JUDAS!
Team McCain and the Trooper
Nominee's ally moves to curb probe of Palin
Key Alaska allies of John McCain are trying to derail a politically charged investigation into Gov. Sarah Palin's firing of her public safety commissioner in order to prevent a so-called "October surprise" that would produce embarrassing information about the vice presidential candidate on the eve of the election.
In a move endorsed by the McCain campaign Friday, John Coghill, the GOP chairman of the state House Rules Committee, wrote a letter seeking a meeting of Alaska's bipartisan Legislative Council in order to remove the Democratic state senator in charge of the so-called "troopergate" investigation.
Coghill charged that the senator, Hollis French, had "politicized" the probe by making a number of public comments in recent days, including telling ABC News that Palin had a "credibility problem" and that the investigation into the firing of public safety commissioner Walter Monegan was "likely to be damaging to the administration" and could be an "October surprise." Wrote Coghill: "The investigation appears to be lacking in fairness, neutrality and due process."
The investigation, authorized by the Legislative Council last July, revolves around charges that Palin abused her power by embroiling the governor's office in a bitter family feud involving her ex-brother in law, a state trooper named Mike Wooten. Specifically, the council is investigating whether Palin fired Monegan when he refused to dismiss Wooten (who at the time was involved in an ugly custody battle with Palin's sister) after getting repeated complaints about him from the governor and her husband, Todd Palin. (Among the allegations that were raised against Wooten by Palin's sister: he had Tasered his ten-year-old stepson and shot a moose without a permit.) Palin has denied wrongdoing; Monegan has said he believes his firing was connected to his refusal to fire Wooten.
French, the Democrat overseeing the probe, has hired a special counsel to determine, in effect, whether Palin "used her public office to settle a private score," he recently said. He has also suggested that the probe may turn up evidence that state laws were violated by Palin's aides because they pulled confidential personnel files on the trooper.
But Coghill, who told NEWSWEEK that he has the backing of Republican Speaker of the House John Harris in his effort to remove French, suggested Friday that the investigation into Palin's firing of Monegan should be shut down entirely. "If this has been botched up the way it has, there's a question as to whether it should continue," Coghill told NEWSWEEK.
The move underscored the huge political stakes in the outcome of a legislative investigation that is being closely monitored by both the McCain and Obama campaigns because of its potential impact on the fall election. "How can this possibly be read as anything but a partisan attempt to shut down a legitimate investigation that was approved and funded with bipartisan support?" said one state Democratic legislative aide, who asked not to be identified because of the political sensitivities. Coghill told NEWSWEEK that he decided to write his letter to strip French of his position on his own-without any coaxing by McCain campaign officials.
But a top McCain campaign official acknowledged that the GOP lawyer had given the campaign a "heads up" about his letter and that the McCain campaign approved of the effort to remove French.
"An investigation that was supposed to be non-partisan has become a political circus and has gotten out of control," said Taylor Griffin, a top communications aide dispatched from McCain campaign headquarters to Alaska this week to monitor the investigation and related matters. (Griffin also said that Palin has "nothing to hide" about the Wooten matter.)
As a further sign of the sensitivity of the probe, a lawyer for Palin told NEWSWEEK Friday that Todd Palin, the governor's husband, was in the process of hiring his own separate counsel to represent him in the legislature's probe. Thomas Van Flein, Governor Palin's lawyer, would not identify who is now representing the governor's husband. But he sought to deflect charges that Todd Palin, a commercial fisherman and oil company worker, had improperly intervened in state business by inviting Monegan to the governor's office and asking him to look into Wooten's status on the state police force. (For his part, Wooten has acknowledged that he "made mistakes," but that he was "punished appropriately" when he was suspended from the police force for five days in 2006.)
In an interview on Friday, Van Flein sought to deflect charges that Todd Palin may have acted improperly by talking to the state public safety commissioner about Wooten. Todd was "the governor's husband and a citizen of the state and he has every right to an opinion as [does] everyone else," Van Flein said.
