Politician of the Year...

(and it's only January)


No, not the one who's smiling; I mean the one who is serious about going about her work honestly (oh, to have been a fly on the wall at this little meet & greet...)

Go here, call (909) 888-8525 or fax (909) 888-8613 and show Barbara Boxer the support and respect she deserves.* Let her know that the American people do not want a disingenuous liar to be our next Secretary of State. And the same goes for the scumbag who would be Attorney General:

Gonzales: Did He Help Bush Keep His DUI Quiet?
Senate Democrats put off a vote on White House counsel Alberto Gonzales's nomination to be attorney general, complaining he had provided evasive answers to questions about torture and the mistreatment of prisoners. But Gonzales's most surprising answer may have come on a different subject: his role in helping President Bush escape jury duty in a drunken-driving case involving a dancer at an Austin strip club in 1996. The judge and other lawyers in the case last week disputed a written account of the matter provided by Gonzales to the Senate Judiciary Committee. "It's a complete misrepresentation," said David Wahlberg, lawyer for the dancer, about Gonzales's account.

Personally, I think Gonzo's "evasive answers" about torture, along with his "quaint" torture memos and his questionable counciling of Bush on many of the 150 men and women executed while Bush was Governor of Texas should be enough to block this guy -- especially since this latest smoking gun comes from a stripper's lawyer. I'm just sayin'...

One thing I will say in Gonzales' favor: He did warn The Big Turd Sandwich that members of his administration could be accused of war crimes:

The White House's top lawyer warned more than two years ago that U.S. officials could be prosecuted for "war crimes" as a result of new and unorthodox measures used by the Bush administration in the war on terrorism, according to an internal White House memo and interviews with participants in the debate over the issue.

The concern about possible future prosecution for war crimes—and that it might even apply to Bush adminstration officials themselves— is contained in a crucial portion of an internal January 25, 2002, memo by White House counsel Alberto Gonzales obtained by NEWSWEEK. It urges President George Bush declare the war in Afghanistan, including the detention of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters, exempt from the provisions of the Geneva Convention.

In the memo, the White House lawyer focused on a little known 1996 law passed by Congress, known as the War Crimes Act, that banned any Americans from committing war crimes—defined in part as "grave breaches" of the Geneva Conventions. Noting that the law applies to "U.S. officials" and that punishments for violators "include the death penalty," Gonzales told Bush that "it was difficult to predict with confidence" how Justice Department prosecutors might apply the law in the future. This was especially the case given that some of the language in the Geneva Conventions—such as that outlawing "outrages upon personal dignity" and "inhuman treatment" of prisoners—was "undefined."

What a clever bastard.



*This doesn't mean I've I'm no longer angry at Boxer for prefacing her remarks to Condoliar Rice with "you no doubt will be confirmed," but at least Boxer is not as completely terrified of the Republican attack machine as her colleagues are. Here's Boxer yesterday on Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer:

"...I was questioned by one reporter at the inaugural...and she said, "Well, why are you delaying this vote? The White House wants a vote today." And I said, "Well, you know, the White House doesn't run the United States Senate, and the United States Senate doesn't run the White House. We do have this check and balances."

And I think it's very important, when you have a secretary of state nomination in a time of war -- and as I laid out, and I will lay out again on the Senate floor, one who I do not believe has been candid with the American people, who's gone on shows like yours and made statements that I don't think were true, or they were half-true, didn't tell the whole story, didn't level with the American people -- I would not be worth my weight as a United States senator from the biggest state in the union if I didn't bring up those questions.

I'm only doing my job, even though Andy Card would like me to go away. I'm not going to go away.

Rock on "Double B"...