Comments (20)

Anonymous wrote on May 10, 2007 11:05 AM:

Gonzales looked like an ass in that exchange as well. Democrats should agree that frank corruption be prosecuted regardless of its source. Sensenbrenner attempted to show Gonzales was as incompetent in the Jefferson investigation as he is everywhere else, and Jefferson is a DEMOCRAT. But it came off as ridiculous.

davcbr wrote on May 10, 2007 11:15 AM:

No, it comes off to me like the rest of what these hearings are about... here we have a Repub senator pressing to get things rolling BECAUSE it is a democrat. The ultimate goals here are the same.

dc

POed Lib wrote on May 10, 2007 11:16 AM:

Sensebrenner is another Rep, not a senator

pgw wrote on May 10, 2007 11:21 AM:

isn't the pressuring of justice department officials in the cases of your political opponents part of the reason for the current situation?

mkultra wrote on May 10, 2007 11:28 AM:

This is totally improper . . . it shows how far things have gone in the direction of nuthouse absurdity that this type of dialogue would be happening between the USA AG and this cretin in Congress as to a case that has not been brought to trial . . . The "justice" system was broken when the IranContra investigation was derailed by Bush I and his henchmen in Congress and on the Federal Bench (as described by the Republican Independent Prosecutor in his book). This showed the Bush Crime Family and associates that they could get away with anything and all that has happened has followed from that (and in the same vein, the lack of a proper investigation into Jack Kennedy's crossfire execution in Dallas was a blow the country has never recovered from . . . the full weight of "justice" falls on the accused who is poor and while the politically connected at the Bush level can do whatever in broad daylight knowing the fix is in).

Busta wrote on May 10, 2007 11:44 AM:

It truly boggles the mind.
Even worse, I WAS settling in to watch this thing on CSPAN, when, in the middle of Fredo's opening statement, they cut to an oh-so-exciting ceiling view of the Senate floor where a vote was taking place on some obscure small business contract measure. Hello? I was watching that!

All I got to see was the embarrassingly self-serving and partisan preaching from the Esteemed Mr. Smith (R) of Texas, who cited some LA Times poll saying that 63% of Americans think this investigation is a Democratic PR stunt. Up yours, Mr. Smith.

Then, just as Conyers was about to give the show to AG, anothe guy called a point of order to ask that someone wearing a t-shirt with some kind of message on it be removed from the room. Circus Circus.

za wrote on May 10, 2007 11:44 AM:

"Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) pushes Gonzales to hurry up and indict Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA)."

Nobody else seemed to catch it. Not even the other Congresscritters.

So, ethics charges are brought against Pete Domenici for calling a USA about speeding up indictments on a Democrat, but a U.S. Congressman can PRESSURE THE US ATTORNEY GENERAL, AT A PUBLIC HEARING, to speed up indictments, SPECIFICALLY ON DEMOCRATS, and nobody even blinks?

Are our representatives brain-dead?

Busta wrote on May 10, 2007 11:47 AM:

za,

The answer to your last question is an emphatic YES.

PrgrsvArchitect wrote on May 10, 2007 11:51 AM:

After I heard him discuss Jefferson, I sent an email congratulating him on bringing up corruption and asked that he follow up with questions regarding the status of the Abramoff investigation relating to Doolittle, Feeney, Lewis and Delay.
Odds he recognizes it as snark? Zero
Odds he actually asks the questions? Less than zero
The look on his face if a Dem Rep asks the question as "related follow up to the Gentleman from Wisconsin's questions" Priceless

Security code: school -- as in law school, where the AG needs many a refresher course

bibimimi wrote on May 10, 2007 12:14 PM:

thank you, Mr Sensenbrenner (Pig-WI)

buck turgidson wrote on May 10, 2007 12:18 PM:

Let's not forget that Sensenbrenner's district overlaps Biskupic's territory. Did he make any calls back last summer? Wisconsin minds want to know!

