BUSH ON FIRE
You know, sometimes working in the White House you forget that you're standing shoulder to shoulder with giants. But then you have a speech like today and you just can't believe you are where you are!! And it's like, he's talking about *me*! Me, Harriet!
Every time he said "character," I melted a little bit... and he said it eight times! And when he said I'd "have that same philosophy 20 years from now"--he means when I'm 49 years old. Wow that's old! ;)
Every time he said "character," I melted a little bit... and he said it eight times! And when he said I'd "have that same philosophy 20 years from now"--he means when I'm 49 years old. Wow that's old! ;)
posted by Harriet Miers @ 3:34 PM
8 Comments:
At 4:16 PM,
Sean Gleeson said…
I'll still love you when you're 49, Harriet.
At 4:51 PM,
LincolnRep said…
COUNTERPUNCH October 4, 2005
By JOSHUA FRANK
See: http://www.counterpunch.org/frank10042005.html
Joshua Frank is the author of Left Out! How Liberals Helped Reelect
George W. Bush, just published by Common Courage Press.
=====================
So you thought that Harriet Miers, George W. Bush's new Supreme Court pick
has no paper trail. You were wrong. One of Miers only qualifications for
the high court -- as she hasn't an ounce of judicial experience -- is that
she was the head of Locke, Liddell & Sapp; a sleazy corporate law firm
based in Dallas, Texas.
According to the InterNet Bankruptcy Library (IBL), Locke Liddell & Sapp
paid $22 million in a suit alleging it aided a client in defrauding
investors. The Dallas-based firm agreed in April of 2000 to settle a suit
stemming from its representation of Russell Erxleben, a former University
of Texas football star whose foreign currency trading company, Austin
Forex International, was a pyramid get-rich Ponzi scheme. Erxleben later
pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy and securities-fraud charges. "It's a
very simple legal proposition: a lawyer can't help people steal money,"
George, of George & Donaldson told reporters at the time. George's firm
had represented investors who lost close to $34 million in Erxleben's
company.
All this was going on while Harriet Miers was co-managing partner of the
law firm at the time. Miers denied that settling the suit indicted that
they her firm was somehow complicated in Erxleben's criminal activities.
"Obviously, we evaluated that this was the right time to settle and to
resolve this matter and that it was in the best interest of the firm to do
so," Miers said.
The Miers scandalist past goes deeper than her ties to corporate crooks in
Texas. According to Newsweek, she's also played a role in maintaining
Bush's National Guard credibility. As Michael Isikoff wrote in July of
2000:
"The Bushies' concern began while he was running for a second term as
governor. A hard-nosed Dallas lawyer named Harriet Miers was retained to
investigate the issue; state records show Miers was paid $19,000 by the
Bush gubernatorial campaign. She and other aides quickly identified a
problem--rumors that Bush had help from his father in getting into the
National Guard back in 1968. Ben Barnes, a prominent Texas Democrat and a
former speaker of the House in the state legislature, told friends he used
his influence to get George W a guard slot after receiving a request from
Houston oilman Sid Adger. Barnes said Adger told him he was calling on
behalf of the elder George Bush, then a Texas congressman. Both Bushes
deny seeking any help from Barnes or Adger, who has since passed away.
Concerned that Barnes might go public with his allegations, the Bush
campaign sent Don Evans, a friend of W's, to hear Barnes's story. Barnes
acknowledged that he hadn't actually spoken directly to Bush Sr. and had
no documents to back up his story. As the Bush campaign saw it, that [sic]
let both Bushes off the hook. And the National Guard question seemed under
control."
It gets better, if not dirtier. At roughly the same time Miers was helping
Bush dodge National Guard questions; Bush had named her chair of the Texas
Lottery Commission, which had been scandal-plagued for years. The chief
issue before Miers and the commission was whether to retain lottery
operator Gtech, which had been implicated in a huge Texas bribery scandal.
According to the Philadelphia Daily News, Gtech's main lobbyist in Texas
in the mid-1990s was none other than Benjamin Barnes, who just happened to
have the low-down on how Bush got into the National Guard to avoid going
over to Vietnam.
Gtech fired Barnes, in 1997. A short time after Barnes was fired, Gtech
had its lottery contract renewed even though two companies had bid-lower
than Gtech had.
Former Texas lottery director Lawrence Littwin filed suit, as he thought
the whole charade smelled of scandal. Littwin's lawyers suggested in court
filings that Gtech was allowed to keep the lottery contract, which Littwin
wanted to open up to competitive bidding, in return for Benjamin Barnes's
silence about Bush's entry into the National Guard.
Barnes and his lawyers denounced Littwin's theory as "favor-repaid" theory
in court pleadings as "preposterous ... fantastic [and] fanciful."
According to the Philadelphia Daily News, Littwin was "fired after
ordering a review of the campaign finance reports of various Texas
politicians for any links to Gtech or other lottery contractors. But
Littwin wasn't hired, or fired, until months after Barnes had severed his
relationship with Gtech."
Littwin later settled with Gtech for a hefty $300,000.
And here we have Republicans more upset about Bush's Supreme Court choice
than Democrats. Well, they have a reason to be skeptical, if not upset. As
William Kristol recently noted that Bush's pick "will unavoidably be
judged as reflecting a combination of cronyism and capitulation on the
part of the president."
For once the old windbag may be right.
At 4:53 PM,
LincolnRep said…
Well, folks, the record is beginning to expand (see the counterpunch article) and it shows that Ms. Miers is dirty. Also, George W. sort of screwed up this morning at his press conference. He revealed that he knows how she stands on all of the issues while smirking that he'd picked her because she had no paper trail -- HA -- bull as usual. So, if she won't tell the Senate Judiciary Committee, they could (but will they have the spine to do it?) demand that he appear and tell all. The cat is going to become visible through the cellophane bag and O'Connor might be trapped on the job for a very looooooonnnnnnnnggggggg time. Fine by me.
At 5:04 PM,
Marauder said…
woah, that was like way too complicated. LMAO!!!!
HH tonight at Irish Times, Harriet?
At 5:07 PM,
Brian said…
Like, how awesome is that!!! OMG!!!
At 5:33 PM,
Dennis said…
Take back America
http://tinyurl.com/8ghl8
http://tinyurl.com/b97vk
Where Republicans tread, innocent people end up dead.
At 11:27 AM,
ByeByeBush said…
He said it eight times because it's the only word he knows. By the way, there is now an investigation in Bush's role of the murder of Ronald Regan. Someone should probably let him know. The ass who fed Regan the poison dropped the bottle in the yard by the flag pole. Idiots. Bush is about to be impeached.
At 8:42 PM,
jurassicpork said…
I, for one, support you, Harriet. Just because you've never worn a robe that wasn't color- and pattern-coordinated with checkered slippers doesn't mean that you're not fit to hold open doors and serve drinks to the other eight justices, especially Chief Justice John Roberts, that enduring example of gay affirmative action. Welcome to the court... Associate Supreme Court Justice Miers. ;-)
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