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.
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 | #
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.
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.
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."
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.
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 | #
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)
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.' "
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.
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.
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 | #
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:
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 | #
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 | #
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 | #
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 | #
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 | #
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:
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.
________________ 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.
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.
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."
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 | #
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..."
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.
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.
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 | #
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 | #
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!?!].
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."
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 | #
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."
All The King's Men, Robert Penn Warren, 1946
But, if I recall correctly, in the 2000 campaign the RNC transcended research. I don't think they ever dug up anything real on Gore. Rather they synthesized stuff, and spun inconsequential stuff into a narrative. Stuff like the lie that Gore claimed to have invented the Internet. And stuff about four-button suits. Really silly stuff. (And, if I recall correctly, Arriana was in on it.) The real villians here were the mainstream press corp who played along.
Bob Somerby at dailyhowler.com has done some very detailed analyses on the 2000 campaign.
Tom |
02.11.06 - 6:01 am | #
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.
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
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....
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
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.
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:
"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
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
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 < and be sure not to preview. (If you preview, haloscan converts the < into a < and then when you post, it gets eaten just as if you'd typed < in the first place.)
Redshift |
Homepage |
02.11.06 - 8:58 am | #
Redshift -- part of our challenge is that we are amassing data inside a Haloscan comment thread, not amenable to search by most engines , and in a format that's very loosey-goosey.
DailyKos has DKosopedia, which could be a repository for some of the Comstock stuff. Also could rely on ePluribus Media -- but only members can use it and only within the code of ethics (I do encourage people to join ePM if they love to do research and writing).
emptywheel -- you staying in this thread with the Comstock stuff, or moving upstairs?
Still combing through the DoJ for some trigger for Oct 2003.
Rayne |
Homepage |
02.11.06 - 8:59 am | #
If it wasn't for Club for Growth andChesapeake energy We would not have to suffer thru the idiot Sen Coburn R-OK. Some organizations are truly evil
emel |
02.11.06 - 9:02 am | #
She's on the Executive Committee of The Susan B Anthony (a 501c concerned with Right to life issues it looks like) along with BILL KRISTOL.
"Comstock, however, lied when asked about the draft, saying it was "internal only" and had not been sent to the Hill. Sources for both Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, however, confirmed Friday they do have a copy of the draft and a January 10, 2003 "control sheet" for the Justice Department's Office of Legislative Affairs confirms the draft was sent to both House and Senate Leadership"
As pure speculation, I like Comstock for the Niger forgery connections. Oct 2003 was when the Plame leak really heated up in the press, and the INR memo articles started appearing, wasn't it?
Mimikatz |
02.11.06 - 9:29 am | #
Barbara Comstock's boy Mel Sembler:
"No one at the U.S. embassy in Rome seems to have known about this second Rome meeting. But the back-channel's continuing existence became apparent the following month -- July 2002 -- when Ledeen again contacted Sembler and told him that he'd be back in Rome in September to continue "his work" with the Iranians (This time Ledeen made no mention of any involvement by Pentagon officials; later, he told Sembler it would be in August rather than September.) An exasperated Sembler again sent word back to Washington, and Hadley again went into motion telling Ledeen, in no uncertain terms, to back off."
Regarding the difference in "status" of Comstock and her spouse, some high-powered males say they marry their opposite because after competing in most aspects of their life, they don't want competition from their mate.
Sally |
02.11.06 - 9:40 am | #
readeroftealeaves” ” 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?”
Edward Teller: ”…the GOP hearties don't believe federal or any government function works”
I see a very nice frame (for Democrats) shaping up here.
Now say it again: Republicans don't believe in government - they've said so.
Republicans believe in government payola.
Pachacutec |
02.11.06 - 9:54 am | #
I'm still looking for the date of the birth of her first child. Apparently by the end of law school, she decided to stay home and raise kids, already plural.
In any case, politicking came late to her. She proudly points out that after law school, she stayed home raising three children -- "the hardest job I ever had," she said.
Comstock was a second-year law student at her marriage. If she did your typical 3-year gig, that means she got married in October 1982, graduated in May 1984, and somehow in that timeframe had at least two kids.
