This is just too fun:

Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have been indicted on state charges involving federal prisons in a South Texas county that has been a source of bizarre legal and political battles under the outgoing prosecutor.

Just writing the headline was a joy-rush. Unfortunately, of all the real and imagined crimes for which Cheney and Gonzales deserve indictment, these are far down the list. Don't expect Cheney or Gonzeles to do the perp walk any time soon.

Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra brought the indictment, but as he said, "the grand jury is the one that made those decisions, not me." Guerra has an interesting history: [more ...]

As U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C., Eric Holder sought to raise marijuana penalties and restore mandatory minimum penalties for drug crimes. From the Washington Times, December 5, 1996 (via Lexis.com):

Eric Holder yesterday said he will seek to make marijuana distribution in the District a felony and reinstate mandatory-minimum sentences for convicted drug dealers. Mr. Holder,...said the D.C. Council's vote a year ago to repeal mandatory minimums was "misguided," leading to a backlog in the court system. He also warned that the city is on the verge of an explosion in violence associated with the sale and use of marijuana.

[More....]

Jonathan Singer speaks for me here. But really, Liss does. Want "revenge?" Ignore the p-tz.*

I should make this an Open Thread.

* This word is likely to be changed. J is a very nice person and does not approve of name calling. By contrast, I am not, and enjoy name calling.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

The AP reports:

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens has lost his bid for a seventh term. The longest-serving Republican in the history of the Senate trailed Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich by 3,724 votes after Tuesday's count. That's an insurmountable lead with only about 2,500 overseas ballots left to be counted.

Welcome, Sen. Begich.

Eric Holder has always been a strong supporter of gun control. From his Weekly Briefing on March 20, 2000 (available on Lexis.com):

I want to add my voice to those who are calling on Congress to finally -- to finally -- pass these very common-sense gun measures.

First, to require child safety locks for all handguns that are sold. Second, to ban violent juveniles from ever having the ability to own guns.

Third, to pass the president's handgun licensing proposal, which requires safety certification for all handgun purchasers.

More...

On June 13, 1997, at age 46, Eric Holder was confirmed by the Senate as Deputy Attorney General under Janet Reno. His confirmation hearing lasted two hours, pretty smooth sailing. The transcript is here. Some snippets, in his own words:

On his objectives:

First, to work with the attorney general in making sure that federal law enforcement resources are used wisely to address the major crime problems confronting our nation -- drugs, violence, gangs, juvenile crime, and official and financial corruption.

More...

Uh oh:

Howard Dean says that he's "fine" with the Senate's decision not to kick Joe Lieberman off the Homeland Security committee and suggested that the Senate had acted in accordance with what Barack Obama wanted. In a phone interview with [Greg Sargent] just after the vote concluded, I asked Dean if he thought the Senate should keep Lieberman. He said that the Senate had acted "in the spirit of unification, which is what the President-elect wanted." "[Obama] called the shots, and that's fine," Dean said, in an apparent reference to the tone Obama has tried to set in Washington as he prepares to take power.

I guess we won't be hanging Harry Reid from a sour apple tree after all.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Some criminal law blogging - sort of. via Newsweek:

President-elect Obama has decided to tap Eric Holder as his attorney general, putting the veteran Washington lawyer in place to become the first African-American to head the Justice Department, according to two legal sources close to the presidential transition.

Criminal law buffs fire away.

I'm getting a lot of emails wondering if TalkLeft is changing to political coverage from crime and injustice and civil liberties blogging.

The answer is No. TChris and I cover these issues and I am not blogging for a week or so as I explained here and here. TChris is blogging as usual and he and Big Tent Democrat, who blogs about politics, have graciously been keeping the site moving in my temporary absence.

I'll be back in a few days. There's no need to send me nasty e-mails about how you are removing TL from your feed reader because there's no crime news here. There is, you just have to scroll down, and I will be back when I'm caught up in the real world.

This is an open thread on blog related issues.

My title is ironic and muted because J does not want me calling people charlatans in the titles. Poblano "breaks" the news that Zogby is a charlatan:

To my mind, this [Zogby] survey meets the definition of a "push poll", which the Random House Dictionary defines as "a seemingly unbiased telephone survey that is actually conducted by supporters of a particular candidate and disseminates negative information about an opponent."

Not Zogby!!! I am shocked.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Republican senators were planning to vote today on whether to remove Ted Stevens from the party conference and divest him of his committee assignments. That bit drama has been postponed until Thursday in light of the uncertainty of the election's outcome. Mark Begich holds a narrow lead and there are still tens of thousands of absentee and other uncounted ballots waiting to be tallied.

Although Jim DeMint says there are enough votes to kick Stevens out of the conference, "Senate Republican leadership aides said it was unclear if DeMint had enough votes to approve the resolution." While it would be fun to see if Republican senators really want to pal around with a convicted felon, it would be more reassuring to learn that Alaska's voters didn't actually send a felon back to the Senate.

Harry Reid announces it on teevee. Keeps his Homeland Security chairmanship.

I hope they extracted some promises from him for it. Now, I know this will pi** people off, but OBAMA called this shot. If he wanted him out, he would have been out.

For the record, I agree with not bothering with Lieberman, but they should have tried to extract concessions from him. Specifically a no filibuster pledge. No idea if they got it.

Ugh, watching Lieberman makes me sick. We need another concession, that he never ever speak on TV again.