by TChris

Further proof that the president is now powerless (even rudderless, a disabled swift boat being swept out to sea): he couldn't convince the Senate to allow his administration the freedom it has enjoyed to abuse detainees.

"We have to clarify that this is not what the United States is all about. This is what makes us different from the enemy we are fighting," said Sen. John McCain (R-) of Arizona, who sponsored the amendment that bars cruel and inhumane treatment of detainees.

The Senate was apparently persuaded by evidence that front-line interrogators weren't given direction to guide their actions, and by disagreement among Pentagon officials as to what is or isn't an acceptable interrogation technique, and who is or isn't subject to the Geneva Conventions.

It's the lull before the storm. I'm going to take advantage of it and work. Chatter on.

Via a Daily Kos Diary and the Chronicle of Higher Education (source corrected):

For someone both heralded and feared as a potentially conservative voice on the U.S. Supreme Court, Harriet E. Miers has played a key role in exposing college students to some unmistakably liberal ideas.

In the late 1990s, as a member of the advisory board for Southern Methodist University's law school, Ms. Miers pushed for the creation of an endowed lecture series in women's studies named for Louise B. Raggio, one of the first women to rise to prominence in the Texas legal community. A strong advocate for women, Ms. Raggio helped persuade state lawmakers to revise Texas laws to give women new rights over property and in the event of divorce.

Stirling Newberry has a DeLay fundraising memo with subsequent e-mails attached that, by virtue of the bates stamped numbers at the bottom, appear to be official. Don't forget to scroll down through the e-mails.

Tom DeLay's attorney Dick DeGuerin Wednesday accused DA Ronnie Earle of jury shopping. After the first grand jury returned its conspiracy indictment, DeGuerin filed a motion to dismiss alleging the statute he was indicted under wasn't in effect at the time of the offense. Ergo, no crime. So Earle conceived of the money laundering charge and took it to a new grand jury on Friday. The grand jury refused to indict. On Monday, Earle took the case to a third grand jury, which returned the Indictment after four hours.

Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle had gotten one grand jury to indict DeLay on Sept. 28 on a charge of conspiring to violate state election laws. Two days later, a second grand jury rejected Earle's attempt to indict DeLay on money laundering charges. But a third grand jury on Monday gave Earle the money laundering indictment he sought.

Earle tried to justify the move by saying DeLay was trying to back out of his statute of limitations waiver in the first case. DeGuerin cries foul:

I'm beginning to see some people, including at least one news service, misapply the term "target letter." Just so it's clear, a "target letter" is what the prosecutor provides to a witness who has been subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury. It is an advisement of rights, particularly the right to counsel and the right to not testify.

Once the investigation is complete and the grand jury has heard all the evidence and is about to return Indictments, target letters are no longer used. [ Addition by LNILR: They are not re-issued everytime a witness/target comes in. Any competent defense lawyer has already met with the prosecutor to learn the client's status and role in the alleged offense under investigation. Target letters go out after the targets and subjects are identified by the prosecutor and investigators. The investigation may be years old before target letters go out. A "target letter" is just what it implies: You are likely going to be indicted, and you better act accordingly.]

Once an indictment is returned, the Prosecutor may notify the lawyer for the indicted person to make agreements on whether a summons will issue or arrest warrants, and, if it's going to be an arrest warrant, whether the person will be allowed to surrender at the courthouse or FBI office rather than be arrested at home or at work and bail amounts can be agreed upon. At this point, the case is past the "target letter" stage. The notification of indictment and arranging surrender can be formal (by letter) or by a telephone call.

by Last Night in Little Rock

When Kenneth Starr was running around the Arkansas and D.C. woods like a hound dog in heat looking for the non-existent goods on Clinton, he insisted that everybody address him as "Judge Starr," even though he resigned his lifetime appointment to have a better shot at the Supreme Court and then blew it by being a neo-con witchhunter. He no longer had the right to even suggest he be called "Judge," unless he wanted his wife, children, and maid to do it.

Today, as Dean of the Pepperdine Law School, he moved the admission of several lawyers into the Bar of the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice referred to him as "Dean Starr." Finally, somebody humbled the unhumbleable.

How's this for an attention deflector?

Both the FBI and CIA are calling it the first case of espionage in the White House in modern history. Officials tell ABC News the alleged spy worked undetected at the White House for almost three years. Leandro Aragoncillo, 46, was a U.S. Marine most recently assigned to the staff of Vice President Dick Cheney.

Aragoncillo was caught last year, arrested a month ago and began cooperating. Why break the story today? Did he steal secrets and give them to the Russians? Not quite.

Officials say the classified material, which Aragoncillo stole from the vice president's office, included damaging dossiers on the president of the Philippines. He then passed those on to opposition politicians planning a coup in the Pacific nation.

Bump and Update: The DC Rumor Mill says 22 Indictments are about to be handed down in the Plame investigation:

The D.C. Rumor mill is thrumming with whispers that 22 indictments are about to be handed down on the outed-CIA agent Valerie Plame case. The last time the wires buzzed this loud — that Tom DeLay would be indicted and would step down from his leadership post in the House — the scuttlebutters got it right.

Can it be a coincidence that the White House appears to be distancing President Bush from embattled aide Karl Rove? “He’s been missing in action at more than one major presidential event,” a member of the White House press corps tells us.

And just in time, Arianna has a new Judy Miller blog roundup.

*****
Original Post:

Daily Kos and AmericaBlog say Karl Rove has been absent from many recent White House events and wonder why. Is he expecting bad news from Fitzgerald and being put in time out so Bush can distance himself from him?

by TChris

Roy Blunt, who took over as House majority leader for the twice-indicted Tom DeLay, turns out to be DeLay's mini-me.

Tom DeLay deliberately raised more money than he needed to throw parties at the 2000 presidential convention, then diverted some of the excess to longtime ally Roy Blunt through a series of donations that benefited both men's causes.

When the financial carousel stopped, DeLay's private charity, the consulting firm that employed DeLay's wife and the Missouri campaign of Blunt's son all ended up with money, according to campaign documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

Why is this significant?

New York Times reporter Judith Miller gave her first post-jail interview last night to Lou Dobbs on CNN. Crooks and Liars has the video.

Here's Judy the martyr (from the transcript, available on Lexis.com):

You know, Lou, I knew and I know they wasn't covering for anybody. I was protecting the confidentiality of the source to whom I had given my word. I was keeping my word. And until I knew that that source genuinely wanted me to testify, and I heard that from him, I was willing to sit in jail. I didn't want to be in jail, but I knew that the principle of confidentiality was so important that I had to, because if people can't trust us to come to us to tell us the things that government and powerful corporations don't want us to know, we're dead in the water. The public won't know....That's why I was sitting in jail. For the public's right to know.

We haven't had one of these in a while and I need to get back to work. Have fun.