Maybe it was premarital sex. Or maybe it was twins.
emptywheel |
Homepage |
02.11.06 - 10:03 am | #
Yeah, doing the math, October 1982 until May 1984 is 19 months. Pretty tough to conceive, and gestate two non-twin children in that time. But perhaps the second was delivered later in the summer after she graduated?
emptywheel |
Homepage |
02.11.06 - 10:06 am | #
Comstock's friends have a long history of making things up with the help of foreign intelligence:
"...noted that the CIA took a "dim view" of individuals such Ledeen and retired CIA officer Ted Shackley who freelanced with foreign intelligence services. In 1980, Ledeen and Shackley teamed up to provide "war games-type training" for European intelligence services, including Italy's intelligence service."
And this:
"On the government side, the two main Golden Triangle runners were Ted Schackley and Thomas Clines – the same two men who ran Operation Mongoose (the plot to take out Fidel Castro). Thus, from 1960-1975, the CIA deployed a secret force of 30,000 Hmong tribesmen to fight the Laotian Communists. They also created heroin labs in this area; then brought it out via their own private airline – Air America."
slothrop |
02.11.06 - 10:23 am | #
One more thing.
It would be useful to figure out COmstock's role in DOJ's COPA efforts. Recall, it was a COPA ruling in which SCOTUS told DOJ to go prove that children get porn through Google. Which in turn was the justification for asking Google (and Yahoo and AOL and MSN) to hand over records of all its searches. Comstock's MO while at DOJ was sheparding censorship along in the guise of protecting children, so it would not be a far cry for her to shepard domestic spying in the guise of protecting children.
emptywheel |
Homepage |
02.11.06 - 10:26 am | #
Also, FYI, Comstock's husband Elwyn (who shows up on NO google searches, will try Charles next) doesn't teach at McLean High School anymore.
Not unusual, given how many years have passed. Although it is not unusual for a teacher to stay at the same school for his entire career.
emptywheel |
Homepage |
02.11.06 - 10:30 am | #
Oops. Let me correct that. Elwyn C Comstock does come up on Google.
emptywheel |
Homepage |
02.11.06 - 10:31 am | #
Don't discount having 2 kids in 19 months, from start to finish. People do have 'em. It's like they decide that this is the stage of their lives to procreate and so procreate they do.
Of course a little jumping the gun also helps. lol
Bionic |
02.11.06 - 10:38 am | #
Comstock's choice to head up the fund-raising, Mel Sembler -- he used to run a drug rehab center for kids:
"But where Melvin Sembler, 74, demands attention is as an object lesson in how cruelty can be redeemed by the transformative power of political donations. For 16 years, Sembler, with his wife Betty, directed the leading juvenile rehab business in America, STRAIGHT, Inc., before seeing it dismantled by a breathtaking array of institutional abuse claims by mid-1993. Just one of many survivors is Samantha Monroe, now a travel agent in Pennsylvania, who told The Montel Williams show this year about overcoming beatings, rape by a counselor, forced hunger, and the confinement to a janitor's closet in "humble pants" -- which contained weeks of her own urine, feces and menstrual blood. During this "timeout," she gnawed her cheek and spat blood at her overseers. "I refused to let them take my mind," she says of the program. The abuse took years to overcome."
slothrop |
02.11.06 - 10:44 am | #
Here is some more background information on Blank Rome:
August 10, 1988
Firm settles suit over failed thrift for $50-million // Partners founded Sunrise Savings & Loan
ByCompiled from Wire Reports
WASHINGTON - WASHINGTON - The Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp. (FSLIC) on Tuesday announced it will receive a $50-million settlement from a Philadelphia law firm that was instrumental in the founding of the failed Sunrise Savings and Loan Association.
The settlement with Blank, Rome, Comisky & McCauley is the largest to be paid by a law firm in the FSLIC's history. The firm's partners created Boynton Beach-based Sunrise in 1980 and represented the thrift during its boom years. In just five years, Sunrise increased its assets from $4.7-million to $1.5-billion. However, it got into trouble loaning millions of dollars to developers for ill-fated real-estate projects.
Sunrise, which had several offices on the Suncoast, also was well-known among investors for the high interest rates it offered to attract deposits.
When the FSLIC shut Sunrise down in 1986, the $681-million bailout was the largest in the agency's history. Sunrise's insured accounts were transferred to a new thrift, Beach Federal Savings and Loan Association, which became one of the largest savings institutions in the Federal Home Loan Bank Board's management consignment program.
