Barrett Report

The public needs to see the Barrett report
By Emmett Tyrrell

Dec 15, 2005

WASHINGTON -- All's well, Sen. Byron Dorgan of the great state of North Dakota has done come clean. Dorgan is the vice chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee. In that capacity he accepted $67,000 in contributions from Indian tribes represented by the recently-indicted Jack Abramoff, a fabulous fixer here in the capital of the Free World. Abramoff, a Republican, has obviously been an equal-opportunity fixer, and apparently Dorgan was not above accepting his help, though Dorgan claims he never met the rogue and never backed any of his programs -- knowingly. Now there is an adverb to contemplate: "knowingly." The senator's aides admit that their boss did advocate some of Abramoff's programs while he was accepting the tribes' contributions, but he did not do so knowingly.

That is a good start on Dorgan's road back to respectability. Yet there is another far more serious bit of funny business he has been involved in. He, along with several crafty Democrats, has been attempting to deny the public the contents of an Independent Counsel's report that is believed to contain evidence of serious corruption and misuse of the Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department back in the Clinton Administration. In this cover-up the Democrats have had assistance from a few dubious Republicans. It is time to let the public see this report.

The report is the work of the staff of Independent Counsel David Barrett. He was tapped back in the Clinton days to investigate allegations that then Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros lied to the FBI and committed tax fraud in attempting to conceal money he had paid a mistress. Cisneros pled guilty back in 1999, and that would have been the end of it had Barrett's investigators not found serious misbehavior in Justice and in the IRS related to Cisneros' problems. Cisneros was a very promising Texas Democrat, and the Clintons did not want him to come a cropper.

When Barrett completed his report the Clintons' lawyers, led by that legendary Clinton pettifogger, David Kendall, tried to kill off the report either by gutting it with redactions or by getting it buried altogether. Kendall entered some 140 motions pursuant to this goal. The report has been ready for publication since August, 2004 but Kendall's nuisance tactics have worked, and now what do we hear from the Clintonistas? They complain that Barrett has cost too much and taken too long. As they are themselves are the reason for much of the cost and delay, advocates of good government should be up in arms. This stratagem has been used too frequently by the Clintonistas to smear an officer of the court.

Barrett wants the report released in full. The reports of every other Independent Counsel have been released to the public in full, with only minor redactions where classified material might be revealed. There is a serious public-policy concern for releasing this report. It is the first independent investigation of the IRS by investigators armed with subpoena power. Civil libertarians concerned about the heavy-handedness of the IRS and its use as an instrument of political repression by the executive branch of the government know that this is very important.

Dorgan has led the campaign to deny the report's contents to the public. Last April he attempted to end Barrett's funding. He was thwarted then, but more recently he tried a new ploy. With Democratic Sens. Richard Durbin and John Kerry, he bootlegged into an Iraq-war appropriations bill an amendment that would suppress the report completely. Some Republicans defeated this attempt, but Dorgan and his allies are clever. Into a later appropriations bill they got language that would suppress 120 pages of the report relating to Clinton Justice Department and IRS misbehavior. If the butchered report were published in this shape, they promised to do nothing further to delay its appearance. Amazingly key Republicans in these negotiations agreed, Sen. Kit Bond and Rep. Joe Knollenberg. As things stand now, the expurgated report will appear and the public will be none the wiser as to how the IRS and Justice Department can be used to obstruct justice and harass private citizens.

Corrupt administrations in the future will have a free hand at playing politics the way they are played in a banana republic, or 20th-century Arkansas.

Find this story at: http://townhall.com/opinion/columns/emmetttyrrell/2005/12/15/179164.html

Protecting the IRS
By Robert Novak

Dec 15, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The last remaining U.S. independent counsel, David Barrett, after spending $21 million over 10 years, on Jan. 12 finally will close down his investigation of former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros' lying to FBI investigators about hush money paid to an ex-mistress. The political significance is that the Barrett report's shocking allegations of high-level corruption in the Internal Revenue Service and Justice Department are likely to be concealed from the public and from Congress.

