John Dean coming up on Al Franken (AAR) 2:30 pm EST n/t

unfortunately stuck here at work. .so any good updates would be greatly appreciated

his WH."

(More from Dean, all paraphrased..)

His VP takes care of everything, and that leaves plenty of time to work out and go biking.

...


I've never heard of a president recommending torture as an American policy. This "signing statement" Bush signed, Bush thinks gives him the right to ignore this anti-torture policy that Congress declared.

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We've never had a president that violates the boundaries of law, and it smacks of dictatorship.

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The only person who can call * and Cheney to task is the Congress! But right now, they don't remember their duty. If the repubs lose the House in '06, then it will be Katie bar the door and it will be unmitigated hell for the republicans.

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The Congress has lost all of its institutional pride under this administration. There is no boundary on them.

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In the DOJ, there are some true professionals working on all of this (Abramoff, etc.) and the layers of political appointees sitting on top of them can no longer keep a lid on all of this. That is what we are seeing now, is the work of the professionals in DOJ who cannot be suppressed, and the truth is coming out.

at how all of this has escalated since.

All that we are seeing is the consequences of the pervasive Administration secrecy.

I had been told very early about Cheney wanting to rebuild unfettered presidential power. And that is what he has done.

When the presidency was neutered after Nixon post Watergate, Cheney was infuriated. And the Congress reigned the presidential powers back in, and Cheney has never forgotten it.

Democrats, much to Lyndon Johnson's chagrin, actually did perform strong oversight on Johnson.

We saw this in spades against Clinton, where it was hyper-oversight.

This is the height of hypocrisy now. There is zero oversight now by the republicans.


This K-Street project has involved not only Congress, but the Executive Branch. There is a VERY FINE LINE between a contribution and bribery.



End

:-)'s

Gotta Keep Fighting! :-)'s