FITZ, HELL YEAH!!
Thesaurus Rex | Homepage | 02.10.06 - 10:35 pm | #

OH, SHIT! You asked for it. Here to serve...:)
Anonymous | 02.10.06 - 10:45 pm | #

Barbara Comstock was one of the chattering witches on TV programs during the attempted Coup d'Etat against Clinton: Vicky Toensing, Barbara Olsen, Ann Coulter, Kate OBeirne ... harpies all ! A thoroughly reprehensible bunch !
Wilson46201 | Homepage | 02.10.06 - 10:50 pm | #

Ouch...she works for Blank Rome LLP, major lobbying firm contracted to distribute all that Department of Homeland Security pork for huge coroprate clients, who then turned around and made enormous contributions to GOP candidates.

Abramoff revisited.
jane hamsher | Homepage | 02.10.06 - 10:51 pm | #

You are so wrong. Ms. Comstock's role is to raise enough money to ensure that Scooter keeps quiet and accepts his slap on the wrist jail sentence like a man. It's called hush money and she's just the bagwoman.
purvis ames | 02.10.06 - 10:52 pm | #

Her résumé from the DOJ website when Ashcroft Appointed her as Director of Public Affairs at the Dept:

Comstock most recently served as the Director of Research and Strategic Planning at the Republican National Committee (RNC) since 1999. The RNC Research Department served as the primary research resource for the Bush for President campaign and Comstock worked with the media on providing briefings and background information throughout the election year. This year, Comstock worked to promote President Bush's agenda and played a key role in developing a new initiative at the Republican National Committee: "Winning Women: Leadership for a New Century."

Comstock served as Chief Counsel, Chief Investigative Counsel and Senior Counsel to the House Government Reform Committee from 1995 to 1999. During that time, she worked extensively with the White House, the Justice Department, the FBI, and other government agencies on legal and political issues. From 1991 to 1995, Comstock served as a senior aide to Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia where she worked on House appropriations and budget matters, health care, welfare, family issues and tax issues. In 1991, Comstock was a professional staff member with the House Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families. From 1987 to 1990, she was an attorney in private practice in Fairfax County, Virginia.

Comstock is a 1986 graduate of Georgetown Law School and a 1981 graduate of Middlebury College. She is married with three children and her husband is an assistant principal in the Fairfax County school system.
Thesaurus Rex | Homepage | 02.10.06 - 10:53 pm | #

Bio on BlankRome website for Comstock:
http://www.blankromegovernmentre...ios.asp? BioID=4
-
TeddySanFran | 02.10.06 - 10:55 pm | #

Jane, I've been thinking for a long time that someone should be digging up dirt on all the evil dirt diggers themselves. I'm glad you've decided to do it. It would defy all probability that such amoral people wouldn't have a few skeletons in their own closet.

As for raising funds for Mr. Rodriguez, it is very encouraging to see the progress that has been made in such a short time. I recently made a similar suggestion in your comments section regarding the support of democratic primary opponents of those senators who either voted for Alito or who voted to end debate. You and your blogging colleagues have the opportunity to show the entrenched, turncoat democrats, mainstream media and the voting public that you have more power and influence than anyone realizes. In fact, as you know, your fundraising support of Mr. Rodriguez was mentioned by Jackie Schechner on CNN's "The Situation Room" today.
Welfl | Homepage | 02.10.06 - 10:59 pm | #

After Comstock, let's direct our attention toward the other fuckwads that need to be defeated. For example, we could easity take on digging up shit on Cuellar. He has spoken in committees, at conferneces, and campaign rallys.

Then there is Chaffee. And Santorum. These guys get big campaign money. The place to raise Jeffersonian Hell is in the house where they don't have the same oversight, but a bit of campaign help would tip the balance.

I mean, we actually believe in truth. Unlike, say, the liars...
dead last | 02.10.06 - 11:01 pm | #

Welfl -- thanks for mentioning that, I forgot. And yes we'll be working on turncoat Dems, esp. those named Lieberman.
jane hamsher | Homepage | 02.10.06 - 11:03 pm | #

This is interesting...a lawyer who says that Comstock could not go from the DoJ and work on Libby's defense, it violates the DC Bar Association Rules of Professional Conduct.

Would love it if some of the attorneys in the house could take a look and weigh in.
jane hamsher | Homepage | 02.10.06 - 11:06 pm | #

Barbara Comstock, former Director of the Office of Public Affairs for the U.S. Department of Justice, serves clients both as a lobbyist and strategic communications specialist. At the Justice Department, Ms. Comstock was the chief spokesperson and communications strategist for Attorney General John Ashcroft, as well as the spokesperson for the entire Department with responsibility for all public affairs and communications matters. Ms. Comstock also oversaw the public affairs offices of the Justice Department components including the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Prisons, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the U.S. Marshals Service.

Before joining the Department of Justice, Ms. Comstock served as Director of Research and Strategic Planning at the Republican National Committee and was responsible for developing and managing the research operations utilized for the Bush 2000 campaign. In 2001, she developed the RNC�s �Winning Women� communications initiative and Web site to promote the Bush Administration�s policies to women voters. Her experience on Capitol Hill includes the positions of Chief Counsel/Chief Investigative Counsel and Senior Counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform. Ms. Comstock also served as Appropriations Aide/Senior Aide for Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Va.), responsible for Appropriations Committee matters, Ways and Means issues and health care and welfare policy.



http://www.blankromegovernmentre...ios.asp? BioID=4


2003 Statement by Comstock as DOJ Director of Public Affairs:

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2003.../ 03_opa_323.htm

Media Matters Profile of Comstock:

http://mediamatters.org/ issues_t...barbaracomstock


Barbara Comstock quotes:

http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/...rbara_comstock/


Comstock on Judge Roberts confirmation tour:

http://judgeroberts.com/epresskit/

Comstock not included in NNDB:

http://search.nndb.com/search/ nn...arbara+Comstock

Go to: http://zabasearch.com/

Insert: Barbara J. Comstock

I found a Barbara J. Comstock in McLean, VA, a DC suburb. It has the address, phone number, MM/YY of birth, etc. to help verify.

You can then verify the address by looking up Fairfax County Property records at:

http://icare.fairfaxcounty.gov/S...px? mode=ADDRESS

With that info, thanks to uur republican friends who think you should be able to buy anyone's personal records online, you should be able to get her telephone records, social security number, medical records, and.....there seems to be no limit.

.


I'm just getting warmed up :-)

.
Anonymous | 02.10.06 - 11:13 pm | #

Anonymous -- you're on fire :)

Digby will be so proud.
jane hamsher | Homepage | 02.10.06 - 11:17 pm | #

Her phone records will let us know who she has been talking with. :)
Anonymous | 02.10.06 - 11:18 pm | #

...or, should I say, conspiring with
Anonymous | 02.10.06 - 11:19 pm | #

She was chief counsel to former Rep. Dan Burton and Clinton nemesis.
Mimi Schaeffer | Homepage | 02.10.06 - 11:23 pm | #

Comstock on the Factor defending DeLay's daughter's and wife's employment by his PAC:

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has been accused of various ethical lapses. As one example, a Political Action Committee controlled by Delay paid his daughter and wife more than $500,000 over the past four years. Barbara Comstock, a consultant to Congressman DeLay, said there is nothing illegal or improper about the payments. "This story about his wife and daughter having worked with the PAC has been public information for years. The Federal Election Commission said this is perfectly legal as long as the people being paid are doing legitimate campaign activities. Tom DeLay is a target because he's effective and he's been helping to get Republicans elected."

http://www.billoreilly.com/show?...Show& showID=215
-
TeddySanFran | 02.10.06 - 11:35 pm | #

Oh and she was also a Miller delegate against Ollie North for the 1994 Republican senate race in Virginia.
Mimi Schaeffer | Homepage | 02.10.06 - 11:38 pm | #

hmmmm Delay and ethics makes me think of ... oh I don't know.... Jack?
Suzanne | 02.10.06 - 11:44 pm | #

The hideous Ms. Comstock would not have been sucessful in her attempt "to craft a narrative" about Al Gore if the MSM didn't buy her provable lies, hook, line, and sinker.

*paging Ceci Connelly*
Rich | 02.10.06 - 11:47 pm | #

There should be some juicy items to dig into by looking, in deep detail, at her record while attached to Congress

Plenty of opportunity for nefarious deeds there & lots of dirt on her hands

"The wind blows over the surface of the lake. In this way, the effects of the invisible are made visible." - I Ching
daCascadian | 02.10.06 - 11:51 pm | #

Suzanne, you're absolute correct.

