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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | 20 November 2001 | Vol II, No. 79 | ||
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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | 20 November 2001 | Vol II, No. 79 | ||
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Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., will effectively handpick the person who will continue the investigation into the Clinton administration's Pardongate scandal, a report set to appear in Monday's Roll Call magazine reveals.
Any nominee to replace Mary Jo White, the retiring U.S. attorney for New York's Southern District, will have to first get through the Democratic-controlled Judiciary Committee, where Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., is a senior member.
"Just as important," says Roll Call, "a Democratic aide noted that Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) has continued a 'blue-slip' policy that requires both home-state Senators to sign off on nominees to the federal bench, U.S. Attorneys offices and the U.S. Marshals Service.
"That policy effectively gives Clinton the ability to reject - by not returning a positive review of the nominee, on a blue slip of paper - any nominee to take over the office that is handling the investigation into her and her husband."
White's office has been slow-boating probes into ex-President Clinton's pardon of fugitive billionaire Marc Rich, as well as four Hasidic Rabbis whose village of New Square, N.Y., voted 1,200 to 4 for Mrs. Clinton in last year's Senate race.
The former first lady has denied ever discussing the New Square pardons with her husband. But White's Pardongate grand jury is believed to have heard testimony contradicting her alibi.
White is also probing allegations against former first brother Roger Clinton, whose company CLM LLC allegedly bilked a Texas family out of their life savings on the promise of a presidential pardon that was never granted.
White has $235,000 in canceled checks made out to Clinton's company and witnesses who say he was present when the money changed hands.
Still, despite compelling evidence of criminality, the Clinton probes are expected to go up in smoke once Hillary weighs in on White's successor. One name likely to hit the circular file immediately - former independent counsel Robert Ray, who is rumored to be on the short list for the job.
Ray was stung by criticism that he let both Clintons off the hook last year on ironclad perjury raps. The Clinton camp is said to fear he wouldn't be so lax a second time around.
In light of the Hillary fait accompli, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle has urged that White drop the Clinton probes entirely - along with another investigation into bribery allegations against Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J.
A Clinton veto over her own prosecutor would all but certify the view that the former first family is now officially above the law, leaving some to wonder whether certain provinces of New York have been transformed into the east coast version of Arkansas.
In an episode that is reminiscent of the way the Clintons' home state press covered for them during 1980s, a Westchester County police officer who was injured by Hillary's motorcade last month has been forbidden to talk to the media.
With the exception of the New York Post's Page Six, the New York media have assiduously avoided covering the story.
[ NewsMax ]
"Cantankerous Philadelphia mayor John Street is hopping mad! The former scofflaw is incensed because the State of Pennsylvania has hired a private contractor to take over the hideous Philadelphia public school system. Edison Schools Inc. promises to accomplish something public educators haven't done in 40 years: educate students. How dare they! Street isn't taking this lying down. He's teamed up with local NAACP prez J. Whyatt Mondesire and other local luminaries. These fearless defenders of the status quo are threatening outright civil disobedience to bar the classroom door. Onward, warriors! Educate poor black children? Let 'em try! Shades of George Wallace.
". . . Street is no dope. . . . He sees the writing on the wall. His party ruined Philadelphia in every measurable way, surviving in typical Democrat fashion: lying, cheating and race-baiting. If Edison's program works, poor urban black voters might just figure out the sham Democrats pulled for 50 years. Street has two choices: admit failure or keep the bad schools bad, and blame everyone else. Otherwise, the fate of the Philly Democrats will resemble New York.
"Nobody knows that more than Mayor Street. By almost any objective standard, the last 20 years proved liberalism failed. Nowhere is that failure greater than inner city education, where liberals had total control and failed thoroughly, entirely and completely. But liberals suck their power from failure, cannibalizing constituents and blaming everyone except their own foolish policies.
"Philly Democrats are in serious self-preservation mode, willing to pay anything to keep power. That price has always been paid in the misery of their constituents. Better to keep 'em dumb, dependent and registered
Democrats. After all, who needs Democrats if success is abounding? For pure survival, Street must viciously and ruthlessly bar the door of education to Philadelphia's children. George Wallace would be proud, except he converted in shame before he died. It's too bad Mayor John Street has chosen to
preserve his political power by sacrificing Philadelphia's children upon the altar of his failed liberal ideology."
