Most of you are aware that one of the partisan battles raging in Washington is a shouting match over which is worse, the fact that some Republican staffers improperly (and perhaps illegally) got copies of Democratic memos dealing with their efforts to block President Bush’s judicial nominees, on the one hand, or the disturbing content of those memos, on the other.
A WaPo editorial today gives a brief summary of the dispute and applauds Sen. Orrin Hatch’s decision to treat the improper access as a serious matter, despite pressure from conservative groups that he instead focus on the content of the memos. “The investigation led to the resignation of a lawyer from the office of Senate Majority leader Frist,” the edit notes approvingly, “a lawyer who had worked on the Judiciary Committee and had tapped into the memos. Another Judiciary staffer has also left.”
The edit did not gloss over the disgusting content of the memos, however. As it stated:
The content of the Democratic memos is, indeed, offensive. In memos to Sens. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), staffers announce that nominee Miguel Estrada is “especially dangerous because he has a minimal paper trail, he is Latino, and the White House seems to be grooming him for a Supreme Court appointment.” Nominees are characterized as “Good,” “Bad” and “Ugly.” A liberal lobbyist is described as urging that nominees not be confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit until it finishes hearing the University of Michigan affirmative action case. And one document declares that “most of Bush’s nominees are nazis.”
Here’s what’s curiously omitted: that was no ordinary “liberal lobbyist” who urged Sen. Kennedy’s staffers to block any 6th Circuit appointments until after that court decided the then pending Michigan affirmative action cases. That was Elaine Jones, the president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, who was herself involved in that litigation.
Even if the Post did not want to name Ms. Jones, since it did not name the fired Republican staffers, it is curious that the Legal Defense Fund would be reduced to the status of just another liberal interest group, and even more curious that the Post would not mention that Ms. Jones (or rather, that unnamed liberal lobbyist) had resigned her position after ethics complaints were filed against her with the Justice Dept. and the Virginia state bar.
Since I refuse to register, this is my understanding:
Dems controlled the Senate at the time (2002) and they decided to upgrade the system.
Whatever was or was not done was because of their instruction.
I, too, could be accused of “a break-in of Watergate proportions” if I went to work and clicked on the “Shared Files” icon on my desktop.
Would anyone else care to try it? Why have a shared files folder if no one is sharing?
Or actually, clicked on that icon from any desktop in the office.
It’s the pubbies fault the dems weren’t properly trained? Even tho the split is deep and wide on the JC, I still think they share documents.
Teri O’Brien (fair warning, despises Dick “Eddie Haskell” Durbin) and has been following this on her talk show on WLS. She has links at her site.
Dems were busted BIG TIME and they know it, listen to Schumer and Eddie’s rhetoric. USSR? Nazi?
Well, that’s odd, how did that underline happen and why is it blue?
Hope it doesn’t mess up your site.
I think I read somewhere that the republicans involved actually told democrats about the file sharing and that they were using it.