The FSLIC accused the law firm of acting negligently in giving advice to Sunrise, improperly closing loans, aiding former Sunrise officials in violating laws and banking regulations and engaging in conflicts of interest.
''This settlement demonstrates that where violations contributing to insolvency are caused by the negligence or malpractice of professionals, including law firms, the bank board will hold them, as well as thrift management, fully responsible and accountable,'' M. Danny Wall, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, said in a prepared statement.
About $10-million of the $50-million will be set aside as an indemnity fund to cover claims by outside parties against Blank Rome in connection with its representation of Sunrise.
Under a sharing agreement, proceeds from the settlement will be divided among the FSLIC and former stock owners of Sunrise. The FSLIC said it will receive 72 percent of the first $40-million and 95 percent of the remaining $10-million.
David Girard-di Carlo, managing partner of Blank Rome, said Tuesday the settlement was in the best interest of the firm, but said Blank Rome continued to deny the allegations.
The Blank Rome settlement was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where all the Sunrise lawsuits have been consolidated. As a result of the settlement, Blank Rome has been dropped as a defendant in a $250-million lawsuit the FSLIC filed against former Sunrise directors and officers.
David Berger, a Philadelphia lawyer representing the shareholders, said it was an ''excellent settlement.''
and also, if you're either "with or against" them, about the war, does that sort of mean we might be on a list of Americans who are on the side of the terrorists, and derserve to be wiretapped?
brkily | 02.10.06 - 7:25 am | #
Sharkbabe,
"....supposedly sex sells, so why isn't the infamous Gannon a household name and Lewinsky is?" --
My neocon online contacts were just appalled that we liberals were so "insensitive" about a gay man. (I'm sure it was a GOP Talking Point.)
They turned it against us. We're not supposed to care if a gay man does something wrong, and if we do, WE are the hypocrits. Same with a black Republican; if we point out flaws we're somehow against black people.
Margot |
Homepage |
02.11.06 - 10:57 am | #
There's something here I do believe....
"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."
neojoe |
02.11.06 - 11:07 am | #
By the time DHS opened its doors in 2003, Buchholtz had returned to Blank Rome, taking Holman and Davis with him. All three quickly turned to lobbying the department whose creation they had helped to oversee. When Blank Rome signed up 18 companies as new homeland security clients that year, and added homeland security to its lobbying duties for half a dozen existing clients, no ethics rules barred Buchholtz, Holman, and Davis from lobbying the new department -- because technically, none of them had worked there. Blank Rome had just merged with Dyer Ellis & Joseph, a firm that employed several former Capitol Hill aides with ties to influential members of Congress and expertise in maritime and transportation issues -- important knowledge because DHS had absorbed the Coast Guard and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which are now the top dispensers of procurement dollars in the DHS.
The Philadelphia-based law firm formally launched a separate lobbying arm in Washington, Blank Rome Government Relations, which included the three former White House staffers and the Dyer Ellis principals.
Later that year, the firm also brought on Barbara Comstock, a former congressional staffer who had served as the chief spokesperson for then-Attorney General John Ashcroft -- after becoming notorious as the head of the opposition research team at the Republican National Committee (RNC) in 2000; The Washington Post dubbed her a “one-woman wrecking crew.” Since joining Blank Rome, Comstock also has led a public relations campaign on behalf of Tom DeLay and is spokeswoman for former Cheney aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s legal defense fund.
While Blank Rome includes Democrats in its lobbying phalanx, Republicans dominate in terms of stature and fund-raising clout. Last year Girard-diCarlo moved up from Pioneer to Ranger status (meaning he had doubled the amount he raised for the Bush-Cheney campaign to $200,000), while both Holman and Buchholtz became Pioneers. Blank Rome employees were the seventh most generous contributors to the RNC in 2004, pouring in $345,000, which included contributions by Girard-diCarlo ($50,000), Buchholtz ($12,500), and partner David Norcross ($37,500), who was named to chair the arrangements committee at 2004’s Republican National Convention in New York City.
