June 15, 2007 – Capitol Hill Blue

Gonzales under investigation

June 15, 2007

The US Justice Department is investigating its own chief, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, to see if he tried to skew testimony over the firings of nine federal prosecutors, officials said.

Two department officials, in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee dated Wednesday, confirmed that the probe into the firings includes examining a meeting between Gonzales and one of his former top aides, Monica Goodling.

Goodling, questioned by the committee last month over her role in the allegedly politically motivated sackings, testified that Gonzales’s remarks in a March discussion with her on the issue left her feeling “a little uncomfortable.”

Pace says he was forced out

June 15, 2007

In his first public comments on the Bush administration’s surprise decision to replace him as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Peter Pace disclosed that he had turned down an offer to voluntarily retire rather than be forced out.

To quit in wartime, he said, would be letting down the troops.

Pace, responding to a question from the audience after he spoke at the Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Va., on Thursday evening, said he first heard that his expected nomination for a second two-year term was in jeopardy in mid-May. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on June 8 announced Pace was being replaced.

Video: Libby must begin jail sentence

June 15, 2007

A Gonzales by any other name

June 15, 2007

Forget about whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales remembers too little, deletes too many e-mails, fires federal prosecutors for partisan reasons or justifies the use of cruel and unusual punishment. The real issue bedeviling Hispanics is why he insists on torturing his surname.

The real name is Gonzalez.

The attorney general can’t blame his peculiar spelling (and it is very peculiar) on an Ellis Island error. There’s no legal immigration record for three of his foreign-born grandparents.

What’s the difference between -es and -ez?

Plenty.

Lame duck, lame Congress

June 15, 2007

More than two-thirds of Americans say they have lost faith not only in President Bush but also in the Democrats running Congress.

All of the presidential candidates should be extremely worried about this development.

Because of rivalry among the states, next year’s primaries have been scheduled in warp speed. In only eight months from now, we will know who the Republican nominee will be and who the Democratic Party’s nominee will be.

Home of the free, land of the terrorist

June 15, 2007

“America is still the land of opportunity,” Sen. John McCain recently said. “And we’re not going to erect barriers and fences.”

Unlucky us.

Along with Massachusetts Democrat Ted Kennedy, the Arizona Republican co-sponsored immigration legislation currently stalled in the Senate. McCain should recognize that without a barrier or fence, the U.S./Mexican frontier will keep welcoming Islamic extremists pledged to America’s doom.

This is not hypothetical.

Did Gonzo tamper with testimony?

June 15, 2007

The Justice Department is investigating U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s meeting with a former top aide about the controversial firing of federal prosecutors last year, according to a letter released on Thursday by the Senate Judiciary committee.

In testimony before the House Judiciary committee, the former aide, Monica Goodling, said Gonzales told her about his recollections of the dismissals in March, shortly before she resigned.

Big mouth means big bucks

June 15, 2007

Former President Clinton, who might someday be the first spouse, traveled the globe last year, making more than $10 million giving speeches at corporate retreats, trade group gatherings and motivational venues.

Reid blasts generals on Iraq

June 15, 2007

The top Democrat in the US Senate on Thursday fired off unusually frank criticism of the generals running operations in Iraq, in an acerbic aside to his quarrel with the White House over the war.

Majority leader Harry Reid said he was disappointed in Marine General Peter Pace, outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and hoped for a more candid approach from General David Petraeus, US commander in Iraq.

Senators cut new immigration deal

June 15, 2007

Democratic and Republican leaders on Thursday agreed a deal to rescue a crippled overhaul of US immigration laws, which would offer a path to citizenship for 12 million illegal immigrants.

The bill, one of President George W. Bush’s last hopes for a signature domestic achievement in his second term, collapsed in the Senate last week, against stiff opposition from conservative Republicans.

“We met this evening with several of the Senators involved in the immigration bill negotiations,” Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and his Republican counterpart Senator Mitch McConnell said in a joint statement.