[ Columnist Tom Adkins / GOP N&V ]
NEW YORK, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- After he signed an order allowing the use of military tribunals in terrorist cases, President George W. Bush insisted he alone should decide who goes before such a military court, his aides tell Newsweek.
The tribunal document gives the government the power to try, sentence -- and even execute -- suspected foreign terrorists in secrecy, under special rules that would deny them constitutional rights and allow no chance to appeal.
Bush's powers to form a military court came from a secret legal memorandum, which the U.S. Justice Department began drafting in the days after Sept. 11, Newsweek has learned. The memo allows Bush to invoke his broad wartime powers, since the U.S., they concluded, was in a state of "armed conflict." Bush used the memo as the legal basis for his order to bomb Afghanistan. Weeks later, the lawyers concluded that Bush would use his expanded powers to form a military court for captured terrorists.
Officials envision holding the trials on aircraft carriers or desert islands, report Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff and Contributing Editor Stuart Taylor Jr. in the November 26 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, November 19).
The idea for a secret military tribunal was first presented by William Barr, a Justice Department lawyer -- and later attorney general -- under the first President Bush, as a way to handle the terrorists responsible for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
The idea didn't take back then. But Barr floated it to top White House officials in the days after Sept. 11 and this time he found allies, Newsweek reports.
Barr's inspiration came when he walked by a plaque outside his office commemorating the trial of Nazi saboteurs captured during World War II. The men were tried and most were executed in secret by a special military tribunal.
[ NewsMax ]
*** "FRIEND" TED KENNEDY CONVINCED G.W. TO HONOR BROTHER
Judicial Watch, the non-partisan public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government abuse and corruption, was astonished to learn today that President Bush intends to name the Justice Department after the late Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
"The ethical and legal standards of the Bush administration will sink low if the President carries through with his plan of naming the nation's top law enforcement agency after someone who spent his tenure in the Justice Department trampling on the civil rights of all Americans. It is widely known that Kennedy urged then FBI director J. Edgar Hoover to misuse FBI files to blackmail members of Congress to "overlook" his brother, President John F. Kennedy's, affair with an East German spy. With the possible exception of John Mitchell and Janet Reno, I cannot think of a worse choice," stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel, Larry Klayman.
The Justice Department's own mission statement says "the Department represents the citizens of the United States in enforcing the law in the public interest" and, yet, Kennedy is perhaps remembered most for three things, the 'Get Hoffa' campaign, which ran roughshod over all legal procedures in a personal vendetta against one man, the wiretapping of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., along with the aforementioned silencing of a congressional investigation into President John Kennedy's affair with alleged East German spy Ellen Romisch.
Yankee legend Joe DiMaggio reportedly refused to shake Kennedy's hand at Marilyn Monroe's funeral because of his belief that he and his brother had something to do with her untimely death. Klayman opined, "Joltin' Joe was right then and George W. Bush is wrong now. As for reports today in The Washington Post that George W. Bush has become a close friend of Senator Ted Kennedy- a politician who many believed murdered Mary Jo Kopeche and was instrumental in convincing Bush to name the Justice Department after his brother Robert…the President should learn to choose better people to be associated with," Klayman added.
[ Judicial Watch ]
Local Scouts supporters in Santa Barbara, California, just won an important grassroots victory to turn back hostile attacks against the Scouts.
Click here for a full report from Michael Warnken, Chief Proponent of Friends of the Boy Scouts in Santa Barbara:
http://www.grassfire.net/2/santabarbara.asp
What Michael and others in Santa Barbara have done can serve as a MODEL for other communities coming under attack. In fact, Michael's team has in effect created a blueprint for rallying thousands in your community to back the Scouts and gain real victories. He is even making available the text of the "Youth Anti-Discrimination Act" which just passed. Click above for details.
Attacks against the Scouts continue. Newsweek magazine reports (11/12 issue) that the United Way has withdrawn $130,000 in annual grants from a New Jersey Scouts council. This forced the Scouts to sell 750 acres of property to make up the difference.