Back in April 2005, the Washington Post had a story about Ms. Comstock signing on to help poor DeLay with his p/r campaign to "minimize damage" and reclaim his good name and honor.
Mimi Schaeffer | Homepage | 02.10.06 - 11:52 pm | #

http:// www.independentreport.org...dex.html#000851

Spin, baby, spin

When DeLay was indicted, Hannity, Limbaugh and the other shills immediately stepped up to the bar to accept their Republican-generated talking points. They got what they wanted:

"Minutes after the announcement came, DeLay's closest and strongest supporters began mounting a defense. By 2 p.m., a two-page memo condemning [Texas prosecutor] Ronnie Earle and the indictment was hitting Republican e-mail." The memo "turns the ethical spotlight on Earle and casts DeLay as the innocent victim." It "cites a Houston Chronicle article saying that Earle had started raising money for 'far-left' groups." Republicans "would not disclose the author," but the memo is similar to one written earlier this year by former Republican National Committee research director Barbara Comstock, in response to questions about DeLay's foreign travel and campaign payments to his wife and daughter. (from The Hill via PR Watch)

http://thehill.com/thehill/expor...092905/ gop.html

http://www.prwatch.org/node/4032
Rich | 02.10.06 - 11:55 pm | #

well, her grandmother can't bear to listen to her on television:
But one Democratic woman is unswayed -- her grandmother. After Comstock appears on television dispensing the GOP line, the older woman will call, she said, "and Grandma will say, 'I listened with the sound down. I liked your suit.' "

from this Aug. 2001 WaPo puff profile (you remember that glorious vacation month):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac...43033- 2001Aug21

and this, erm, oddly prescient (and ridiculously disjointed) quote:
"Republicans have an opportunity with women because of the issues President Bush is working on, like education," she said. "I want my daughter to know, when he's talking about troop movements in Iraq, he's talking to [national security adviser] Condoleezza Rice."
along | 02.10.06 - 11:56 pm | #

from PR Watch - a very useful resource:

Source: PR Week (sub. req'd.), April 18, 2005
"As House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) faces increasing scrutiny over various allegations of ethical lapses, a powerful cadre of friends and colleagues is stepping up to help protect his image," reports PR Week. DeLay legal advisor and former Republican National Committee strategist Barbara Comstock heads the group, which includes DCI Group's Stuart Roy and Edelman's Jonathan Grella. They are "placing supporters on cable news channels and radio talk shows," distributing talking points to conservative groups, and asking "prominent conservatives," including Ketchum's Susan Molinari, "to speak out on DeLay's behalf." This "unofficial PR offensive" is separate from DeLay's congressional office, which "developed its own media war room to combat the accusations." On the other side, Fenton Communications is working with MoveOn.org, Campaign for America's Future and Common Cause "to tarnish and ultimately unseat" DeLay.

and

Source: The Hill, September 29, 2005
"A Texas grand jury's decision to indict former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) may have caught many people in Washington off-guard, but those in DeLay's inner circle had spent the past few days bracing themselves," reports The Hill. "Minutes after the announcement came, DeLay's closest and strongest supporters began mounting a defense. By 2 p.m., a two-page memo condemning [Texas prosecutor] Ronnie Earle and the indictment was hitting Republican e-mail." The memo "turns the ethical spotlight on Earle and casts DeLay as the innocent victim." It "cites a Houston Chronicle article saying that Earle had started raising money for 'far-left' groups." Republicans "would not disclose the author," but the memo is similar to one written earlier this year by former Republican National Committee research director Barbara Comstock, in response to questions about DeLay's foreign travel and campaign payments to his wife and daughter.
http://www.prwatch.org/node/4032

and extra bonus hit - from Sourcewatch - Comstock announced the state secrets claim against Sibel Edmonds in 2002:

"Statement of Barbara Comstock, Director of Public Affairs, Regarding Today's Filing in Sibel Edmonds v. Department of Justice," October 18, 2002: "To prevent disclosure of certain classified and sensitive national security information, Attorney General Ashcroft today asserted the state secrets privilege in Sibel Edmonds v. Department of Justice. This assertion was made at the request of FBI Director Robert Mueller in papers filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The Department of Justice also filed a motion to dismiss the case, because the litigation creates substantial risks of disclosing classified and sensitive national security information that could cause serious damage to our country’s security. ... The state secrets privilege is well-established in federal law. It has been recognized by U.S. courts as far back as the 19th century, and allows the Executive Branch to safeguard vital information regarding the nation’s security or diplomatic relations. In the past, this privilege has been applied many times to protect our nation’s secrets from disclosure, and to require dismissal of cases when other litigation mechanisms would be inadequate. It is an absolute privilege that renders the information unavailable in litigation."
http://www.sourcewatch.org/ index...e=Sibel_Edmonds
and
original DOJ statement: http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2002.../ doj101802.html
siun | 02.10.06 - 11:57 pm | #

I know that some bloggers embrace Ms. Edmonds and her agenda. I submit you do so very hesitantly, with full expectation that things may eventually backfire.
Anonymous | 02.11.06 - 12:01 am | #

again via Sourcewatch:

WaPo announcement of her appointment to DOJ Public Affairs under Ashcroft:

Job Swap In Public Affairs at RNC, DOJ
Saturday, December 22, 2001; Page A03


Attorney General John D. Ashcroft announced yesterday that Barbara Comstock, head of research at the Republican National Committee, will become director of public affairs at the Department of Justice.

Comstock, a lawyer who previously worked on Capitol Hill, will replace Mindy Tucker, who has been named communications director of the RNC.

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"Barbara's extensive experience in the communications field, as well as an impressive legal background, makes her the ideal person to lead the Justice Department's communications efforts," Ashcroft said.

At the RNC, Comstock revamped research operations, assembling a staff of about 30 to conduct research for the 2000 elections. That operation is being scaled back and folded into the communications office, making the new appointments something of a job swap between Comstock and Tucker.

Comstock's research team helped prepare Ashcroft for his Senate confirmation. It also worked on the Florida election recount and assembled debate preparation materials for candidate George W. Bush.

Comstock worked as a senior counsel on the politically charged House Government Reform Committee from 1995 to 1999, first under former representative William Clinger (R-Pa.), then under the current chairman, Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind). She was deeply involved in investigating alleged improprieties by the Clinton White House, including the travel office firings and 1996 election fundraising issues.

-- Susan Schmidt (and look who took dictation)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac...1& notFound=true

and she authored an attack on Kerry's service on the Intel committee for NRO:

http://www.nationalreview.com/ co...00403100835.asp
siun | 02.11.06 - 12:03 am | #

Interesting article about the FISA Court opinion, released by the Senate JComm in 2002, restricting the passing of intelligence gathered through wiretaps to other law enforcement agencies, which has an eerie Comstock quote, knowing what we know now:

In its ruling, the FISC rejected a request by Attorney General John Ashcroft for dozens of electronic surveillance permits, saying it had been misled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

"They have in our view incorrectly interpreted the Patriot Act and the effect of that incorrect interpretation is to limit the kind of co-ordination that we think is very important," said Ms Comstock.

In its appeal, the Justice Department argued that its surveillance requests were legal because legislation had "never prescribed the kinds of efforts, law enforcement or otherwise, that may be used" in protecting America from foreign threats.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/ameri...cas/ 2213476.stm
-
TeddySanFran | 02.11.06 - 12:04 am | #

Perhaps we should also start digging up dirt on some of our journalists and pundits. Wouldn't that strike a knee-blow to the Mainstream "Whirlitzer"?
I understand there's a suspiciously dead secretary (?) in Joe Scarborough's philandering past. Tucker Carlson, Chris Mathews, Dan Abrahms (sp?) Dana Keegan, Lou Dobbs, Tim Russert .... and more, all deserve a serious look-see ...
Samwoman | 02.11.06 - 12:09 am | #

Florida election recount? She is really creepy.
jane hamsher | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 12:09 am | #

A list of her lobbying clients. Might be some interesting fodder: Koch Industries, for example, was a contributor Delay's TRMPAC redistricting scheme.
Sven | 02.11.06 - 12:09 am | #

Sven -- yes she sounds heavily involved in the GOP money machine. Good find.
jane hamsher | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 12:11 am | #

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com...ves/ 000429.html
Anonymous | 02.11.06 - 12:13 am | #

This is interesting...a lawyer who says that Comstock could not go from the DoJ and work on Libby's defense, it violates the DC Bar Association Rules of Professional Conduct

---

That's beautiful. She appears to have seriously violated the bar ethics. Seems hard to make up a story to get herself out of that.
Urban Pirate | 02.11.06 - 12:16 am | #

Just contributed $20 to Ciro Rodriguez. It was the FIRST out-of-state contribution I've ever made to a candidate not in a nationwide race. Hey, may late daddy was a Texan.

Bueno suerte, Ciro!
Edward Teller | 02.11.06 - 12:19 am | #

This article shows that Comstock was very close with Ashcroft (she had prepped him for his confirmation hearings as AG, which must have been tough work given how well-respected he was by his Senate colleagues). But this quote makes it clear that she had to review any DoJ subpoenas that went to journalists. Interesting that DoJ had to have a policy this early on about subpoenas sent to journalists, and that she was at the center of the policy, given that she left DoJ on 10.1.03, just a few days after Ashcroft recused himself from the Plame investigation...


