Posted on 05/25/2004 7:19:57 PM PDT by jmstein7
Jamie Gorelick – What a Girl Wants
By Jonathan M. Stein
Jamie Gorelick wants to be Attorney General – badly. That is why she agreed to be on the 9/11 Commission. Her reward for sufficiently tarring President Bush in the Commission’s report would be a guaranteed position as Attorney General in a Democrat administration. Jamie Gorelick wants to be Attorney General, and she will do anything to get the job.
Make no mistake – this is an opportunity Ms. Gorelick has been savoring since December of 1996, when Bill Clinton decided to keep Janet Reno on as Attorney General in his second term. Soon after that decision, she departed from her number two slot at Justice, biding her time in FNMA and private practice. Clinton needed Reno’s apparent veneer of impartiality to wade through his myriad scandals.
As an interesting side note, Ms. Gorelick also had designs on the top spot in the CIA; Clinton passed upon her candidacy for that position as well, though it had been reported that she was being considered, along with Sandy Berger. Aside from a brief stint as the general counsel of the U.S. Department of Defense, her qualifications for that position – Director of the CIA – remain a mystery. Her judgment on matters of intelligence – e.g. the now-famous information “wall” between the CIA and FBI – has been, at best questionable; at worst, it should properly be the subject of the very investigation she is involved in as a 9/11 Commissioner.
This sort of glaring conflict of interest is nothing new for Ms. Gorelick.
For example, consider the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) scandal – which, it should be noted, was “handled” by Senator John Kerry and his Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Ms. Gorelick had represented Clark Clifford and Robert Altman when they tried to get their former employer First American Bank (a BCCI property) to pay their legal fees, though the Justice Department was involved in the prosecution of BCCI. Further, she had close ties to the embattled lawyers in the White House when the Clintons brought her in to replace Philip Heymann, former Deputy Attorney General, during the Whitewater and Vince Foster scandals. Mr. Heymann had been abruptly fired by the Clinton White House when he objected to the manner in which the White House was handling the Foster investigation – and he was almost immediately replaced by close Clinton ally Gorelick.
During the Travelgate investigation, yet another Clinton scandal, Ms. Gorelick’s Associate Deputy Attorney General, David Margolis, apparently attempted to interfere with the prosecution of Billy Dale and Gary Wright by improperly divulging information disclosed at a grand jury proceeding to Democrat John Conyers – at the time, Conyers was Chairman of the House Government Operations Committee. Despite this glaring, egregious breach of the rules of criminal procedure by Margolis – which would benefit the Clinton White House – Gorelick took no action against Margolis and kept him on. Gorelick is an unabashed political operative to the end.
Jamie Gorelick has been described as a iron-fisted and politically dexterous deputy attorney general. It was well-known that she handled the day-to-day operations at Justice, whereas Reno functioned as more of a figurehead who lost her compass when she lost Gorelick in early 1997. However, Gorelick’s added value was her political acumen. For example, when the Republicans began to attack Clinton’s judicial appointments as soft on crime – prior to the 1996 election – Gorelick set up a “war room” similar to the Clinton “war room” of the 1992 election. Her entire purpose was to control the news cycle and bolster the images of the liberal judges and lawyers in Clinton’s roster. In many ways, Gorelick is every bit as slick as her boss was – i.e. Clinton.
Ms. Gorelick’s seemingly inappropriate functions outraged some commentators, such as Mark Levin of the Landmark Legal Foundation. Levin pondered “[p]recisely what . . . the lawyers assigned to the Justice ‘war room’ [were] doing, and with whom [were] they at ‘war’?” At the same time, Levin also noted that “Mrs. Gorelick's former law firm -Miller, Cassidy, Larroca and Lewin – [was] representing Craig Livingstone, the man at the center of the [Clinton] Filegate scandal [being investigated by the Justice Department].” Not surprisingly, Gorelick, who was effectively running Justice at the time, did not recuse herself.
Jamie Gorelick wants to finally emerge from the shadow of Janet Reno, not merely as the de facto Attorney General, but as the actual attorney general of the United States. Her outrageous conflict of interest as a Commissioner of the 9/11 panel is just par for the course, and her keen political skills will enable her to deflect criticism and keep her position – despite the strong evidence that she should, in fact, step down as a Commissioner and be sworn-in as a witness. A former Democrat staffer recently stated that Ms. Gorelick is on the commission for one reason – and it isn’t for her legal mind. Gorelick in on the Commission “to make sure Bush and his team look as bad as possible and to protect the Clintons and Reno." Her reward for doing her job well. . . the powerful position she has coveted for seven years.
Perfect, wouldn't change a word!
BUMP!
This well written piece by Jonathan M. Stein needs wide exposure!
BUMP!
Bump.
I have nothing to add -- great job and BIG BUMP!! Keep on fighting the good fight! :o)
Anybody have any conservative media contacts to send this to?
Did you ping one of the people you mentioned in the article? :o)
Will read later. You rock Jon!
Well, of course :) I understand he even mentioned my thread on anti-Semitism on his show today.
How about bushcountry.org? They've added things to their site I have sent them before.
No. Readership is too low.
But, thanks for the suggestion.
Great post!
See also:
How ChinaGate Led to 9/11 (thanks to Clinton and Gorelick)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1142229/posts
I would amend this to say, more accurately:
During the early rumblings of what would become the Chinagate scandal, Jamie Gorelick schemed to shield her boss, President Clinton, from investigation by raising the bar for allowing communication between the intelligence and law enforcement communities to unreachable heights ("the wall"). This political manipulation of the nation's national security apparatus ultimately cleared the way for the terrorist murder of 3,000 innocent civilians on September 11, 2001.
Gorelick has yet to apologize and take responsibility for her huge role in inadvertantly aiding and abetting the tragic mass murder of that day.
Other than that clarification, this is an excellent thumbnail bio of that sickening scumbag, Jamie Gorelick.
One question: Would a Republican Senate really be so spineless as to ever confirm this sick scumbag as Attorney General (or dogcatcher for that matter)?
Thanks, Jim!
"...Ms. Gorelick is on the commission for one reason – and it isn’t for her legal mind. Gorelick in on the Commission “to make sure Bush and his team look as bad as possible and to protect the Clintons and Reno."
Mark (F. Lee) Levin couldn't have said it better!! He might have added "Now hold on" a few times, but still, it's pretty good.
of course they would confirm her - if Kerry wins, they will roll over. Just look at Lindsey Graham fawning over Hillary on the Sunday talk show.
I have added the link for this thread to:
GORELICK GATE: Developing...
JM:
This is a fine piece of opinion writing, and I've recently praised your instincts followed by action on these threads. Not knowing anything much about how you do what you want to do, I can only suggest you throw it, with a CV, at folks like Newsmax, Prowler, NRO, NRO's Mom, CommonTator, Cong. Billybob, and see where it goes. You've probably already had more concrete advice, so I'll just say, go fer it, guy!
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