By Daniel Schulman
Mother Jones Online

The right-wing lawyers’ group is the casting couch for the federal judiciary-and may have been, newly released documents indicate, for the Justice Department too.

Before midnight on March 7, 2005, Leonard Leo (pictured at left)tapped out an email on his BlackBerry to Mary Beth Buchanan, then the director of the Executive Office of United States Attorneys, suggesting a candidate to replace Carol Lam, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California. “You guys need a good candidate?” Leo, the executive vice president of the Federalist Society, wrote to Buchanan, herself a member of the influential conservative lawyers’ group. “I’d strongly recommend the current GC [general counsel] of the Air Force, Mary Walker.”

At the time, White House and Justice Department officials were in preliminary talks about replacing an unspecified number of “underperforming” federal prosecutors, a plan that would culminate almost two years later in the forced resignations of nine U.S. Attorneys, including Lam, and ignite a scandal that has claimed the jobs of at least four high-ranking Justice Department officials. Leo’s email, written so early in the process, speaks to the close relationship that has developed between the Federalist Society-an organization whose aims include “reordering priorities” within the judicial system to fit its conservative agenda-and key Justice Department decision makers, many of whom are members of the group.

While perhaps not a prerequisite for employment at the highest echelons of Justice, membership in the society has become a standard by which political appointees at the agency identify candidates who share their agenda. Some officials at the agency view it as such an indicator of conservative virtue that membership in the society was included as a category-along with Hill and campaign experience-on a spreadsheet that was used to rank the qualifications of the 93 sitting U.S. Attorneys, a document included in the reams of Justice Department memoranda released by the House Judiciary Committee this spring.

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From Deep Harm’s Diary at Dailykos

In the U.S. attorneys scandal, all eyes are on Karl Rove as the presumed architect. But, long before Karl Rove began plying his trade, Fred Malek wrote the manual for politicizing the Justice Department. Malek, a little known but influential Republican operative and “hatchet man,” devised the strategies used to remove Democrats and whistleblowers from the civil service and to turn the federal government into a Republican Party headquarters. Malek’s connections with President Bush may explain why the U.S. Attorney’s office discontinued investigation of wrongdoing at Fannie Mae, where Malek was then a board member and was one of several individuals named in a civil suit. Rather than face criminal penalties, Fannie Mae settled with the SEC and OFHEO for a $400 million civil penalty.

Deep Harm’s diary :: ::
Say “Watergate,” and most people think of the 1972 burglary of Democratic headquarters sponsored by Republican operatives. But, another, less publicized, scheme exposed by a Senate investigation would have a greater impact on the nation. The scheme, known as the “Responsiveness Program,” was a bag of ruthless tricks designed to use the “powers of incumbency” to retain control of the presidency [Senate Watergate Report, 2005]. Ultimately, though, the plan would accomplish much more; it would be used to destroy the competency of the federal government and, with that, the nation’s security.

According to a report by the Senate committee investigation report, the Program’s activities were likely illegal, but the Senate committee declined to pursue the matter. As a result, Fred Malek, a Nixon advisor and chief architect of the plan, remained free to practice his black arts, which included aiding the Bush family’s rise to power.

Like a cancer, the dirty personnel practices devised by Malek would spread from one adminstration to another; the Bush administration would embrace them with particular fervor. Political loyalty was emphasized at the expense of competence in carrying out responsibilities designated by law. For those considered uncooperative, the “Malek Manual” described ways to force them out of the civil service, despite laws supposedly protecting them from political interference. Thus, the government incompetence exposed by Hurricane Katrina and the 9/11 attacks traces back to Malek and other Nixon aides who set into motion the Republican plan to make agencies “responsive,” not to the people, but to political concerns. With Malek’s manual available, Karl Rove did not have to be a genius; merely an eager student of The Master.

It all began on March 17, 1972, according to the Senate Watergate Report, when Malek, deputy chairman of President Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign, presented his plan to H.R. Haldeman.

