Rove says he talked to Christie about running for Governor while he was US Attorney

by: Jason Springer

Tue Aug 11, 2009 at 09:44:49 PM EDT

Q Did you or anyone at OPA have any communications with Mr. Christie or his office after he started as U.S. Attorney?

A I talked to him twice in the last couple of years, perhaps one time while I was at the White House and once or twice since I left the White House, but -- not regarding his duties as U.S. Attorney, but regarding his interest in running for Governor, and he asked me questions about who -- who were good people that knew about running for Governor that he could talk to.

Democrats have long raised questions about whether any future plans to run for governor affected Christie's actions in office and the Corzine campaign is pushing to see his calendars from that time period. Christie has said those charges are baseless and stands by his record as U.S. Attorney.

Christie has said he was focused on his responsibilities as a prosecutor and only began "seriously thinking" about a run for governor last August. He left the U.S. attorney's office in December to explore a campaign, which he formally launched in February. Rove left the White House in August 2007.

"This to me puts to bed the claim that he did not think about running for governor until he left the U.S. Attorney's Office and had done a lot of soul searching before he made his decision," Weinberg said. "He obviously was not only thinking of running for governor, he was seeking input from the White House deputy chief of staff, George Bush's chief strategist."

Subponeas, Senate Seats, and Saving One's Behind

by: vincent solomeno

Sat Mar 07, 2009 at 02:01:16 PM EST

Former Bush Administration aides Karl Rove and Harriet Miers have reached an agreement with the House Judiciary Committee to comply with a subpoena seeking their testimony regarding the 2006 dismissal of eleven U.S. Attorneys.  For nearly two years now the committee has sought their appearance to determine whether the firings were politically motivated.  There are several questions that need to be answered about that process. Of import to the voters of New Jersey is how and why Chris Christie's name was removed from the list of those recommended for dismissal.

In September 2006, Democratic Senator Bob Menendez and Republican State Senator Tom Kean, Jr. were engaged in a bitter campaign to determine who would represent New Jersey in the United States Senate.  Many will recall the daily news reports detailing acts of official corruption by members of Congress.  For several months, Kean's campaign had dovetailed their message to that national narrative, consistently calling Menendez "Boss Bob" and a product of corrupt Hudson County machine politics.

There was one significant challenge to that message: Bob Menendez had never been accused of official misconduct and there was no evidence to support such a claim.  No evidence, that is, until then U.S. Attorney Chris Christie subpoenaed the records of the North Hudson Community Action Corporation, a recipient of federal grant dollars and a tenant in a Union City building owned by Menendez.  The subpoenas served as a lifeline to Kean's flailing campaign.  Finally, he had something to back his charges up.  For the rest of the campaign he would note that he had "an opponent under federal investigation."

Menendez defeated Junior in the November election, and in the weeks following, the U.S. Attorney quietly laid the matter of North Hudson Community Action Corporation to rest.  It became clear that there was no federal investigation and that the information gathered by the subpoenas proved Menenedez was innocent of any wrongdoing.

That same month, Michael Elston, chief of staff to the deputy attorney general, included Christie's name on a list of U.S. Attorneys slated for firing.  Among the names of those ultimately dismissed was New Mexico's U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias, who alleged that he received pressure from Republican U.S. Senator Pete Domenici and Representative Heather Wilson to take action in a corruption probe of a local Democrat shortly before the 2006 election.  Within weeks, he was fired, and he has stated he believes it was because he refused to involve his office in politics.  Additionally, documents released by the Justice Department indicate that Karl Rove, a political adviser, was involved in the conversations relating to all of the dismissals.

Did Chris Christie prove his worth to the White House by subpoenaing the records of North Hudson Community Action Corporation?  Who removed his name from the list?  Rove and Miers will no doubt face a torrent of questions when they sit down before the Judiciary Committee.  However, questions about Christie politicizing his role as federal prosecutor have immediate bearing on the current campaign in New Jersey.  As November approaches, Christie will continue to tell voters he is a corruption busting lawman prepared to clean up government.  Yet the testimony of Karl Rove and Harriet Miers may demonstrate to New Jerseyans what some suspected all along: Chris Christie was a loyal Bush appointee who allowed politics to interfere with prosecutions.