Among the new lobbying clients acquired by Blank Rome were such giants as Boeing, already among the top 10 government contractors in annual revenue, and management consultant BearingPoint, which is among the top 50 contractors. Formerly known as KPMG Consulting, BearingPoint was no stranger to Ridge. When Ridge was governor of Pennsylvania, the state had used BearingPoint’s software to track criminal offenders.
[...]
Wackenhut, part of which was acquired in 2002 by Danish company Group 4 Falck (now Group 4 Securicor) and part of which recently was renamed the Geo Group, has likewise prospered at DHS. The Geo Group, whose CEO George Zoley was a Bush Pioneer in 2004, has obtained numerous contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to construct, maintain, and manage detention facilities over the next few decades.
This year, Geo Group paid Blank Rome’s Barbara Comstock $40,000 over a three-month period to lobby DHS to “maintain government contracts,” according to her lobbying disclosure statement. Geo has also Alberto Cardenas, the former chair of the Florida Republican Party and a Bush Pioneer, in its stable of lobbyists...
______________________
Including the info below as it may prove beneficial to investigate Ms Comstock's ties to the members of Scooter's legal defense fund team...
Rumor has it they've raised around $2 million thus far... but WHO are they?
This group that is speciously labelled as "Bipartisan" by none other than Barbara Comstock...this group who have assembled to protect Scooter Libby from Fitzgerald, or maybe to protect more than Scooter. This group of self proclaimed Patriots who seem all too eager to prevent us from getting the truth about the outing of a CIA agent during war time, putting our nation at risk. I wondered to whom it would be more vital to keep Scooters' secrets than to safeguard national security.
So my Google finger went to work and here's some of what I found. (Still a work in progress however.) What I didn NOT find was a 'bipartisan group'.
[...]
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 backed Cheney as the Repub. nominee for President in 1996, but Cheney dropped out. In 2000, Sembler said in an interview that he felt vindicated and "ecstatic" when George W. Bush made Cheney his running mate.
[...]
Sembler was recruited to join the Libby effort by Barbara Comstock, a Washington lawyer, Republican Communications strategist, and friend of Libby--. or...as Joe Conason describes her--"Her name is Barbara Comstock, a minor figure from the Whitewater era, when she served as "chief investigator" for Rep. Dan Burton, the wigged-out Indiana congressman who once executed a watermelon to demonstrate his sinister theory concerning the fate of Vince Foster, the White House counsel who committed suicide in 1993."
Comstock, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Justice Department under former Attorney General John Ashcroft, said she got involved because at the time of the indictment, she was working for Libby's lawyers.
She said the committee, which still is adding members, includes former Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, former presidential candidate Steve Forbes, former Sens. Fred Thompson and Alan Simpson, and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp.
Comstock said the group is "bipartisan" (---RED FLAG word!) because two members, former CIA Director Jim Woolsey and former Ambassador Dennis Ross, have held appointments in Democratic as well as Republican administrations.
The Scooter Man's legal fund is (like our vote count) a SECRET fund -- there will be no disclosures of who the donors are or what amounts are donated.
Meet a few of the friends of Scooter...
--Cont...
jen |
Homepage |
02.11.06 - 11:42 am | #
Nice work, emptywheel. Where do you think the birth certs are?
slothrop -- if you haven't already, check out the latest post on charities. Your comment fits the schema.
Rayne |
Homepage |
02.11.06 - 11:44 am | #
Elwyn "Chip" Comstock
Administration
OAKTON HIGH SCHOOL
VIENNA, VA
The head of Scooter's fund-raising effort ran a child-abuse operation under the guise of drug re-hab.
I'm sure Tim Russert will ask about it on Meet the Press this weekend.
slothrop |
02.11.06 - 12:01 pm | #
Alright, sorry for harping on her family.
But she has said in interviews she stayed home with her kids. But according to her class notes, she didn't finish law school until 1986.
Barbara Burns Comstock has been very busy as director of public affairs at the Justice Department, an appointment she received in December 2001 from Attorney General John Ashcroft. A 1986 graduate of Georgetown Law School, Barbara had previously served as director of research and strategic planning at the Republican National Committee, where she played a key role in developing a new initiative to promote President Bush's agenda: "Winning Women: Leadership for a New Century." Barbara and husband Chip Comstock live in McLean, Va., with their three children.
