Gorelicks Her Wounds

TAS ^ | 4/15/2004 | The Prowler

[swilhelm73]

LET BYGONES BE... It shouldn't come as a big surprise that 9/11 commission member Jamie Gorelick has hidden agendas and conflicts of interest out the whazoo. After all, she's an old Clinton Administration hand.

Give her credit, though, she apparently isn't ashamed to hide them.

According to an associate of hers at the D.C. power litigation shop of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, Gorelick has made no secret to friends and associates that she has been speaking regularly with people who prepped her former boss at the Department of Justice, Janet Reno.

While Gorelick is said by knowledgeable sources to have not actively participated in the prepping of Reno -- evidence of this was confirmed by Reno's addled testimony before the commission on Tuesday -- they said Gorelick did take an interest in the former attorney general's testimony preparation, and may have tipped the commission's hand on areas of interest. It was all for nothing, however, given Reno's rambling, at time incoherent and often inaccurate testimony.

"How could she not care?" asked a former Clinton staffer. "It was in her interest to have her former boss do well and defend the agency she helped to run."

What set 9/11 commission staffers' off was the bomb dropped by Attorney General John Ashcroft, when he detailed the newly declassified memo that further buttressed the legal wall that forbade criminal investigators from sharing intelligence with the intelligence agencies. That memo, written by Gorelick when she was at DOJ, had not been requested by the 9/11 commission, because they didn't know about it.

"When we did our initial interviews with all of the commissioners, we asked if they had any knowledge, background information or potential insights into areas we might cover," says a commission staffer. "We asked Gorelick point blank about this kind of stuff and she said nothing about it. No one saw it coming. Even she seemed surprised. I don't know what she was thinking."

Gorelick was so stunned that she handed off her prepared questions for the attorney general to fellow commissioner, former Sen. Slade Gorton, who asked them for her.

"It's too late for her to step down. She should have had the sense and ethical makeup to not accept the commissioner's job. Now we're stuck, and everything this commission does now has the further stench of politics," says the staffer.

Gorelick has further conflicts that have not been widely discussed. While she is not part of the litigation team, Wilmer and Cutler does have several Saudi clients who have been identified as a potential defendant in a civil suit brought by the families of those who lost loved ones on September 11.

Late Wednesday, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, called on Gorelick to resign her position on the 9/11 Commission. But despite some anger that bubbled over among her fellow commissioners after the hearings closed on Tuesday evening, by Wednesday afternoon the commission members were circling the wagons around their controversial colleague.

"She isn't going to have to resign, and they aren't going to ask her to testify unless there is something else out there that we don't know about," says the staffers. "She told the chairman Tuesday night that there wasn't anything else, and he believed her."

THE DASHING COUPLE Presumptive presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry took his presumptive vice-presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton out for a test drive on Wednesday. And boy did everyone have fun. The dashing couple visited a preschool, where Kerry and his advisers initially balked at having him meet and greet the little tots, in part out of concerns that the candidate would not appear "loose" or comfortable around the little ones.

"It wasn't the photo-op we wanted, but Clinton's people were pushing it," says a Kerry campaign insider.

Kerry is in New York for a big fundraiser that is expected to bring in more than $4 million for his campaign, and perhaps as much as $2 million for the Democratic National Committee.

"The two of them get along great," says the Kerry source. "The problem is she just is so big in personality compared to him. You worry that he can't compete with that kind of star wattage."

[lonevoice]

Probably so. Further to the point, she knew if it did come up she could absolutely rely on the committee to "circle the wagons" around her (as they have done) and the biased media to completely ignore it (as they have done). She had nothing to lose and a lot to gain.

[Enterprise]

"It was like the last 5 minutes of a Perry Mason episode."

I still can't come up with the appropriate example, although yours is good. This was something with the impact of a groin kick, or a blow to the solar plexus. It was THAT dramatic! Maybe something like the toppling of the statue of Saddam?

[PhilipFreneau]

It is important everyone knows who Tom Kean really is. You will read conspiracy theories about his business connections, but they are only theories. His politics, however, are on the record, as follows:

"I don't know of any connections Kean might have with the Bushes, other than they are Republicans. Kean is a different species of Republican from Bush. He's an old-fashioned, Nelson Rockefeller progressive Republican." -- http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0212/S00118.htm

"I've met Bush, but I know his father better than I know him. Actually, I've discussed 9/11 more with President Clinton. We are friends. We were governors at the same time. " -- http://www.vivelecanada.ca/article.php?story=20040104004806898

"President Clinton appointed President Kean to serve both on the Advisory Board to the President's Initiative on Race and as Chair of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. He is also on the board of a number of organizations including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the World Wildlife Fund, United Health Care Corporation, and the National Endowment for Democracy. He is Chairman of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Educate America, and former chairman of the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation." -- http://www.depts.drew.edu/media/tkean/

There you have it: Tom Kean is a Rockefeller Republican (e.g., a flaming liberal) who considers Bill Clinton a friend, and who was a political appointee in Clinton administration.