George W. Bush's Cavalry Arrives For Leonard Lance

by: Scott Shields

Thu Sep 25, 2008 at 11:25:58 AM EDT

(Cross-posted at Daily Kos.)

After the bruising the Republican Party took in the 2006 election cycle, a tight-knit core of right-wing operatives and donors loyal to George W. Bush and Karl Rove came up with a plan: organize a well-funded, "independent" political organization to sell the American people on the virtues of the Iraq War. This organization, known as Freedom's Watch, has since become the single most reliably pro-Bush organization in the country, demagoguing issues from immigration to Social Security privatization.

And now they've come to New Jersey in full force, with Linda Stender in their cross-hairs. While Freedom's Watch is targeting a number of Democratic Congressional candidates with new ads at the moment, Stender is clearly at the top of their hit list, with their $500,000 ad buy in the 7th district being their largest expenditure at the moment.

Hot on the heels of Bush's multi-million dollar rescue operation for Leonard Lance and Chris Myers, the White House has clearly put the word out that getting Lance elected is one of their top priorities. Who knows what's they're going to come up with next. Lance can try to weasel his way out of it, but the proof is undeniable at this point -- George W. Bush and Karl Rove want nothing more than for folks like Leonard Lance to be elected to Congress to protect their legacy. They know that electing people like Linda Stender means that their dreams of permanent majorities rubber-stamping policies from Social Security privatization to endless war in the Middle East will come to an end.

To help us respond to the coming right-wing onslaught, please consider making a contribution to the campaign at LindaStenderForCongress.com/Contribute.  And if you aren't in a position to contribute, sign up to get involved with the campaign at LindaStenderForCongress.com/GetInvolved/Volunteer.  You can help us immediately by knocking on doors, making phone calls, and letting your friends, neighbors, and family in the 7th district know that real change isn't going to come from the same tired Bush team in Washington and their handpicked candidates across the country. It's going to come when we elect more people like Linda Stender to Congress.

QOTD: It's getting hot in here...

by: Thurman Hart

Thu Aug 28, 2008 at 06:23:03 PM EDT

"Dante's Inferno laid out very specifically the very levels receding into hell. And the hottest place is reserved for those who distort the truth, who manipulate our minds, or who attempt to do it, anyway. So I don't think Bush and Cheney will be at the hottest point in the inferno, but I sure as hell know that Karl Rove will be."

Calling All Journalists: A Question for Chris Christie

by: Hopeful

Wed May 09, 2007 at 08:28:00 PM EDT

McKay said he began to have concerns about politics entering the Justice Department in early 2005, when [Alberto] Gonzales addressed all of the country's U.S. attorneys in Scottsdale, Ariz., shortly after he took over as attorney general.

"His first speech to us was a 'you work for the White House' speech," McKay recalled. " 'I work for the White House, you work for the White House.' "

McKay said he thought at the time, "He couldn't have meant that speech," given the traditional independence of U.S. Attorneys. "It turns out he did."

He looked around the meeting room and caught the eyes of his colleagues, who gave him looks of surprise at Gonzales' remarks. "We were stunned at what he was saying."

My question to U.S. Attorney General Chris Christie:

What did you understand "you work for the White House" to mean?

US Attorney firing linked to Rove

by: proud2Bliberal

Sun Mar 11, 2007 at 03:46:45 PM EDT

Quote of the Day

by: Hopeful

Wed Nov 08, 2006 at 10:53:03 AM EST

"From the very day this campaign began, from the very day, Republicans in this race and across the nation spent their whole time talking about something other than what serves the people. And once again the people in New Jersey rejected that strategy. George Bush and Karl Rove can take it and put it in a place where it doesn't show."

