Victory in Arenas Case

In a stinging rebuke of the Rove Republican Racket, a federal judge in Washington, DC sentenced NBA Wizards star Gilbert Arenas to 30-days in a half-way house last Friday for bringing firearms across state lines and into the District of Columbia.

Last week, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh arrogantly sought a six-month prison term for Arenas. Kavanaugh asked for the stiff sentence in part because Arenas was famous and wealthy.

The judge ignored the request and simply slapped Arenas on the wrist for what really was a non-crime, a joke gone too far.

To add insult to injury, the NBA reaffirmed their support of Arenas. The Associated Press reported Saturday:

A day after Gilbert Arenas was sentenced to 30 days in a halfway house for bringing guns into the locker room, Wizards team president Ernie Grunfeld reaffirmed that the All-Star guard will be back with Washington next season. Grunfeld told reporters before the team's game against Utah on Saturday that the Wizards did not plan to void Arenas' contract. Grunfeld says, "I think people forget that he's still one of the best players in this league."

Rogue FBI Agent Acted as "Collector"

Two weeks ago, we reported about how another disgraced FBI agent who lied and accessed  government computers was forced to resign and was facing criminal charges in Santa Ana, California.

Now the Orange County Register reports what he actually did and for whom:

An FBI agent who has since resigned threatened to initiate a federal investigation into an individual who owed his friend money, according to court records. Peter H. Norell Jr. agreed to plead guilty March 7 to a misdemeanor count of illegally accessing a government agency computer three times in August and September 2005, according to a plea agreement filed Friday. The criminal activity started in Norell's office on Aug. 23, 2005, when he intentionally used an FBI computer to search for information about a person (identified as only "T.S.") who owed a debt to his friend, according to the filing. The agent again accessed the computer on Aug. 29 and Sept. 2 to get information about the individual, and then confronted him at his home on Sept. 16, 2005, according to the filing. "Although Norell never intended to and never did initiate a legitimate FBI investigation into T.S., Norell threatened to initiate an FBI investigation into T.S. if T.S. did not repay the debt,'' according to the plea agreement. Norell also threatened "T.S." in multiple phone calls, the filing says, and "T.S." eventually paid a portion of the debt to Norell's friend.

Transparent Flops

As we wrote earlier this year, right-wing blogger Alan Lange and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Dawson of Mississippi (pictured) have written a flop of  a book called "Kings of Tort."

The book is a collection of "inside" knowledge about the political prosecution of a Democratic fundraiser, Paul Minor, and the set-up and prosecution of a Democratic booster and famed-trial lawyer,  Dickie Scruggs, by agents of the Rove Republican Racket.

Last week, supposedly these "co-authors" had a book signing in Jackson, Mississippi with yet another dismal showing.

With boxes and boxes of books still to be sold, we won't be surprised if you'll  find copies selling for $2.99 in a year or so.

On the eve of their book signing fiasco, Lange boasted on his right-wing blog about winning a court ruling in Mississippi that opens sealed documents in a court case involving the embattled State Attorney General of Mississippi and State Farm Insurance. Lange relishes about how the media won and there would be more government transparency.

Maybe Lange can get his co-author to demonstrate some transparency about his secret government (book writing?) contract and the use of federal employees to research the book. Maybe Lange and Dawson can be more transparent about when they actually met, planned, outlined, and started writing their flop of a book.

Our strong guess is they won't and Dawson, like his "Flop of Tort," will become more irrelevant as the days go by.

Louisiana Losers

The Rove Republican Racket created an atmosphere that verdicts and prosecutions were infallible. Those that were simply accused of wrongdoing by the Republicans had their reputations run over like a runaway Toyota.

Now comes an interesting news story out of Louisiana. Demonstrating absolute intolerance to the fact they lost in the lower and appeals court, the District Attorney of the New Orleans Parish has gone all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to defend his "infallible" prosecutors.