One major reason the probe is so sensitive is that it raises the prospect that Governor Palin's credibility could be called into a question in a major state probe on the eve of the election. When the "troopergate" story broke over the summer, Palin adamantly denied that anybody in her administration exerted any pressure on Monegan to fire Wooten. But only weeks later, a tape recording surfaced in which another one of her top aides, Frank Bailey, was heard telling a police lieutenant, "Todd and Sarah are scratching their heads, 'Why on earth hasn't this, why is this guy [Wooten] still representing the department?'"
French today acknowledged that some of his public comments about the ongoing probe may have been out of bounds. "I said some things I shouldn't have said," he told NEWSWEEK. But he insisted he had no intention of stepping down because the investigation was really being conducted by Steve Branchflower, a retired state prosecutor who was hired as the special counsel in the probe. French also said today he had moved up the deadline for Branchflower to produce his report. Although it was originally due Oct. 31, the Friday before the election, it will now be completed Oct. 10-in order to be "as far away from the election" as possible.
In the interview with NEWSWEEK, Van Flein, Governor Palin's lawyer, raised other objections to the troopergate probe. He said the legislative investigation ran counter to the Alaska Constitution because it was being conducted in secret and without strict procedural rules. He said that in the "post-McCarthy era", he would have expected more due process guarantees.
Van Flein also told NEWSWEEK that as part of defense preparations for the investigation, he had taken his own depositions from potential witnesses-including one this week who refused to give testimony to the Legislature's special counsel. That was Frank Bailey, the former senior Palin aide who was recorded mentioning the concerns of Palin and her husband that Wooten was still on the police force.
In the deposition taken by Van Flein, which Palin's lawyer made available to NEWSWEEK, Bailey acknowledged he had "overstepped my boundaries... I should not have spoken for the governor, or Todd, for that matter. I went out on my own on this discussion."
But Bailey also confirmed in the deposition that Palin had herself raised Wooten's name with the state police during her first security briefing after she won election as governor in November 2006. Bailey said he sat in on the briefing with Gary Wheeler, then head of the governor's security detail. Wheeler asked Palin and her husband whether they were aware of any threats against her that the new bodyguards should be concerned about. "They specifically brought up only one person, and that was Mike Wooten," Bailey testified. "There was a serious genuine concern about not only their safety but the safety of their family, their kids, their nieces, nephews, her father, regarding Trooper Wooten." Bailey testified that Sarah Palin never asked him to do anything about Trooper Wooten, but that Todd Palin did talk to him about "issues about Trooper Wooten," and expressed "frustration" that the state police were doing nothing to respond to the Palins' concerns.
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'Broken man' Abramoff gets 4 years in prison
Broken and disgraced, lobbyist Jack Abramoff will spend four years in prison for his role in a corruption scandal that upended Washington politics and contributed to the Republicans' loss of Congress in 2006.
The once powerful Washington insider, at times choking back tears during his sentencing hearing Thursday, appeared crestfallen as a judge handed down a longer sentence than prosecutors had sought.
Over the past three years, Abramoff has come to symbolize corruption and the secret deals cut between lobbyists and politicians in back rooms or on golf courses or private jets. The scandal shook Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House to Capitol Hill.
"I come before you as a broken man," Abramoff said at his sentencing before U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle. "I'm not the same man who happily and arrogantly engaged in a lifestyle of political and business corruption."
He added later that, "My name is the butt of a joke, the source of a laugh and the title of a scandal."
Already two years into a prison term from a separate case in Florida, Abramoff, 49, will have spent about six years in prison by the time he is released, far longer than he and his attorneys expected for a man who became the key FBI witness in his own corruption case.
With Abramoff's help, the Justice Department has won corruption convictions against former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles and several top Capitol Hill aides. Defense lawyers predicted more convictions would follow.
