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To: Southack; Sam Hill; areafiftyone; OXENinFLA; Shermy; Bahbah; eyespysomething; Mo1; ...
OMG, they are doing it again!

"In a hearing held by Senate and House Democrats examining the implications of exposing Valerie Plame's identity..."

Judiciary GOP pulls the plug on Conyers 'forums'

If the Financial Services Committee is the best in the House when it comes to bipartisan comity, then the Judiciary Committee may well be the worst.

In December, ranking Democrat John Conyers (Mich.) began holding “forums” — gatherings with all the trappings of official hearings — after Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) refused to hold hearings on topics Conyers requested. The forums have been held in smaller committee rooms, often with C-SPAN coverage and formal witness lists.

In a sign of how far relationships on the committee have soured, majority staff recently announced a new policy to deny any request from a committee Democrat for the use of a committee hearing room.

Majority spokesman Jeff Lungren said the Republicans have given Democrats three opportunities to make clear that the forums are not official committee business. Nevertheless, Lungren said, in at least one case, members were addressing Conyers as “Mr. Chairman.”

“They were unwilling or unable to make those changes,” Lungren said. “At this point, if they want to hold these forums, they’ll have to find some other place to do it.”

Sean McLaughlin, deputy chief of staff for Sensenbrenner, recently wrote to a minority staffer in more pointed language.

“I’m sitting here watching your ‘forum’ on C-SPAN,” McLaughlin wrote. “Just to let you know, it was your last. Don’t bother asking [for a room] again.”

A committee source said committee Democrats are still planning to hold the forums when they find other available space.


80 posted on 07/22/2005 8:57:39 PM PDT by Howlin
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To: Howlin
Nevertheless, Lungren said, in at least one case, members were addressing Conyers as “Mr. Chairman.”

Mr. Chairman??

Are they started up their own house??

Sure sounds like an abuse of power also

82 posted on 07/22/2005 9:03:47 PM PDT by Mo1
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To: Howlin

I was talking to a friend of mine last night and told him this is a hit job done from inside the CIA. This whole thing has been a set up since before the election.

Found this trolling on DU:

Larry Johnson to give tomorrow Democratic radio address. Transcript follows:


"Good morning. I'm Larry Johnson, an American, a registered Republican, a former intelligence official at the CIA, and a friend of Valerie Plame.

I entered on duty at the CIA in September 1985 with Valerie. We were members of the Career Trainee Program. Senator Orin Hatch wrote the letter of recommendation for me which I believe that helped open the doors to me at the CIA.

From the first day we walked into the building, all members of my training class were undercover, including Valerie. In other words, we had to lie to our family and friends about where we worked. We could only tell those who had an absolute need to know where we worked. In my case, I told my wife.

I knew the wife of Ambassador Wilson, Valerie, as Valerie P. Even though all of us in the training class held Top Secret Clearances, we were asked to limit our knowledge of our other classmates to the first initial of their last name.

So, Larry J. knew Val P. rather than Valerie Plame. I really didn't realize what her last name was until her cover was betrayed by the Government officials who gave columnist Robert Novak her true name.

I am stunned that government officials at the highest level have such ignorance about a matter so basic to the national security structure of this nation.

Robert Novak's compromise of Valerie led to scrutiny of CIA officers that worked with her. This not only compromised her "cover" company but potentially every individual overseas who had been in contact with that company or with her.

We must put to bed the lie that she was not undercover. For starters, if she had not been undercover then the CIA would not have referred the matter to the Justice Department.

Val only told those with a need to know about her status in order to safeguard her cover, not compromise it. She was content with being known as an energy consultant married to Ambassador Joe Wilson and the mother of twins.

I voted for George Bush in November of 2000 because I was promised a President who would bring a new tone and a new ethical standard to Washington.

So where are we? The President has flip-flopped on his promise to fire anyone at the White House implicated in a leak. We now know from press reports that at least Karl Rove and "Scooter" Libby are implicated in these leaks and may have lied during the investigation.

Instead of a President concerned first and foremost with protecting this country and the intelligence officers who serve it, we are confronted with a President who is willing to sit by while political operatives savage the reputations of good Americans like Valerie and Joe Wilson.

This is wrong and this is shameful.

We deserve people who work in the White House who are committed to protecting classified information, telling the truth to the American people, and living by example the idea that a country at war with Islamic extremists cannot focus its efforts on attacking other American citizens who simply tried to tell the truth.

I am Larry Johnson.

Thank you for listening.


96 posted on 07/22/2005 9:54:58 PM PDT by hipaatwo (When you're in trouble you want all your friends around you...preferably armed!)
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To: Howlin
A committee source said committee Democrats are still planning to hold the forums when they find other available space.

Are all the broom closets booked? They just don't stop!

129 posted on 07/23/2005 2:45:40 AM PDT by tiredoflaundry (Tampa Bay, Fl. The lightning capital of the world!)
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To: Howlin

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murder is less to fear.

Marcus Tullius Cicero
(106-43 B.C.) Roman Statesman, Philosopher and Orator


146 posted on 07/23/2005 7:11:42 AM PDT by eyespysomething ("Old Hippies" re-living their activist youth - the first time nostalgia had a body count attached.)
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To: Howlin; Buckhead; Mo1; Txsleuth; kcvl; Quilla; Son_of_hillaryisevil; onyx

Would this not be a violation of ethics? These "hearings".

They are using tax dollars to fly in their left wing croanies to hold bogus hearings!

Heck.....sounds criminal to me!

And again, not to mention the fact that the lady has been shown to NOT have been under any covert or protected status.


192 posted on 07/24/2005 6:05:30 PM PDT by ArmyBratproud (McCain, you'll never be president.)
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