn’t a magician, he’s a president. He’s restored some of the integrity that our nation lost with W’s cowboy foreign policies. We need to stay the course with Obama.

        • rustacus21

          Good of U to finally agree w/what a disaster 2001-2009 administration WAS, but where were U in 2000? 2004? Funny thing, as much good as Liberals do while in the White House & majority’s in Congress, U always STILL vote conservative, when U know (1981-1993, 2001-2009) the results U’ll get! I don’t get it…

    • rustacus21

      OMG!!! This is hilariously – ironically – tragically too FUNNY!!! It’s good to have a laugh about this stuff every so often, otherwise, we all be locked up w/the psyco-conservative crowd of escaped lunatics in congress & the voters who vote for them… Thanx Elsa!!! I so badly needed a good laugh 2day!!!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_B6RROC4IUESHT322QS5VJVPYRM Lynda

    The Republicans have taken innuendo and hypocrisy into an artform. As usual they’ve managed to engage in selective scatological memory. The nature of the beast is plan for all to see. There does not seem to be a new low that they aren’t willing, and in fact anxious, to employ in their quest for domination of the political stage. What ever happened to the concept of country first?

  • ObozoMustGo

    Doesn’t anyone realize that leaking sensitive national security information and creating distrust amongst our allies is NO WHERE near as important as making Obozo look good for his second immaculation to leftist Sainthood and road to dictatorship? Who cares about such stupid nonsense when Obozo The Narcissist’s reelection is on the line? If anyone is going to investigate it, why not be your best buddies and political hacks? Come on people, even I know that! Sheesh!!!!

    Yeah, right. Sure sure.

    Have a nice day!

    • metrognome3830

      OMG, Immaculization? Where did you come up with that word? Remembering, not fondly, my Catholic upbringing, saints were Canonized. Or is it just Leftist Saints that are Immaculized? By the way, what about that little squid, Karl Rove? Will he be Canonized by the right? Or Cannonized?

      Have a nice day!

      • ObozoMustGo

        metro.. read it again… I wrote immaculation, not immaculized. Neither are actual words, but the intent is to indicate Obozo’s elevation to “God on Earth” with his blind faithful when he was innaugurated. That’s all. It’s not a word, but you get the point.

        Rove will likely be cannonized! ;-)

        Have a nice day!

        • http://profile.yahoo.com/HFYZP2APYPP7H6PWS2ZDQRWFEQ Hillbilly

          Like the Republicans that you think so highly of MustGo you have a selective memory. You only remember what Rove and the Rest of the Republicans want you to. When the Bush administration ratted out the CIA operative it was because they didn’t like what her husband was saying about them, it didn’t matter to them if she was killed because they let the world know she was a CIA operative just that they get back at her husband for telling the truth about them. Remember when it was reported that Bush said”The Constitution is just a piece of paper, throw it out the window” or when Bush, Cheney and their fellow Republicans was putting wire taps on people’s phones without warrants, were trying to force internet providers to give the access to everyone’s internet correspondent without warrants and trying to make banks give them complete access to everyone’s financial records without warrants. They broke every law in the book that had to do with the Constitution and was highly upset when a Republican Federal Judge told them that they had no right by law to do the things they were doing. We had been attacked but it did not give Bush2 and Cheney the right to totaly disregard the Constitution like they did and throw it out the window as they tried to do. You must not have wondered like a lot of smart people who was suppose to be President and who was vice president. Everytime Cheney was asked anything he would say he couldn’t answer that question because of National Security, ask Bush the same question and about 75% of the time he would answer it. To this day they are people that wonder who was really in charge of the Country from 2001 to 2009, Bush was suppose to be the elected president but Cheney seemed to be the one giving the orders.
          Don’t have a nice day.

          • ObozoMustGo

            Hilly… you’re about as sharp as a bowling ball, and less intelligent. What a drone and useful idiot you are. Where to begin?

            1) Valerie Plame was NOT an operative, and her identity was known before anything happened. Dont let that fact get in your way of a good story, though.