Reason Magazine reports:

[The U.S.] Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to a $14 million award that a wrongly convicted Louisiana man won after serving 18 years in prison, 14 of them in solitary confinement on death row. New Orleans prosecutors who tried John Thompson for armed robbery in 1985 failed to turn over blood evidence that would have exonerated him. Then they used the robbery conviction to prevent Thompson from taking the stand in his murder trial and to obtain a death sentence (by noting that he had already been sentenced to 50 years without parole for the armed robbery). After an investigator working for Thompson’s attorneys discovered the blood evidence in 1999, Thompson received a new trial on the murder charge and was acquitted. A federal jury concluded that the district attorney's office was liable because it failed to properly train its prosecutors, who should have known they were constitutionally obligated to share exculpatory evidence with the defense. A 5th Circuit panel unanimously upheld (PDF) the verdict on appeal, and the full court split evenly on the question, allowing the jury's decision to stand. Asking the Supreme Court to review the case, New Orleans Parish District Attorney Harry Connick Sr. argued that his office should not be held responsible for depriving Thompson of his right to due process because Thompson had not shown a pattern of misconduct or demonstrated a direct connection between a lack of training and the error that led to his conviction.

Wife Beating Republican Prosecutor?

Orange County, California is the bastion of Republican politics in the Golden State. Newport Beach is a key city in the county where the wealthy and the beautiful live.

Now scandal has hit the Newport Beach City Attorney, a loyal member of the Rove Republican Racket. The Los Angeles Times reports:

Newport Beach City Atty. David R. Hunt will go on voluntary administrative leave a little more than one week after he was arrested on suspicion of felony spousal abuse. Hunt, 52, was arguing with his son at his Santa Ana home on March 14 when his wife intervened and Hunt struck her, causing her to hit a table and then the floor, police said. The 49-year-old woman had a cut on her arm and a large bump on the back of her head, police said. She was taken to a hospital for treatment. In a recording of the 911 call, one of Hunt’s sons can be heard telling a dispatcher “my dad just went crazy, he pushed my mom down and started going after my brother.”

When the Joke Goes Too Far

NBA Wizard players Javaris Crittenton and Gilbert Arenas (pictured) were clowning around after arguing about a card game and talking dirt to each other.At one point they said they'd shoot each other. As a joke, before practice, Arenas laid out some of his guns on the locker bench in front of Crittenton's locker and left a note to pick one.

At the end of it all, the Wizards and Arenas reported the incident because Arenas had brought his weapons across the stateline from Virginia to Washington, D.C. Charges were filed and Arenas plead guilty.

Today, The Washington Post reports:

In a scathing 61-page memo, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh wrote that his office is seeking jail time primarily because Arenas initially provided inconsistent stories about why he had the guns in the locker room and that he never showed any remorse for his actions.

"The defendant's conduct since the time of the incident establishes that he has shown little genuine remorse for anything other than how this incident may affect his career," Kavanaugh wrote.

"If any other individual without fame, power and the wealth of this defendant, brought four firearms into the District for the purpose of a similar confrontation," the prosecutor wrote, "the government would seek their incarceration and the court would almost certainly give it."

Kavanaugh and the U.S. government have taken this joke too far; they look more ridiculous than the silly antics of some wealthy and spoiled NBA players. 

Maybe the problem here is the criminalization of taking firearms across statelines. It may be stupid. It maybe wrong. But it shouldn't be a felony.

Kavanaugh shows bias and prosecutorial  stupidity, arrogantly saying Arenas should spend three months in jail because he happens to be wealthy and famous.

Single-Minded Ferocity

The political boycott of Rove Republican Racket member Dolores Carr, the elected District Attorney of Santa Clara, California (pictured), against Judge Andrea Y. Bryan is capturing national media.

We reported in January how Carr had provoked a political nuclear strike: a formal boycott of Judge Bryan as political retaliation. Judge Bryan accused one of Carr's deputy prosecutors of lying and engaging in "outrageous" prosecutorial misconduct when she dismissed a major criminal case.

Following on our lead, The New York Times is writing about the situation and the severe implications it could have on the independence of the judiciary.

Every Wednesday, prosecutors in Santa Clara County take part in a weekly ritual: as the new judges’ calendar goes online, they begin signing affidavit after affidavit to block cases from going before Judge Andrea Bryan. Since January, more than 100 cases originally assigned to Judge Bryan have been transferred to other judges in the San Jose courthouse at the request of the district attorney’s office.

While there had been earlier friction between Judge Bryan and Ms. Carr, the catalyst for the boycott came in January when Judge Bryan freed a convicted child molester. She ruled that a deputy district attorney on the case had lied about evidence and committed other “outrageous” acts of misconduct. 