And in other reports she says she started in part time law practice in 1987. So when did she stay home with her kids? Seems like she took TIME OFF to give birth to kids, between her second year of law school in 1982 and when she finally graduated in 1986.
Wonder if the nice Cathlic lady who fights choice and feminism discovered birth control in 1985?
emptywheel |
Homepage |
02.11.06 - 12:29 pm | #
Just for the record here's the cache of an article noting her part-time employment when any sane ultraconservative woman should have been home raising her kids (in the side-bar).
emptywheel |
Homepage |
02.11.06 - 12:39 pm | #
And just for the record, Elwyn "Chip" doesn't seem to have the same enthusiasm for (conservative) politics as his lovely wife (not a big deal, mr emptywheel doesn't either). While Babs has given $18,500 in campaign contributions (to the predictable people), Chip hasn't given a dime.
Plus, apparently he's a long-time supporter of public education, presumably of the non-charter non-voucher type. He's an Assistant Principal right now (thanks Willem), but I wonder if he was a teacher's union member in his recent past?
emptywheel |
Homepage |
02.11.06 - 12:50 pm | #
slothrop -- more importantly, donors to the so-called charity got three things:
-- the ability to call themselves sponsors or donors;
-- tax deductions
-- access to information about illegal drug distribution via kids in the program
OMFG. You REALLY need to read that ENTIRE post from the link alfdom left above, including the embedded content.
I had absolutely NO idea that Jeb Bush was related by marriage to some outrageous freaks. No wonder at all that Jebbie wasn't the POTUS. Mary LeTourneau, of all people.
Now let me throw out another possibility here, now that alfdom brought up the connection to Straight Inc. by way of Rigorous Intuition. Dig around in RI's past posts, might be able to Google for his website and "honeypot". Were these creepy "universal fascists" using any of the kids in Straight as part of a honeypot operation? I have to wonder. Don't do any more than that for now, just keep your eyes peeled for other weirdness.
Rayne |
Homepage |
02.11.06 - 1:25 pm | #
P-TRAK = Wonderful database for opposition research ... use Comstock's same data mining tools against her (and Ann Coulter, Kate O'Beirne, and...).
P-TRAK is what law enforcement agencies use to track and dig up dirt on criminals - not that I would want to imply the right-wingers are criminals. But then again...
Some things speak for themselves.
Anonymous |
02.11.06 - 1:36 pm | #
One-Woman Wrecking Crew Targets Democratic Leaders
Meticulous Comstock Helps RNC Skewer the Opposition
By John Mintz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 22, 2001; Page A17
Barbara Comstock, a daughter of Massachusetts Democrats and the only kid in her eighth-grade class for George McGovern in 1972, recalls her moment of political revelation:
She was a college intern in Washington for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), and her roommate handed her a copy of a magazine she had never heard of -- National Review. Soon, she said, "I'd be at hearings and think, 'I agree with Orrin Hatch [R-Utah], not Ted Kennedy.' "
"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?"-- Barbara Comstock
In McLean, 6822 Wemberly Way with its unique two-story kitchen, now has two sets of owners. John F. and Sally M. Burns, and Elwyn C. and Barbara Jean Comstock bought the Langley Forest property for $975,000 from John J. Dillon, a shareholder in a Chevy Chase law firm and Lynn R. Dillon a long-time supporter of the Joffrey Ballet.
Chip Comstock, MsLean< VA, participates in 8K race:
Male 40 - 49
Place Name City Age Bib No Overall Time
78 John Byrne Centreville VA 47 263 325 41:28.9
79 James Marson Chantilly VA 44 560 328 41:31.5
80 Daniel Florio Oakton VA 47 1421 330 41:33.3
81 Alan Kearl Leesburg VA 45 243 356 42:08.8
82 Robert Smolinski Gainesville VA 45 36 357 42:09.1
83 Eric Blackmon 45 1277 362 42:14.1
84 Stephen Kasputis Oakton VA 48 107 365 42:20.6
85 Jim Parsons Bristow VA 45 300 366 42:21.4
86 Paul Seehafer Garrisonville VA 44 334 371 42:26.1
87 Kevin Nordlie Fairfax VA 42 407 372 42:26.4
88 William Mickler Fairfax VA 48 571 375 42:27.7 89 Chip Comstock McLean VA 44 833 377 42:28.7
...just diggin up more dirt...playing their game....I am sure we can turn his 8K race into something...expecially since he is a school teacher....isn't it school teachers who like to fondle with little children????????????