"Under guidelines from the Justice Department, Attorney General John Ashcroft or his deputy must personally approve any subpoenas sent to journalists, and Barbara Comstock, director of the Office of Public Affairs, must review such requests. But senior Justice officials on Ashcroft's staff at headquarters said they were unfamiliar with the MSNBC subpoena, and Ms. Comstock said she did not review it, officials said."
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/ n...tent_id=1507509
-
TeddySanFran | 02.11.06 - 12:23 am | #

Comstock has all this Republican juice, and yet the little hubby is just an assistant principal in a public school? The little hubby evidently is not a beneficiary of her largesse.
karen allen | 02.11.06 - 12:24 am | #

Creepy is right.

All I can picture in my head is a woman standing next to Jim Jones with a big smile, passing out the kool-aid to the children and saying "drink up".

I, for the life of me, will never understand these people.
Urban Pirate | 02.11.06 - 12:27 am | #

ooh Jane - catch this!

apparently Babs was a best friend of Barbara Olson who died on 9/11 - first in an Olson piece related piece on 9/11/04 in NRO, KJL writes:

I did not know her anywhere near as well as some of us (her dear friends Barbara Comstock, the Ledeens, the O’Beirnes…), and then links to an interview with Comstock with the following, "made for Jane tidbit":

Comstock: ...Along the way, we gathered many shared "combat" stories and girlfriend moments, a couple of our favorites being that the president's lawyer, Bob Bennett, dubbed us "The Barbarellas" and we survived the Florida recount!
siun | 02.11.06 - 12:28 am | #

Samwoman: for media celebs, I think public disply of their professional ethics type dirt will have most impact with public.

When I saw Club for Growth somehow linked to this Cuellar fellow, I made a contribution. If a group who doesn't like Club for Growth doesn't like Ciro's opponent, I am for Ciro. Club for Growth is a bunch of icky, innumerate ultra-reactionary money-bags:

facts on Club for Growth
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general...t.aspx? oid=9345

http://angrybear.blogspot.com/20...pro- growth.html
anon_1 | 02.11.06 - 12:28 am | #

Hi Karen Allen,

Think all this money and attention Ciro is getting will MAke old Joe a little more nervous? :)
Urban Pirate | 02.11.06 - 12:29 am | #

Jane,

Thanks for the info. Tonight was the 1st time I've donated off your blog. Figured I was either a contributor or not and it was put up or shutup time.

I could only afford $25.00, but count me in. I can think of alot of Repugs that make me pissed, but Grover Norquist's "Club" is one I happily oppose.
Ron Russell | 02.11.06 - 12:32 am | #

First, one can hope that ole Joe might even wake up to take notice. He probably hasn't noticed.

His staff members are notoriously rude when anyone calls the Lieberman office to comment.

Right wing nut Republicans love tired ole Joe. We don't.
karen allen | 02.11.06 - 12:32 am | #

In his memoir, "Blinded by the Right," Brock described Comstock as almost unhinged in her passion to bring down the Clintons.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/con.../libby_defense/

Remember "Operation TIPS"?
In an earlier press release, federal officials announced that the initiative would enlist as many as one million truck drivers, letter carriers, utility workers, train conductors, ship captains and other "well positioned" private citizens.
...."None of the Operation TIPS material published on the web or elsewhere have made reference to entry or access to the homes of individuals; nor has it ever been the intention of the Department of Justice, or any other agency, to set up such a program," says Justice Dept. spokeswoman Barbara Comstock in a written statement.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/...02/07/ tips.html
Margot | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 12:33 am | #

heh heh
crooks and liars
http://movies.ziaspace.com/Cross...rossfire- ~3.wmv

oh I'm sorry Barbara, you were cut off. "the whole conference is very strong"... what? In its support of Tom "Hammer" DeLay? heh.
along | 02.11.06 - 12:34 am | #

oh well, that direct link didn't work. here's the piece:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/20...4/ 11.html#a2410
along | 02.11.06 - 12:38 am | #

Among her lobbying clients are the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Comcast, and the Canadian Cattlemen's Association. Intellectual property vampires and mad cow disease make such a lovely list of references, don't they?
Cujo359 | 02.11.06 - 12:44 am | #

http://www.hrcr.org/hottopics/ De...Detentions.html
Margot | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 12:45 am | #

Good article detailing how Blank Rome and DHS work - revolving door, etc ... amazing what is "legal":

http://www.corpwatch.org/article...le.php? id=12920

mentions Comstock in passing but really shows how the folks who put together DHS then simply shifted to the newly formed Blank Rome lobbying group immediately and began nailing down DHS contracts for their new clients.
siun | 02.11.06 - 12:46 am | #

... And my second-favorite intellectual property pirate conclave, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).
Cujo359 | 02.11.06 - 12:53 am | #

Hmmm. Poking around with that lobbying list, it seems she recently fell in deep with the very rich and the very, very wingnutty Carl Lindner, who lords over American Financial Group and Chiquita Bananas.

Her only other client last year was shady Dallas law firm Locke, Lidell & Sapp, formerly headed by Bush wet nurse Harriet Miers and also has DeLay connections. Small world.
Sven | 02.11.06 - 12:56 am | #

http:// www.talkingpointsmemo.com..._2004_07_25.php
(July 31, 2004 -- 01:08 AM EDT // link)
Great moments in Republican outreach ...

This from the running Thursday night commentary on National Review Online from Barbara Comstock, former spokesman for John Ashcroft at the Justice Department, former lead investigator for Dan Burton back in the glory days, and now power lobbyist ...

However, there are some things that did strike me about this odd man.
John Kerry once administered CPR to a hamster. This was one of the poignant vignettes we learned tonight from one of his daughters. Is there some gerbil-loving swing demographic out there we are trying to connect with? His daughter told this story as if we could all relate to this "human" moment of mouth-to-mouth contact with a rodent. I think I can speak for most parents, that while we might lay down our lives for our children; we see no need to swap spit with vermin.

...

John Kerry may have been able to breath life into a hamster; and he may have been able to breath some hope (or is it help?) into the gerbil-loving delegates; but he's still a strange, Herman Munster-like figure to me.
Coreesa | 02.11.06 - 1:00 am | #

On these lobbying forms, what does "covered position" mean?
Cujo359 | 02.11.06 - 1:06 am | #

Comstock on Larry King, with Ted Olson, when Barbara Olson was killed on 9/11:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANS.../24/ lkl.00.html

TPM article on Comstock:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com...ives/ 003232.php

Thursday night commentary on National Review Online from Barbara Comstock, former spokesman for John Ashcroft at the Justice Department, former lead investigator for Dan Burton back in the glory days, and now power lobbyist ...

However, there are some things that did strike me about this odd man.

John Kerry once administered CPR to a hamster.

________________________

http://dailynightly.msnbc.com/ 20..._legal_def.html

________________
DeLay's Backers Launch Offense
Conservatives Say GOP Is Threatened

By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 10, 2005; Page A04

DeLay staff members are linking with outside lawyers -- including Barbara Comstock, former research director of the Republican National Committee -- to form what is essentially a campaign organization aimed at minimizing damage to DeLay and building support despite what they believe will be a continuing torrent of news stories about his travel, fundraising and dealings with lobbyists.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ ac...anguage=printer

______________________

Movie Lobbyist Reaches
Across the Aisle
Donations, Strategic Hiring
Help Democrat Glickman
Win Over Skeptical Republicans
By BRODY MULLINS and KATE KELLY
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
August 24, 2005

Mr. Glickman also signed lobbying contracts with Barbara Comstock, a former Justice Department official who has helped defend Mr. DeLay against Democrats' allegations about ethics breaches, and Carl Thorsen, Mr. DeLay's former counsel.

http://online.wsj.com/public/ art...ff_main_tff_top

____________________


I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby's legal defense fund team has it's proper Chairman-- Mel Sembler of St. Petersburg, a Republican fundraiser and former ambassador and longtime political supporter of Dick Cheney.

///

Sembler was one of the chief fundraisers in the 1988 campaign of former President Bush, who then appointed him ambassador to Australia. He later became finance chairman for the national Republican Party, and the current President Bush named him ambassador to Italy.
Anonymous | 02.11.06 - 1:06 am | #

Comstock statement for DOJ basically saying fuck you to a federal court which denied the DOJs argument that immigration hearings for all the folks eld on immigration charges after 9/11 be open to public view - a decision in which "the court reminded the administration that the 9/11 attacks did not repeak the Bill of Rights? in anwer Comstock argues for the unitary executive (this is in August 2002):

"The Justice Department disagrees with the Court's conclusion that the Department's guidelines for determining which proceedings should be closed are too broad," said Barbara Comstock, a spokeswoman for Attorney General John D. Ashcroft.