Because of that cooperation, prosecutors were reserved in their comments to the court. Rather than regaling the court with a summary of the misdeeds and the seriousness of the corruption, the Justice Department said little in court while urging leniency.
Defense attorney Abbe Lowell portrayed Abramoff as a conflicted man. Yes, he corrupted politicians with golf junkets, expensive meals and luxury seats at sporting events. But he also donated millions of dollars to charity, and his good deeds were catalogued in hundreds of letters from friends.
"How can we be talking about the same person?" Lowell said. "But that's the record: A modern-day 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.'"
Although Abramoff expressed remorse, he also has spent his time in prison cooperating with a book that portrays him much differently: as a victim of Washington politics.
The book, set for publication later this month and obtained by The Associated Press, says Abramoff was pressured to plead guilty. The book blames The Washington Post and Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee whose Senate committee investigated Abramoff, for making him the fall guy.
"I never expected that I would have to go to prison," Abramoff says in the book, "until it became clear that the media could not allow this play to close without the hanging of the villain."
In "The Perfect Villain: John McCain and the Demonization of Lobbyist Jack Abramoff," Boston journalist Gary Chafetz portrays Abramoff as an innocent man who excelled in an already corrupt system and was undone by biased prosecutors, reporters and political enemies.
McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
That theory was absent from court Thursday. Wearing green prison pants and a brown T-shirt, Abramoff wept as his attorney discussed his family's suffering. He seemed shocked when Huvelle handed down her sentence, looking at his wife and children and shaking his head.
Huvelle could have sent Abramoff to prison for 11 years for conspiring to defraud the U.S., corrupting public officials and defrauding his clients, but she but showed leniency because of his work with the FBI. She rejected, however, proposals to reduce the sentence even further by giving Abramoff credit for the time he already has spent in prison on a fraudulent casino deal in Florida.
Abramoff could appeal the sentence because Justice Department infighting is partly responsible for the lengthy prison term. Prosecutors in Washington had hoped to combine the casino case and the corruption case into one plea deal. But Florida prosecutors refused to give up their piece, as did Washington prosecutors, so the deal was split in two.
Huvelle seemed perplexed by that decision, even as prosecutor Mary Butler asked her to treat the two cases as one. Neither Lowell nor the Justice Department spoke after court.
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White House Disputes Bob Woodward's New Book, But Refuses To Deny Spying on Iraqi Prime Minister
The White House on Friday disputed an assertion in a new book by Bob Woodward that President Bush was slow to react to escalating attacks in Iraq, forcefully arguing that Bush's military buildup was responsible for a sharp drop in the violence.
In a sharply worded, two-page statement, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley pushed back on other revelations in the book, but did not address Woodward's assertion that the Bush administration spied extensively on Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and others in the Iraqi government.
Woodward's book, "The War Within: A Secret White House History, 2006-2008," tells of a president detached, tentative and slow to react to the escalating violence in Iraq, The Washington Post reported on its Web site Thursday night.
But once Bush decided that thousands of additional troops were needed, he moved with focus and determination even though top military advisers resisted him, wrote Woodward, a Post associate editor.
Hadley said Bush was not "detached" from an internal review he ordered of the war in late 2006. Woodward writes that the review was done in secret because the White House was worried it would damage GOP chances in midterm elections. "We've got to do it under the radar screen because the electoral season is so hot," Hadley is quoted as telling Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the book.
Hadley countered, saying the review was done in secret to avoid politicizing the process.
"If he (Bush) had wanted to boost the Republican chances in the election, he would have publicly announced both the strategy review and the decision to change his secretary of defense," Hadley said, referring to Bush's decision to oust Donald H. Rumsfeld, the powerful defense secretary and architect of the Iraq war. "The president did neither so as to avoid politicizing these decisions."
The book is the fourth by Woodward to examine the inner debates of the Bush administration and its handling of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was scheduled for release Monday.
