Sen. David Vitter on Monday denied having relationships with New Orleans prostitutes, a week after admitting links to a Washington escort service that federal prosecutors allege was a prostitution ring.

Yeah! Those New Orleans hookers are just skanks! Washington hookers are way classier!

Vitter Denies Prostitution Accusations - The Huffington Post

Forcing his Republican colleagues to put up or shut up on the notion of an up-or-down vote, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) just moments ago announced that he will immediately file a cloture motion on the Reed-Levin troop redeployment bill and, if Republicans follow through with a filibuster, will place the Senate in a prolonged all-night session Tuesday to force a true continuation of debate.

Fillibuster? We're going old school on your candy-asses!

BobGeiger.com: Reid To Force Senate Into All-Night Session Tuesday

A member of the Florida House of Representatives arrested yesterday on charges of soliciting a male undercover police officer is the co-Chairman of the Florida campaign of presidential hopeful John McCain, PageOneQ has learned.
......
On his House web page, Allen's listed recreational interest is "water sports."

I maybe shouldn't laugh at.... Bwahahahaha! Schmuck.

Arrested pol is McCain campaign Florida co-chairman

The White House said on Saturday that President Bush would veto a bipartisan plan to expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program, drafted over the last six months by senior members of the Senate Finance Committee.

Four MILLION kids who don't have insurance would be able to go to the doctor, but Georgie doesn't want them to have that because well some people might use the government program instead of hemorrhaging insurance premiums out their asses and going broke, at which point they'd be right back to needing the program, but the program will be completely gone.

Congress figured out a way to help millions of kids, found a way to pay for it (adding about 65 cents a pack to cigarettes) which may have beneficial side effects (disclaimer, I'm a smoker and think this would be a damn good thing to raise the price of smokes for) but insurance companies might see a dip in their profits so Georgie is going to veto it.

Mr. Bush, please do us a favor and eat a bag of pretzels on a Segway.

Bush Is Prepared to Veto Bill to Expand Child Insurance - New York Times

The White House has refused to give Congress documents about the death of former NFL player Pat Tillman, with White House counsel Fred Fielding saying that certain papers relating to discussion of the friendly-fire shooting "implicate Executive Branch confidentiality interests."

They're claiming executive privilege on the investigation of the death of Tillman. About the only way that can even be conceivable is if they were deliberately covering up the truth for political gain, because if it's just a report, then that originates elsewhere and those are not covered at all. Implication? The White House deliberately covered up the Tillman mess, turning him into a national hero, so they could score more points, and are now acting to cover that up.

White House Rebuffs Congress on Tillman Papers

The president had initially said he would fire anyone in his administration found to have publicly disclosed Plame's identity.

"It has been a tough issue for a lot of people in the White House, and it's run its course, and now we're going to move on," Bush declared.

Several Bush administration officials revealed Plame's identity. White House political adviser Karl Rove and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage were the primary sources for a 2003 newspaper article outing Plame. Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer also admitted telling reporters about her. And jurors apparently believed prosecutors who said Libby discussed Plame with reporters from the New York Times and Time magazine. Libby was the only one charged in the matter.

Well that's at least four people who did it. Since some people are still clinging to the impression this was all political, it was. At least four different members of the administration blew the cover of a covert agent. That is not an accident. That's a political move to damage someone who disagreed with why these dolts went to war.

Fitzgerald's prosecution was political? Let's see, Fitzgerald, appointed to be a US Attorney by Bush, was named prosecutor by Ashcroft, appointed by Bush, after Ashcroft recused himself, appropriately, because he worked with the likely targets of the investigation every day. Judge Walton, appointed by Bush, sentenced Libby to 30 months. The appeals panel, one Bush41, one Reagan, and one Clinton appointee, unanimously agreed with Judge Walton that the sentence was in line, and that there was no reason to allow bail during appeal as the presumption made there is that there is a likely chance of overturning on appeal.

The only politics from the left in this are, we're happy to see an administration scumbag getting sent to jail. (and "scumbag" in the original meaning is apt here, Libby lied to the grand jury to protect whoever decided leaking the name would be acceptable, the question that remains is, "was that person Bush, Rove or Cheney?")

Bush seeks to put Libby issue to rest - Yahoo! News

Democrats want to ask her under oath about the White House's role in drawing up the firing list. But Bush invoked executive privilege, saying he needed to protect the flow of advice he receives from close advisers. Additionally, he declared Miers immune from subpoenas and ordered her to skip Thursday's hearing.

No George, no one is immune from subpoenas (there is some grey area concerning elected members of the executive or justices). If she showed up and just stonewalled, then the issue would simply be where executive privilege starts and ends (and my guess it based on prior rulings like US v Nixon, it ends way before where W thinks it does). Instead, by saying she doesn't even need to show up, they've royally pissed off the Dems, and haven't endeared themselves to the middle of the road of the GOP.

At this rate, I'm sticking to my September impeachment starts prediction, and it's because the GOP guys will be looking at the polls, then looking at how many of them will still have jobs a year later and realizing, if they don't get rid of him, they're all going to be out of a job.

House Panel: Miers Wrong to Miss Hearing - The Huffington Post

"Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried," Dr. Richard Carmona, who served as the nation's top doctor from 2002 until 2006, told a House of Representatives committee.

It just never ends.

Former Bush surgeon general says he was muzzled | Politics | Reuters

In the course of its tenure since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Bush administration has turned the entire government (and the DOJ in particular) into a veritable Augean stable on issues such as civil rights, civil liberties, international law and basic human rights, as well as criminal prosecution and federal employment and contracting practices. It has systematically undermined the rule of law in the name of fighting terrorism, and it has sought to insulate its actions from legislative or judicial scrutiny and accountability by invoking national security at every turn, engaging in persistent fearmongering, routinely impugning the integrity and/or patriotism of its critics, and protecting its own lawbreakers. This is neither normal government conduct nor "politics as usual," but a national disgrace of a magnitude unseen since the days of Watergate - which, in fact, I believe it eclipses.

This is from a sitting attorney in the Department of Justice who has been there for 26 years. We need a new president.

The Denver Post - Bush justice is a national disgrace

"There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse," Gonzales told senators on April 27, 2005.

Six days earlier, the FBI sent Gonzales a copy of a report that said its agents had obtained personal information that they were not entitled to have. It was one of at least half a dozen reports of legal or procedural violations that Gonzales received in the three months before he made his statement to the Senate intelligence committee, according to internal FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.

Looks like lying to Congress and perjury to me, but that'd just be political. Sort of like feeding Congress a pile of crap so they'll do what you tell them to do. Time to find someone to indict the AG.

Gonzales Was Told of FBI Violations - washingtonpost.com