In practice, a request for a judge to recuse herself is rare; it is almost never approached with the kind of single-minded ferocity seen in San Jose. There the effort has complicated the daily routine of administering justice and raised concerns that the prosecutor is exercising undue influence to sway judicial decisions. 

“If this is taken to its logical conclusion, you are talking about criminal defendants’ appearing before the judge chosen by the D.A,” said James Sample, a professor at the Hofstra Law School and the co-author of a 2008 report on recusal reform from New York University's School of Law. “It’s turning the scalpel of recusal into a chain saw to undermine judicial independence.”

Harpooning the Media Show

The drama and sensational prosecution of a sushi restaurant that served whale in Santa Monica, California has been harpooned.

Obama-appointed U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte, Jr. who sought the national spotlight and boosted his ego on the Sei Whale controversy is now walking on worn out soles and a semi-deflated ego.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

A Santa Monica sushi restaurant facing federal charges for serving endangered whale meat appears set to close its doors Saturday, according to a statement posted to The Hump's website Friday which called the decision a "self-imposed punishment."

"The Hump hopes that by closing its doors, it will help bring awareness to the detrimental effect that illegal whaling has on the preservation of our ocean ecosystems and species," read the statement on the restaurant's longstanding website.

All that is left is a simple press release about what plea bargain and fine is dealt out. The media show is dead, suffering a quick and bloody death.

Witch Hunts by Federal Prosecutors

The Rove Republican Racket received some visible black-eyes in their stock-option backdating cases.

At the end of last year, a U.S. District judge tossed out a high-profile corporate backdating case because federal prosecutors were accused of prosecutorial misconduct which including leaking grand jury testimony and intimidating plaintiffs.

In another backdating case, Greg Reyes, former CEO of Silicon Valley's Brocade, was targeted and convicted by members of the Rove Republican Racket in 2007 for stock-option backdating. Reyes  appealed the ten count verdict due to prosecutorial misconduct. This past summer, the appeals court threw out the convictions due to deliberate prosecutorial misconduct.

Greg Reyes is back in court this week and Therese Poletti of MarketWatch has opined brilliantly:

U.S. attorney Adam Reeves, one of the prosecutors trying to put Reyes in federal prison for stock options backdating, allowed what seemed like a major gaffe, when one of his witnesses agreed that there was no "look-back pricing" (one of the more horrendous legal euphemisms for backdating) at another Silicon Valley company where he worked....Are the prosecutors over-aggressive or just having a hard time keeping their facts straight dealing with arcane accounting issues? Prosecutorial misconduct played a role in the first criminal trial against Reyes, which wound up being overturned by an appellate court.

Some executives in Silicon Valley decried these cases as witch hunts by prosecutors looking for political gain. The relentless focus on a few executives like Reyes in criminal actions, while others were charged only by the SEC with no threat of prison, has seemed unjust. During the Reyes trial, prosecutors did not produce witnesses or shareholders to testify to any kind of Enron-like harm.

Still, mistakes and minor slip-ups by seemingly over-zealous prosecutors may add more fuel to the debate over whether these cases should ever have been tried as criminal.

 Again, we stress the fact although backdating may be wrong, unethical, or even an accounting error, some prosecutors have stretched the law to make it criminal.

Happy Birthday!

Today marks one year birthday of our blog. We wish to thank our readers for their support.

Spread the word on St. Patrick's Day!

Too Much Power with Laws in Shambles

Breaking News...The Rove Republican Racket received a stinging rebuke today by former U.S Attorney General Dick Thornburgh (pictured), a Republican who called into question the stretching of laws and the demand to criminalize all wrongful behavior by businesses.

Thornburgh said that the civil liberties of businesses were being trampled on by federal prosecutors who have too much power with loosely interpreted laws. Main Justice reports:

Former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh said Wednesday that overreaching prosecutorial methods and the rapid expansion of criminal laws are threatening the civil liberties of U.S. businesses.“The present criminal laws, in my view, are in a shambles,” Thornburgh told a news conference at the Washington Legal Foundation. “It’s compounded by the wide latitude given to prosecutors.”