What about Mueller and Ashcroft�s concerns regarding United States national security breaches and espionage in the State Department and Pentagon--and indications of another 9-11 cover-up? On October 18, 2002, Department of Justice Public Affairs Director Barbara Comstock wrote a memo:
�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.�
p.s. ... if you just pull up the listings for Wemberly Way, you will notice that TWOF'ING RIGHT-WING Supreme Court Justices live a block away from that bogus 6822 address ... :)
The Comstock connection to the GEO group may be especially significant.
undecided |
02.11.06 - 2:50 pm | #
Oh, wait. I just noticed 6822 is at the bottom of the list under BURNS JOHN F ET UX
Anonymous |
02.11.06 - 2:51 pm | #
You know, Comstock loves doing "opposition research" and then going on TV and bashing people.
It will be interesting to see how she likes getting the same treatment back in return.
Anonymous |
02.11.06 - 2:54 pm | #
Among the new lobbying clients acquired by Blank Rome were such giants as Boeing, already among the top 10 government contractors in annual revenue, and management consultant BearingPoint, which is among the top 50 contractors. Formerly known as KPMG Consulting, BearingPoint was no stranger to Ridge. When Ridge was governor of Pennsylvania, the state had used BearingPoint’s software to track criminal offenders.
Bearing Point ran into significant problems related to contracting irregularities with regard to Jeb Bush's MyFlorida project, I think.
undecided |
02.11.06 - 2:54 pm | #
et ux. (et uhks) n. abbreviation for the Latin words et uxor meaning "and wife."
It is usually found in deeds, tax assessment rolls and other documents in the form "John Alden et ux.," to show that the wife as well as the husband own property. The connotation that somehow the wife is merely an adjunct to her husband, as well as the modern concepts of joint tenancy, tenancy in common, community property where applicable and equal rights of the sexes have combined to make the expression a chauvinistic anachronism.
Hmm. What's the chances that the house is owned in a trust? Don't have Comstock's DOB, but she's got to be in late 40's at the youngest if she's got 20-something kids. Puts her parents in their late 60's at best.
Rayne |
Homepage |
02.11.06 - 3:21 pm | #
The Comstocks are, if I'm doing my math correctly, 47 and 46. So her parents could be around 60 or 70. A trust is very possible -- although wouldn't it list the trust as the owner?
In any case, it appears that Barbara's folks owned their last house outright, without she and Chip owning it at all.
emptywheel |
Homepage |
02.11.06 - 3:57 pm | #
Good God. This bitch is asking for it, literally begging for it.
http://www.nationalreview.com/th...ner-
archive.asp
7:25 pm, Sun 05-Sep-04 "...Issues matter guys!! That's what elections are about. And YOUR guys are on the wrong side of most of them -- from refusing to fight the Cold War, and trying to gut the military and intel budgets -- even after the 1990s terrorist attacks on US interests, to refusing to fight communism in our hemisphere, and opposing President Clinton's Defense of Marriage Act and supporting the heinous practice of partial birth abortion, while voting for every tax increase in sight and opposing President Bush's tax cuts for married people, kids, small businesses, etc. Despite the mainstream press wanting to hide that record -- it's not possible to do so anymore. It's not acting or what the stages look like. At the end of the day, it's issues -- and the NY Times hasn't gotten it for a long time...."
I'm beginning to wonder whether this witch-on-wheels wasn't behind the terror-alert-as-poll-prop; it was roughly in this time frame before the election that the Repugs had to switch tactics and start on issues because the bloggers figured out they were manipulating the terror alerts. Will check the timing on this.
Rayne |
Homepage |
02.11.06 - 4:11 pm | #
The question "Why did Barbara Comstock leave DoJ?" runs into "Why is she working for Libby?" It's haunted me all day. I know these Administration people have us all paranoid, but anyone who was in as deep as she was [the 2000 RNC research, the Florida recount, the Ashcroft spokesperson] who got out of Dodge as the war deception was becoming increasingly clear - and is still called back in for Delay and Libby is suspect to me. And the connection with anybody named Ledeen is a direct link to AEI, PNAC, and worse.