"The Justice Department has an obligation to exercise all available options to disrupt and prevent terrorism within the bounds of the Constitution and will review today's opinion in light of our duty to protect the American people."

http://www.corpwatch.org/print_a...le.php?& id=3710
siun | 02.11.06 - 1:06 am | #

The reason I ask about the covered position, BTW, is that the "covered position" associated with Comstock most often in 2004 appears to be "Director, Public Affairs, DOJ".
Cujo359 | 02.11.06 - 1:08 am | #

http://nationalreview.com/ commen...00405200943.asp


Thompson: Alabama Suit will Make O.J. Trial Look Like Quilting Bee


"Blank Rome questioning the ethics of Jack Thompson? One of its partners is Barbara Comstock, whom the Washington Post called a 'one-woman wrecking crew'... Ms. Comstock was on the staff of Indiana Senator Dan Burton back when he had a mistress illegally on his office's federal payroll and was also supporting an illegitimate child... Barbara Comstock's fingerprints are all over the false and defamatory character assassination of the lawyer who opposes her corporate clients' mental molestation of minors for money..."


http://gamepolitics.livejournal....? thread=4490740
Anonymous | 02.11.06 - 1:10 am | #

Waas article from 10/31/03 on Alternet about the push to have Ashcroft recuse himself on Plame case mentions this:

In December 2001, Ashcroft appointed Barbara Comstock, a former RNC official, as the Justice Department’s Director of Public Affairs. This September, Comstock left the Justice Department to join the lobbying firm of Blank Rome Government Relations L.L.C. But Comstock had her position at the time of the Plame leak, and is closely linked to several individuals questioned so far by the FBI.

Mark Carollo, who replaced Comstock, also came to his position after a stint with the RNC. Carollo, after a long career on Capitol Hill and elsewhere on behalf of Republican officeholders and causes, is widely liked and respected by the press and officeholders of both political parties.

Comstock, on the other hand, was viewed with suspicion by many career employees as someone more apt to look out for the personal interests of the Attorney General and political interests of the Republican party during her tenure, three Department officials said in interviews.

(and includes an interesting little Comey tidbit at the end:
During a Senate confirmation hearing last week for James Comey, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to be deputy attorney general, Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) asked Comey: “How could there not be an appearance of a conflict given the close nexus of relationships?”

“I agree with you that it’s an extremely important matter,” Comey said.

http://www.alternet.org/story/17084/
siun | 02.11.06 - 1:24 am | #

This info about Comstock is absolutely stunning. Why have I never come across this info in all my previous reading? This is absolutely chilling.

I keep coming back to this blog, and related blogs, because it's like the best novel that I've ever stumbled on -- villains! criminals! unrepentant fools! It never ceases to astonish.

How on earth did the mainstream news miss this... because this promises to be quite A Story.

Okay. I think I'm heading for a rant.

The past months of Alito and Roberts hearings, plus learning that Bush, Libby, and heaven-knows-who-else have degrees from prestigious US institutions, makes me absolutely disgusted with what passes for 'higher education' in America. When has so many illustrious credentials represented such abysmal, self-absorbed ignorance and venalty?

Maybe Yale and Harvard need to add some new graduation REQUIREMENTS that stipulate that NO ONE may graduate from their lofty institutions without spending at least one semester assisting in some filty dental clinic in Nicaragua or Haiti. Maybe a little time encountering the suffering poor of the world would help these privileged folks savvy to the fact that government has the potential to be a force for good in this world. Their ignorance of this basic fact is childish, immature, and reckless.

I'm ready to vote for the first candidate who can PROVE they've actually done one of the following: (1) served in the US military for at least 2 years, (2) served in the Peace Corps for at least 2 years, and/or (3) served in AmeriCorps for at least 18 months.

How is it that so many of the people in this Bu$h cabal are so incredibly ignorant about the value that government can bring to people's lives? Apparently, they didn't learn much in college. I'm constantly stunned by the amoral comments and actions of the Bu$hies -- for whom government appears to offer the means of controlling the levers of regulation, so they can channel $$ to whoever pays the best protection money to the K Street shills.

Apparently, I -- and others that I know -- have traveled to too many countries where people have such crap health care that they turn to voodoo (because they don't have doctors, medicines, sanitation, and basic services). There are countries where clean water and sewers, decent roads, public schooling, and dental care are luxuries beyond the reach of many.

We have these things in America because previous generations took government seriously enough to build some infrastructure. They understood that 'individuals' don't build a sewer treatment plant, or a state highway, all by their ruggedly individual selves. I don't think Comstock, Bush, Cheney, Libby, Rove, and the rest of these creeps have a clue.

It appears that the current US Admin is made of people whose life experiences are chillingly narrow and intellectually vacuous -- unless you call writing about kinky sex challenging (a la Scooter's novel). I'm amazed these people are so clueless about how lucky they are to live in this country. They don't comprehend jack shit about the VALUE of decent, minimally corrupt government.

The venalty described in Comstock's view of 'politics' is scary. She is apparently so arrogant, ambitious, and foolish that she doesn't even realize she's slitting her own throat and leaving her children a defiled mess of a nation? OMG. Chilling.

In hopes of making the meaning of Comstock's depravity a bit more clear to all of us, perhaps we might consider discussing the VALUE of decent government?!

Could we have that conversation? Ever?!

I think most Americans are able to distinguish between things that are USEFUL (sewer, garbage collection, dams, power plants, highways, a court system, cops, safe food supplies) -- as opposed to bullshit like no-bid contracts for Halliburton and secret energy legislation.

It appears that Ms Comstock is incapable of comprehending that DECENT government and the services it can provide makes peoples lives better. Without that part of the conversation, she's just another hussy shilling for politics. I think there needs to be a whole lot more meaning placed on this story. She appears to embody a narrow, self-absorbed, ideological view of the world untainted by the rigors of backpacking in countries where you don't speak the language, and are likely to get sick from drinking the water.

I hope that Comstock sometime, somewhere is sentenced -- but not to prison. I hope she is sentenced to work for 10 years in some dusty, fetid clinic in Africa treating AIDS cases, trying to find enough decent water each day, trying to obtain food that isn't rotten, figuring out how to get her cavaties filled, and helping poor women through fistula surgeries. And having to deal with AIDs orphans, damaged soils, and corrupt government officlals ought to be part of her daily life. Perhaps then this woman might get a clue about WHY her actions hurt not only US citizens, but others around the world who have in fact benefitted from US technical skills, health care innovations, and agricultural research.

Okay... rant winding down.

As part of the discussion about Comstock and her role in the destruction of public civility, we also need to start a conversation about WHY government matters.

Anyone on this list who thinks I'm mistaken is welcome to take the next flight to any number of countries where people suffer needlessly because their governments are corrupt.

I can only conclude that Ms Comstock has -- like Bush, Libby, Cheney, and too damn many others -- seen wayyy too much of the Beltway, and too damn little of how most humans live.

The Democrats need to use Comstock to tell a story about why some little conservative-leaning town in Idaho isn't going to have matching federal funds for their sewage plant -- because we can't even have that conversation when a Beltway Babe with a law degree so degrades the conversation that we forget that 'government' is actually about whether we have safe roads, decent bridges, advanced research, clean water, enough cops, firefighteres, and teachers.

Government isn't perfect by a long shot, but for Comstock to ambush the American public by confusing sewage treatment with DNA stains on blue dresses is criminally cruel. Yeah, hell.. sewage treatment just isn't as sexy as DNA stains on a blue dress. But unless the IMPACTS of what's happened to American politics become better articulated, the Dem's can keep sitting on their hands while staring at their navels and the Republicans can continue to defile Murtha, and anyone else among us who thinks that government is supposed to be about more than enabling stock fraud and undercutting the CIA.
readeroftealeaves | 02.11.06 - 1:25 am | #

Off topic, but interesting LA Times article:

Abramoff's Charity Began at Home
The lobbyist admits he used nonprofits to evade taxes, pad his pockets and bribe officials.


http://www.latimes.com/news/ nati...0,5568579.story

.
Anonymous | 02.11.06 - 1:34 am | #

readeroftheleaves,

not a novel, but quite novel - this blog may be unique - until they shut us the fuck down about August or early September.

GREAT RANT!
Edward Teller | 02.11.06 - 2:04 am | #

OT, but important:

The shite is about to hit the fan for our one and only rep in Alaska, Don Young ("Alaskan like YOU" - his campaign slogan since before my daughter in college was born). Nobody has stepped up to the plate yet to run against him, but we're trying to change that real soon. Please help us bring his malfeasance to national attention, friends.
Edward Teller | 02.11.06 - 2:18 am | #

Good morning FDL....channeling Robin Williams! LOL. Boy, I've hated this woman ever since Dan Burton started shooting watermelons in his back yard. I'm so happy to see us working on her. I have a suggestion for a nickname if it comes to that...the Comstock "LOAD."

I'm just headed for my debit card to contribute to Ciro. Wish I had a grand or two to throw around, but my measly $20 will have to do.

FDL rocks. Best blog ever. Jane and Redd my addiction is such that I sneak on line at work (we're being watched), copy and paste the posts and comments I haven't read, and then pretend I'm proofreading so I can keep up with you guys during the day. Pretty bad, huh?