The book said Bush's decision in January 2007 to send about 30,000 more troops to Iraq - the so-called surge - was not the primary factor behind the steep drop in violence. The article identifies four factors that together reduced the violence: covert operations, the military buildup, anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's decision to rein in his Mahdi Army, and the "Anbar Awakening" in which Sunnis joined Americans in fighting al-Qaida in Anbar province in western Iraq.
"I beg to differ," Hadley said, arguing that the military buildup actually "enabled" the other factors.
"It was the surge that helped us convince Sadr that a cease-fire was in his best interest because his Mahdi Army could not prevail on the battlefield," he said. "It was the surge that gave the Awakening Movement the confidence to continue to stand up to al-Qaida and take back Anbar province.
"It was the surge that provided more resources and a security context to support newly developed techniques and operations. And it was the surge that allowed the Iraqi security forces to grow and build their capacity to fight."
Hadley said the picture of U.S. policy in Iraq presented in the Post was "at least incomplete." But he did not address the spying allegation, which prompted sharp reactions Friday in Baghdad.
The Iraqi government warned that future ties with the United States could be in jeopardy if the report is true. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Baghdad would raise the allegations with the U.S. and ask for an explanation. If true, he warned, it shows a lack of trust.
White House press secretary Dana Perino also declined to directly comment on the spying allegations. She stressed the daily communications between Washington and Baghdad. "We have a good idea of what Prime Minister Maliki is thinking because he tells us, very frankly and very candidly," she said.
The book is coming out just as the two governments are in delicate negotiations over the future of American troops in Iraq. Those talks have already extended past their July 31 deadline and have drawn sharp criticism from Iraqis who want an end to the U.S. presence. Critics may well use the allegation to step up pressure on the government not to sign a deal or hold out for the most favorable terms.
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More information on the White House's refusal to address the spying allegations here.
Iraqis take control of once-bloody Anbar province
American forces on Monday handed over security responsibility to the Iraqis in a province that the U.S. once feared was lost - a sign of the stunning reversal of fortunes since local Sunnis turned against al-Qaida in Iraq.
But a Sunni Arab leader criticized the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for failing to embrace its newfound allies, underlining the threat that sectarian tensions still pose to a lasting peace.
Nevertheless, the transfer of Anbar province, the cradle of the Sunni insurgency and the birthplace of al-Qaida in Iraq, marked a dramatic milestone in America's plan to eventually hand over all 18 provinces to Iraqi control so U.S. troops can go home.
The 25,000 American troops remaining in Anbar will focus on training Iraq's military and police forces and standing by to help if the Iraqis are unable to cope with any surge in violence.
The ceremony was held under tight security in the center of Ramadi, the provincial capital where American troops fought ferocious battles with al-Qaida and other Sunni insurgents until the tide turned in 2007.
"This war is not quite over, but it's being won and primarily by the people of Anbar. Al-Qaida has not been entirely defeated in Anbar, but their end is near and they know it," Marine Maj. Gen. John Kelly, the senior U.S. commander in Anbar, said during the handover ceremony.
President Bush hailed the handover as a major achievement, saying the once-violent province had been "transformed and reclaimed by the Iraqi people."
"Iraqi forces will now take the lead in security operations in Anbar, with American troops moving into an overwatch role," Bush said in a statement. "This achievement is a credit to the courage of our troops, the Iraqi security forces, and the brave tribes and other civilians from Anbar who worked alongside them."
Anbar became the 11th province to revert to Iraqi security control, but it is the most significant because it borders Baghdad. The others have been in the peaceful Kurdish north or in the heavily Shiite south, which has proven less difficult for the Shiite-led government to control.
Anbar, a predominantly Sunni Arab expanse stretching from the western edge of the capital to the borders of Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, was long center stage of the war and a springboard for attacks inside Baghdad.
Al-Qaida used the Euphrates River valley as a corridor for smuggling weapons, fighters and ammunition from Syria into the Sunni heartland and on to Baghdad.