Is she an actor in this story rather than supporting cast? Have you stumbled into more than you knew?
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 | #
You forgot the garlic - very crucial!
Jim |
02.11.06 - 4:43 pm | #
Semler and Straight Inc. probably link back to CIA's MKUltra and similar program(me)s .
They apparently outsourced a lot of the mind control stuff after the Church Inquiry.
A "little ancillary benefit", to quote Will Hunting, with the MK stuff is the honeypot operations Rayne mentioned.
Rigorous Intuition has an extraordinary amount of info on it all.
Jim |
02.11.06 - 4:57 pm | #
Jim | 4:43 pm --
Just ran to the store, got lots of garlic now for dinner and for dealing with this daemon-witch. Bring it on. Heh.
Mickey | 4:12 pm --
It's almost impossible for folks within the circle that she operates not to be actors. It's the nature of the beast we are up against; their leaders are the kind of people who've proven within their own ranks that they will eat their young to get ahead. There's more here, must be; she's beyond the wanna-be level, like Jeff Gannon. The wanna-be level is used by the actors at the highest level until they've so compromised themselves...well, look at Abramoff. There's a soul beyond peril; he ingratiated himself with money and by willingly using the "wackos" as Scanlon labeled the fundamentalist part of the base. The challenge we have with the likes of Comstock is her womanhood; the right does not like women out in front unless they are promoting virtuous-wife models, they don't like backseats to them as exemplified by their angst about Hillary. She'll have worked more quietly, behind the scenes -- and she'll have used her innate woman's skills as a networker to join resources that wouldn't otherwise have come together. In some ways this makes her far more dangerous than her male counterparts, who will have left a battleship's wake to follow behind them.
Anonymous and emptywheel get standing ovations for their detailed pursuit. (No idea on your gender, Anonymous, but let me guess we've got estrogen central rolling here.)
Rayne |
Homepage |
02.11.06 - 5:03 pm | #
Jim -- yeah, I forgot about MKUltra.
Still believe that Gannon was a honeypot op, but not certain whose honeypot and whether the op tanked before it hit its mark. Or perhaps we'll yet find out, but at glacial speed.
The pics of Abramoff-Bush today will re-open the question of the access -- who signed in that day, and all other days?
Rayne |
Homepage |
02.11.06 - 5:08 pm | #
Don't know if this is common knowledge in the village or not. But from - http://www.playahata.com/pages/ e...ckinthedoor.htm
Comes this gem of Babs Comstock caught out lying for the DoJ
Upon hearing of the bills (Patriot Act 11) leak by the CPI (Centre for Public Integrity), Barbara Comstock, director of public affairs for the Justice Dept., released a statement saying, "Department staff have not presented any final proposals to either the Attorney General or the White House. It would be premature to speculate on any future decisions, particularly ideas or proposals that are still being discussed at staff levels." Actually I don't think there could be a better time to discuss the legislation, we certainly don't want to wait until it is signed into law. The bill is being pursued in such a secretive manner that it prompted member of Congress, John Conyers, to write a letter to the Department of Justice questioning their methods. The letter which was also signed by members of Congress, Robert Scott and Sheila Jackson Lee, accused Barbara Comstock of lying in her February 7th claim, that the new draft bill was still in "internal deliberations" within the Department and still being discussed at "staff levels" and had not been "presented... to the White House." - citing the fact that the Department of Justice "Control Sheet" (attached to the document) plainly indicates that the bill was forwarded to the Speaker of the House and Vice President on January 10th.
Jim | 02.12.06 - 3:43 am | #
John Casper |
02.12.06 - 3:58 am | #
It was a big thrill to discover that folks from this board were coming over to read my analysis of Comstock's Ethics Violations. It was a bigger thrill to find out it had inspired a virtual archeological dig in what turns out to be virtual tar pit of disgustingness. Exquisite, delicious, and abundant.
With regard to MSM lack of response to all this, I will note that I emailed my article to the Washington Post and The New York Times, and I haven't seen a single Comstock report on it.
However, I did notice a quote above that suggests that Comstock did step aside early this year and allow some other operative to take over as Scooter's main cash-collector. Perhaps that put the pin back in the hand grenade I tried to tuck into Barbara's boustier. C'est la vie.