Thank you again.
hoosierville | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 2:29 am | #

readeroftheleaves, that was amazing. Beautiful! Makes my heart hurt. Best rant I've read in a long, long time.
hoosierville | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 2:38 am | #

Edward, I'm in for a $20 on Young's opponent when the tax money comes in. I've been following the story at TPM. It's so hard to believe just how corrupt this republican congress is.
hoosierville | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 2:44 am | #

Tie Comstock to Sembler.
From http:// rigorousintuition.blogspo...defense_08.html

I'm sure you know who Sembler is, and the mind control atrocity called Straight Inc. he and wife Betty perpetrated on American youth in Florida for nearly two decades. Straight bent itself out of shape in the early '90s and became the "Drug Free America Foundation" only after, finally, exposure and public outcry at its virtual "psychic murder" of kids in its alleged care for addiction recovery.
A longtime political supporter of Cheney, Sembler was recruited to join the effort by Barbara Comstock, a Washington lawyer and friend of Libby, Comstock said.

Sembler will head what Comstock called "a distinguished and bipartisan group of friends, colleagues and former government officials" who have formed the Libby Legal Defense Trust.

So to recap, the former ambassador to Italy is chairing the defense fund of a White House official implicated in a scandal that began with the delivery of forged documents to his embassy.

And then there's the other covert constellation finding alignment: the Bush and Cheney backroom man who founded a mind control treatment program that tortured young people with acts of sexual degradation has come to the rescue of Cheney's former chief of staff, and author of a novel of sexual sadism, bestiality and paedophilia which depicts the rape of children in a bear cage."

I could not make this up.
alfdom | 02.11.06 - 2:52 am | #

hoosierville,

Somebody here said it very well earlier.

Paraphrasing: the GOP hearties don't believe federal or any government function works, but they've been hired during this most egregious of all patronism administrations to fulfill government functions. The resultant roster is failing so fully, even the patron saint of these folks, Grover Norquist, is beginning to blanch at the ramifications of this for his party, if not for our country.
Edward Teller | 02.11.06 - 2:55 am | #

i love coming to this place.
me with our fellow democracy agitators warming our dogs by the fire at Redd and Jane's camp on the shores of the blog o'lake.

fuel to the fire from friendly folks fomenting for further fulminations of fiery fury.

man o' man, you got some great diggers here too.

and bless you for getting this texas boy to cough up $30 for ciro rodriguez and another ten-er for the actblue folks, too.

now i can feel like a texan again.

praise be to FDL and pass the ammunnition!
yellowdog jim | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 3:11 am | #

hey,

[ ... ]

Republicans can continue to defile Murtha, and anyone else among us who thinks that government is supposed to be about more than enabling stock fraud and undercutting the CIA.
readeroftealeaves | 02.11.06 - 1:25 am | #

excellent.
toasty.
warms our dogs.

thank you, Ro'TLs.
... hope your sleeping peacefully now ...
...
yellowdog jim | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 3:18 am | #

Regarding Comstock's potential conflict of interest, going through the revolving door of DoJ to Libby's defense, I really, really hate to throw a wet blanket, because the last thing I want to do is to deter anyone from digging, but...

The D.C. Bar Rules of Professional Conduct are replete with caveats regarding conflict of interest issues when the lawyer in question worked for the government. The caveats are, on their face, reasonable, because if you treat the government like a regular law firm for the purpose of identifying potential conflicts, almost no government lawyers could work in private firms that have ever tangled with the government.

So arguing in absence of more specific facts, that Comstock can't defend Libby just because she worked for the DoJ ends up a loser. HOWEVER, there may indeed be more specific facts that could overwhelm the caveats in the Rules, so keep digging!

(I'm not a lawyer, but I once had the misfortune of becoming very knowledgable of D.C. Bar ethics rules regarding conflicts, when a K Street lawyer "represented" me while his firm actively represented an adverse party. I filed an ethics complaint, but I found that the system was rigged against the client: the Bar had no interest in doing an actual investigation, and the process quickly became prohibitively expensive. The crook, who shall remain nameless, still works on K Street.)
watou | 02.11.06 - 3:29 am | #

How perfectly fitting for the Cheney Crime Family to put their most vicious oppo researcher at the head of Scooter's defense fund.

The message to Scooter is crystal clear:

"Step off of the reservation and your sorry ass is history!!"

(Jane and Redd, thank you a million times for your tireless work here. I'm always grateful to return to this oasis of sanity!)
metroboy | 02.11.06 - 3:53 am | #

Jane-> wrt Comstock and the FEC:
TeddySanFran | 02.10.06 - 11:35 pm | # quoted O'Reilly above in this comment: "Barbara Comstock, a consultant to Congressman DeLay, said there is nothing illegal or improper about the payments. "This story about his wife and daughter having worked with the PAC has been public information for years. The Federal Election Commission said this is perfectly legal as long as the people being paid are doing legitimate campaign activities."
http://www.billoreilly.com/show?...Show& showID=215
Sen. John McCain said yesterday that the Federal Election Commission is "corrupt" and that lobbying reform is not the solution to cleaning up a fundraising scandal that has engulfed Capitol Hill. The Arizona Republican and co-author of the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance reform legislation said the commission is rewriting the law through its decision-making process.
"The Federal Election Commission, which is corrupt, will not enforce existing law, much less rein in ... this excess," Mr. McCain said.
Political interest groups called 527s widely were used during the last presidential race, but Mr. McCain says prior law made those groups illegal.
"They continue to try to carve out loopholes in [the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act], known to many as McCain-Feingold. Thirteen of the 15 regulations they issued to implement the McCain-Feingold law were thrown out by the courts because they were in direct contravention to it. The 527s are illegal under the '74 law," Mr. McCain said. The 527s engage in political activities using soft money contributions and are tax-exempt organizations. The 527 group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth did major damage to the presidential campaign of Democratic Sen. John Kerry.
"We've got a Federal Election Commission that is corrupt, and we've got ethics committees that aren't working," Mr. McCain said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
Comstock is playing on the imprimatur of impartiality that the the FEC has, but has prostituted to the Rethugs.
http://washingtontimes.com/natio...15028- 4373r.htm
John Casper | 02.11.06 - 4:54 am | #

Has this one been added?

http://lists.democracygroups.org...atch/ 2001q3.txt

Looks like you found the "mother of all 'dirty tricksters.'" Nothing worse than a born-again Republican [Ted Kennedy intern who had a conversion reading Orrin Hatch!?!].

Lordy...
Mickey | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 4:59 am | #

My own self-assignment this weekend is to locate the Al-Jazeera office in the US, and make sure they know about Ann Coulter's "raghead" comments. A
fatwa would be most appropriate.
bob h | 02.11.06 - 5:12 am | #

Miniralphbon had us up through the night, so I only have the energy to say bravo to the researchers and to readerofevidentlyhighlycaffeinatedtealeaves.
ralphbon | 02.11.06 - 5:26 am | #

Here's her appearance on Nightline a couple of years ago defending the Patriot Act.:

"Ted also had to keep correcting Comstock by inserting the word "suspected" when she was talking about who the Patriot Act was being routinely used against. ("Suspected" terrorists and "suspected" enemy combatants.) She just couldn't stop forgetting that these people were only suspects. That whole innocent until proven guilty thing kept slipping her mind."

http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/...ives/ 001699.php

For Ms. Comstock, it appears that the Constitution is just a "goddamn piece of paper."
mc | 02.11.06 - 5:30 am | #

According to zillow, her house (following anonymous's links to Wemberly) is worth $1.58M.
Professor Foland | 02.11.06 - 5:37 am | #

from Bob Novaks latest column: http://townhall.com/opinion/colu.../11/ 186083.html

Two prominent Republican lobbyists, Craig Fuller and H.P. Goldfield, hosted a fund-raising dinner Thursday evening at Goldfield's Washington home for Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman, seeking re-election in Connecticut this year.
Fuller was President Ronald Reagan's Cabinet secretary and later Vice President George H.W. Bush's chief of staff. Goldfield, a Reagan White House aide and later assistant secretary of Commerce, was a fund-raiser in the two Bush-Quayle campaigns.
While Lieberman is a major voice for lobbyist reform, three of his dinner's five hosts were registered lobbyists. Fuller represents the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. Goldfield lobbies for Airbus and for energy companies (ConcocoPhillips, Dynegy International and Gulfsands Petroleum). Co-host C. Michael Gilliland, a partner in the Hogan & Hartson law firm, represents a variety of clients.
Wilson46201 | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 5:44 am | #

Just for fun, Ledeen on the three Barabaras:

Day before yesterday there were three Barbaras, close as sisters, joined by their zest for life, their volcanic passions, their total commitment to their loved ones, their fearless work for freedom. Barbara Olson, Barbara Comstock, Barbara Ledeen. All three chose to fight for their convictions.