The Anbar city of Fallujah fell under the sway of al-Qaida and other Sunni extremist groups and became the symbol of resistance until U.S. Marines stormed the city in November 2004 in the fiercest urban combat of the Iraq war.
But the loss of Fallujah did not deter the insurgents, who quickly rallied in Ramadi and other cities. In August 2006, a U.S. intelligence report widely leaked to journalists concluded that American forces were powerless to curb the rising power of al-Qaida in Anbar.
All that reversed dramatically months later when Sunni tribesmen, fed up with al-Qaida's brutality, turned against the movement and joined forces with the U.S. to drive the extremists from the province.
Those Sunni groups, known as "awakening councils," became the model for similar grass-roots movements elsewhere in Iraq credited by U.S. officials with helping curb the bloodshed that had pushed Iraq to the brink of all-out civil war.
Late Monday, a Sunni awakening leader in a nearby province, Imad al-Mashhdani, was wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up near the sheik's home 30 miles north of Baghdad, police said. U.S. officials said one person was killed and six others were wounded along with the sheik.
Nevertheless, the Shiite-led national government never fully embraced the Sunni turncoats, fearing they might turn their guns on Shiites some day. The government has moved in recent weeks to crack down on such groups, who drew their members from the ranks of former insurgents and veterans of Saddam Hussein's security services.
During the handover ceremony, Ahmed Abu Risha, whose late brother spearheaded the Sunni revolt against al-Qaida, alluded to strains over the crackdown, saying the government should appreciate the Sunnis' role in curbing violence and not judge them because of "their positions" in the Saddam regime.
U.S. troops had planned to hand over Anbar in late June but postponed the ceremony because of sandstorms and a suicide attack that killed three Marines and 20 Iraqis, including locally prominent sheiks.
Sunni politicians in Anbar had asked the U.S. to delay the transfer until next year because of a continuing power struggle between the awakening councils and the main Sunni political party over control of the province.
Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, alluded to the power conflict, expressing hope that al-Qaida would not exploit political rivalries to attempt a comeback.
"We know that while al-Qaida may be in disarray, it is not yet completely defeated," Austin said during the ceremony. "And our common enemy is both patient and resilient. But I know the people of Anbar province will not allow al-Qaida the opportunity to destabilize the security progress that has been made here."
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Palin's Pastor: God Will Damn America
On July 20, 2008, the pastor of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's home church, Larry Kroon, delivered a sermon called "Sin Is Personal To God." Kroon, the senior pastor of the non-denominational Wasilla Bible Church in Wasilla, Alaska, used the book of Zephaniah as his reference point for discussing "that great day of the Lord, when God will finally bring closure to human history... a day of wrath." According to Kroon, "all things and all people" are going to bear the brunt of God's "intense anger." "There's anger with God," he proclaimed. "He takes sin personal."
Kroon placed Zephaniah in a modern context, warning that the sinful habits of Americans would invite the wrath of God. "And if Zephaniah were here today," Kroon bellowed, "he'd be saying, ‘Listen, [God] is gonna deal with all the inhabitants of the earth. He is gonna strike out His hand against, yes, Wasilla; and Alaska; and the United States of America. There's no exceptions here -- there's none. It's all.'"
(Kroon's sermon can be heard here; a full transcript is here.)
While Kroon has cautioned his parishioners against the mass marketed End Times prophecies of Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye, he has nonetheless invoked doomsday scenarios that mirror those on the pages of Lindsey and LaHaye's bestselling tracts.
"It's so very possible that God, instead of responding by granting spiritual renewal and sustained prosperity," Kroon said in a sermon on July 13, 2008, "could just as easily...it's conceivable that He could just as easily, for example, raise up a revived, prosperous and powerful Communist Russia with a web of alliances across the Middle East. And our gas pumps would go dry. The dollar would collapse. And the markets would crash. The kayak could go upside down. And it could happen in a matter of weeks. That could happen. It could happen by this fall."