:) Chas
Charles Carreon |
Homepage |
02.13.06 - 10:56 am | #
People wringing their hands here about why we can't get the scum. We don't pay enough, and we don't pull enough pranks.
Who has the guts to buy a prepaid phone card, pretend to be Jack Abramoff, and try like hell to get a Congressperson on the line, all the while taping the results?
Who will send provocative emails inviting Republican politicians to participate in salacious activity?
Who will impersonate one scumbag communicating scummy concepts to another?
Think these are all crazy or criminal? Ever heard of Laszlo Toth? He wrote hilarious, ass-kissing letters directly to Nixon, to which he received smarmy, self-loving responses in Nixon's own handwriting. Think it wouldn't work with Orrin Hatch, Tom DeLay, Bob Ney, etc? Think again -- their arrogance is the deceiver's friend.
As Machiavelli said, the Prince(ss) cannot afford to be good in a world where so many are evil, else (s)he will come to grief. Pranksters ho!
Amy |
Homepage |
02.13.06 - 11:06 am | #
***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?***
My legal analsysis, as set forth in my "Memo to Fitzgerald" explained the timing as follows:
"Barbara Comstock, currently a partner at Blank Rome Government Relations, LLC, was employed by the United States Department of Justice during the DOJ's investigation of the Plame Leak, which disqualifies her from representing 'the other side,' that is, Mr. Libby, and any other person who ends up charged with crimes as a result of the investigation.
Now you might want to wonder why Ms. Comstock engineered an exit from the DOJ in September, effective four days after the appointment of a Special Prosecutor [in what is now the Scooter Libby case,] and I would presume it was no accident. As part of the Big Lie Dissemination Team, Ms. Comstock certainly knew that Cheney, Rove and Libby had planned the outing of a CIA agent as a petty political payback.
Now, it is more than inappropriate for someone to come right out of the Prosecutor's Office and start defending people who were actively being investigated by the Prosecutor's Office. It violates this all-important Rule of Professional Conduct, enacted by the Washington DC Bar Association, and virtually identical to the rule that applies in all fifty states of the Union:
'DC Bar Association Rules of Professional Conduct Rule 1.9 — Conflict of Interest: Former Client
A lawyer who has formerly represented a client in a matter shall not thereafter represent another person in the same or a substantially related matter in which that person's interests are materially adverse to the interests of the former client unless the former client consents after consultation.'
DC Rule of Professional Conduct 1.9 leaves no doubt that ...[w]hen a lawfirm is disqualified from representing someone because it has previously represented a client whose interests are adverse to the new client, all of their lawyers are disqualified. The US DOJ is the lawfirm for the People of the United States. The entire DOJ lawyer corps that has been on the job since the start of the investigation is disqualified. While Ms. Comstock wants us to think she's now stepping out of government employment, the obligation to not switch sides continues after one's employment with the client ends. So even though she thinks she left the DOJ, she retains her obligation to not switch sides."
Charles Carreon |
Homepage |
02.13.06 - 11:21 am | #
When is someone going to look at the hard-to-believe assignments of Federal Judge Reggie Walton? This is the same judge who tied former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds' whistle-blower suit in knots and forbid her from even discussing what languages she speaks, & her birth certificate, drivers license, and job applications are all "state secrets" ! He is now the judge of record in Libby's case and he immediately OK's deferring the trial until June 2007?? Because Libby's attorney has a scheduling conflict. A 16 month delay, conveniently out of sight of the 2006 elections. Judge Walton has a knack for getting assigned to cases the White House wants buried, and he is very obliging. In return, Walton's 2003 financial disclosure is COMPLETELY redacted.
Check out: http://www.oldamericancentury.or...g/
dave3_039.htm
Whyte_Rabbit |
Homepage |
02.15.06 - 2:22 pm | #
any possibility haloscan is a tool flying monkeys could use
afafkd |
08.04.07 - 6:20 am | #
Tom DeLay has a pattern of repeated legal and ethical scandals.Yet he remains in one of the most important positions in our government—deciding what legislation Congress considers.
-----------------------------
rosejenifar rhode island drug rehab
rosejenifar |
Homepage |
11.15.08 - 12:02 am | #
