Tightening Noose

The steam kettle that is the US Attorney's scandal is now well past whistling, it seems it's ready to blow. Somebody is going to roll, and right now my money is on former Counsel to the Attorney General and White House Liaison Monica Goodling. The Justice Department seems to know this as well. They have initiated their own investigation into Goodling.

Goodling and her attorney, John Dowd, found out about the investigation from a press release from the DOJ, and they are not happy about it. Dowd fired a letter off to express their displeasure. Here is the last paragraph. From TPM:

What disturbs us most is that the Department chose to make its announcement about Ms. Goodling in the midst of Congress's ongoing investigation into the Department's affairs, and less than two weeks after the House Judiciary Committee passed a resolution authorizing the House General Counsel to apply for an order of immunity for Ms. Goodling. The timing of your release smacks of retribution and intimidation.

This is where it gets sticky. The House Judiciary Committee authorized Goodling's immunity, but the DOJ must approve it, and Dowd asserts that they may not block it with a parallel investigation. They may however delay it for 20 days. The bottom line is that Goodling is going to tell the Justice Department to go pound sand and will assert the Fifth in their investigation. What she will tell Congress, is quite another thing however, it could be anything.

Time To Walk The Plank For The Leader

After reading the investigations of three republican congressmen at TPM the past few days, I have to think that it isn't a coincidence that the heating up of these seemingly backburnered cases comes right in the heels of the US Attorney scandal.

Think about it, various claims of the politicization of government agencies occur, especially the DOJ and all of the sudden these cases are making news again. It looks to me like Tom Feeney, John Doolittle, and Rick Renzi are getting thrown over the boat by the White House as some sort of sacrificial lambs to take the heat off the White House. Sure, the administration was willing to protect them before, but now that the heat is on, they have to go. Remember, as I've said before, with the Bush administration loyalty is a one way street.

Of the three, Renzi seems the most resigned to his fate as he has resigned his committee positions and asked to be left out of the GOP's incumbent re-election program, while the other two have done no such thing.

And speaking of Renzi, can I really mention him in a post without bringing back that great video of him canoodling with Katherine Harris on the House floor as Rob Simmons gave a floor speech?



Will you wait for me Katherine? Oh well, we will always have that Simmons speech.