The Trouble With Eric Holder

By John Nichols

Quick! Name the veteran Department of Justice insider who, shortly after the USA Patriot Act was signed into law as the Bush administration was proposing to further erode barriers to governmental abuses, that dissenters should not be tolerated?

Who invoked September 11, explicitly referencing "the World Trade Center aflame," in calling for the firing of any "petty bureaucrat" who might suggest that proper procedures be followed and that the separation of powers be respected?

John Ashcroft? No.

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November 18, 2008

GOP Senators to Alaska: Please Get Rid of Stevens for Us

By John Nichols

The rapidly dwindling Senate Republican Caucus met Tuesday for the purpose of deciding the fate of the felon in their midst: Alaska Senator Ted Stevens.

At issue was the question of whether to take away the committee assignments of the party's senior senator -- who has been convicted on seven counts of failing to report bribes, er, "gifts" – and kick him out of the caucus. In the tradition-bound Senate, the move by the caucus is the first step in a broader process of censuring Stevens.

But the Republicans blinked.

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November 18, 2008

Obama on 60 Minutes: No Torture, No Gitmo (Video)

By Ari Melber

In his first television interview since being elected President, Barack Obama talked about a range of personal, economic and foreign policy issues on "60 Minutes" Sunday night. In one of the most important exchanges, Obama reaffirmed his commitment to human rights and restoring America's "moral stature" by banning torture and closing Gitmo.

Some commentators have been speculating (or advocating) that Obama will back off his campaign pledges on this score. In a premature article last week, The Wall Street Journal speculated that "pragmatists" in the new administration might "keep the road open in certain cases" for the "CIA to use harsh techniques not approved by the military," or potentially torture. Thankfully, Obama ruled that out in the interview:

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November 16, 2008

Bernie Sanders' Wise Counsel on Lieberman

By John Nichols

Democrat-turned-independent-turned-John-McCain-backer Joe Lieberman faces an election of sorts on Tuesday.

The junior senator from Connecticut who was reelected as an independent ("Connecticut for Lieberman Party") candidate in 2006 has for the past two years enjoyed the full benefits of membership in the Senate Democratic Caucus. On Tuesday, in a secret ballot vote, the other members of the caucus -- all of whom backed Democrat Barack Obama for president while Lieberman was campaigning for Republican McCain -- will decide whether to deny Lieberman that most significant of those benefits.

The Connecticut senator currently chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee -- a powerful post with responsibility for a wide range of national-security issues and, more importantly, for ethics and lobbying issues and oversight of government agencies such as FEMA.

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November 16, 2008

John McCain's Reprehensible Campaign Swing

By John Nichols

In case anyone was wondering whether John McCain has found that lost claim check for the conscience he put on hold when he started getting serious about making a 2008 presidential run, the answer from Georgia Thursday was a resounding "no."

Six years ago, McCain bluntly decried the manner in which Saxby Chambliss got himself elected to the Senate. Despite the fact that Chambliss was a fellow Republican, McCain objected to the tenor of the 2002 campaign that the Georgian had run against Democratic Senator Max Cleland.

Like McCain, Cleland was a Vietnam War veteran who had suffered as a result of his willingness to serve his country in a time of conflict. Where McCain spent five years in as a prisoner of war, Cleland lost three limbs in Vietnam.

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November 13, 2008

Facebooking Obama's Cabinet

By Ari Melber

While many politicos have been speculating about how President Obama will tap technology to govern, some of the tools that propelled his campaign are already being used to monitor his transition team.

Obama announced some new staff pics on Wednesday. Within hours, Christina Bellantoni, who traveled with the Obama campaign for The Washington Times, was busy blogging their Facebook profiles. She found that Josh Gotbaum, who has the huge task of heading the "review team" at Treasury, has the right interests posted on his profile: "Fixing organizations, business, government, politics and singing." And while he only has 159 friends, one of them is Larry Summers. "Could be a tea leaf for Treasury Secretary, or could just mean they are pals," observes Bellantoni. And that's the thing about Facebook friends -- you never know whether they are real friends, or just wonks building a network for the next cabinet.

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November 13, 2008

Ted Stevens Might Lose His Seat Before He's Expelled

By John Nichols

The Senate may not have to deal with the difficult challenge of expelling felon Senator Ted Stevens.

It looks as if the voters of Alaska might have cleaned up the ethical and legal mess that is their senior senator by defeating him at the polls on November 4.

But it will still take awhile to know for sure.

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November 12, 2008

Sarah's Faked Alaska

By Leslie Savan

While Sarah Palin talks and talks and talks in media appearances this week, the press is still letting her get away with (at least) one big, easy-to-spot lie.

For weeks, she has been asked, What went wrong with that Katie Couric interview? And Palin has repeatedly excused her disastrous performance by saying she was "annoyed" with Couric, because Katie had condescendingly asked, What do you read up there in Alaska? That's proof, Palin insists, that Couric and the liberal elite media look down on her--and by extension, all people out there in the "real America"--and she, for one, is not going to take it anymore.

Here's Matt Lauer, on Wednesday, letting Palin babble on, not bothering to question her premise:

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November 12, 2008

Legal Problems Remain for Norm Coleman

By Ari Berman

The recount in Minnesota's deadlocked Senate race has yet to begin, but Norm Coleman's legal problems aren't likely to fade anytime soon.

A few days before the election, a lawsuit filed in a Texas district court alleged that one of Coleman's biggest donors and closest friends, Nasser Kazeminy, had routed $75,000 to Coleman's wife, Laurie. The suit was filed against Kazeminy by Paul McKim, a self-described diehard Republican and CEO of Deep Marine Technologies, a deep sea energy exploration company in Houston in which Kazeminy is controlling shareholder.

A second lawsuit, filed by minority shareholders of DMT in Delaware a few days later, alleged that Kazeminy ordered the payments directly to Coleman. According to the lawsuit, Kazeminy told a confidential source: "We have to get some money to Senator Coleman" because the Senator "needs the money." When McKim and DMT's CFO objected, three payments of $25,000 were then sent to Coleman's wife at a Minneapolis-based insurance firm, the Hays Insurance Co, even though Hays did no work for DMT and is not a licensed insurance broker in Texas, according to the lawsuits. Laurie Coleman is best known as an actress who's lived in Los Angeles, not an insurance broker. "These fraudulent and grossly improper payments cost DMT at least $75,000 and brought absolutely no value to the company," the second lawsuit stated. "These payments expose the Company to serious potential criminal and civil liability."

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November 12, 2008

Alice Walker's Wise Counsel for Obama

By John Nichols

Pulitizer Prize-winning author Alice Walker, student of people's historian Howard Zinn and literary instructor to a generation or so with books such as The Color Purple, has some advice for Barack Obama as he transitions from candidate to president. Walker's advice takes the form of an open letter to Obama. But she speaks as well to a battered nation that seeks to come to grips with what many of its citizens dare to hope could be a transformational presidency.

The comfortably controversial, intellectually challenging and spiritually bold author expresses that hope in the warmest of terms – as she does the relief that accompanied last Tuesday's election result. Walker is cautious with Obama, even gentle. Yet, she prods, as well, urging the president-elect "not to take on other people's enemies."

Here is Walker's wise counsel:

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November 11, 2008