IMPEACH, BUSH, CHENEY,

BRING IT ON!

Torture Memo' Author, Former Attorney General, To Testify

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A former Justice Department lawyer who wrote a now-repudiated memo allowing harsh interrogations of military prisoners has agreed to testify to Congress about those practices, say House Judiciary Committee officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the panel has not yet made the announcement.

John Yoo, now a law professor at University of California-Berkeley, has agreed to testify to the House Judiciary Committee voluntarily about the Bush administration's interrogation practices after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Yoo's memo, dated March 14, 2003, outlines legal justification for military interrogators to use harsh tactics against al-Qaida and Taliban detainees overseas — so long as they did not specifically intend to torture their captives.

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft, former Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith, and former Assistant Attorney General Dan Levin have also agreed to give testimony at a future hearing. Former CIA Director George Tenet is still in negotiations with the committee.

The House Judiciary Committee is expected to vote Tuesday to compel David Addington, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, to testify.

Judiciary Committee breaking promises?

Jim Brown - OneNewsNow - 5/5/2008 10:00:00 AM

A constitutional attorney is accusing Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee of wanting to "superficially" meet their commitment to advance President Bush's federal appeals court nominees without keeping a previous promise.

Republican Senators Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania) are pressing Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) to keep their recent promise to confirm three more circuit court nominations before the Memorial Day recess.

McConnell and Specter are demanding hearings for DC Circuit Court nominee Peter Keisler, who has been waiting nearly two years for a Committee vote, and 4th Circuit nominees Robert Conrad and Steve Matthews -- who also have been waiting for several months. However, Reid and Leahy want to approve judges who were either just nominated, are still under FBI review, or have yet to receive a rating from the American Bar Association.

Curt Levey, executive director of the Committee for Justice, details that by advancing judges that were guaranteed under other deals, Democrats can continue their obstruction.

"You know it's pure politics that they're taking people who were just nominated and leapfrogging them over these long-waiting nominees," Levey comments. "And again, it's obvious why they're trying to do it -- they're trying to gut the deal and essentially break their word," he explains.

Levey suspects that the leapfrogging style is indicative as well of a somewhat covert relationship between Committee members and the American Bar Association (ABA).

"It would also be evidence of what everyone has long suspected," he says, "which is that the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee work very closely with the ABA. I don't think it's any secret that the ABA ratings committee is more tilted to the left than even the whole ABA ... and that they work very closely with Senate Democrats," the attorney continues. "And this would certainly indicate that connection is so close that Leahy can pick up the phone and [tell the ABA] do your rating in two weeks instead of the normal eight weeks."

Chairman Leahy has scheduled hearings for May 7 for Judge Helene White, who was just nominated April 15, and Judge Raymond Kethledge, who is still undergoing an FBI background check.

So from this story I'm reading that they promised to confirm three nominees and are doing so. Where is the broken promise? I’d give them nothing!

Risking impeachment, Ohio's attorney general on Monday refused demands from the governor and other fellow Democrats that he resign over a sexual harassment scandal in his office and an affair with a subordinate.

Gov. Ted Strickland told reporters that Democrats will begin drafting an impeachment resolution against Attorney General Marc Dann right away.

A sexual harassment investigation uncovered an atmosphere in Dann's office rife with inappropriate staff-subordinate relationships, heavy drinking and harassing and threatening behavior by a supervisor. On Friday, Dann admitted to an extramarital affair with a subordinate after the investigation threatened to reveal the relationship.

However, Dann insisted he is still capable of working as the state's lawyer and top law enforcement officer.

"I am in the office, have rolled up my sleeves and am working on behalf of the people of State of Ohio," Dann said Monday in a written statement to his staff. In the statement, he apologized to them for putting them in a tough position but added, "our work is too important to do anything but our jobs today."

Read This: Ohio Governor Straight Arrow (Damn This Is Refreshing)

Dann showed no signs of budging despite being pitted against every other high-ranking Democrat in the state, including Strickland, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, the treasurer and secretary of state, and the entire Democratic caucus in the Legislature.