Thornburgh, who served as Attorney General from 1988-91 under both presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush....said that the shadow of the financial crisis had made efforts to protect businesses’ civil rights a difficult proposition.“This is not a particularly good season for businesses to be seeking relief from criminal prosecution,” he said. “But that’s not what this effort is about, it’s on the periphery, dealing with things that should not be treated as crimes. Corrupt businesses deserve to have the book thrown at them, but that’s not what this is about. It’s a nuanced point, but one that we need to make.”

Big Brother and Twitter

The Rove Republican Racket successfully targeted, prosecuted, and incarcerated Democrats and other politicians by stretching the law.

In some case, the victims of the Rove Racket had done something stupid or unethical, but not criminal. In many cases, it wasn't a crime, just stupidity.

Now  it has been revealed that federal agents are using Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks to target U.S.citizens, guilty or innocent.

These social networks are not the center of criminal activity. They are the center of political activity, and Uncle Sam is watching you!

The Reno Gazette Journal reports:

U.S. law enforcement agents are following the rest of the Internet world into popular social-networking services, going undercover with false online profiles to communicate with suspects and gather private information, according to an internal Justice Department document that offers a tantalizing glimpse of issues related to privacy and crime-fighting. Think you know who's behind that "friend" request? Think again. Your new "friend" just might be the FBI.

The document, obtained in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, makes clear that U.S. agents are already logging on surreptitiously to exchange messages with suspects, identify a target's friends or relatives and browse private information such as postings, personal photographs and video clips. Among other purposes: Investigators can check suspects' alibis by comparing stories told to police with tweets sent at the same time about their whereabouts. Online photos from a suspicious spending spree — people posing with jewelry, guns or fancy cars — can link suspects or their friends to robberies or burglaries.

A Sad, Sad Day in Santa Ana, California

 Last week, we wrote about a DEA employee in Boston that lied and accessed sensitive criminal information on a DEA computer and then manipulated the data in an attempt to harass an ex-girlfriend. We asked, who says federal agents don't lie?

The Rove Republican Racket succeeded in manipulating the law and targeting the innocent in part with the help of federal agents.

Now comes another tale of inappropriate access of federal computer files from Santa Ana, California. The Orange County Register reports this afternoon:

An FBI agent who used to head the agency's white-collar crime unit in Santa Ana has resigned in the wake of a criminal charge that accuses him of overstepping his authority to illegally get information. Peter H. Norell Jr. pleaded not guilty Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Block to a misdemeanor count of illegally accessing a government agency computer sometime between Aug. 23 and Sept. 2, 2005. Norell faces up to a year in jail and a $100,000 fine if convicted of the charge, which was filed Wednesday.

Norell "did intentionally access a computer of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in excess of his authorization to do so ..." and obtained information from the FBI, according to the information. The filing gave no additional details on the accusation, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Finigan declined to comment on the case. During Monday's hearing, FBI agents filled the courtroom in a show of support for Norell. He pleaded not guilty, but is expected to plead guilty at a future date.

After the hearing, Norell declined to comment. His attorney, Thomas S. McConville, said Norell resigned from the FBI, but declined to give any information on the accusation. Norell was with the agency for 14 years, according to FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiler." It's a sad, sad day,'' McConville said. "We'll let this case see its way through the justice system."

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Breaking News from The Washington Post....

This news means the Rove Republican Racket will be shaking from their ankles up as true Obama reform arrives.

Justice Department officials have selected a veteran federal prosecutor with experience in death penalty and corruption cases to lead the public integrity section, which has struggled under intense scrutiny after a series of missteps last year.

Jack Smith [pictured], a former longtime assistant U.S. attorney in Brooklyn who is known for his courtroom skills, could join the public integrity unit within several weeks, officials said. For the past few years, Smith has coordinated sensitive investigations of foreign leaders accused of war crimes and genocide in his role as a prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Smith's selection opens a new chapter for the public integrity unit, a special corps of prosecutors who attack corruption in the judiciary, state legislatures and Congress.

Smith's deputy will be Raymond N. Hulser, who has been acting chief for months, since the departure of the previous leader in the aftermath of the abandoned conviction of former senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. dropped the public corruption case against Stevens last year after reviewing irregularities in the way prosecutors shared evidence and witness statements with defense attorneys.

Birotte's Ego Can't Avoid the Spotlight

In yesterday's post, we stated that the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles was involved with the investigation of a sushi restaurant that served whale meat in part because the national spotlight was too tempting.