The Campaign of a Coward: Tom Kean Jr.

by: Martin

Sat Oct 14, 2006 at 07:16:17 PM EDT

We All Fell For It

by: Juan Melli

Fri Sep 29, 2006 at 03:38:24 PM EDT

On the one hand, he could have voted against the bill, in which case the GOP would have run ads showing Menendez and bin Laden high-fiving each other while sharing margaritas on the beach. On the other, he could have voted for it, and suffered the wrath of a furious base. He made the wrong choice, both policy-wise and politically.

The fact is that no matter what he does, we know that the GOP will call him a traitor, a "cut and runner", a terrorist coddler, and worse (they already have). We should never forget that we face a party so full of hate that they morphed bin Laden's face into that of a veteran who lost three limbs fighting for his country. There is nothing, NOTHING Menendez could do to avoid a similar fate, yet he fell into their trap.

What we're seeing today are the rightful cries of anger and distress over losing something so fundamental to our democracy. That's exactly what Karl Rove was hoping for, and Tom Kean Jr is loving it. It's perfect timing because his campaign all along has been a lie - a clumsily staged production of astroturfing and deception where "Democrats" had supposedly lost faith in Menendez and were turning to Tom Kean Jr. Their story is still a fairy-tale, but the media may now report it as truth and through a revisionist sleight of hand, it will have been true all along.

Everyone has a right to and should be angry, sad and jaded because of this vote. I am. But after the dust settles, I'm not going to give Karl Rove the pleasure of desecrating my country any more than he already has.

Not all of us are corrupt

by: Juan Melli

Thu Sep 28, 2006 at 03:56:09 PM EDT

I am from Hudson County and I am not corrupt. Senator Bob Menendez is also from Hudson County, and I do not believe he is corrupt either, but Karl Rove and Thomas Kean Jr. want you to think both of us are corrupt.

Sen. Menendez has held elected office in Hudson County for over 20 years, without the slightest hint of wrongdoing. Yet in the first week of the campaign season against Thomas Kean Jr., there are suddenly unsubstantiated claims of corruption. Yes, there are allegations, but no proof. How does the Kean campaign know that records seized had any thing to do with Sen. Menendez? Aren't investigations confidential? Oh, I know, since Karl Rove orchestrated the allegations, he told Junior. You see, to Republicans, every one in Hudson County is corrupt, so you don't need to supply proof.

Karl Rove is the guy that wiretapped his own office, and then tried to claim his political opponent was guilty of the offense. The Karl Rove political machine made up allegations against John McCain, John Kerry and Max Cleland and got away with it, so why not try it in New Jersey. If voters continue to let the Rove slime machine deceive them, who knows, next they will be manipulating the public to justify their unnecessary war. Oh, they have already done that, and as a result, we now have as many dead soldiers as victims of 9/11.

HUGH ROARTY BAYONNE

Standing Up For Bob Menendez

by: Ambassador Joe Wilson

Mon Sep 25, 2006 at 11:59:22 AM EDT

I had the great pleasure to pass Constitution Day, Monday, September 18, in New Jersey, standing up for Bob Menendez.  It is always an honor to be invited to share my views on subjects of concern, and a responsibility I take seriously as a citizen to participate in the election of those who would lead us.  In fact, there is no greater expression of the contract that binds this nation together under the Constitution than free and fair elections.  And there have been no elections in recent American history where the stakes are so high and the differences between the parties so stark.  Are we going to allow this administration eight years of unaccountable government?  How many government failures are we going to tolerate before we wake up?  Aren’t Iraq and Katrina enough?  For how long are we going to allow the administration to squander our international leadership and make us less safe than before?  How much of the nation’s treasury are we going to permit the crony capitalists to plunder?  In short, are we going to continue down the path of failed policies and failed leaders as Bush-Cheney clone Tom Kean, Jr. wants, or are we going to hold the administration accountable by electing strong candidates like Bob Menendez?  These are the issues that frame the elections this year and why they are so important.