A recently passed appropriations bill, intended to permit release of this report, was altered behind closed doors to ensure that its politically combustible elements never saw the light of day. But if that happens, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley will still try to force its release. As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee with oversight of the IRS, he wants the first real investigation of the tax agency.

That investigation would be a long walk into the unknown, with possibly far-reaching consequences. Prominent Democrats in Congress have spent much of the last decade in a campaign, successful so far, to suppress Barrett's report. Its disclosures could dig deeply into concealed scandals of the Clinton administration. These vital considerations, not the mere continuation of a $58-an-hour independent counsel position, is why Republican lawyer Barrett for a decade would not close down his prosecutor's office.

If this were just about one politician's illicit love life ruining his political career, Barrett would have ended his operation long ago. But an IRS whistle-blower told Barrett of an unprecedented cover-up. The informant said a regional IRS official had formulated a new rule enabling him to transfer an investigation of Cisneros to Washington to be buried by the Justice Department. Barrett's investigators found Lee Radek, head of Justice's public integrity office, determined to protect President Bill Clinton.

That triggered intensive efforts to get rid of Barrett and suppress his report by three of the toughest Democrats in Congress: Sen. Carl Levin, Sen. Byron Dorgan and Rep. Henry Waxman. At the same time, the powerhouse Washington law firm of Williams & Connolly -- representing not only Cisneros but also the Clintons -- was filing multiple suits with federal appellate judges supervising the independent counsel.

The sympathetic judges sealed everything concerned with the case, including the report. Barrett was instructed to remain deathly silent on pain of criminal prosecution. Yet Levin, as ranking Democrat of a Senate oversight committee, eight years ago gained access to the raw data of Barrett's prosecutorial effort after requesting it in a Nov. 20, 1997, letter to the judges.

Barrett's densely packed 120-page report is followed by a 500-page appendix with more than 2,500 footnotes. Grassley thought he had an agreement with Dorgan to amend the Treasury appropriations bill to close down Barrett's office and publicly release "all portions of the final report" except for any "clearly unwarranted invasion of privacy."

But Grassley is not an appropriator, and Democrats in the Senate-House appropriations conference slipped through a critical change. The final language authorized the judges "to protect the rights of any individual named" in the report. With two out of three judges on a three-judge panel inclined to the Democrats, that means hardly any of Barrett's allegations will remain in the report made public. The bill was passed by Congress on Nov. 18 and signed into law Nov. 30.

Republican congressional sources expect Section B of the report, dealing with the allegations of IRS-Justice corruption, to be eliminated in its entirety. The rest of the report will be so heavily redacted to obey the new congressional language that it will be of scant interest to either ordinary citizen or legislator. This long, tendentious battle to keep David Barrett away from opening a probe into what really happened in the Clinton administration then will have appeared to have been concluded with an unconditional victory.

But maybe not. Chuck Grassley is a stubborn Iowa farmer who often drives the White House and Republican leaders to distraction. He has said that if the Barrett report finally emerges as a mutilated remnant in order to protect the IRS, he will press for legislation to change that. It may be the last hope for the truth to emerge.

Find this story at: http://townhall.com/opinion/columns/robertnovak/2005/12/15/179167.html

Corruption in Washington never ends.

What we need ... is a leak.

The bad guys get them, why can't we?

What we need ... is a leak. The bad guys get them, why can't we?

When Republicans leak, its a crime. Example: Plamegate.

When Republicans leak, its a crime. Example: Plamegate.

Except it wasn't. The actual leak itself that is. That's been established.

The only "crime" that anyone has been indicted for in the whole Plame circus is disagreeing with the recollections of a reporter. And there's no way Libby's going to be convicted (not that any of this matters in the pea brain of the average liberal / Big Media viewer).

I thought about that after I posted, that a actual leak from a Republican hadn't been established. Or that a crime had been committed.

fyi

forwarded to EVERYONE

Barrett report ping. Bob Tyrell is on it too.