Continue reading here

from UPI.COM

MOSCOW, June 1 (UPI) — The ongoing saga of the Russian spy murder may be a topic for discussion at the Group of Eight meeting.

Certainly, it is expected to be a topic for bilateral discussion between British Premier Tony Blair and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G8 summit in Germany.

On Thursday, the main suspect in the murder of a former Russian spy accused the British intelligence service of being behind the killing. Andrei Lugovoy, the man Scotland Yard’s anti-terror unit believes to be behind the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko, accused multiple parties of being responsible for the killing.

Lugovoy said at a news conference in Moscow he had unspecified “evidence” that MI6 has had a hand in the murder, or at least that the British spy service let it happen. MI6 had tried to recruit him to dig up embarrassing material about Russian President Vladimir Putin and his family, he said.

He also claimed exiled oligarch Boris Beresowski may have had a hand in the killing. He held the news conference only a few days after London asked the Kremlin to extradite him so he could be tried in a British court.

The Russian constitution forbids extraditing its own citizens and observers say it is unlikely Russian investigators would find Lugovoy guilty.

By Jerry Norton

Another “Bushie” with blood stained hands finally is removed from The World Bank. Wolfowitz’s resignation, I’m sure, comes with a hefty multi-million dollar golden parachute that allows the greasy little creep to live comfortably with his overpaid girlfriend. A victory for those of us who wish to see the entire Bush Administration gone and possibly jailed. - JS

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Paul Wolfowitz’s exit as World Bank president clears the way for the global aid body to move ahead, many said after he announced his decision, though not everyone was pleased to see him go.

The general reaction was that a protracted battle over his stewardship, prompted by his involvement in a high-paying promotion for his companion, had undercut any chance he had to be an effective leader.

“The poorest people in the world … deserve the very best we can deliver,” Wolfowitz himself said in a statement. “Now it is necessary to find a way to move forward.”

His resignation takes effect on June 30.

“Wolfowitz’s actions have impeded the ability of the World Bank to carry out its critical mission of alleviating global poverty,” said Senator Christopher Dodd, a Democratic presidential hopeful from the state of Connecticut.

“His resignation will help to restore the integrity and credibility of the World Bank, both of which are central to the bank carrying out its mission.”

Wolfowitz took the top post in the bank — responsible for billions of dollars in aid projects around the world — in 2005.

A former U.S. deputy defense secretary already controversial as a leading architect of the 2003
U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, he won praise from some in Africa and Asia for his bank policies, which included a strong campaign against corruption in aid programs and in the governments of recipients.

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Maybe now he’ll have time to cut his toenails and maybe even wash his hair. Doesn’t he look like a slimeball? Why is it so many of these guys are so creepy looking? I mean really creepy.

WASHINGTON (AFP) -World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz said Thursday he would resign at the end of June, ending a month-long scandal over a pay and promotions deal he awarded to his girlfriend.

In a statement issued at the end of three-days of deliberations by the World Bank board, Wolfowitz said he was resigning in the best interests of the institution.

“I am announcing today that I will resign as president of the World Bank Group effective at the end of the fiscal year (June 30, 2007),” Wolfowitz said in a statement Thursday.

His decision came as White House support appeared to crumble, with President George W. Bush earlier expressing “regret” over the favoritism scandal despite having stood resolutely behind his former Pentagon number two.

More at Yahoo News

I’d be swearing too if my socks looked like this……what a class act. NOT Oh, and the verdict is in…..he’s guilty.

An angry and bitter Paul Wolfowitz poured abuse and threatened retaliations on senior World Bank staff if his orders for pay rises and promotions for his partner were revealed, according to new details published last night.

Under fire for the lavish package given to Shaha Riza, a World Bank employee and Mr Wolfowitz’s girlfriend when he became president, an official investigation into the controversy has found that Mr Wolfowitz broke bank rules and violated his own contract - setting off a struggle between US and European governments over Mr Wolfowitz’s future.

More at Guardian