The governor and Dann were among many Ohio Democrats swept into office in 2006 in the wake of an investment scandal that involved GOP donor Tom Noe and reached to former Republican Gov. Bob Taft.

Ohio Dems talking impeachment after AG refuses to resign

By JULIE CARR SMYTH – 18 hours ago

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Risking impeachment, Ohio's attorney general on Monday refused demands from the governor and other fellow Democrats that he resign over a sexual harassment scandal in his office and an affair with a subordinate.

Gov. Ted Strickland told reporters that Democrats will begin drafting an impeachment resolution against Attorney General Marc Dann right away. Republican House Speaker Jon Husted said Monday that his chamber — which takes the first step in any impeachment — was already reviewing the process.

Virtually every state-level Democratic officeholder urged Dann to resign in a letter late Sunday after Strickland tried twice during the day to persuade him to leave office.

A sexual harassment investigation uncovered an atmosphere in Dann's office rife with inappropriate staff-subordinate relationships, heavy drinking and harassing and threatening behavior by a supervisor. On Friday, Dann admitted to an extramarital affair with a subordinate after the investigation threatened to reveal the relationship.

"I would hope the Attorney General will understand that his effectiveness as an attorney general has been so diminished that in my judgment he can no longer effectively serve in that office," Strickland said Monday. The governor and Dann were among many Ohio Democrats swept into office in 2006 in the wake of a Republican scandal over state investments.

"I think it's important for Democrats to send a very clear message that we will clean our own house," Strickland said.

A misdemeanor must have been committed for impeachment to go forward, according to the state constitution. Strickland declined to say what misdemeanor Democrats believe Dann has committed.

"The work of the Office of the Attorney General matters more, and is far more important, than any one person," Democrats said in their letter to Dann. "In many, many cases it is all that stands between the people and the powerful. Sadly, we no longer have even the most remote hope that you can continue to effectively serve as Attorney General and that is why we are asking for your resignation."

Dann had previously conceded that his own behavior had contributed to an atmosphere in the office that permitted two junior staffers to be harassed and threatened by Anthony Gutierrez, a friend and neighbor he had hired as an aide.

However, he insisted he is still capable of carrying on his work as the state's lawyer and top law enforcement officer.

"I am in the office, have rolled up my sleeves and am working on behalf of the people of State of Ohio," Dann said Monday in a written statement to his staff. In the statement, he apologized to them for putting them in a tough position but added, "our work is too important to do anything but our jobs today."

A message seeking further comment was left Monday with Dann spokesman Ted Hart.

Strickland said that in his failed attempts to persuade Dann to resign, "he told me that he does not believe that he has done anything that would justify his leaving office, that he feels that he was elected by the people and he will continue to do his best to remain in office," Strickland said.

Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern said the party voted Saturday to rescind its endorsement of Dann and pull all party resources from him, which would make him "essentially an independent." He said Dann will find it difficult to be effective.

"We will distance ourselves both figuratively and literally from the Attorney General until he makes the decision that is best for the people of the state of Ohio, and that is to step down," Redfern said.

Gutierrez was fired Friday after an internal investigation found his treatment of two 26-year-old employees violated sexual harassment policy. Communications Director Leo Jennings, who was accused of asking a co-worker to lie under oath, also was fired. Ed Simpson, Dann's policy chief, resigned; investigators said he failed to address inappropriate behavior in the office.

Dann, who is married, apologized to his wife and supporters Friday for having an affair with an employee he refused to name.

Dann's scheduler, Jessica Utovich, 28, resigned last week without explanation. In his testimony during the investigation, Dann said Utovich sometimes spent the night at his apartment but declined to talk about his relationship with her specifically.

Dann had lived with Gutierrez and Jennings at an apartment during much of his first year in office and some of the alleged harassment by Gutierrez occurred there.

Strickland said, as a congressman, he opposed former President Bill Clinton's impeachment. But he said the two situations are "dramatically different." His request for Dann to resign is not based substantially on his extramarital affair, Strickland said.

"It goes well beyond that. It involves many, many factors that are much more complicated than that," he said.