The Sour Smell of Corruption

[merh]

The Sour Smell of Corruption
by Adam Lynch
February 4, 2009

Of all the interesting odors hovering in the wake of the exiting Bush administration, the most pervasive smell could prove to be the sickly scent of corruption. The reek sank as far south as Mississippi, and will likely take Congress years to clean, if it manages to get its hands on a big enough mop.

Congressional Democrats are repeating a failed 2007 effort to drag former White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove to testify on the alleged politicization of the U.S. Department of Justice under former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Rep. John Conyers, the Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, fired off another subpoena to Rove last month, demanding his presence at a Feb. 2 hearing.

Conyers also wants Rove to address questions on the Justice Department’s firings of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006, an issue that first prompted suspicion about the politicizing of the Justice Department.

A series of DOJ internal e-mails contains a list of targets, rated first to last according to their sense of “loyalty to the President and Attorney General.”

Rove Goes Local

Mississippi U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton was one of the names on a 26-member hit-list, but Lampton held his job after bringing a series of indictments aimed specifically at Democratic judges and a prominent Democratic fundraiser.

Lampton unleashed several indictments for corruption against Harrison County Circuit Judge John Whitfield and Chancery Court Judge Wes Teel, Mississippi Supreme Court Judge Oliver Diaz and Mississippi attorney Paul Minor in 2005. Prosecutors alleged that Minor had purchased favors from the three judges by insuring campaign donations for the judges. Lampton’s team could not find a way to actually link any specific case with a monetary donation, however. Diaz had never overseen any of Minor’s disputed cases, and the other judges had been assigned to Minor’s cases, not requested them. Teel told The Biloxi Sun-Herald in 2007 that the parties in Minor’s case had even “reached the settlement on their own.”

more @ http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/site/comments/the_sour_smell_of_corruption_020409/

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if I'm subponaed and don't show up, don't I get arrested?

What is wrong with this picture? What on earth???

[merh]

2. Yes, if you or I were subpoenaed and didn't show up

we would likely be arrested.

I don't understand what is going on -

[Sarah Ibarruri]

3. I wish someone would explain this - why isn't this man in jail right now? nt

[merh]

6. If you find out, please let me know.

[BR_Parkway]

4. If you shoplift a pack of gum, you go to jail - steal $50 Billion, house

arrest - why are you all surprised that some people are just above all these laws the We, the Little People have to live under?

[Sarah Ibarruri]

5. I guess because the propaganda about how FAIR the U.S. is, is still being spewed by Repukes? nt