            2) Bush was reported to say “the Constitution is just a piece of paper” by whom? Those objective “journalists” at MoveOn? Here, let’s try this out. I am reporting that Barack Hussein Obozo has sex with this dog Bo! There. It has been reported. Does it make it true? No, of course not. But it HAS been reported.

            3) You’re obviously resentful of the Patriot Act. Were you aware that Obozo VOTED FOR the Patriot Act renewal? Probably not. As well, for all of your leftist nujob griping about the Patriot Act, I haven’t heard a stinking word from any of you useful idiots complaining about the NDAA which is Patriot Act on steroids, or complaining about Obozo’s executve orders that enable him to take control over all assets in America, or Obozo’s unconstitution end runs around Congress to regulate and force others to comply with his demands WITHOUT going through the legislative process. He just did it again with immigration telling border agents NOT to detain or deport illegals anymore.

            DONT GIVE ME YOUR UNCONSTITUTIONAL CRAP, YOU JERKOFF! Not as long as you support Obozo.

            Have a nice day!

          • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_B6RROC4IUESHT322QS5VJVPYRM Lynda

            Here a few comments made by Larry Johnson from his piece ‘The Big Lie about Valerie Plame’ back on July 13, 2005.

            It is fair to note that Mr. Johnson is a retired CIA officer who was a classmate of Ms Plame’s when both entered the CIA in the mid 1980′s.

            ‘For starters, Valerie Plame was an undercover operations office until outed in the press by Robert Novak. Valerie was a classmate of mine from the day she started with the CIA…in September of 1985.

            A few of my classmates, and Valerie was one of these, became a non-official cover officer (NOC). That meant she agreed to operate overseas without the protection of a diplomatic passport. If caught in that status she would have been exected.

            Rep. Peter King and PJ O’Rouke insist that Valerie was nothing, just a desk jockey. Yet, until Robert Novak betrayed her she was still undercover and the company that was her front was still a secret to the world. When Novak outed Valerie he also compromised her company and every indivitual overseas who had been in contact with that company and with her.

            Newsday a mere 8 days after Robert Novak exposed Valerie’s identify: Intelligence officials confirmed to Newsday yesterday that Valerie Plame, wife of retired Ambassador Joseph Wilson, works at the agency on weapons of mass destruction issues in an undercover capacity – at least she was undercover until last week when she was named by columnist Robert Novak.

            It is also fair to note that many details about her career at CIA are still classified. CIA officers confirmed her status as a NOC or ‘deep cover officer.’ It is also fair to note that just before being outed by Novak that she was moving away from NOC status…however that certainly does not mean that she was well known in Washington circles.

          • ObozoMustGo

            Lynda… Thank you for the clarification. I had forgotten about Johnson’s article after 7 years.

            Have a great weekend, Lynda! :-)

          • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_B6RROC4IUESHT322QS5VJVPYRM Lynda

            I almost forgot to advise you about the ‘Constitution’ quote. It was first reported by Doug Thompson of Capitol Hill Blue back on Dec 9, 2005. He’s been a journalist for over 40 years on the hill and well respected. In the article he claimed three folks in the room reported the comment to him. Of course he did not name his source. It is also fair to note that he has backed away from his comments and also he was certainly no fan of Bush or his administration. Several news agencies picked his piece and ran with it, but I can’t recall anyone noticing the recant. BTW, Move On had nothing to with this.

          • ObozoMustGo

            Lynda, you are correct. No one ever remembers the recant. The lie is on the front page on Monday and the recant is on page D18A the next week. Too bad for truth in journalism, regardless of which side is being hit. Just be honest.

            Have a nice day!

        • BrewinBob

          I’ll load the cannon!!

        • metrognome3830

          I knew you made that up. The word, I mean. It’s kind of fun to play with words, isn’t it? Actually, I think Obozo/Obama is still in the first stages of possible sainthood, Beatification. Another word that can be creatively mispronounced. Just move the emphasis from the first “a” to the second. And then we could have Obozo/Obama possibly being beatified by Romney. Unlikely, but something to contemplate.

