Justice After All?

Now that we are in the final hours of the Bush administration, does it appear that there may be a special prosecutor in the future for Bush and company? Were Dem leaders whistling past the graveyard and waiting out the clock on this one? I'm beginning to suspect so:

Nance to Hill: Heckuva Job, Hilly!

Nancy Pelosi has made it clear that a Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton ticket is "impossible", and laid the blame where it belongs:

"I think that the Clinton administration has fairly ruled that out by proclaiming that Senator McCain would be a better Commander in Chief than Obama. I think that either way is impossible," she said."Nothing ever resolves itself -- it has to be resolved by some outside forces":

Conyers & Pelosi grow a pair. Finally.

Duo attempt a "Watergate style" maneuver.


Stating that "we will not allow the administration to steamroll Congress", House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers today sued former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten . The suit claims that Miers and Bolton are not immune from their obligation to testify and produce documents as requested by Congress relating to the politically motivated dismissals of nine U.S. attorneys.

Conyers expressed confidence that, much like the Watergate scandal, the federal courts will agree that the Bush administration's position is at odds with constitutional principles. In the Watergate case, the Supreme Court confirmed the legitimacy of the executive privilege doctrine, yet found the privilege to be qualified and rejected Nixon's assertion of privilege over the White House tape recordings. That ruling prompted Nixon to surrender the tapes to prosecutors and ultimately resign from office.

Today's case was assigned to U.S. District Judge John Bates, a Bush appointee and former prosecutor in the Whitewater criminal investigation of the Clintons in the 1990s. The House had first issued a contempt citation against the pair, but AG Mukasey refused to refer the House's contempt citation to a grand jury, stating that neither Bolten nor Myers had committed a crime. That action prompted Speaker Pelosi to give authority to the Judiciary Committee authority to pursue Bolten and Myers in federal court.

Today's Obama Endorsements

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker is the latest big name to endorse Sen. Barack Obama. Mr.Volcker served from 1979 through 1987 under Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

“After 30 years in government, serving under five Presidents of both parties and chairing two non-partisan commissions on the Public Service, I have been reluctant to engage in political campaigns. The time has come to overcome that reluctance,” Volcker, a Democrat, said in a statement today. “However, it is not the current turmoil in markets or the economic uncertainties that have impelled my decision.

Rather, it is the breadth and depth of challenges that face our nation at home and abroad. Those challenges demand a new leadership and a fresh approach.”He concluded: “It is only Barack Obama, in his person, in his ideas, in his ability to understand and to articulate both our needs and our hopes that provide the potential for strong and fresh leadership. That leadership must begin here in America but it can also restore needed confidence in our vision, our strength, and our purposes right around the world.”
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Rep. John Larson today became the first senior member of the House Democratic leadership to endorse a presidential candidate, and his pick is Sen. Barack Obama. The Connecticut lawmaker, who serves as vice chairman of the House Democratic caucus, expects to campaign back home with Obama early next week, in advance of his state's Feb. 5 primary.

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Also announcing for Obama this morning: Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), a close friend of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Eshoo joins another Californian and Pelosi pal, Rep. George Miller, on the Obama bandwagon. Rep. Xavier Becerra, an up-and-coming lawmaker from Los Angeles, is yet another Pelosi ally supporting Obama.

Pelosi has said firmly that she won't pick sides. But she sounded almost giddy talking about Ted Kennedy's support for the Illinois senator in an interview with her hometown newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle (which also endorsed Obama). "Did you ever see anything like that?" Pelosi said. "Transferring the mantle from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama. It was the most stunning thing. I mean, I couldn't take my eyes off it."

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Elizabeth B. Moynihan, the widow of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the New York senator who, from a hayfield on his upstate farm, helped shepherd Hillary Rodham Clinton into his Senate seat, has endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination.

She wrote that her husband, who died in 2003, “would have become excited, as I have, to see Barack Obama rekindle hope in our young as he encourages them to participate in the political process, and I know Pat would approve, applaud and encourage me to join Caroline Kennedy in supporting Barack Obama’s candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president.”

“It is a rare gift to be able to inspire people to share a vision that requires commitment and dedication,” she wrote in the e-mail message, to David Axelrod, a senior adviser to Mr. Obama. “The hope that John Kennedy characterized for Americans spread across the world, then faded with his death,” Mrs. Moynihan wrote. “I believe Obama, like Kennedy, has the gift to transcend obstacles and to inspire Americans to bring out the best in themselves. I firmly believe the election of Barack Obama would help restore hope and America’s image in the world.”