We were dead right.

The Los Angeles Times reports today:

Federal prosecutors Wednesday filed criminal charges against a Santa Monica sushi restaurant and one of its chefs, alleging they had sold meat from an endangered whale.  The Hump, a hip hangout at Santa Monica Airport, immediately said through attorney Gary Lincenberg that it accepted "responsibility for the wrongdoing charged by the U.S. attorney" and would pay a fine and resolve the matter in court. "Someone should not be able to walk into a restaurant and order a plate of an endangered species," U.S. Atty. André Birotte Jr. wrote in a news release.

Mr. Birotte (pictured) even issued a news release.

The media blitz has caused over 1,000 news stories to post around the globe. We expect this story to grow on tabloid TV being that the filmakers of "The Cove" were involved in this sting operation.

Usually an Assistant U.S. Attorney would have handled this case, but Birotte loves the attention. It is shameful that an Obama appointee has mirrored the Rove Republican Racket in being self-absorbed with himself, his self-righteousness, his ego.

Do not be surprised if Birotte runs for higher office, or falls on his own sword and pops his ego on the way down.

Whaling about Whale Meat

In October, we reported about the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston wasting thousands of dollars investigating and prosecuting the injuries of a whale that resulted in a petty fine.

After winning an Oscar, the film makers of "The Cove"-- a movie about the Japanese savages who capture, beat, and eat dolphins-- have caused a stir in Santa Monica, California.

The Contra Costa Times reports:

Federal officials said Tuesday they were looking into reports that The Hump, a trendy sushi restaurant at the Santa Monica Airport, has served whale sushi as recently as last week. Federal authorities in Los Angeles are continuing their probe into the whale sushi allegations, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office said today.

"It is illegal to sell whale meat in the United States," said Thom Mrozek of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles. "We are aggressively looking into a possible violation of federal law." Word of the unusual offering at [The] Hump came from the Oscar-winning team behind the documentary "The Cove," The New York Times reported Tuesday. The filmmakers alerted federal officials last week after allegedly confirming that the restaurant was serving sushi identified as Sei whale.

No, we are not flipping off Flipper.

We think California authorities or even the Santa Monica City Attorney should be investigating the crime, not federal agents. But the sensational headlines and political theater are too tempting for the U.S. Attorney's office. The show must go on!

Federal Agent Abuses Power

The rotten, decaying leftovers of the Rove Republican Racket have left a stench in the federal government. Federal agents from the FBI to the DEA were used during the Bush years to target political enemies, and the power to destroy innocent people looks like it went straight up their nostrils.

From Worcester, Masachusetts today:

A man who abused his position as an analyst in the Worcester office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to harass his former girlfriend was sentenced to 18 months in prison today in U.S. District Court.  Earl S. Hoffman Jr., 41, was a member of the Massachusetts National Guard assigned to the DEA when he used a DEA computer in 2007 to access driver's license information and the criminal record of a woman with whom he had been intimate before the relationship ended badly.

Mr. Hoffman pleaded guilty Oct. 2 to making false statements, falsifying records in a federal investigation, defrauding DEA and the National Guard through theft of his honest services and violation of the driver's privacy protection act.  After the driver's license picture was e-mailed to the woman's minor son, along with an insult in one instance and a picture of female genitalia in another, Mr. Hoffman was questioned about why he had obtained her confidential information.

Worse, Hoffman fled the country and went to work for a security company in Iraq that took over contracts once assigned to Blackwater, the alleged masterminds of the Iraqi massacre.

After Mr. Hoffman learned that the state police were filing charges against him, he left the country, going to work in Iraq in March 2008 for Triple Canopy Security, which took over the security contracts once held by Blackwater security company. He was arrested after trying to return to the United States through a remote border crossing in Canada. He had been suspended in December 2008 when the security company learned of the warrants against him.

Who says federal agents can't lie? Who says federal agents don't abuse their power?

Rove and the Conspiracy Buffs

In yesterday's Washington Post, we finally obtained some understanding on what Karl Rove feels about the unwarranted dismissals of seven U.S. Attorneys in 2006 and the Rove Republican Racket that has politically prosecuted, incarcerated, and humiliated Democrats of all shapes and sizes from coast to coast.

