Whacky-Tobacky

USAgate bombshell! Sweet tobacco deal cost us BILLIONS!
by EZ writer
Wed Mar 21, 2007 at 07:23:45 PM PDT
Remember those sweetheart deals with big tobacco?
It is the flip side of the coin. The prosecutors who got the message to follow GOP orders.
The end result:
A proposed penalty against the industry was cut from $130 billion to $10 billion!
Coming from the Washington Post:

WASHINGTON--The former leader of the Justice Department team that prosecuted a landmark lawsuit against tobacco companies said Wednesday that Bush administration political appointees repeatedly ordered her to take steps that weakened the government's racketeering case.

This involved BILLIONS of #@*@& dollars!!!!
There is no bottom to this !@*(@#* shit!
We have linkage: washingtonpost.com - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines...

EZ writer's diary :: ::
I don't know about you, but I think it SHOULD NOT BE an unreasonable expectation for the U.S. Department of Justice to prosecute cases based on merit rather than politics.
Is that unreasonable?
Am I being unreasonable here?
More from WaPo:

Sharon Eubanks said Bush loyalists in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' office began micromanaging the team's strategy in the final weeks of the 2005 trial, to the detriment of the government's claim that the industry had conspired to lie to U.S. smokers.

She said a supervisor demanded that she and her trial team drop arguments that tobacco executives be removed from their corporate positions as a possible penalty. He and two others instructed her to tell key witnesses to change their testimony. And they ordered Eubanks to read verbatim from a closing argument they rewrote for her, she said.

``The political people were pushing the buttons and ordering us to say what we said,'' Eubanks said. ``And because of that, we failed to zealously represent the interests of the American public.''

Eubanks, who served for 22 years as a lawyer at Justice, said three political appointees were responsible for the last-minute shifts in the government's tobacco case in June 2005: then-Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum, then-Assistant Attorney General Peter Keisler, and his deputy at the time, Dan Meron.

Do you believe this shit?
End result:

News reports on the strategy changes at the time caused an uproar in Congress and sparked an inquiry by the Justice Department. Government witnesses said they had been asked to change testimony and one expert withdrew from the case. Government lawyers also announced that they were scaling back a proposed penalty against the industry from $130 billion to $10 billion.

Was this the big enchillada they were trying to hide?
It is pretty GOD DAMNED BIG!
If there is more, OMG.
I can't wait to hear it.
This showdown is REAL, and it is a REAL constitutional crisis.
To me, this is looking more significant than Watergate.
We are talking about a plot -- LARGELY CARRIED OUT -- (under a lapdog GOP Congress) to turn the U.S. Justice Department into a political machine.
I don't know about YOU, but I have issues with that.
Obstructing cases against political friends, pressing cases (regardless of merit) against political foes.
The more we find out, the worse it looks.
update
Well as long as I am on my soapbox ...
I don't have much to add.
Seriously. I have said it. This may well determine if The Decider is what he claims: Able to turn aside subpoenas from Congress.
A lot is at stake.
If it ends up in the federal court system, a not unlikely scenario at this point, where will it fall?
Of course I think Bush cannot legally resist a subpoena.
No citizen can.
Is Bush above that? He certainly thinks he is.
Let's prove him wrong.
update II
From Sharon Eubanks:

"Political interference is happening at Justice across the department. When decisions are made now in the Bush attorney general's office, politics is the primary consideration. ... The rule of law goes out the window."

Look, many of the readers of this diary understand what is at stake.
Some may not.
This is rather pivotal. The Bush administration is not accustomed to Congressional oversite.
But it goes beyond that.
This administration, under siege, is out to claim a VAST DOMAIN of executive privilege.
This is what this fight is about.
The Supreme Court ruled that President Nixon had to turn over his secret Oval Office tapes to allow an investigation to proceed.
THIS administration is claiming it does not have to comply with a more modest request.
Given the CREDIBLE evidence of APPALLING political manipulation of the Department of Justice, and the UNDENIABLE evidence that said political manipulation came from the White House, this Congress is COMPELLED BY LAW to subpoeana the White House.
The Attorney General of the United States testified before Congress that the firings of U.S. Attorneys was NOT political.
MUCH evidence has subsequently contradicted that statement.
The Attorney General, by ANY REASONABLE CRITERIA, has PERJURED HIMSELF.
Let the Bush administration drag this out for months.
We shall let the voters cast their verdict in November 2008.
They think they can win this fight.
Nothing is at stake here ... except the U.S. Constitution