So, okay, it's Saturday. But here's what happened yesterday...
Josh Marshall posted a letter from one of his readers who astutely observes,
So. It's Friday, and the Pentagon leaks word that a top al-Qaeda operative has been captured. Or, actually, that he was captured last year, but that he's just been transferred from the custody of the CIA to DoD. Wait, that's not quite right. He was transferred earlier in the week. But still. It's important news. Right?Only here's the thing. When you have a story like this, you don't release it on a Friday. There's nothing time-critical about it. There's no reason to squander the positive headlines on the slowest media day of the week.
Maybe you've already heard something. Or maybe we'll get the word in the next few hours. But I can't think of a surer sign that the administration will be releasing some information later today that it would rather we all ignored.
Who knows? It could be a post-Gonzales testimony DoJ document dump. It might be word of another probe into Rove. Maybe the RNC will be turning over some e-mails. But you can take it to the bank - something's coming down the pike.
Fast forward a bit to later in the day (you think the admin is getting a bit too predictable?)...
A big new bundle of documents just got dumped by the Department of Justice.
...and a bit further...
Deputy Secretary of State Randall L. Tobias submitted his resignation Friday, one day after confirming to ABC News that he had been a customer of a Washington, D.C. escort service whose owner has been charged by federal prosecutors with running a prostitution operation.[...]
On Thursday, Tobias told ABC News he had several times called the "Pamela Martin and Associates" escort service "to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage." Tobias, who is married, said there had been "no sex," and that recently he had been using another service "with Central Americans" to provide massages.
[...]
As the Bush administration's so-called "AIDS czar," Tobias was criticized for emphasizing faithfulness and abstinence over condom use to prevent the spread of AIDS.
Marshall has a quote that I can't source (other than Marshall, and I'm not sure he means it as a true quote, or a sarcastic paraphrasing): "I was using one service that sent Thai broads. Now I get 'em to send Central Americans."
Broads. At any rate, we do have the sourced quote calling them "gals". His attitude toward these women does seem a little pimpish, or at least quite casual. (Would you refer to a professional legitimate masseuse as a "gal"? Especially in an interview.)
This current gang of Republicans give new meaning to the name Grand Old Party.
By the way, the limousine service that shuttled girls to and from Duke Cunningham's "parties" is suing the Department of Homeland Security for the loss of their contract.
But, back to the matter at hand of the Friday news they'd just as soon you didn't notice (and indeed most people won't - Friday after lunch is the beginning of our weekend of All American fun)...
A senior Justice Department official has resigned after coming under scrutiny in the department's expanding investigation of convicted super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to federal law enforcement officials with knowledge of the case.Making the situation more awkward for the embattled Justice Department, Robert E. Coughlin II was deputy chief of staff for the criminal division, which is overseeing the department's probe of Abramoff.
In fact, he resigned April 6, although you won't find the news of it until yesterday. He said he was simply resigning because he was relocating to Texas. (Where crooks are more welcome than many other places.)
That was yesterday.
This is today:
A federal task force investigating the activities of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff has in recent weeks been looking into whether one of Abramoff's colleagues improperly traded favors with a Justice Department lawyer.[...]
[Robert E.] Coughlin had worked in the criminal division since 2005 but was recused from the Abramoff inquiry because of a longtime personal friendship with Kevin A. Ring, one of Abramoff's lobbying colleagues whose actions are under investigation
[...]
Coughlin and Ring were friends on Capitol Hill in the 1990s when both worked as staffers to then-Sen. John D. Ashcroft (R-Mo.), who became attorney general in 2001.
[...]
Ring took Coughlin to sporting events with tickets provided by his lobbying firm, according to sources familiar with the inquiry.
The task force has tracked millions of dollars in meals, trips, tickets, gifts and campaign contributions that the Abramoff lobbying team lavished on lawmakers and staffers. The investigation has so far resulted in 11 convictions and guilty pleas from lobbyists, staffers, two administration officials and a congressman.
[...]
Coughlin is the second Justice Department official whose name has surfaced in the wide-ranging Abramoff investigation. Earlier this year, Sue Ellen Wooldridge, deputy assistant attorney general for environment and natural resources, abruptly resigned when her boyfriend -- now her husband -- was notified that he was a criminal target. J. Steven Griles, former deputy secretary of the Interior Department, has since pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about Abramoff.
[...]
Coughlin's resignation and the surfacing of his name in the Abramoff investigation were first reported yesterday by McClatchy Newspapers.
In the real world, nothing happens at the right place at the right time. It is the job of journalists and historians to correct that. --Mark Twain
If you watched the Bill Moyers documentary Buying the War, you will know that McClatchy Newspapers now has working for them the two most prominent major media journalists (maybe the only two) actually digging into the run-up to Operation Iraqi Liberation and reporting the administration's lies and deceits: Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel. At the time, they worked for Knight-Ridder papers. And at the time, no major media inside Washington picked up their stories or cared to do any investigating themselves.
So, you might want to get your news from McClatchy.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
McClatchy photo
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