All three were singled out by the Left for slanderous attacks, dehumanizing slogans, the usual stereotypes. Had there been a feminist movement worthy of the name, they would have been its heroines; instead, because they rejected the fashionable causes, insisted on traditional virtue, fought limits on real choices, and relentlessly exposed the emptiness of the Leftist slogans, they became the feminists' targets.
emptywheel | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 5:48 am | #

Go at it, but please be careful about tarring Blank Rome with such a broad brush. It is, in fact, a large law firm with multiple offices, employing partners and associates of all political stripes. One of its partners may even be a regular reader of this blog (wink).

[The same is true of Jack Abramoff's former firm, Greenberg Traurig. Lots of good, liberal lawyers and Dem connections there, too.]
Art Vandelay | 02.11.06 - 5:52 am | #

Jane,

Due to a dramatic circumstance in my family, I ended up having to discover the identity of a man we thought we knew. Turned out he had four other wives, six identities, a passel of social security numbers, and a criminal history you wouldn't believe.

Anonymous and others are right. It is amazing what PI's can find about someone. Though in popular belief SSN's are the keys to the kingdom, in fact, an address, name, and birthday are enough to unload a wealth of information, even on someone trying to cover their tracks.

It will take a lot of hours of your time to sift and piece it together; the search will dredge up unrelated people as well.

I doubt Ms. Comstock has anything much more exciting on her record than a fleet of BMW's and a summer home in Aspen, but she'll be pissed if people start showing up in Aspen, now won't she!

I'll send you a separate email with the name.

The PI route is not a resource to pass up. You know they did it.
Professor Foland | 02.11.06 - 5:57 am | #

while doing oppo research, you always ask your own candidate what might turn up in the opponents oppo research. Ms.Comstock is likely to have scrubbed any nasties in her own file. ( can you say Texas Air National Guard? thought you could, Karen! )
Wilson46201 | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 6:00 am | #

Ah, yes:

It all began, as I have said, when the Boss, sitting in the black Cadillac which sped through the night, said to me (to Me who was what Jack Burden, the student of history, had grown up to be) "There is always something."

And I said, "Maybe not on the Judge."

And he said, "Man is conceived in sin and born in corruption and he passeth from the stink of the didie to the stench of the shroud. There is always something."

The PI route is not a resource to pass up. You know they did it.

Professor Foland

I'm sure lots of us would be willing to pitch in to hire a PI. It's an idea to consider.
Riesz Fischer | 02.11.06 - 6:01 am | #

Jane, I'll be in Oregon on the 20th visiting schools with Sophie. Can we bring you lunch?Doggie treats too.
Mary Jane | 02.11.06 - 6:12 am | #

Dear Jane,
Whatever happened to Patrick Fitzgerland's ongoing investigation of Karl Rove? Is there even a remote hope that Rove could still be indicted? When will we hear something more from Fitzgerald?
As Fitz must surely know, these scandals have a way of disappearing if the media is not regularly fed at least some tidbits of news.
Carol9485
Carol Curtis | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 6:20 am | #

It's called hush money and she's just the bagwoman.
purvis ames | 02.10.06 - 10:52 pm | #

So - does this activity just border on the unethical or is it blatantly illegal? And is this use of "hush money" something Fitz can use against Scooter (or the BuschCo conspiracy) in some way?
dab | 02.11.06 - 6:28 am | #

A fatwa would be most appropriate.

No it wouldn't. It is wrong to enflame inter-religious animosity by giving demagogues more fodder. The likely outcome of a fatwah against Coulter is that decent Americans like you and me will end up being painted with the same racist brush that the Coulters of the world singularly deserves.

Pigs like Coulter and Bill Bennett need to enlist in their own private religious holy wars in a new reality show called "Fundie Island." They should be penned into their own "Hate Speech Zones" with extremists from all religions. We just have to hose it down after each episode.
watou | 02.11.06 - 6:35 am | #

Just thinking out loud here about something. I wonder if there might just be some spill-over from the Coretta King funeral at the possibly not too distant Sharon funeral.
Could be interesting.
The Filibuster | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 6:39 am | #

I'm glad someone brought up the idea of a PI.The only thing though is that they are rather expensive.You can bet your ass the GOP has their own PI types on the payroll.

But surely there is someone who either has the backround,is retired from the business or something who might be willing to help out the FDL research battalion.....
An Angry Old Broad | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 6:40 am | #

Great, great post, tea leaves.

With how long the pukes have been doing this wrecking-crew, everything-goes crap to us, it blows my mind that this idea of Jane's has not been dem practice for years. It is SO PAST TIME to fight back, with EVERYTHING we've got. And they've given us TONS.

Fantastic thread!
Sharkbabe | 02.11.06 - 6:46 am | #

"Barbara Comstock isn't 'Libby's press contact.' She's head of his defense fund, which essentially seems to be covering Libby's legal defense bills so that they can use his case to protect the other neocons for whom Libby is acting as a firewall." (as posted above)

Some questions:

Why not both? And why not primarily a "press contact" (since she seems to be a woman of "words," rather more than of "means")? And if so, for exactly whom is she "crafting the narrative"? Who, in the MSM, honestly trusts her, respects her, relays her messages, and protects her privacy? And not just yesterday, but today and tomorrow?

Who appointed her, and why? She's clearly very skilled at what she does, and someone evidently has a need for her skill-set. But which of her skills is the more urgently valued here--the spinning, or the digging? If it's the digging, then what might she be digging for (apart from the stuff of slander)? Could it be that Libby and friends, like the rest of us, have no real idea of what Fitzpatrick knows, or of what he's doing, or of when the great axe will fall? Could Rove and Cheney be as clueless as everyone else? (This would be fun to find out....)
alabama | 02.11.06 - 6:51 am | #

Tiny tidbit. I see babs graduated from Middlebury a few years before Ari did. Wonder if they "knew" each other?
(yech... sorry.)
o | 02.11.06 - 6:57 am | #

Only trouble is, their side blackmails the media and ours doesn't. Why else could every single made-up bullshit about Clinton be front-page news every day for eight years, while the Bush Nat'l Guard story, the documents for which Bushco didn't even deny facts of but only questioned provenance of the copies, not only didn't touch the deserting little fuck but discredited CBS and got a bunch of people fired.

Roveco blackmails the media. That's our biggest problem.
Sharkbabe | 02.11.06 - 7:00 am | #

Good Morning,

WOW! Sure didn't take some of you long (looked at time stamps) to come up w/ Comstock material.

Often thought some of the more versed among us could have an on line Workshop on Searches, or put together a Tutorial t/b accessed via this site, along w/ Glossary (lmfao), and a Links vault (Media Contact Info, Congr. Contact Info) - Kinda like the Kos resource page, only in a cooler, FDL way.

Jane and ReddHedd, if I am breezing along ignorant of increased costs for bandwidth, storage, etc., forgive me - I'm one of those who is lucky to make a link work.

but from time to time in the comments, folks share some tidbit on their tweaking that enhances the simplest of Google searches - sure would be nice to have a group repository for such things. would be happy to do any of the grunt work (typing, etc).
cbl | 02.11.06 - 7:04 am | #

yes, I'm donating to ciro, 2. and jane, what can we do to help get this info about comstock out?
profedeminn | 02.11.06 - 7:16 am | #

IIRC SusanG over at Kos has some sort of familial connection to a PI.

For those who don't know she's the one who got the ball rolling on Jeff Gannon, (then known as a Whitehouse Chief Correspondent who was often quoted in the VRWC) and his connection to Plame.

The way that story spun out none of us expected.
Bionic | 02.11.06 - 7:16 am | #

Babs was intimately involved with the right-wing response to Michael Moore's movie.

http://tinyurl.com/77sa3

Speaking of the movie Celsius 41.11...

The movie aims to take on Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 and several charges that Bush is a bad commander in chief who lied about Iraq's terrorist intentions. "The purpose of it was not for yucks," said one of the movie's stars, former Justice official Barbara Comstock.

----------------------

I don't know if this kind of thing is useful to you, but hopefully smarter people than me can "connect all the dots" hehe.
Kurt | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 7:25 am | #

Bionic - my point exactly - supposedly sex sells, so why isn't the infamous Gannon a household name and Lewinsky is?

To paraphrase driftglass, Bush could be standing in the rose garden masturbating himself while throwing burning kittens at homeless vets, and it wouldn't affect anything.
Sharkbabe | 02.11.06 - 7:25 am | #

Blank Rome has also surfaced in articles about penny stock fraud and the CIA. See Christopher Byron's May 2, 2005 article called "Spooky Situation."

Here's a snip:

HOWARD'S newest venture, Ionatron, is closely tied to the politically well-connected Philadelphia law firm of Blank Rome LLP, which may explain the company's greased ride into Washington. Blank Rome's chairman David Girard-diCarlo, is widely viewed as a Republican Party king-maker and is reported to have strongly pressed the White House to name Pennsylvania's Republican governor, Tom Ridge, to the post of homeland security chief following the attacks of 9/11.

Howard's ties to Girard-diCarlo's firm come by way of the head of Blank Rome's New York office, Robert Mittman, who appears as attorney of record on numerous Presstek and other Howard-linked SEC filings dating back to the mid-1990s.