"In a tone of obvious irritation, [Rove] asserts that he did not have any role in the Justice Department's 2005 decision to prosecute the Democratic former governor of Alabama, Don Siegelman, on bribery and other charges, an accusation Rove fought for years. He also takes on what he calls a "bunch of conspiracy buffs" who accused him of ordering the removal of seven U.S attorneys for their failure to prosecute Democrats. The Justice Department, he says, had grounds for all of the dismissals."

Karl Rove has excused himself from the obvious: the U.S. Department of Justice became a political arm of the Republican Party during the Bush years and wrongly went after political enemies.

Besides Siegelman, there is Paul Minor, there is Pierce O'Donnell, there is Ted Stevens, there is Sue Schmitz, there is Jim Tobin, and there is a list that goes on and on and on.

We are not conspiracy buffs. From the inside of law enforcement to the backrooms of Congress, we are professionals from Washington, D.C. and have blown open the truth about DOJ scoundrels that paid political homage to Karl Rove. We have exposed the political cronyism of Acting U.S. Attorney Timothy M. Morrison, to the wasteful spending habits of former U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman, to the shameful and disgraceful “secret contract” of former U.S. Attorney Jim Greenlee. We have brought about national exposure on prosecutorial misconduct from the Silicon Valley to Western Michigan.

Karl Rove knew he was the "architect" during the Bush-Cheney Adminstration and now he tries to play it down on the eve of his book release.

The reality is political prisoners sit in prison not because of "conspiracy buffs" but because of  the uncontrolled lust for power by Karl Rove and his henchmen in the Rove Republican Racket.

Morrison's Crony Skips Town

Embattled Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana Timothy M. Morrison let alleged Ponzi scheme operator Timothy S. Durham keep all his cash, homes, and assets.

Why? Because Durham was one of the largest donors to the Indiana Republican Party and to the Republican Governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels. Morrison is a loyal Republican and member of the Rove Republican Racket.

Now comes word from the investigative Team of WISH-TV 8 Indianapolis, a CBS affiliate in the Circle City, that Durham has skipped town and moved to California.

David Barras of WISH, writes:

Durham has moved many of his personal belongings out of his Geist home and into a home in California where he now lives. But in the move, Durham left behind thousands in unpaid property taxes. Documents 24-Hour News 8 got from the Hamilton County Auditor's Office show Durham didn't pay any taxes on his house last year. He owes $47,641.18.

Unlike Morrison, who has let the alleged thieves escape with millions and even have an estate sale, the I-team of WISH-TV have been on top of this story.  This week, WISH uncovered a "car dealership" that Durham owned and used to buy luxury automobiles and owes thousands in back taxes.

Griffin Gives Rove the Boot

Tim Griffin, Karl Rove's protege and dirt digger, has given his former boss the boot.

During the Rove-Bush-Cheney years, Griffin (pictured) was a top researcher for Karl Rove at the White House and was one of the central figures in the controversial White House firings of nine U.S. Attorneys in 2006.

Bud Cummins, the former U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of Arkansas, was forced to resign to make way for young Griffin. As a sign of repudiation, Griffin was never comfirmed by the U.S. Senate for the post and was forced to resign in total disgrace.

This week, we found an interesting published interview with Griffin in The Arkansas Leader. Griffin is the front-runner for the Republican nomination in the Second Congressional District of Arkansas.

When asked about his work for Karl Rove, Griffin gives Rove the boot and emphasizes he worked for the President of the United States, not Rove!  Here is the actual excerpt:

Is your connection to Karl Rove a positive or a negative?

I am a fifth-generation Arkansan, and my own person with my own views and values. The truth is I worked for the president at the White House for six months when Rove was deputy chief of staff.

Will Rove visit Arkansas to help your campaign?

No.

Griffin is now selling himself as a "common-sense conservative" and obviously understands that Karl Rove brings negative stigma to the campaign.

But there is no common sense to say he didn't work for Karl Rove, wasn't a protege of Karl Rove, and  wasn't a political bloodhound for the Rove Republican Racket.

"My own views and values?" For  heaven's sake, how lame does Griffin want to sound?

Worse, Griffin is disingenuously trying to sell himself as working exclusively for the President of the United States. We say, "So did Monica Lewinsky!"