They should just leak it to the public. It seems to work for the NYT and they never face any consequences.

IRS abuse ping!

What we need is for David Barrett to lose his computer a-la John Deutsch, formerly of the CIA. Deutsch lost only his security clearance. Barrett wouldn't be prosecuted for "inadvertantly" disclosing non-classified information contained in an authorized investigation. Not after the disclosures contained in the report.

Corrupt administrations in the future will have a free hand at playing politics the way they are played in a banana republic, or 20th-century Arkansas.--Emmett Tyrrell

To paraphrase Machiavelli: When we shoot at the 'queen,' we had better triangulate.

the clintons' abuse of the IRS
the clintons' abuse of women (If not up and running yet, HERE)
the clintons' failure to confront terrorism

Guaranteed to finish her off, especially with the only real swing vote, the demographic she MUST get, white women.

Let's make a real fuss about the Barrett Report. This is outrageous.

In particular, do we have the will to identify and defeat the enemy in our midst?

Answerable to no one, heir apparent in her own mind, self-serving in the extreme, Hillary Clinton incarnates this insidious new threat to our survival.

What we decide to do about Missus Clinton will tell us much about what awaits us in these perilous new times.

December 7, 1941+64
Mia T
AN OPEN LETTER TO TIM ROBBINS, DAVID GEFFEN, CHRIS MATTHEWS, MAUREEN DOWD + JEANINE PIRRO
RE: a not-so-modest proposal concerning hillary clinton

clintonCORRUPTION: the more things change. . . .

CROOKS PARDONING CROOKS PARDONING CROOKS:
Justice Undone in the clinton White House

How did the flower children fall for the clintons, 2 such self-evident thugs and opportunists?
(FOOL ME ONCE, SHAME ON YOU! FOOL ME TWICE, SHAME ON ME!)

sandy berger haberdashery feint
(the specs, not the pants or the socks)

Why hillary clinton should never be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office... or any position of power
REASON 1: SHE HIRED JAMIE GORELICK

HILLARY'S TRIPLE PLAY
the clinton putsch + filegate + the gorelick wall

Reverse Gorelick

HILLARY'S MIDDLE-FINGER MINDSET
Do you really want THAT finger on the button?

"What, me worry?"

NANO-PRESIDENT
the danger of the unrelenting smallness of bill + hillary clinton

CLINTON RAPES, REVISIONISM, USEFUL IDIOTS AND ENTROPY (an update)

WHY HILLARY MUST NOT WIN. WHY HILLARY CANNOT WIN.

AN OPEN LETTER TO TIM ROBBINS, DAVID GEFFEN, CHRIS MATTHEWS, MAUREEN DOWD + JEANINE PIRRO
RE: a not-so-modest proposal concerning hillary clinton
December 7, 1941+64

IMPERIOUS HILLARY
(THE REPORTS OF HER DEATH ARE GREATLY UNDERSTATED)

IS DICK MORRIS AN IDIOT? OR IS HE STILL ON THE CLINTON PAYROLL?

REINVENTING HILLARY... AGAIN
(clinton machine dumps Geena Davis for Margaret Thatcher)
how the clintons are handling the hillary dud factor₂

SCHEMA PINOCCHIO
how the clintons are handling the hillary dud factor

HILLARY'S COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF PROBLEM
(see descriptor morphs)

for the birds
(THE INCOMPETENCE OF HILLARY CLINTON)

HILLARY IN AVIARY

HILLARY FLUNKED D.C. BAR EXAM
"the smartest woman in the world" sought less competitive venue

1st Feminist Prez Impeached
(clinton, pushed by the "smartest woman in the world," managed to impeach himself)

HILLARY!?? WHAT IS THIS MORIBUND LOSER DOING IN THE POLITICAL ARENA, ANYWAY? (bill's bud explains)

THE OLYMPIC HILDABEAST FLOPS
hillary stupidly invokes clinton utter failure: 9/11