He also appears, at around the same time, as attorney of record for a California-based penny stock company called U.S. Home and Garden Inc., which eventually wound up being merged with Ionatron in March 2004, thereby giving Howard a revived post-Presstek presence on Wall Street.

These connections may help explain how Ionatron, which did not even exist as a private company until it was incorporated by Howard in Delaware in June 2002, wound up hiring Blank Rome as a fully and properly registered Washington, D.C., lobbyist nine months later, in March of 2003. Shortly thereafter, Ionatron inked its deal with In-Q-Tel, while Howard began bolting together the merger with U.S. Home and Garden.

Next, this zero-to-hero penny stock headed for the corridors of Capitol Hill. There it received a hearty thumbs-up ? along with a personally pencilled-in defense spending supplemental budget authorization of $18 million ? from chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Thad Cochran.

alabama
When I wrote that, I was more interested in why Jeffress released that statement. So I was interested that it came from Comstock rather than from, say, Baker Botts, where Jeffress works. I'm suggesting that it's significant that it came from Libby's defense fund, since it basically consists of a bunch of neocons who want to make sure Libby's the firewall for this thing.

That is, the statement came "from" the rest of the neocons hoping to avoid incrimination rather than Libby's lawyer directly. The statement has everything to do with protecting Cheney et al, and nothing to do with Libby's actual defense.

The points you raise are all true; I agree with them.
emptywheel | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 7:27 am | #

Needless to say, my comment about press office/legal defense fund applied only to my comment, not to Jane's.
emptywheel | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 7:33 am | #

Don't mean to be negative on this excellent initiative, but it's more than a matter of not having enough dirt on these scumbags. We need dirt on the battered media prostitutes they own, and the pimps like Murdoch and Scaife.
Sharkbabe | 02.11.06 - 7:33 am | #

Karen Allen at 12:24--
I don't think it's that unusual for someone like Comstock to have a husband with a less taxing job. With three kids, two power careers are pretty difficult, unless you have a live-in nanny.
undecided | 02.11.06 - 7:35 am | #

Republicans Quietly Rebel on NSA
by DemFromCT
"Few things are more interesting than watching the Republican-cheerleading media (who declared NSA a 'win' for Bush a few short weeks ago) have to eat their words."
http:// thenexthurrah.typepad.com...i.html#comments
John Casper | 02.11.06 - 7:39 am | #

Sharkbabe. When the Gannon story was first breaking it was successfully portrayed as crazy lefties prying into his personal life, as a gay man, not concerned citizens (WRT to outing a NOC) finding out that a Whitehouse correspondent moonlighted as a male prostitute and advertised that fact on the Internet.

My own feeling about JJ is that he was put in the press room for a reason. Anyone who was thinking of being a whistleblower would think twice if they had 1)used JJ's services and 2)doubted that Rove could "get them" in some form or other.

I think the main target was military type guys as JJ had several testimonials from high up military related guys touting his ability to be firm and allowing them to cede control for a little while.

Did you know he bragged to his fraternity brothers that he had been busy one weekend entertaining Blair. Curious turn of phrase in light of what was later learned about him.

His only journalistic "training" was a weekend seminar at The Leadership Institute. The Institute is right wing funded, connected with Rove and dedicated to churning out conservodrones who would infiltrate all levels of media and make sure the party line was followed.

It's too bad the left doesn't work harder to find paying jobs for its foot soldiers. The Right definitely understands that money talks.
Bionic | 02.11.06 - 7:41 am | #

Sharkbabe: Ever met any reporters and editors? Shallow, dumb, resentful, conceited and envious - perfect tools of the republicans. You don't need to blackmail people who aspire to being lickspittle sidekicks to power.
citizen k | 02.11.06 - 7:41 am | #

Following article provide background into some of Comstock's recent work and methodology:

http://mediamatters.org/items/20...ms/ 200508110004
Title: Fox failed to mention Comstock's ties to pro-Roberts group whose ad was highlighted
Excerpt: "...failed to identify Comstock as a strategic adviser to Progress for America (PFA), a right-wing group actively campaigning for Roberts's confirmation. On August 9, the day after the NARAL Pro-Choice America ad was first released, Progress for America unveiled an ad defending Roberts, part of which was spotlighted during the Fox segment. In addition, PFA has launched a pro-Roberts website, and assembled a coalition of conservative groups to advocate for Roberts's confirmation."

http://mediamatters.org/items/20...ms/ 200405280003
Title: Conservative media echoed RNC attack on Gore and MoveOn.org
Excerpt: "...Barbara Comstock -- former director of the Office of Public Affairs at the Department of Justice under Attorney General John Ashcroft and former director of research and strategic planning at the RNC -- seems to have taken a cue from her former employer, writing in a May 27 National Review Online commentary, in reference to MoveOn.org executive director Eli Pariser, "His group has promoted ads comparing Bush to Hitler." Comstock also echoed another part of the RNC release that described MoveOn.org's call for peaceful anti-terrorism responses following the September 11 terrorist attacks, writing, "Gore's top speaking destination of choice not only opposes the war in Iraq, they opposed the war in Afghanistan, too. Just days after September 11, MoveOn.org put out a statement saying, 'We recognize that we are now in a world where indiscriminate military actions can make us less safe....'"

Checked for other physical relations between organizations:
BlankRome.com IP address 146.145.38.68
Progress for America IP address 162.42.224.12 O'Beirne > Rove?
Comstock > Ledeen > Rove?
and note emptywheel's Ledeen anti-feminist quote about "The Barbaras"

This woman hangs out with "universal fascists" and relies on their help to provide cover. Definitely Satan's Spawn if not Satan's Mistress.

The relationship to Sembler and Ledeen both put Comstock within a couple of degrees of the Niger forgeries at the very most.

-- NOte VERY carefully from her clients' list:
Advanced Programs, Inc. (http://www.advprograms.com/) "a leading supplier of TEMPEST computing equipment to the US Government and Allied Governments (including NATO member countries)"
[is this the system that underpins ECHELON?]

NorthPoint Technology
member of Broadwave USA, chaired by a Dem; the technology developed by NorthPoint and expected to be employed by Broadwave puts them in direct competition with Boeing and other satellite service providers. Did Comstock act ethically for this client? You'll note that Boeing is on Comstock's list -- as is Comcast, a CABLE television provider, which may also be at odds with NorthPoint Technology.

I'll also point out that the Chair of Broadwave is the Treasurer of the New Hampshire Dem Party; did Comstock use any information gleaned from the chair to assist the RNC (Remember the James Tobin phone debacle?)?

Speculation, of course. I have no evidence. But the interconnection and less than 6 degrees apart in each case makes Comstock suspect.
Rayne | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 7:45 am | #

Nuts. Formatting boo-boo in comment above.

Will re-post screwed-up section here:

>>-- Note the relationships carefully:
Comstock > O'Beirne > Rove?
Comstock > Ledeen > Rove?
and note emptywheel's Ledeen anti-feminist quote about "The Barbaras"

This woman hangs out with "universal fascists" and relies on their help to provide cover. Definitely Satan's Spawn if not Satan's Mistress.

The relationship to Sembler and Ledeen both put Comstock within a couple of degrees of the Niger forgeries at the very most.
Rayne | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 7:47 am | #

You people should take your cue from Emily Swenson of Fulton, Missouri, who, after "The Crucible" was banned at her high school, said, "It's over...We can't do anything about it. We just have to obey."

Filthy miscreants.
sfbayer | 02.11.06 - 7:48 am | #

And this bit was also screwed up, must be Haloscan's interpretation of open tag where there wasn't one:


Checked for other physical relations between organizations:
BlankRome.com IP address 146.145.38.68
Progress for America IP address 162.42.224.12 TalonNews > CNSNews > Heritage Foundation)
Rayne | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 7:50 am | #

Dec 2001 Ashcroft announces position as Director of Public Affairs

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2001...r/ 01_ag_667.htm
anon | 02.11.06 - 7:51 am | #

Sharkbabe | 02.11.06 - 7:33 am | I agree. It's a "two-front war." I am very encouraged, because the NSA domestic spying has reinvigorated a lot of "old news." Dick ("fuck you") Cheney's telling Scooter about Plame was "old news" with the corporate media. NSA gate has reinvigorated that "old news" with large sections of both the middle and the far right. This has forced the corporate media to "revisit" a lot of "old news" they had previously ignored.
John Casper | 02.11.06 - 7:51 am | #

Note to self - Do NOT piss off FDL gang - especially Anonymous, who might very well be on Ms. Comstock's front porch, beating on her door, at this very moment.

Fantastic stuff - keep it going, bring the pain!

Forgot about Dan Burton's mistress - I wonder if the one who caused the fuss is the same one I know....

Never mind
jayt | 02.11.06 - 7:52 am | #

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/ ful...753C1A964948260

marriage of Barbara
Anonymous | 02.11.06 - 7:53 am | #

"filthy miscreants"

Wow. Must have attracted Ms. Comstock's daemonic wrecking crewe of kitsune and ruhin.