Kean was appointed by the Bush Administration. If Bush approved the Kean appointment, then I have to agree with leftwing wackos on one point: Bush is as dumb as a rock.

[Bob]

I think she recovered enough to ask a few questions out of order, at the end.

Thanks for the clarification. I thought I remembered her questioning him. I just didn't realize that she wasn't going in her expected turn.

[Aquamarine]

And to think a few weeks ago we were all praying for Ashcroft's recovery while he was resting up for this!

[Wolverine]

Thousands of letters...

Letters to the Editor...all across The Country...

"The local press in every community is much more independent..." Karen Hughes

Every Freeper should have the email address of at least 5 newspapers in their state.

 

 

Enter your zip code to view newspapers delivered in your area.

http://www.georgewbush.com/GetActive/Default.aspx

 

 

[Enterprise]

"And to think a few weeks ago we were all praying for Ashcroft's recovery while he was resting up for this!"

Our prayers were answered, with interest!

[princess leah]

I can hardly wait until mayor Rudy gets his time in - he was an excellent lawyer back in the 80s who broke down the Gotti crime mob...can you imagine how he'll break down this commission? GO RUDY! I guarantee you the dems are NOT HAPPY at the way the momentum of responsibility has shifted away from BUSH and onto their side even with all their media minions trying to push things!

[John Lenin]

Incredible stroy about Kean, this whole thing is a scam coverup. I'm outraged at this point.

[Enterprise]

I am beginning to hope that this whole 9/11 commission and Gorelick's blunder is going to turn into a political miscalculation of the first order. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, because it may still take time for this to fully sink in to the national psyche.

[mewzilla]

I want to hear more about what Gorelick did while she was at the DOD.

[double_down]

Put a fork in this commission, it is done. GoreLick and Ben VanFatAste have cemented the image in the minds of most Americans that this is all about politics. We need a few more Congresscritters like Sensenbrener out there on TV calling for her resignation to keep this in the forefront. I hope GoreLick remains on the commission because it will taint the findings of this aweful creation of the Jersey Girls and John McCain.

Tom Keane is the biggest fool / tool in DC. He takes old GoreLick at her word after she has demonstrated an inability to tell the truth.

And why did Slade Gorton carry GoreLick's water during his time with Ashcroft? I thought Gorton was being a little tough on the AG. No wonder Gorton lost his senate bid in 2000 - his RINO vote to aquit Clinton on impeachment lost thousands of conservative votes. Some of these DC repubs never learn that the dems will stab you in the back at any time, regarless of how nice you have been to them.

[Enterprise]

Me too. Like others have said, if she hid this, what else is she hiding?

[mewzilla]

Apparently (I didn't hear it myself) Limbaugh said something today about her gutting some special ops programs while she was at DOD? I googled and found out that she belonged to the DOD's Threat Reduction Advisory Committee. I wonder what kind of advice they gave?

[VRWC For Truth]

After the Widder Carnahan stole his Senate seat, it has to be sweet.

[deadhead]

Thanks, Diogenesis. 9/11 Never Forget

[kittymyrib]

Note that she handed off her questions to that pathetic goof-ball Slade Gordon. I wondered why he was asking such hostile questions of Ashcroft, but they were HER questions that that RINO puppet was reading. I think he has a crush on her, that senile old goat. He and Kean are reason enough for the conservative Republicans to warn Bush that he is treading perilously close to the line for many of us.

[cyncooper]

"She isn't going to have to resign, and they aren't going to ask her to testify unless there is something else out there that we don't know about," says the staffers. "She told the chairman Tuesday night that there wasn't anything else, and he believed her."

Whaddya wanna bet there's more that pops up...

[cyncooper]

Apparently (I didn't hear it myself) Limbaugh said something today about her gutting some special ops programs while she was at DOD? I googled and found out that she belonged to the DOD's Threat Reduction Advisory Committee. I wonder what kind of advice they gave?

I wonder if she already told the commission about that?

[Mo1]

"It's too late for her to step down. She should have had the sense and ethical makeup to not accept the commissioner's job

And WHO was it that put Gorelick on the Commission in the first place???

And gee isn't having her on the Commission a great way to avoid having her to testify??