Congress puts pincer moves on Bush administration

Will the top-to-bottom politicization of the Department of Justice under George W. Bush be this administration's undoing?

News cropping up over the weekend set Congress up to put the Bush administration in the center of a classic pincer movement.

On the one hand, we have the continued unraveling of the explanations for the US Attorney FIRINGS --

• Now we learn from Newsweek that Karl Rove was involved in coaching a Gonzales deputy, William Moschella, before his Congressional testimony on the firings. Though a White House meeting to prep Moschella was previously known of, no mention of Rove had been made before last week.
  
  
• Further, new details on the firing of the US Attorney in Seattle published in the Seattle Times are casting more doubt on AG Alberto Gonzales' account of the firings.
  
  
• Finally, the Boston Globe points out, Bradley Schlozman is emerging as a key player in the firings as part of a Rovian strategy to put political appointees in place and to gin up voter fraud cases ahead of the 2006 elections. Schlozman was sent to Missouri under the sneaked-in provision in the renewed Patriot Act allowing for placement of deputy US Attorneys without Senatorial consent.

On the other hand, there is new evidence that RECRUITMENT and PLACING of attorneys was politically guided --

• Here Schlozman appears to be the nexus of both the firings and hirings, as pointed out by the McClatchy wire service.
  
  
• Further, the Boston Globe has shown that about a third of new US Attorney appointments are administration insiders, including 10 top aides to AG Gonzales.
  
  
• Conservative Republican appointees like former DOJ attorney Ty Clevenger have told McClatchy that Schlozman advised them to doctor their resumes and resubmit them in an effort to hide conservative affiliations.

Add to this what we already know of Monica Goodling's involvement and the expectation of new and perhaps startling revelations when she testifies before Congress, and we have the makings of an enormous pincer movement.

To which the final pieces would be the recovery by Congress of the missing Rove (and other White House employees') GOP-server based emails and a public appearance by Rove before Congress and under oath.

A much-studied classic example of the pincers or double envelopment tactic is the Battle of the Cowpens during the American Revolution.

The American commander, Brig. Gen. Daniel Morgan, brilliantly exploited his forces' strengths and weaknesses as well as the unique terrain of the Cowpens and the weaknesses of the British opposing force, under Cornwallis' deputy Col. Banastre Tarleton, to wrest a decisive victory.

The victory of the colonists marked a psychological turning point of the war for the Americans, who never looked back after this moment, and a decisive blow to Cornwallis' hopes for victory over the rebels.

Will Congress have the nerve, insightfulness and execution of Morgan, or will it snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and lose in the Cowpens of 2007?

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More Attorneygate reading:

• Appointments - Boston Globe: "Nearly one-third of new US attorneys administration insiders"
  
  
• The Investigation - McClatchy: "Congress considers broadening Justice Department inquiry"
  
  
• Rove - Newseek: "Rove helped coach DOJ officials testifying about U.S. attorney firings"
• ..... - Bloomberg: "Rove Helped Prepare Official's Testimony on Prosecutor Firings"
  
  
• Seattle Firing - Seattle Times: "McKay made firing list in March '05; was Wales killing a factor?"
• ..... - WP: "New Story for Firing of Seattle Attorney Emerges"
  
  
• Voting Rights Strategy - Boston Globe: "Missouri attorney a focus in firings; Senate bypassed in Schlozman appointment"
• ..... - McClatchy: "2006 Missouri election was ground zero for GOP"

-- Dan Damon

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