Somebody fetch me a silver bullet, a mallet and stake, and the trex.
Rayne | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 7:58 am | #

Damnitall, Haloscan keeps eating that bit with the IP addresses.

Anyhow, there's no physical relationship between the two entities, but we should be watching for them.

IP address relationships were important in the Jeff Gannon story; they tracked the path between GOPUSA and Heritage Foundation and sundry other entities in between.

The use of cloaking or masking resources has become more prevalent since the Gannon story, simply because the 'wingers took note. The fact that PFA is using one suggests they don't want us digging into any relations they may have with other entities via network resources. Heh.
Rayne | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 8:02 am | #

STATEMENT OF BARBARA COMSTOCK, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS,
REGARDING THE TIPS PROGRAM


http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2002...y/ 02_ag_405.htm
Voodoo | 02.11.06 - 8:04 am | #

Anonymous | 7:53 am -- wow, that one was fun!

Assuming that's the correct BJComstock, you can see she came by her research skills on mom's side and propensity to support petro-military-industrial complex on dad's side.

Family values, gotta' love 'em. Now why is she working outside the house?
Rayne | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 8:07 am | #

So here's a question that seems really pertient here. Why did Comstock leave DOJ when she did?

She started at DOJ in January 2002 and left to start at Blank Rome on October 1, 2003.

Do those dates stick out at anyone? She starts just as the war drums begin and leaves just as the Plame case gets recommended to DOJ (and at about the same time as David Kay first announced there were no WMDs in Iraq). Did she leave because they needed her abilities elsewhere, to do this kind of campaign? Did she leave to avoid involvement in the Plame investigation for some reason?
emptywheel | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 8:09 am | #

Morning gang -- got to sleep in the morning. New post shortly.
ReddHedd | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 8:13 am | #

As part of an answer to that, here's a Democracy Now blurb on Comstock's resignation:

Justice Department Spokesperson Resigns to Join Lobbying Firm
In other lobbying news, Top Justice Department spokesperson Barbara Comstock announced yesterday she is resigning in order to take a job at the Washington lobbying and public relations firm Blank Rome Governmental Relations. Comstock is the fourth top Justice Department official to resign in recent months. The others were Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, the criminal division chief, Michael Chertoff and Viet Dinh, head of the Office of Legal Policy.

Dinh, of course, justified torture and Thompson justified NSA spying (maybe torture too, but I'm not sure). Was Comstock at DOJ to watch over the justifications of expanded executive power?
emptywheel | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 8:16 am | #

OT - An entertaining link for your saturday morning.

Become a Republican?

http://www.thefrown.com/ player.p...ecomerepublican
anon | 02.11.06 - 8:23 am | #

If you want to see how the right wing blogs take their marching orders from the VRWC check out this bit from Michelle Malkin:

"Former DOJ official Barbara Comstock e-mails this legal analysis:

Ronnie Earle argues that Tom DeLay conspired to make a contribution to a political party in violation of the Texas Election Code. There was no contribution to a political party in violation of the Texas Election Code. There was no conspiracy. Ronnie Earle is wrong on the facts. Ronnie Earle is wrong on the law."

Comstock heads the legal funds of Libby AND DeLay? Sounds like she is really interested in cleaning up DC.
joejoejoe | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 8:25 am | #

And, burrowing deep into a Google search , what do we find? Seems Barbara is doing our friend, Tommy Delay, a few favors:

http://www.prwatch.org/search/no...h/node/ comstock

"Minutes after the announcement came, DeLay's closest and strongest supporters began mounting a defense. By 2 p.m., a two-page memo condemning [Texas prosecutor] Ronnie Earle and the indictment was hitting Republican e-mail." The memo "turns the ethical spotlight on Earle and casts DeLay as the innocent victim." It "cites a Houston Chronicle article saying that Earle had started raising money for 'far-left' groups." Republicans "would not disclose the author," but the memo is similar to one written earlier this year by former Republican National Committee research director Barbara Comstock, in response to questions about DeLay's foreign travel and campaign payments to his wife and daughter."
mc | 02.11.06 - 8:27 am | #

"Did she leave because they needed her abilities elsewhere, to do this kind of campaign? Did she leave to avoid involvement in the Plame investigation for some reason?"
IIRC, Ashcroft recused himself from Plamegate in January 2004. Given that Comstock left Justice in October 2003, I have to vote that they "needed her abilities elsewhere."
John Casper | 02.11.06 - 8:27 am | #

Barbara Comstock left the DOJ around the same time as several other high-ranking officials:

"Justice Department Spokesperson Resigns to Join Lobbying Firm
In other lobbying news, Top Justice Department spokesperson Barbara Comstock announced yesterday she is resigning in order to take a job at the Washington lobbying and public relations firm Blank Rome Governmental Relations. Comstock is the fourth top Justice Department official to resign in recent months. The others were Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, the criminal division chief, Michael Chertoff and Viet Dinh, head of the Office of Legal Policy."

Alice Fisher, top deputy in the criminal division also left around this time, though she's not mentioned in the previous article.
here


Larry Thompson
here

Viet Dinh
here


Maybe there's some connection here, maybe not. Maybe some investigation into these others who left at the same time will reveal something. Or maybe one of them would be interested in talking to Jane. Thompson? Fisher? Just a thought...
priggish | 02.11.06 - 8:27 am | #

emptywheel -- I suspect it was a matrix of expectations.

The very first client on her list was NorthPoint Technology. I don't think they got what they needed from her, nor did NorthPoint's "partner", Broadwave. (Google up FastCompany info on Sophia Collier and Broadwave.)

When did Bush-Cheney '04 kick off?
Rayne | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 8:29 am | #

Well, Ari quit (announced in May 2003, last day on July 14 2003) at what he called the last chance to get out before the election started up.
emptywheel | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 8:32 am | #

A PI? The prof has put forth a reasonable tactic. Sure, why not? They have nothing to hide. Do they?
california_reality_check | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 8:33 am | #

She certainly married beneath her per the NYT article, if you read it w/ your society glasses on. Middlebury v. SW Texas state as undergrad institutions? 2d yr law at Georgetown v. high school computer teacher? I would guess that gives her the pants in the family. And given the disparity in their jobs and probably income, it must be a very interesting household to come home to......
moe99 | 02.11.06 - 8:36 am | #

I think juiciest angle of the Libby Defense Fund is that Barbara Comstock recruited former Amb. to Italy Mel Sembler and big GOP donor to the Libby defense team.

Sembler was Ambassador to Italy when the forged uranium documents came through the door.

Isn't that why this is a big story in the first place? If we can bubble that fact up in the news we will have achieved something big.

(reported earlier by emptywheel and Josh Marshall)
joejoejoe | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 8:40 am | #

Jane,
How about a wikipedia type listing for all of Satan's spawn...a permanent repository on the web where all of the questionable behavior can be permanently posted along with pictures , addresses and phone numbers.
It can prevent these people from having private lives.
They want a Big Brother society where there is no privacy...well, let's start with them.
BTW...corrupt democrats should have a place on such a list.
John | 02.11.06 - 8:42 am | #

STATEMENT OF BARBARA COMSTOCK, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS,
REGARDING THE TIPS PROGRAM


http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2002...y/ 02_ag_405.htm
Voodoo | 02.11.06 - 8:42 am | #

Does Ms. Comstock have children? And how long after October 9, 1982 was the first one born?
emptywheel | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 8:43 am | #

Voodoo, you okay? We got it, but it doesn't quite fit the schema just yet.
Rayne | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 8:45 am | #

Heh. emptywheel, that's fun!

Anonymous, you got that one?
Rayne | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 8:46 am | #

sorry sorry, refreshed the window is all.

Doh!
Voodoo | 02.11.06 - 8:48 am | #

Comstock was a "close ally" of David Bossie while both served as aides to Representative Dan Burton (R-IL) on the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee. Comstock "played a key role in [selectively] editing and releasing" controversial transcripts of former Clinton administration official Webster Hubbell's prison conversations -- the incident for which Bossie was fired from the committee.
Willem van Oranje | 02.11.06 - 8:50 am | #

but from time to time in the comments, folks share some tidbit on their tweaking that enhances the simplest of Google searches - sure would be nice to have a group repository for such things. would be happy to do any of the grunt work (typing, etc).
cbl | 02.11.06 - 7:04 am | #

Phrases are the key feature that most people don't use. If you have a part of the search that is likely to appear as a phrase, put it in quotes, and you'll get a lot less extraneous stuff than searching for the individual words. The only disadvantage is that you'll miss pages that have a variation on the phrase or different wording. But just as ranking the searches, not finding them, is the key advantage Google had over other search engines, the key for using it is narrowing the search so you don't have to wade through thousands of pages.
Redshift | Homepage | 02.11.06 - 8:51 am | #

new thread: "Ode to Patrick Fitzgerald"
John Casper | 02.11.06 - 8:56 am | #

Rayne: Damnitall, Haloscan keeps eating that bit with the IP addresses.

Does the text have < characters in it? If so, you need to replace them with &lt; and