I do not know New Jersey well.  After all, I am from California and spent most of my adult life overseas as a diplomat, mostly in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.  That said, I have over the past several years come to know a number of members of the New Jersey Congressional delegation including Jon Corzine, Frank Lautenberg and Rush Holt.  Of all of them, I have known Bob Menendez the longest, having worked with him on issues of importance to his constituents when he was a Congressman and I was Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council in the Clinton administration.  Later, I came to value Bob’s counsel about the necessity to see the leak of my wife’s CIA identity as a national security issue rather than a partisan political squabble.  Bob was right about that even as the White House and its right wing echo chamber did everything possible to try to make the smear campaign “politics as usual” and to divert attention from its despicable acts.

Karl Rove & Tom Kean Jr: Two Hacks in a Pod

by: Juan Melli

Mon Sep 25, 2006 at 09:40:37 AM EDT

As if anyone needed any further proof that Tom Kean jr follows the marching orders of Karl Rove and the Bush Republicans, check out his recent comments about Ambassador Joseph Wilson.

Kean said, “Joe Wilson has been widely discredited by members of the media…”

This is the standard Bush administration talking point. Wilson has been the target of a vile, Karl Rove-directed smear campaign ever since he exposed the Bush administration’s lies about Iraq’s WMD programs in the run-up to the Iraq war. That smear campaign ultimately blew the cover of Wilson’s CIA-agent wife Valerie Plame.

And when Wilson came to New Jersey to campaign for Senator Bob Menendez, Kean jr made sure to carry out the campaign. Kinda tells you something about the Kean jr’s loyalty to the Bush Republican agenda.

Tom Kean Jr <3 Karl Rove

by: Juan Melli

Tue Sep 19, 2006 at 12:52:29 PM EDT

SIGHTINGS

EDGAR Bronfman Jr. with his kids at Yankee Stadium, sitting right behind the Red Sox dugout . . . KARL Rove, Sens. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and N.J. candidate for the U.S. Senate Tom Kean lunching at that Republican stronghold '21' . . . GWEN Stefani and Gavin Rossdale, both in camouflage, at Sascha's sidewalk cafe with their baby.

College Republican Thugs

by: Juan Melli

Mon Sep 18, 2006 at 10:11:47 PM EDT

Earlier today, Ambassador Joe Wilson, who's wife Valerie Plame was outed as a CIA agent, was in New Jersey to support Bob Menendez's campaign.

"I just got off the phone with Karl Rove, who said your wife was fair game."
  -- MSNBC host Chris Matthews, in a phone call to Ambassador Joseph Wilson after the exposure of Wilson's wife as an undercover CIA operative.

To summarize: Leaking the identity of a covert CIA agent who was investigating Iraq's possible purchase of nuclear processing materials: good. Questioning the failed policies of a president: traitorous. It's that simple. They're just a bunch of ignorant thugs and that's how they deserve to be treated.

Where's Tom Kean Jr?

by: Juan Melli

Mon Sep 18, 2006 at 10:54:04 AM EDT

Now Kean claims that legislative committee meetings require his presence in Trenton on Monday, forcing him to miss a campaign luncheon in New York starring Republican Party animal Karl Rove.

Self-correcting blogosphere update: Junior is at the judiciary hearing. Apparently he dodged the health committee hearing to avoid having to answer about needle exchange.

Re-directing blogosphere by Huntsu: Kean, jr. is using his legislative duties in an avoidance two-step today, ducking both Karl Rove and the needle exchange discussion.  Kean, jr. was so driven on this issue that he filed a lawsuit blocking a pilot needle exchange program back in 2004, and now skips the most important hearing on the issue to interview the new AG who has unanimous Republican and Democratic Support. 

Kean, jr. is not only using "legislative duties" to avoid the hard politics of his connections to Karl Rove and the DC Republicans, but also using his "legislative duties" to avoid his "legislative duties"!