Republican Criminals on Parade

By Lee Russ

Friday, May 12, 2006 at 05:50 PM

The investigations proliferate, the scandals wax and wane, and the current crop of Republicans continue to be...the worst that ever came.

Repub criminal news today. May 12, 2006:

Rove Informs White House He Will Be Indicted, by Jason Leopold, truthout:

Within the last week, Karl Rove told President Bush and Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, as well as a few other high level administration officials, that he will be indicted in the CIA leak case and will immediately resign his White House job when the special counsel publicly announces the charges against him, according to sources.

Law enforcement officials search house of CIA's No. 3 official (Foggo), by KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press:

Law enforcement officials executed search warrants Friday on the house and office of CIA's outgoing executive director, the FBI said.

The agency's third ranking official, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, has been under investigation by the FBI, IRS, Defense Criminal Investigative Service and the CIA's inspector general, said FBI spokeswoman April Langwell in San Diego.

John Roberts' paper on affirmative action may have been stolen from National Archives by White House agents, by Timothy Noah, Slate:

Last summer, during the pre-confirmation body-cavity search of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, a Roberts-related file at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library went missing. The file was marked "affirmative action" and presumably contained something on that topic written by Roberts--who is known to be extremely hostile to affirmative action--when he worked in the Reagan White House counsel's office. Although the file disappeared after a White House employee and two assistants vetted the Roberts-related files, National Archives officials assured reporters that no one had been permitted to bring bags into the room with the documents and no one was left alone with the documents. (We know the visitors were a White House employee and two assistants because that's how they're described in a separate document from the inspector general's office.)

That turns out not to be true. The Web site The Memory Hole (www.thememoryhole.org) has now posted a report from the National Archives' inspector general, vast portions of which have been blacked out prior to its public release. The report clearly states that the White House visitors were allowed to bring personal items into the room where they examined the documents, and further were left alone whenever they needed to talk to the White House about what they were finding. One of these Bush White House employees, the report says, was the last known person to see the missing file. But the Bushies deny they pinched it.

If this all sounds a little familiar, that's because a year ago Sandy Berger, Bill Clinton's national security advisor, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of removing and destroying documents (about the Clinton administration's response to terrorist threats in 2000) from the National Archives. In that instance, the material was classified. Berger ended up paying a $50,000 fine. There's reason to suspect that history repeated itself with the Roberts file, but the Bush administration, which took great delight in exposing Berger's malfeasance, won't let us know who the possible lightfingers were.

Indictment for Governor of Kentucky, by IAN URBINA, NY Times:

Gov. Ernie Fletcher of Kentucky, a Republican, was indicted yesterday on charges that he illegally rewarded political supporters with state jobs.

Mr. Fletcher, who is charged with three misdemeanors -- criminal conspiracy, official misconduct and violating the prohibition against political discrimination -- has denied any wrongdoing and has accused the state attorney general, Gregory D. Stumbo, a Democrat, of being politically motivated in his investigation.

Yup.  All a partisan conspiracy.  No substance to it at all.  Just like the other 300 partisan conspiracies targeting Repubs of all levels, colors, and degrees of corruption.

You want to know a real partisan conspiracy?  Government in the United States.