GeekPol's evil twin

For the last, um, really long time, John Dean has been the go-to guy for abuses by the Executive Branch. He has a column in Salon today about why the leaking to the media by White House officials is worse than anything Nixon did. He also brings up an interesting option - that Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame should sue the White House (IIRC, the Supremes said it could be done when Paula Jones lied in her suit that the Clenis™ struck her.) to get information.

Dean did mention the significance of a lawsuit that never gets mentioned when Watergate is discussed - that was a suit by Joe Califano (later of the Carter Cabinet) against CREEP.

Few appreciate the significance of this lawsuit in the unraveling of Watergate. It has been largely overlooked by history. A few years ago, I told Joe Califano about the impact his lawsuit had: Within the White House, it was considered one of the most difficult problems to deal with during the investigations of Watergate. The FBI was no problem -- no one has to talk to an FBI agent. And no Department of Justice is going to haul White House aides before a grand jury. But a subpoena demanding the production of documents, or an appearance to give testimony under oath at a deposition -- that was a serious threat. It also troubled the FBI and Justice Department, keeping them on their toes. It was remarkably effective.

Indeed.

About what happened then and what might happen now...

In the case of the DNC's civil suit, Judge Charles Richey, a good Republican, handled it in a manner that was remarkably helpful to the Nixon reelection effort. But any judge getting a lawsuit from Wilson and Plame today would be watched a lot more carefully.

(link via The Horse)

The Clenis™ strikes again! (scroll down)

In its Sept. 28 editorial ("An Air Force for all"), The Inquirer wonders why the leadership of the Air Force Academy helped "create an environment in which sexual assault became a part of life" and showed indifference to women's complaints.

Since the civilian report states that this problem began in 1993, could it have been due to the example set by President Bill Clinton? Male cadets and commanders could not have helped noticing that Clinton, their commander in chief from 1992 to 2000, was guilty of sexual harassment and in fact paid $850,000 in damages to at least one of the victims?

If the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler wants to see what happens when some idiot GOP partisan really abuses his position, I'm only too happy to oblige.

The world noticed that Drudge-bo had an item on his site that recently ousted from ESPN Rush Limbaugh was involved in a drug ring that got him thousands of painkilling pills. So which member of the So-Called Liberal Media has the scoop? The New York Daily News, that noted outpost of liberal journalism [snicker], that's who.

Link via TBogg.

And I thought I had people Google me using weird-ass search words.

Actually, read the rest of it while you're there. I don't agree with it much, but I'd much rather have them running our discourse and country than what we have now.