Found: Rove's Playbook for Attorney Scandal

babylonsister

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Thu Jun-07-07 07:24 AM
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Found: Rove's Playbook for Attorney Scandal

Edited on Thu Jun-07-07 07:30 AM by babylonsister

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/6/6/182434/8934

Found: Rove's Playbook for Attorney Scandal
by Deep Harm
Wed Jun 06, 2007 at 03:24:34 PM PDT

In the U.S. attorneys scandal, all eyes are on Karl Rove as the presumed architect. But, long before Karl Rove began plying his trade, Fred Malek wrote the manual for politicizing the Justice Department. Malek, a little known but influential Republican operative and "hatchet man," devised the strategies used to remove Democrats and whistleblowers from the civil service and to turn the federal government into a Republican Party headquarters. Malek's connections with President Bush may explain why the U.S. Attorney's office discontinued investigation of wrongdoing at Fannie Mae, where Malek was then a board member and was one of several individuals named in a civil suit. Rather than face criminal penalties, Fannie Mae settled with the SEC and OFHEO for a $400 million civil penalty.

* Deep Harm's diary :: ::
*

Say "Watergate," and most people think of the 1972 burglary of Democratic headquarters sponsored by Republican operatives. But, another, less publicized, scheme exposed by a Senate investigation would have a greater impact on the nation. The scheme, known as the "Responsiveness Program," was a bag of ruthless tricks designed to use the "powers of incumbency" to retain control of the presidency . Ultimately, though, the plan would accomplish much more; it would be used to destroy the competency of the federal government and, with that, the nation's security.

According to a report by the Senate committee investigation report, the Program's activities were likely illegal, but the Senate committee declined to pursue the matter. As a result, Fred Malek, a Nixon advisor and chief architect of the plan, remained free to practice his black arts, which included aiding the Bush family's rise to power.

Like a cancer, the dirty personnel practices devised by Malek would spread from one adminstration to another; the Bush administration would embrace them with particular fervor. Political loyalty was emphasized at the expense of competence in carrying out responsibilities designated by law. For those considered uncooperative, the "Malek Manual" described ways to force them out of the civil service, despite laws supposedly protecting them from political interference. Thus, the government incompetence exposed by Hurricane Katrina and the 9/11 attacks traces back to Malek and other Nixon aides who set into motion the Republican plan to make agencies "responsive," not to the people, but to political concerns. With Malek's manual available, Karl Rove did not have to be a genius; merely an eager student of The Master.

snip//

To protect Nixon and the White House from being investigated for any wrongoding, Malek devised measures to avoid leaving any footprints that would lead back to them.

" No written communications from the White House to the Departments -- all information about the program would be transmitted verbally . . . documents prepared would not indicate White House involvement in any way."
-- March 17, 1972, Malek memo to Haldeman.

Many will recall that President Bush prefers verbal briefings, and that Alberto Gonzales demanded that no written record be made of his hearing testimony, which he also insisted should not be under oath.

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