          Have a nice day!

          • ObozoMustGo

            metro… you crack me up, my friend. “I luv u man”! hehehehehe :-)

            Have a nice day!

    • Genold

      Wow delusional. Someone didn’t get in line for their meds this afternoon did they?

  • holyreality

    The gunrunning tracker operation began under W’s regime.

    Fast and Furious was just the next step.

    Obama cannot do anything, or not do anything correctly. GOP dogs will snarl whatever he does.

    • BrewinBob

      It was called “Operation Wide Reciever” .

  • majong13

    They criticise Holder because he is black, just like they do Obama. I would not be surprised if the leaker was a Republican who was trying to make Obama look bad.

  • gargray

    What the republicians forget, the Iran contra affair under Regan (broke the law). the Iraq war under Bush plus torture, Plame? someone broke the law again. I think the repubs have alzhimers dease.

    • joyscarbo

      Hey, gargray….Look at wikipedia under the heading of George W. Bush scandals. There are so many scandals, unethical and illegal activities under his leadership, they have to alphabetize them just organize it all.

  • Genold

    Republicans. We haven’t forgotten that Republican Vice President Cheney was directly involved in betraying the identity of an operational CIA officer, that President Bush wanted to suspend the Bill of Rights, and that Republicans today care more about women’s vagina’s then they do about Foreign Policy.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Larry-Brown/1097607845 Larry Brown

    Don’t you people EVER get tired of pointing the finger are Republicans? You are willing to vote for the scum of the earth AS LONG AS they are not Republican? DOES it not irk you just a little that Holder was a principle and Covington and Burling who represented all the biggest banks and by coincidence, after 3 1/2 years of proof positive of banks forging documents by the millions and perjuring themselves in courts across the country to fraudulently steal the homes of American families that banks have no legal claim to and not a penny of equity in and yet this piece of human garbage can not find one indictment no less a conviction? Ken Starr? What f-ing planet are you on. Wake up, it’s NOW! That reminds me, speaking of Ken Starr, those who read this garbage are probably too pathetic to realize that it was Bill Clinton who repealed Glass Steagall and Bill Clinton who signed the unregulated over the counter sale of default swaps and other derivatives into law. Jesus, as long as you can blather about Republicans you can’t even feel that the foreign object in your posterior is your being sodomized by the essence of your own idolatry! And I am liberal, what must conservatives think when they read people this blindly stupid?

  • rustacus21

    I thought about something while listening to Big Eddie Schultz earlier 2day; maybe it would be a good idea to open up the ‘Fast & Furious’ Files – ALL OF THEM – all the way back 2 2006, when the last administration ‘INVENTED’ this madness! Only conservatives… But I have a feeling this is another of those ‘gentlemens’ agreements…’ between the presidential ‘fraternity’ members, to ‘look out’ for each other & not make the other(s) look bad in any way. Too bad Liberals adhere to this ‘rule’ & not conservatives…

  • rustacus21

    I deeply respect Mr. Conason & his opinions, but for once I disagree w/his choice of words. Understanding he must bring a certain ‘decorum’ to his communications here & elsewhere, it’s important the nation understands that Republicans – according to their behaviors – are immature, petty, ignorant & pathologically racists, in collusion w/the Fox network, to re-institutionalize the same racism it is taking the nation STILL to this very day, we’re trying to rid ourselves of & the American people should be ashamed of themselves – whether they voted conservative or not – in allowing conservatives to make the job of recovering from a Republican/conservative orchestrated catastrophe (2001-2009), even more difficult!!! I’ve finally come to the realization the primary reason conservatives had such a vicious hatred for President Clinton was his desire to have his administration represent the diversity of America. The American people, then & now, welcome(d) the policy direction, then, as now, but had to contend w/corporate media confusion, eventually turning on both president – in 2000 & 2010. All in all, a concise, expertly framed description of the continuing tragedy of conservatism America can’t seem to likewise, rid itself of… Thank U Mr. Conason…