Category: Politics (2005-2006)

Ceverha of DeLay Hall.

It may not get the press of the Michael Jackson case; nevertheless, the trial of Bill Ceverha, treasurer of Boss DeLay’s Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC), began yesterday. So far, like a good little Pentangeli, Ceverha and his attorneys are distancing themselves from the Hammer…but we’ll see what shakes out.

Ashcroft with a Smile.

Second verse, same as the first…New Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez outlined Justice Department priorities in his first policy speech yesterday, and it looks to be more of the same: extending the Patriot Act, strengthening anti-obscenity laws, deporting immigrants, and fixing the “broken system” whereby Senate Dems fulfill their constitutional obligations and vote up or down on Dubya’s freak-show judicial nominees. So, as we all feared, it’s Ashcroft all over again. But will Gonzalez at least undrape the Justice Department statuary?

Third Rail Anxiety.

Stand clear of the closing doors, please…Facing an uphill battle in their bid to privatize Social Security, congressional Republicans start contemplating a legislative exit strategy, which would probably include some concessions to a bipartisan plan. But the Dems, sensing the Clinton health care fiasco redux, may not play ball at all, with the exception of the usual “moderate” suspects. For the love of Pete, Senator Lieberman, please don’t give the Bush bill any of your patented Joementum.

Raking over the Muckrakers.

“The reasons for the companies’ actions are not hard to find: They face potentially massive liability claims on the order of the tobacco litigation if cancer is linked to vinyl chloride-based consumer products such as hairspray. The stakes are high also for publishers of controversial books, and for historians who write them, because when authors are charged with ethical violations and manuscript readers are subpoenaed, that has a chilling effect. The stakes are highest for the public, because this dispute centers on access to information about cancer-causing chemicals in consumer products.” Twenty chemical companies, including Dow, Monsanto, Goodrich, Goodyear, and Union Carbide, attempt to deflect a lawsuit landslide by subpoenaing peer reviewers of the recent book Deceit & Denial and by hiring a gunner — Phillip Scranton of Rutgers University — to defame the scholarship of its authors, historians David Rosner and Gerry Markowitz (the former of whom I took a class with several years ago.) The official Markowitz-Rosner response is here.

Scranton’s major allegation? Like every other historian and/or author in the business, Rosner and Markowitz suggested some possible reviewers to their publisher. (It seems they figured it might help to know something about carcinogens.) Otherwise, the pair appear to be guilty of making an argument that flies in the face of corporate profits and of letting their sources speak for themselves — Says AHA Vice-President Roy Rosenzweig of Deceit & Denial: “In my opinion, the book represents the highest standards of the history profession.” For his part, Scranton refused to comment for Jon Wiener‘s article for The Nation above, but if I were him, I’d start talking…because right now he comes off as the lowest of corporate stooges.

Don’t Mention the War.

Despite inducing peals of laughter with his “ridiculous” doublespeak on Iran, Dubya’s “We’re Team Players” European tour continues to generate mostly good international press for the administration. Along those lines, I particularly liked this gem from the LA Times: “Talk of Bush is often imbued with suspicion. But unlike two years ago, German critics are less likely to compare him to Hitler.” Hey now, that’s progress.

Stay Scared.

“We must not allow the passage of time or the illusion of safety to weaken our resolve in this new war.” Dubya uses the swearing-in of crony Alberto Gonzalez as Attorney General to pull a Two-Minutes-Fear and shill for a blanket extension of the Patriot Act. With even GOP conservatives against some provisions of the Act at this point, not bloody likely.

Class Dismissed.

“‘It’s a bill that’s going to significantly harm small consumers who want to hold large companies accountable for defrauding them,’ said Frank Clemente, director of the Congress Watch division of the consumer group Public Citizen.” So guess which side Dubya and the GOP were on? In the name of “tort reform” (and at the behest of their corporate overlords), the Senate GOP pass the Class Action Fairness Act, which moves state class action suits into the (less favorably disposed) federal court system. They did so after gunning down a series of Democratic amendments that tried to strike a more stable balance between private power and public accountability. Or would it have been too litigious to exempt cases brought by state attorneys general? We wouldn’t want some aspiring Mr. Smith cutting in to Old Man Potter’s profit margin, now, would we?

All the President’s Men.

Journalism then and now: As Slate writer and Nixon historian David Greenberg reports in from the opening of the Watergate papers, Salon‘s Eric Boehlert surveys the strange case of “Jeff Gannon”, a.k.a. James Guckert, fake newsman for Dubya.