HEAR CHRIS MATTHEWS + MAUREEN DOWD DEVOUR HILLARY

THE DANGER OF RUNNING VICARIOUSLY
Bill O'Reilly chews up and spits out the hillary clinton candidacy
(clip included)

Yitzhak Shamir Validated: THE CLINTONS ARE "A GREAT DANGER TO JEWS"

CHENEY: CALL THEM REPREHENSIBLE
THE DEMOCRATS ARE GONNA GET US KILLED (kerry, clinton + sandy berger's pants) SERlES₅

THE LEFT'S RECKLESS TET-OFFENSIVE-GAMBIT REPLAY:
the left's jihad against America is killing our troops, aiding + abetting the terrorists and imperiling all Americans

pro-islamofascist-terrorist radical chic
WHY THE LEFT IS DANGEROUS FOR AMERICA

The Left's Fatally Flawed "Animal Farm" Mentality
(Why America Must NEVER AGAIN Elect a Democrat President)

A CALL TO IMPEACH CLINTON IN ABSENTIA

NEWT: CLINTON COMMITTED ONE OF WORST CRIMES, ENDANGERED COUNTRY, IF HIT ABDULLAH UP FOR CASH

Listen to this and ask yourself if America Ever Had the Remotest Chance Under a clinton to Avoid 9/11
(To paraphrase Einstein: "The unleashed power of terrorism has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophes.")

KLEIN BOOK CAUSES HILLARY TO (oops!) CONFIRM "THE TRUTH ABOUT HILLARY"
CLINTON'S REACTION EXPOSES FASCISTIC MINDSET, TEXTBOOK CASE OF PARANOIA + MEGALOMANIA, AND A CONSCIOUSNESS OF GUILT IN BROADDRICK RAPE

HILLARY IS NIXON-PLUS ^{part 1}BEWARE THE SYNERGY
Nixonian paranoia and fascistic mindset combine with
clintonian megalomania, ineptitude and, most important, easy betrayal of America
to make hillary clinton deadly dangerous for us all.

HILLARY IS NIXON-PLUS ^{part 2}BEWARE THE SYNERGY
Nixonian paranoia and fascistic mindset combine with
clintonian megalomania, ineptitude and, most important, easy betrayal of America
to make hillary clinton deadly dangerous for us all.

HILLARY CLINTONSTAHL
clinton agitprop machine censors truth about hillary

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: ED KLEIN AND SUSAN ESTRICH AGREE ABOUT HILLARY

HEAR SUSAN ESTRICH: hillary plays 'the victim' for votes

retrograde feminist fraud positions herself as victim (again) in order to win White House
[FOOL ME ONCE, SHAME ON YOU! FOOL ME TWICE, SHAME ON ME!]

the clinton-clinton-Broaddrick kind of rape, according to Susan Estrich

CLINTONS' DOCUMENTED ABUSE OF WOMEN

BEAUTY AND THE HILDABEAST

JEANINE PIRRO: 30-year career fighting for the abused woman
HILLARY CLINTON: 30-year career abusing women

the significance of missus clinton's gratuitous gerundial g-droppings

hillary clinton is a "CONGENITAL LIAR"
("I am not a crook")

NOTE THE SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE IN CLINTON REACTION TIME AND CONTENT TO THE TWO RAPE CHARGES

WHY DID BILL CLINTON IGNORE TERRORISM?
Was it simply the constraints of his liberal mindset, or was it something even more threatening to our national security?

IT TAKES A CLINTON TO RAZE A COUNTRY

BIN LADEN FINGERS CLINTON FOR TERROR SUCCESS (SEE FOOTAGE)
THE THREAT OF TERRORISM IS AS CLOSE AS A CLINTON IS TO THE OVAL OFFICE

PRESIDENTIAL FAILURE, 9/11 + KATRINA

I M P E A C H M E N T
h e a r --c l i n t o n --l o s e --i t

I like the report of a Barrett.

A fuss sounds like a plan!

Take a moment call your representatives. It costs a little time. One call won't cut it but many calls will.

bump!

Figures you'd come up with THAT one....LOL......and still grinning....