We suspect that many other attacks are in process right now, and we need your help in two important ways:
* * * ACTION ITEM #1
PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO YOUR FRIENDS AND URGE THEM TO SIGN THE PETITION IN SUPPORT OF THE SCOUTS BY CLICKING HERE:
http://www.grassfire.net/scouts.asp?PID=34478
* * * ACTION ITEM #2
IF THE SCOUTS ARE UNDER ATTACK IN YOUR COMMUNITY, NOTIFY GRASSFIRE.NET IMMEDIATELY SO WE CAN SOUND THE ALARM ACROSS THIS LAND.
Send an e-mail to
and put "Scouts Attack" in the subject line.
Thanks for your help, and may God bless America!
[ Grassfire.net ]
By Donald Devine
On Friday, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft announced a "wartime reorganization and mobilization" of the entire Justice Department that might be the most revolutionary development in federal relations in decades.
A week earlier, the new FBI director, Robert S. Mueller III, promised to turn less critical law enforcement back to local police and focus resources on the essential responsibility of fighting terrorism.
Something very significant is going on in Washington and it has received relatively little public notice - perhaps because it is good news for friends of freedom. The media have been dominated by news of government requests for more powers to combat the forces of terrorism. But the FBI and Justice headquarters are now setting priorities between essential national functions and local responsibilities that has the exciting prospect of reinvigorating federalism.
Many citizens have been worried that the expansion of Washington's police role would seriously limit the nation's hard-won liberties. A wide range of groups were active in moderating some of the provisions of the first anti-terrorism bill, desiring to give the government the power it needed but no more. They were concerned that another war would become another excuse to build the bureaucratic state. A vast array of congressional pork-barrel proposals in the guise of combating terrorism - such as billions for Amtrak, highways, Indian health service, rural airports, buffalo herd protection for rich Hollywood ranchers etc.- reinforced this belief.
President George W. Bush was concerned too. In a recent speech before federal employees, he warned: "We must resist pressure to unwisely expand government." He has begun trying to remove the requirement that airport baggage screeners be government employees. After all, it was federal rules not poor screening that allowed box-cutters on the hijacked airliners. He has opposed further increases in so-called emergency spending and has warned against unnecessary changes in our way of life in combating terrorism...
The best news is from the FBI's Mr. Mueller. At a speech before the International Association of Police Chiefs, he acknowledged that the FBI had turned down needed offers of support from local police. "This is unacceptable," he added and promised future cooperation during his term. More important, he said the FBI would de-emphasize bank robberies simply because those were federally chartered and leave these matters to local law enforcement, where they belong. At a congressional hearing that same week, Gov. Frank Keating of Oklahoma, a former agent, recalled that the FBI trained him to believe that "local law enforcement is uneducated and corrupt" and agreed that this national government "culture" of bias needed to be changed.
While the attorney general's proposals were not fully disclosed, resources were redirected to counterterrorism and away from headquarters to the field. He promised to redirect manpower and resources from less essential national functions to free up the resources needed to combat the enemy. "We must focus on our core mission and responsibilities, understanding that the department will not be all things to all people. We cannot do everything we once did, because lives now depend on us doing a few things very well."
While important, functions like undercover local drug enforcement, local law enforcement grant-making, equal employment, housing and voting enforcement, pollution abatement and so forth are duplicated at both local and state levels - and could be handled there just as effectively, according to department officials.
The best argument for federalism, starting with the Founders, has been that there should be a division of labor among society's institutions. States and localities, being closer to the problems can handle most government responsibilities better, as New York proved. The market can resolve most economic matters, as the Soviets inadvertently demonstrated. Families can and do carry most of the burden of caring for the young and the elderly. But the national government is the only institution that can protect the rest from foreign attack. The president, attorney general and FBI director have their priorities right. It may be necessary to give reasonable new powers to the Feds to combat terrorism but, at the same time, it is critical for the survival of liberty - as Ronald Reagan always used to say - to turn the other functions back to "communities and the people."
*Donald Devine, former director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, is a columnist, a Washington-based policy consultant, and a Vice-Chairman of the American Conservative Union.
[ ACU ]
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