This Monica revealed something hotter — much hotter — than a stained blue dress. In her opening testimony yesterday before the House Judiciary Committee, Monica Goodling, the blonde-ling underling to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Department of Justice Liaison to the White House, dropped The Big One….And the Committee members didn’t even know it.

Goodling testified that Gonzales’ Chief of Staff, Kyle Sampson, perjured himself, lying to the committee in earlier testimony. The lie: Sampson denied Monica had told him about Tim Griffin’s “involvement in ‘caging’ voters” in 2004.

Huh?? Tim Griffin? “Caging”???

The perplexed committee members hadn’t a clue — and asked no substantive questions about it thereafter. Karl Rove is still smiling. If the members had gotten the clue, and asked the right questions, they would have found “the keys to the kingdom,” they thought they were looking for. They dangled right in front of their perplexed faces.

The keys: the missing emails — and missing link — that could send Griffin and his boss, Rove, to the slammer for a long, long time.

Kingdom enough for ya?

But what’s ‘caging’ and why is it such a dreadful secret that lawyer Sampson put his license to practice and his freedom on the line to cover Tim Griffin’s involvement in it? Because it’s a felony. And a big one.

Our BBC team broke the story at the top of the nightly news everywhere on the planet – except the USA – only because America’s news networks simply refused to cover this evidence of the electoral coup d’etat that chose our President in 2004.

Here’s how caging worked, and along with Griffin’s thoughtful emails themselves you’ll understand it all in no time.

The Bush-Cheney operatives sent hundreds of thousands of letters marked “Do not forward” to voters’ homes. Letters returned (”caged”) were used as evidence to block these voters’ right to cast a ballot on grounds they were registered at phony addresses. Who were the evil fakers? Homeless men, students on vacation and — you got to love this — American soldiers. Oh yeah: most of them are Black voters.

Why weren’t these African-American voters home when the Republican letters arrived? The homeless men were on park benches, the students were on vacation — and the soldiers were overseas. Go to Baghdad, lose your vote. Mission Accomplished.

How do I know? I have the caging lists…

I have them because they are attached to the emails Rove insists can’t be found. I have the emails. 500 of them — sent to our team at BBC after the Rove-bots accidentally sent them to a web domain owned by our friend John Wooden.

Here’s what you need to know — and the Committee would have discovered, if only they’d asked:

1. ‘Caging’ voters is a crime, a go-to-jail felony.

2. Griffin wasn’t “involved” in the caging, Ms. Goodling. Griffin, Rove’s right-hand man (right-hand claw), was directing the illegal purge and challenge campaign. How do I know? It’s in the email I got. Thanks. And it’s posted below.

3. On December 7, 2006, the ragin’, cagin’ Griffin was named, on Rove’s personal demand, US Attorney for Arkansas. Perpetrator became prosecutor.

The committee was perplexed about Monica’s panicked admission and accusations about the caging list because the US press never covered it. That’s because, as Griffin wrote to Goodling in yet another email (dated February 6 of this year, and also posted below), their caging operation only made the news on BBC London: busted open, Griffin bitched, by that “British reporter,” Greg Palast.

There’s no pride in this. Our BBC team broke the story at the top of the nightly news everywhere on the planet — except the USA — only because America’s news networks simply refused to cover this evidence of the electoral coup d’etat that chose our President in 2004.

And now, not bothering to understand the astonishing revelation in Goodling’s confessional, they are missing the real story behind the firing of the US attorneys. It’s not about removing prosecutors disloyal to Bush, it’s about replacing those who refused to aid the theft of the vote in 2004 with those prepared to burgle it again in 2008.

Now that they have the keys, let’s see if they can put them in the right door. The clock is ticking ladies and gents…

***************
Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Armed Madhouse: From Baghdad to New Orleans – Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone WILD. For more info, or to hear Brad Friedman, Ed Asner and other troublemakers read from Armed Madhouse, go to http://www.GregPalast.com

The only thing I’ve seen so far is the allegation of “obstruction of justice” based on Goodling’s testimony on 5/23: http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/23/gonzales-obstruction/

I believe Gonzales has squandered his integrity with contradictory statements and should resign. What isn’t clear to me is whether any other laws were broken? I thought U.S. attorneys “serve at the pleasure of the president” and that Clinton/Reno had pulled similar stunts in the 90s.

Great job Dems! There is NO STORY here–excepting the political payback angle. No laws were broken; nothing illegal was done; the person who apparently misled congress has resigned. All we are left with is a heaping, steaming pile of minutia.

Comment by Kay #79

TOO late Kay,

…TOO late to take “IT” back…

…the grammar police have already issued your post a failing grade…

…remedial writing class at 8:30 am sharp…

…at the top of the TP threads…

…BE THERE! :-)

(Eddie Murphy laugh for effect goes here…)

and to the 20 million illegal immigrants.

They learned from Bush, laws don’t matter.

NOT!

How in the hell these people got their jobs is beyond me. And what are they doing as payment for the jobs they were granted, even though they were not qualified for them?

I don’t worry about the 9 US Attorneys who were fired. I worry about the US Attorney’s who weren’t fired. What are they doing and what have they done to keep their jobs?

It’s Regent University. Liberty University is Falwell’s school.

Gonzales must be Impeached and disbarred for lying under oath to Congress..

The failure to Impeach Bush and Cheney for all these many offenses will be our nations downfall and ruin..wait and see..

IMPEACHMENT Now to Save America..!

• confirm that former DOJ Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson had compiled a list of US Attorneys who would be fired — apparently for being insufficiently partisan in their inquiries and prosecutions — and that Gonzales had been aware of the list and involved in meetings about it,

• place White House political czar Karl Rove in a room where the firings were discussed,

• acknowledge that, as early as 2OO5, there was talk about forcing US Attorneys out to make way for White House favorites and

• explain how US Attorneys were “rewarded” for helping to promote and defend the Patriot Act, at a time when that law was under attack as an assault on basic liberties.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?pid=198563