“If they knew or should have known the extent of this problem, they should not serve in leadership.”

-Chris Shays (R-CT), in reference to the Republican leadership withholding information regarding the Rep. Mark Foley scandal.

The Washington Post has some more details this morning about what Republican leaders knew in the months prior to Rep. Mark Foley’s resignation over illicit conversations he had online with a Congressional Page.

Whoops.

From the Wapo:

Hastert’s aides learned in the fall of 2005 only of e-mail exchanges that House officials eventually deemed “over-friendly” with the Louisiana teenager, the speaker’s office said yesterday in a lengthy statement. “While the Speaker does not explicitly recall this conversation” with Reynolds, the statement said, “he has no reason to dispute Congressman Reynolds’s recollection that he reported to him on the problem and its resolution.”

Boehner and Reynolds said their offices learned of the Foley e-mails months ago from Rep. Rodney Alexander (R), who sponsored the page from his northeastern-Louisiana district.

YouTube is quickly becoming my best friend. I am never sure who makes these short videos, but this one is pretty clever.

This video mocks the Republican rhetoric from the 2004 RNC convention in NYC. Pretty sad…

This may be over the top, but I still thought it was funny.

It is being reported that the U.S. Military is ending its loving relationship with Dick Cheney’s former company Halliburton. Halliburton has served bravely and with honor in Iraq contracting services from truck drivers to laundry services. Oh wait, that’s not true.

From LA Times:

Under the deal, Halliburton had exclusive rights to provide the military with a wide range of work that included keeping troops around the globe fed, sheltered and in communication with friends and family back home.

Government audits turned up more than $1 billion in questionable costs.

Whistle-blowers said the company charged $45 a case for sodas, double-billed on meals and allowed troops to bathe in contaminated water.

Bathing in contaminated water…what’s so bad about that?

This past weekend, DoubleSpeak was in Iowa, eating pork and enjoying every ear of corn we could get our hands on. As always, we were met by the wonderful hospitality of the Midwest and overwhelmed by the generosity of the good people of Iowa.

Unfortunately, all of this changed at the Des Moines airport on Monday. My brother and I were waiting to board a Northwest Airlines flight to head back to D.C. when something very un-Iowa happened.

When the woman at the terminal gate announced that they would begin pre-boarding anyone who had special needs or who needed extra time boarding, GOP Senator Charles Grassley bolted to the gate door, nearly bulled over innocent children, and proceeded down the jet-way to board the plane while innocent onlookers sat stunned wondering why this person–devoid of any special needs–was able to board before them.

One of the men whose daughter was nearly knocked over by the charging Grassley wanted to know why he was allowed on the plane early and other were not.

Iowan: “Wait, why is he allowed on the plane early and we all have to stand here in line”

Northwest Airlines employee: “He’s a VIP sir”

Iowan: “Show me in the law where it says that VIP’s can board first”

Northwest Airlines employee: “Sir, please calm down, he makes the laws, he is the law”

Mr. Grassley, you have lost touch with reality. You are an elected representative of the people of Iowa. If anything, you should board last–you work for the people! You are an employee, not a boss.

It’s this attitude that simply turns off average Americans. Members of Congress need to know that they are not special. They are not above the rules, the law, or proper etiquette and it is sad that Charles Grassley has lost his humility and his standing as a courteous Iowan.

Oh, and by the way, Northwest Airlines couldn’t tell us where the law was that stated that Senators were privy to special boarding rights. Charles Grassley is truly an out-of-touch asshole.

As Senate Majority Leader Frist prepares to run for the Presidency, chatter has increased on Capitol Hill surrounding who will replace him if the Republicans manage to hold the majority in the Senate in 2006.

Former leader Trent Lott from Mississippi is looking like he could make a comeback to get his old job back. This, my friends, would not be good for America.

From The Hill:

The prospect of former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) returning to leadership next year is creating more and more buzz on and off Capitol Hill, Republican insiders say.

The higher volume of talk has been fueled partly by his former aides who hold influential lobbying positions downtown, but prominent GOP insiders with no special allegiance to Lott say it extends well beyond his inner circle.

Perhaps by coincidence, Senate Assistant Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has recently sought a more public leadership role, appearing more often before television cameras set up outside the GOP conference’s Tuesday luncheons, and has otherwise made himself more available to the press.

If Lott were to return he would have to challenge one of several colleagues for a leadership post. At the end of last year, he said he could challenge McConnell’s bid to become majority leader, but he has since backed away from that threat.

Lott resigned his post in 2002 after some pretty inappropriate comments at Strom Thurmond’s 145th birthday party.

“I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years, either,” Lott said at last week’s party.”

I would imagine there are times when making fun of Helen Thomas is appropriate. And then there are others that just aren’t. Congressman Steve King, one of the biggest jackasses in Congress, recently said this about the veteran White House reporter:

“There probably are not 72 virgins in the hell he’s at,” King said about al-Zarqawi. “And if there are, they probably all look like Helen Thomas.”

It’s easy to understand why Congressman King would make such an awful comment what with his boyish good lucks, long wavy hair, and charismatic demeanor.

Hey Steve, you’re a jackass.

From Think Progress:

Bush’s term is winding down and he is now officially a lame duck. We know this because right-wingers are already talking about a pardon for Scooter Libby, the VP’s chief of staff who was indicted for lying under oath to a federal grand jury. A pardon could come sooner rather than later.

One attorney familiar with the Plame case said Bush might find that it is in his interest to pardon Libby sooner rather than later.

A pardon before the trial could could cut off the disclosures and spare Vice President Dick Cheney from testifying as Fitzgerald’s witness about Libby, his former chief of staff.

But the timing of a pardon, the attorney suggested, likely would depend on the outcome of the midterm elections.

If Republicans retain control of Congress, Bush could act swiftly. But if Democrats win control of the House or Senate, Bush might wait, and use Libby’s trial as an excuse not to cooperate with any congressional investigations into the leak.

The counterargument to a pardon this year or next, however, is that it would be a political bombshell and distract from Bush’s agenda.

DiGenova predicted that Bush, like other presidents, would issue controversial pardons on his last day in office.

While the mainstream press is spinning this new Karl Rove/Plamegate news as evidence of Karl’s innocence and the end of the investigation, the premier Plameologists over at Firedoglake don’t think it’s quite over. Rather, they think Turd Blossom cut a deal to avoid prosecution.

Says Christy Hardin Smith:

I’ve said this before, and I will say it again: unless and until I hear it from Patrick Fitzgerald, the investigation continues to be ongoing. Which means that there are still potential developments down the road, should the evidence (like handwritten marching orders on the Wilson op-ed in Dick Cheney’s handwriting) lead there.

And I’ve also said this, and it is worth a reminder: Patrick Fitzgerald and his team are career professionals. You do not charge someone with a criminal indictment merely because they are scum. You have to have the evidence to back up any charges — not just that may indicate that something may have happened, but you must have evidence that criminal conduct occurred and that you can prove it. You charge the evidence you have, you try the case you can make, and you don’t go down a road that will ultimately be a waste of the public’s money and time once you have ascertained that the case is simply not there. It doesn’t mean that you don’t think the SOB that you can’t charge isn’t a weasel or guilty as hell, it just means that you can’t prove it. (And, fwiw, those times are the worst of your career, because you truly hate to let someone go when you know in your gut they’ve done something wrong.)

At this point, what’s the one thing that will make Karl Rove more miserable than anything else? The Democrats taking back Congress in 2006.