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(CNSNews.com) - The campaign manager for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is being linked to the Senate Judiciary Committee's "Memogate" controversy, which involves alleged Democratic efforts to delay the confirmation of President Bush's judicial nominees. Mary Beth Cahill, a former chief of staff to Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), left her Senate job last November to become Kerry's campaign manager. But in April 2002 when Cahill worked for Kennedy, her name was attached to a controversial memo spelling out a plan to delay the confirmation of Julia Smith Gibbons to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Washington Times reported...

Memo urged delay of judicial nominee By Charles Hurt THE WASHINGTON TIMES A Senate Judiciary Committee lawyer urged Sen. Edward M. Kennedy to use the judicial-confirmation process to affect an affirmative-action case to which she once had been a party..... ~Excerpt~ The memo was carbon-copied to five other Kennedy staffers, including one named "Mary Beth." According to Senate financial records from that time, the only "Mary Beth" on staff then was Chief of Staff Mary Beth Cahill, who is now running the presidential-election campaign of fellow Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry. {excerpt, see link for complete article}

A Senate Judiciary Committee lawyer urged Sen. Edward M. Kennedy to use the judicial-confirmation process to affect an affirmative-action case to which she once had been a party. (snip) The leaders of several conservative judiciary groups noted that they specifically have asked Majority Leader Bill Frist, Tennessee Republican, to investigate the matter, especially because the 6th Circuit covers his home state. Frist spokeswoman Amy Call was not familiar with the matter and did not return a phone call seeking comment.

(CNSNews.com) - A government watchdog group says it knows who wrote an incriminating memo to Sen. Ted Kennedy, recommending that he delay the confirmation of one of President Bush's judicial nominees -- apparently to influence the outcome of an important pending case. According to The Center for Individual Freedom, two of Sen. Kennedy's former aides -- in a memo dated April 17, 2002 -- recommended that he delay the confirmation of Judge Julia Smith Gibbons to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. The reason? To influence the outcome of the University of Michigan affirmative action cases, then...

Hatch and Frist Fire Whistle-blower Posted March 30, 2004 By John M. Powers GOP scapegoat Miranda has become a hero to conservative groups. Republican leaders have broken a promise they made to expose the shocking contents of memos exchanged among Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats, says Manuel Miranda, the former GOP aide who is the whistle-blower at the center of the so-called Memogate scandal. Miranda tells Insight in an exclusive interview that both Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) broke clearly stated promises to expose collusion between top Democrats and special-interest groups seeking...

Urge Senator Kennedy To Clear His Name On November 14, 2003, the Wall Street Journal published an internal U.S. Senate memorandum dated April 17, 2002, written to Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) by one of his staff members. The memo details a request by Elaine R. Jones, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, to delay Senate action on all judicial nominees to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit until the then-pending University of Michigan affirmative action cases were decided by that court. This request was anything but innocuous, as Ms. Jones was participating...

<p>As the dust settles in the Judiciary Committee fuss over Republican snooping into Democrats' memos, several legal scholars said yesterday they were shocked by a memo showing staffers in Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's office plotting to manipulate one of the most significant court cases in recent years.</p>

WASHINGTON - As early as October 2001, a GOP nominations clerk on the Senate Judiciary Committee made a startling discovery: He could - easily, it turns out - tap into the personal files of Democratic staffers. So, he did. It started with a search for "Judge Charles Pickering," a controversial nominee up for a seat on the Fifth Circuit. Some 18 months later, he had downloaded more than 4,000 files laying out the Democrat's backroom strategy on the toughest partisan fight in Congress. The affair of the purloined Senate Judiciary files - now headed to the Justice Department for possible...

For several months, Senate action on President Bush’s judicial nominees has ground to a halt as the Judiciary Committee and its members have been consumed with what has become popularly known as "Memogate." The term refers to reportedly more than 4,000 memoranda to and from Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that outline troubling collusion between liberal special interest groups and Committee Democrats to obstruct the confirmation of many of the President’s judicial nominees. Investigations have been launched that, thus far, have focused solely on how the memos were obtained by Republican staffers on the Committee and how they...