Karl Rove's Bigger Mistake

Karl Rove, the mastermind of the Bush Presidency, is publishing a much anticipated memoir that will be on bookshelves this coming Tuesday, March 9. Excerpts and analysis of the book hit the mainstream media tonight as a prelude to a media blitz that will bombard and dominate political talk shows over the weekend.

The Associated Press reports tonight:

Republican strategist Karl Rove says in a new memoir that the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq badly damaged the Bush administration's credibility and led to dwindling public support for the war.The former White House political adviser blames himself for not pushing back against claims that President George W. Bush had taken the country to war under false pretenses, calling it one of the worst mistakes he made during the Bush presidency. The president, he adds, did not knowingly mislead the American public about the existence of such weapons.

Now we are wondering what Karl Rove wrote about an even bigger mistake: the 2006 firing of nine U.S. Attorneys that led to political prosecutions and prosecutorial misconduct by some of the most partisan and unethical U.S. Attorneys in U.S. history.

Worthless Rove Racket Goon Stains Obama

Lawrence G. Brown wanted it all.  He was made First Assistant U.S. Attorney during the Bush Administration and was a loyal member of the Rove Republican Racket, although he later tried to play the part as an apolitical, non-partisan jurist.

When the U.S. Attorney stepped down, Brown (pictured) was made Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California.

When the sea of change came, he eagerly wanted to keep his position and be appointed by Obama. He shedded his Republican credentials, and jumped ship.

With great calculation, Brown tried to strike a deal with a loyal supporter of President Obama. That supporter was the Mayor of Sacramento, Callifornia, Kevin Johnson, who was in legal troubles with the U.S. Attorney's office and an Inspector General of the federal government.

So Brown played dirty politics to help the Mayor out and try to get a permanent appointment.  Brown denounced the Inspector General and struck a "sweet deal" with Johnson. The Inspector General was eventually fired.

ABC News reports this morning:

In the continued fallout from President Obama's firing of Gerald Walpin, the former Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service, two Republican members of Congress today are questioning whether the Acting US Attorney in the case acted appropriately, questions that they suggest undermine the White House's justification for the firing.

In a report obtained by ABC News to be released this morning, ... suggest that politics -- and specifically Walpin's investigation into Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, an ally of President Obama's -- played a role in Walpin's removal.

The two make the charges based on evidence that then-Acting US Attorney Lawrence Brown "was actively seeking a Presidential appointment as the U.S. Attorney at the same time he was negotiating a lenient settlement agreement with Kevin Johnson, excluding the Inspector General from the negotiations, and filing a complaint against Walpin with the Integrity Committee," and communication between Brown and Matthew Jacobs, Johnson's attorney, which the GOP lawmakers say "do not suggest an appropriately arm’s length negotiating relationship."

President Obama fired Walpin last June, with then-White House counsel Greg Craig stating that Brown, the "Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of California, a career prosecutor who was appointed to his post during the Bush Administration, has referred Mr. Walpin’s conduct for review by the Integrity Committee of the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency."

Brown never got the appointment as U.S. Attorney, but last month Governor Arnold Schwarzennegger appointed Brown to the Superior Court of California.

The Rove Racket takes care of its worthless own.

Tax-Dodging Texas Prosecutor

The Rove Republican Racket has created a generation of federal prosecutors who think they are above the law, who arrogantly feel they can prosecute innocent people because they simply don't like their politics or friends.

But once in a while these arrogant bottom-feeders get caught. Meet Mr. Dodd, a former employee of the U.S. attorney's office in East Texas.

As reported by CBS Affiliate KFDM, Beaumont, Texas:

A Beaumont attorney who spent more than a decade in the U.S. Attorney's Office before going into private practice faces up to one year in federal prison and up to a $100,000 fine following a guilty plea Monday morning to once count of failure to file income tax returns. According to the Justice Department, Olen Kenneth Dodd, 58, admitted that he knowingly failed to file income tax returns for calendar years 2002-2005 despite receiving gross income of: $373,931.60 in 2002; $267,735.00 in 2003; and, approximately $120,000.00 in both 2004 and 2005. The court hasn't set a sentencing date. Dodd worked for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Texas for about 13 years and handled primarily civil cases.

Luckily, Dodd didn't try using the five dumbest excuses on why he didn't file a federal return. By the way, there are no state income taxes in Texas.