ShorelineCT wrote on May 10, 2007 12:28 PM:

"....The GOP's "take that, bitch" approach to governing has been taken to the greatest heights by the House Judiciary Committee. The committee is chaired by the legendary Republican monster James Sensenbrenner Jr., an ever-sweating, fat-fingered beast who wields his gavel in a way that makes you think he might have used one before in some other arena, perhaps to beat prostitutes to death. Last year, Sensenbrenner became apoplectic when Democrats who wanted to hold a hearing on the Patriot Act invoked a little-known rule that required him to let them have one.
"Naturally, he scheduled it for something like 9 a.m. on a Friday when Congress wasn't in session, hoping that no one would show," recalls a Democratic staffer who attended the hearing. "But we got a pretty good turnout anyway."

Sensenbrenner kept trying to gavel the hearing to a close, but Democrats again pointed to the rules, which said they had a certain amount of time to examine their witnesses. When they refused to stop the proceedings, the chairman did something unprecedented: He simply picked up his gavel and walked out.

"He was like a kid at the playground," the staffer says. And just in case anyone missed the point, Sensenbrenner shut off the lights and cut the microphones on his way out of the room....

The Worst Congress Ever
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/worst_congress_ever/page/2

If you never saw this article, it is worth the read. Mr. Sensenbrenner not only gets this mention, he is highlighted, along with said Rep. Jefferson, as one of the 10 worst members of the 109th Congress

jeffgee wrote on May 10, 2007 1:14 PM:

Jefferson is an embarrassment and should have resigned. Caught with cold, hard cash in the freezer is bad. But these hearings are not about him.
Kongressman Kotex Sensenbrenner is an ass. He's trying desparately to change the subject.

Jim B wrote on May 10, 2007 1:20 PM:

The question here is, why does he continue to get elected in WI? At what point have you so embarrassed yourself and your constituents, that they vote you out of office? That's right Wisconsinites, I'm calling you out.

Richard L. Adlof wrote on May 10, 2007 1:36 PM:

Ah yes, Sensenbrenner of the Dems need to meet in the closet cuz . . . Fill in the blank.

Sensenbrenner of you are a religious bigot if you ask pious-pretending fucks if their faith might inform their judgement on the court AND a plethora of other recessivist anti-human rights horse-shit.

Talk about an ethics review needing to happen. The gavel episode ended with him having the mics cut and turning out the lights. It is on CSPAN footage. I move for a little obstruction of Justice spilling on Sensenbrenner himself.

Richard L. Adlof wrote on May 10, 2007 1:38 PM:

Ah yes, Sensenbrenner of the Dems need to meet in the closet cuz . . . Fill in the blank.

Sensenbrenner of you are a religious bigot if you ask pious-pretending fucks if their faith might inform their judgement on the court AND a plethora of other recessivist anti-human rights horse-shit.

Talk about an ethics review needing to happen. The gavel episode ended with him having the mics cut and turning out the lights. It is on CSPAN footage. I move for a little obstruction of Justice spilling on Sensenbrenner himself.

Anonymous wrote on May 10, 2007 3:59 PM:

Jim B

Some of us got gerrymandered into his district.

It's not by choice that we're stuck with him! There are, unfortunately, many fundies out there where he's from.

Please, people, move here!

Ni Daye wrote on May 10, 2007 4:31 PM:

This guy from Wisconsin is a human trash. He's the one that argued the richest nation in the world cannot afford universal health care. As a common courtesy, how can this bag of air pressuring someone to speed up prosecuting his colleague? Maybe there is not enough over there?

WisDem wrote on May 11, 2007 3:19 AM:

To Jim B.;

I don't live in his district, but can describe it to you. Imagine a district made almost entirely of well-off affluent upscale suburban whites, many whom fled Milwaukee decades ago. The type of folks who vote straight Republican ticket each and every election.

lc wrote on May 11, 2007 1:03 PM:

I'd like to interject here, for those of you who feel free to bash Sensenbrenner with the truly intimate knowledge you now have of him from a 30 second clip, that he actually fought viciously with the Department of Justice throughout last summer and ordered all Judiciary staff to cease relations with the Department because the raid on Rep. Jefferson's office was against House procedural rules and there were important Congressional documents in that office that DOJ had no business rifling through. Sensenbrenner is a brilliant legislator and a man of conviction, and stood for justice following the raids regardless of the party of the Congressman under investigation. He's still steamed about what happened and is pushing Gonzales for answers because he believes the public deserves at least some information from the investigation if DOJ was going to go into Jefferson's office so haphazardly like that.