<p>March 13, 2004 -- The Wall Street Journal last fall reported the details of Democratic strategy memos on how to derail Bush administration judicial nominations. An investigation disclosed that GOP staffers had obtained the documents from computers shared with Democrats on the Judiciary Committee. But a 65-page report released by the Senate's sergeant-at-arms confirmed what the Republicans had said all along: They didn't hack into any computers or steal any documents.</p>

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- The attorney for Manuel Miranda fired back at the report issued by Senate Sergeant at Arms Bill Pickle. The report focused on the activities of Miranda, the former counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee and the person accused of improperly obtaining Democratic strategy memos which outline efforts by liberal special interest groups to influence committee activities. In a letter to the Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Miranda's attorney, Adam Augustine Carter, called on the members to bring closure to the investigation "not for fear that he would not be fully vindicated, but for the...

<p>The Senate Judiciary Committee members agreed last night to skirt any decision on how to proceed with the investigation into Republican snooping of Democratic computer files.</p> <p>Democrats and Republicans arrived at the decision after spending the day in a series of meetings quarrelling over minor details in three versions of a letter to be sent to Attorney General John Ashcroft.</p>

<p>Republicans either get a spine today or continue their Academy Award-winning performance as amoebas in a continuing role.</p> <p>Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are scheduled to meet behind closed doors to decide their next step in the "Memogate" scandal. At least two GOP committee staffers accessed Democrat committee memos through a shared filed server. And that's where the investigation has concentrated. Was the "accessing" -- a click of the mouse that was not "hacking" -- criminal?</p>

Washington never ceases to amuse. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.), himself no stranger to leaking, is furious that Democrat staff memos on politicizing judicial confirmations were read and disclosed. The fact that Republicans (including myself) read Democrats' documents on an open server to which they had an affirmative grant of access does not stop his histrionics. Just as amusing, the Washington Post ran two recent editorials indignant that Republicans had read and leaked the Democratic memos. But where was the media sanctimony when, during the Clarence Thomas nomination battle, the Post took illegal possession of the Anita Hill documents, or...

Senate Sergeant at Arms Bill Pickle is to investigate whether a confidential report on leaked Democratic memorandums was itself improperly leaked, potentially damaging the careers of more than 20 Senate staffers. Enraged Republicans suspect the unredacted version — intended only for senators’ eyes — was given to the press accidentally on purpose. Pickle’s agreement to investigate the latest ironic twist came as Democrats secured a key defection from Republican ranks on the Judiciary Committee that will likely allow them to refer the memo controversy for a criminal investigation.Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a panel member who has been outspoken in criticizing...

Hatch caught in embarrassing online tryst with publisher of stolen Democratic documents Twice in the days before right wing activist Kay Daly published stolen Democratic documents on her website, Senator Orrin Hatch appeared on fringe internet radio shows with her. On Oct. 29, 2003, he appeared on her Free Republic radio "Daly Show" and on Nov. 11, 2003, he appeared on another Free Republic radio show with her. Manuel Miranda appeared on Ms. Daly's radio show just two weeks earlier. Kay Daly was the first person to publish complete versions of the stolen documents. Miranda still denies leaking the stolen...

<p>GOP staff members of the Senate Judiciary Committee had free access to sensitive Democratic computer files because of what investigators termed a “significant lack of security” on the committee’s network.</p> <p>A report by the Senate sergeant at arms has blamed the poor controls on the IT administrator’s inexperience and lack of training.</p>

<p>Senate staffers were stunned to learn that more than a dozen names of fellow aides and former staffers were printed in what was supposed to be a confidential investigation report into how Republicans obtained Democratic Judiciary Committee computer files.</p> <p>Democrats are concerned that this new information about the leak could ruin any hopes for a criminal prosecution against the Republican snoopers.</p>

<p>Sen. Chuck Schumer has called for a criminal investigation of Republican Senate staffers who obtained incendiary Democrat computer memos from a shared Judiciary Committee file server and leaked them to the media. "A few of us believe that the only way to get to the bottom of this is for a special counsel to be appointed," the New York Democrat said.</p>

<p>If the Republicans ever do stand up to Democratic Judiciary Committee shenanigans, perhaps they can also force the Democrats in the Senate to "stand up" and run a 24/7, month-long, full-blown filibuster of Janice Brown and the President's other female nominees they oppose. The result will be voters going to the polls in November to give the Republicans a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, along with a Bush-Cheney landslide.</p>