Posted on 12/09/2005 12:01:04 PM PST by American Quilter
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- "No wonder they call us the Stupid Party," said a disgusted Republican operative in Washington. "You've got to wonder what these guys were thinking."
At issue was the publication of a report by David Barrett, an independent counsel who has spent the better part of a decade looking into some of the most hair-raising allegations of presidential malfeasance in American history.
Like most independent counsels, Barrett didn't set out on such a mission. He was assigned the duty of looking into whether former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros committed tax fraud in trying to cover up payments to a former mistress.
Yet, as published reports have indicated, he soon discovered that he was onto something much bigger. He found unsettling evidence that Justice Department officials were actively interfering with the probe and even conducting surveillance of Barrett and his office. Worse, there were indications that Team Clinton was using key players at the IRS and Justice to harass, frighten and threaten people who somehow got in the former president's way.
The pattern was set early on, when the White House sicced the FBI on Billy Dale, who had served as the director of the White House Travel Office since the days of John F. Kennedy. They mounted a baseless probe of Dale's finances, while chasing after his daughter, his sister and others. Dale was guilty of holding a job coveted by presidential pal Harry Thomasson. But rather than simply firing Dale, the Clinton White House chose to destroy him.
By all accounts, the 400-page Barrett report is a bombshell, capable possibly of wiping out Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential prospects. At the very least, it would bring to public attention a scandal that would make the Valerie Plame affair vanish into comical insignificance.
Democrats know this. Using provisions in the independent-counsel statute that permit people named in a report to review the allegations against them and file rebuttals, attorneys close to the Clintons have spent the better part of five years reviewing every jot and tittle of the charges arrayed against their clients and friends.
This careful and continuous monitoring of the report explains why Sens. Byron Dorgan, Dick Durbin and John Kerry took the highly unusual step earlier this year of trying to slip into an Iraq-war spending bill an amendment to suppress every word of the Barrett report. (Every other independent counsel finding has been printed in its entirety, with the exception of small sections containing classified material.)
Alert Republicans, pushed by talk-radio listeners and bloggers, managed to short-circuit that effort, but Democrats patiently pursued their goal. They got what they wanted recently, when the House and Senate met to iron out differences in yet another appropriations bill. Democrats inserted language that would prevent public release of the 120 pages of the report listing the Clinton transgressions. They offered what may have looked like a good deal. They promised not to object to letting Barrett continue with any prosecutions already underway.
Republicans negotiators, led by Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., and Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Mich, took the bait. They agreed to keep the public in the dark about the important stuff in exchange for a big, fat nothing. Unbeknownst to Bond and Knollenberg, Barrett shut down his grand juries three years ago.
The move represents more than just boneheaded politics. It's grossly irresponsible. If the report contains the kind of bombshells that have been hinted at in reports published by The Wall Street Journal and National Review, among others, the public not only has a right to know, Congress has a duty to investigate.
If Barrett has found evidence that officials at Justice and the IRS served as a praetorian guard, that means some bureaucrats felt it appropriate or beneficial to ignore their duty to the public and instead to perform dirty work for the people who oversee their budgets.
Another big "if": If such behavior were covered up, the malefactors would conclude that they may do the same thing again for other presidents.
Something stinks, and the only way to get at the truth is to release the full report. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who fought a lonely battle to ensure the document's publication, is furious. So is House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc. The question is whether Republican leaders Bill Frist and Denny Hastert will step in and ensure the report's publication, or whether they'll just sigh and look the other way.
Freepers may want to contact Frist and Hastert and urge them to get the report published. If it could derail the Hillary juggernaut--what joy!
Given three years to discuss it, relativize it, excuse it and expalin it away, the Democrats will make in meaningless after a couple of news cycles.
The Rule of Law does not apply to career criminals, the democrat party, the Clintons, and other sociopathic predators.
Or so they keep telling us.
Can any subsequent riders to any law nullify clear legislation like the Freedom of Information Act?
Can "National Security" be created artificially out of whole cloth?
If every other special counsel has had their report published, how can anyone legally justify not publishing this one?
Tom DeLay's ficticious and baseless accusation got no protection at all.
It's time for a modern day version of the famous Contra Leaks. We need to get this report into the light of day no matter how long it takes!
I continue, to this day, believing absolutely that Clinton's second biggest crime in office, after treason, is abuse of power on a monumental scale, together with intimidation, blackmail and extortion. Of this I am certain.
Much worse crimes are also possible from the trailer-park presidency, but just shining the light of day on these is a great start!
I understood that if it is NOT demanded to be published within the next two weeks, then it will NEVER be published, because of what the two boneheaded politicians agreed to.
You might want to ping the rest of the "Snow" bunnies to THIS thread...... :-) Since the first one I pinged you too is a duplicate thread......
Does anyone know if Rush or Sean or any other conservative talk show host has run a story on this?
Frist and Hastert? Their cojones are in Al Gore's lockbox...and their FBI files are in Hillary's filing cabinet. Never happen.
Is there any way to obtain a copy of the report and post it on here?
Choir, can I hear an Amen!
:-) TownHall posts the same article as the one I'd pinged us on from Jewish World Review, so this would be a triple ping.
I suspect you're right. That's why I was wondering if Rush or another conservative big gun has talked about the issue. That would be the way to get it out there where it can't be ignored.
I wish I had friends in high places! I'd love to be the leaker. But I don't, and wouldn't know where to start.
Kewl. Snow's everywhere!
I didn't see the JWR one....At least I don't think I did...
LOL! I sent it to the whole ping list. You may have been very busy and had other pings that came in afterwards.
But it's great that Town Hall posted it too. I looked there first because FR allows posting the whole article. But it wasn't there as of 8am Eastern, so I went to Jewish World Review. Jewish World Review has copyright issues with FR posting the whole article so I had to use an excerpt.
:-) Both kinds. We were told to expect 10 inches. It just stopped and maybe we got a little more, but not by much.
Agreed TGJ. The same reason we plea bargained Sandy Berger, brushed Able Danger under the rug, and on and on and on.
I cannot for the life of me understand why it looks like we are simpatico with the Party of Defeat. Baffling.
900 FBI files.
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