1 Boring Old Man

Well, "Were I a betting man, I’d bet that Karl Rove’s emails have been destroyed, and they’re working on making him blameless for their destruction," is looking like a pretty good call [see White House E-Mail Lost in Private Accounts – Messages May Have Included Discussions About Firing of Eight Prosecutors] – sort of predictable, actually.

But this one strikes me as a paradigm for the Bush Administration’s tactics – the confirmation of Rachel Paulose in Minnesota:

But what did the Senate do after receiving her nomination on August 3, 2006? Nothing. The Judiciary Committee did not vote on her nomination. They did not send her nomination to the full Senate for a confirmation vote. Instead, on the last day of the 109th Congress, Bill Frist, then Senate Majority Leader of the Republican controlled Senate, asked that the Judiciary Committee be "discharged" from further consideration of Ms. Paulose’s nomination. This from the congressional record on December 8, 2006:

Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate immediately proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations on today’s Executive Calendar: Calendar Nos. 62, 63, 407, 670, 783, 900, 901, 904, 1000, 1001, 1002, 1003, 1004, 1005 through 1008, 1010, 1011, 1012, 1013, 1014, 1017, 1018, 1019, 1020, 1021, 1022, 1023, 1024, and all nominations on the Secretary’s desk. I further ask consent that the following committees be discharged from further consideration of listed nominations and the Senate proceed to their consideration en bloc: Judiciary Committee, Rachel Paulose PN1905; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Paul Schneider PN2127; Foreign Relations, Dianne Moss PN1846, foreign service promotion lists PN 2097, PN 2130, and PN 2085. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

With that discharge resolution, a rarely used procedure in the United States Senate, Bill Frist brought Ms. Paulose’s nomination to the floor without any committee hearing or committee vote. A few hours later the United States Senate confirmed Ms. Paulose’s nomination along with over a hundred other nominations before heading out of town and before a new Democratic Senate took over.

If you are going to place a young, inexperienced "best buds" of Monica Goodling as a United States Attorney you will need a compliant United States Senate that does not take its "advice and consent" responsibilities under the United States Constitution very seriously. Mr. Bush had such a Senate in the 109th Congress.

Here’s Why They Used a Discharge Petition to Approve Paulose

Well, there’s a reason they used such an unusual way to get someone confirmed. You see, the White House was panicking that the Senate would put 2 + 2 together.

At around 9:30 in the morning on December 7, AGAG’s Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson and Bill Kelley (in the White House) started calling Republican Senators to inform them the USAs for their states would be approved. Somone in the White House (Karl Rove?) was also calling the "political lead" for the states with no Republican Senators: CA, MI, and WA. Sampson called Senator Kyl, and Kelley called Senators Ensign (who seems to have been pissed) and Domenici (whose Chief of Staff was "happy as a clam").

But then, at 11:19, Kelley emailed Sampson in a panic.

Our leg folks are all up in arms that we are doing this on the last day when things can be gummed up by unhappy Senators. There’s no way to pull back til tomorrow, is there? I should have flagged the timing for them earlier — but they never raised the issue of timing until things were underway.

To which Sampson replied:

Too late, right? Calls to USAs are happening as we speak. And Sens. Kyl and Domenici already have been notified (and are ok). Do they think Sen. Ensign will be concerned (I don’t)? And none of these USAs has been promoted by a House member.

To which Kelley responded:

I told them it is too late, but I said I would confirm with you. I think it is clear that they are overreacting, and I’ve told them that. I don’t know if Ensign is close to the Nevada guy, but I would think he’d welcome a new patronage opportunity.

Note to mainstream media: Next chance you get, ask Senator Ensign whether he thinks our justice system is best served when USA appoints are considered just one more "patronage opportunity."

So there’s a reason they approved Rachel Paulose using a discharge petition. They suspected they couldn’t get her appointment approved any other way. And they weren’t about to let it get gummed up in a Democratic Congress. Because if it had, we might well have prevented the chaos that has resulted.

Our government for six years – a Frat Boy, a Paranoid Fascist, an Obligatory Criminal, and a Brain-Dead Congress. What could be worse? That their constituents re-elected them in 2004.

Voting for George Bush and his cronies in 2000 was understandable, though in retrospect, it was a big mistake. Voting for George Bush in 2004 was irresponsible. I wasn’t excited by John Kerry either – not because of his competence or his integrity, but because of his persona. I worried that he couldn’t rally us to get the job that needed doing done.  But voting for George Bush in 2004 was still irresponsible.

One of the unclear issues for me right now is something that’s not talked about very much. Has Karl Rove so taken control of the Republican Party that he’s destroyed it as a legitimate Conservative force in our country? Starting with Nixon, the Republican Party has deteriorated progressively in following the American system of government – playing it straight. About the only "straight-ish" Republican Administration since Nixon was George H.W. Bush. Reagan himself might have been "straight," but he was so divorced from the machinery that the mice played havoc. Perhaps the most damning piece of Iran-Contra was the fact that he genuinely didn’t even know about it. So, we’ve had 26 years out of the last 38 with a President representing a Party run by deceit, deteriorating by the year. If the Republican Party is to represent a dominantly Conservative sentiment in the country, it’s internal reform of the Republican Party that matters. Just electing Democrats isn’t enough…