Palin joined Wasilla Bible Church after leaving Wasilla Assembly of God, a Pentecostal church where she delivered a controversial sermon asking her audience to pray that the war in Iraq is "God's plan." When she is working in Alaska's capitol, she worships at the Juneau Christian Center, another Pentecostal church where charismatic displays like speaking in tongues and dancing in the spirit are encouraged. Palin describes herself as a "Bible-believing Christian."
Palin's presence at Wasilla Bible Church has not been confirmed for the days Kroon warned of God "striking out his hand against... the United States of America" and "rais[ing] up" an alliance of nations to ruin America.
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After RNC Speech, Republicans Court Lieberman to Make the Switch Official
When Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman returns to work this week, he can expect some arm-twisting from his Republican friends and the cold shoulder from some Democrats.
Lieberman, the Democrats’ vice presidential nominee in 2000, promoted a Republican for president last week in a prime time speech at the GOP’s national convention, raising questions about whether - and when - there might be retribution.
Reid was “very disappointed in Sen. Lieberman, especially when he went out of his way to distort Sen. Obama’s record of bipartisan achievements,” said Jim Manley, a Reid spokesman. “I assume that the caucus will want to revisit the situation with Sen. Lieberman after the elections in November.”
Lieberman has been caucusing with Democrats, who in turn have honored his seniority and permitted him to serve as chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, a senior Republican, said he intended to try to pry Lieberman from the Democratic fold, beginning with Monday’s cloture vote on a motion to proceed to the fiscal 2009 defense authorization bill (S 3001).
“I would like to see him vote with Republicans in September,” Specter said. “He’s practically there. That would have the consequence of giving us a Republican Senate.”
Specter said he’s ready to renew a months-long discussion with Lieberman about switching parties.
Lieberman says he still considers himself a Democrat.
“I remain a Democrat. A disappointed Democrat, but a Democrat,” he said Sept. 3, hours after his speech at the Republican National Convention on behalf of his close friend, GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
Win or lose in November, Republicans are betting Lieberman will be on their side next year - either as a Cabinet member in a McCain administration or as part of a powerful band of centrist rebels who could help to block the priorities of an Obama administration.
Lieberman did little to quell speculation that he might join a McCain Cabinet, which would allow Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell , a Republican, to appoint his successor.
Whether he makes a big move or not, Lieberman seems sure to remain a thorn in the Democrats’ side. As a top McCain surrogate on security and foreign policy, he portrays expedited troop withdrawal time lines and Democratic opposition to free-trade deals as misguided.
For months, Reid has refrained from rebuking or threatening Lieberman. He simply insisted that there be no surprises in the unusual McCain-Lieberman partnership.
Lieberman called Reid about two weeks ago, according to Manley, to let the leader know that he would accept an invitation to speak at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. Manley said he did not think the two men had spoken since then.
The day after Lieberman took swipes at Obama in his speech to Republicans, he addressed his eight-year journey from Democratic vice presidential nominee to McCain sidekick in a forum at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
“Obviously, part of this is John McCain. Our close working relationship. The trust we have. We’ve worked on national security, climate change, lobbying efforts,” Lieberman said.
Then he referred to his growing discomfort with Democrats on trade and other issues.
“The Democratic Party has changed,” Lieberman said. He specifically cited the party’s drift away from the North American Free Trade Agreement (PL 103-182) and toward opposing similar deals with Colombia and other countries.
Lieberman seemed ready for a backlash, and some of his Senate GOP pals gave every appearance of enjoying the possibilities.
“People admire Joe. If you refuse to work with a guy like Joe, it will catch up with you,” said Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, another of McCain’s closest allies.
“If they’re smart, they’ll treat him fairly,” added Charles E. Grassley of Iowa.
Longtime friend Olympia J. Snowe of Maine said it will be up to Lieberman what happens next. “His role will be what he decides it will be,” Snowe said.
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