Rogers serves as Bush apologist for AG resignation

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton?, has not strayed far from his roots as a Bush apologist, this time defending disgraced U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales following his resignation yesterday.

According to a written statement to the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus, Rogers is blaming Democrats for Gonzales lying to Congress.

“America needs a Justice Department focused on the safety and security of our nation, unfortunately the Democrats have made the focus more on personalities and politics, completely missing the important mission of protecting the people we all serve. I hope this change allows us to refocus on that critical mission and our future.”

This is just wrong on so many levels, and it’s amazing that this kind of crap is coming from the mouth – or pen of his press secretary - of a former FBI agent. Even the written statement gets me. When was the last time anyone has actually seen Rogers? Congress has been out of session for the entire month of August to allow Congress to spend time in their district, but Rogers has been pretty scarce. It seems Press Secretary Sylvia Warner is doing all of Roger talking for him, and I’m sure she wrote that statement. Rogers reminds me of the wizard from the Wizard of Oz, and Warner is the gatekeeper. “No body gets to see the wizard (Rogers) not nobody, not no how.”

The P & A carried a brief for office hours for Rogers. “Staff members from the office of U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, will be available to meet with constituents from 9 a.m. to noon Monday at Brighton City Hall, 200 N. First St.” We know Rogers will not be there because he never is, but I wonder if his staff members will be there on the Labor Day holiday.

It seems ironic to me that Gonzales lied to Congress about his role in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys because they did their job and refused to persecute Democrats and stop legitimate criminal probes of Republicans, and Rogers is defending that? The ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Arlen Specter, said to Gonzales, “Your credibility has been breached to the point of being actionable.” When President Clinton was impeached we were told hundreds and hundreds of times by Republicans and Clinton haters that it was not about sex it was about lying. Why is it OK for Gonzales to lie about matters that are truly important to the country and get way with it? Perhaps Rogers can answer that.

It was also Gonzales who explored ways to make it OK for the U.S. to torture people. He also wrote a memo that called the Geneva Convention "quaint.” I’m appalled that a former Army officer like Rogers kept quit about that position. It was also Gonzales that trampled on the Constitution to allow the NSA to spy on U.S. citizens without proper warrants.

There is also controversy swirling around the more than 5 million e-mails that may have been lost or deleted surrounding the U.S. attorney scandal, and many are from another recently resigned Bush crook and crony Karl Rove.

The good news is resignation does not mean they are exempt from subpoena. What’s really amazing to me is that in the most scandal-ridden administration since Watergate Bush has only had one special prosecutor. The only real difference is Ken Starr spent more than four years and $40 million of taxpayer money on a personal witch-hunt against President Clinton, but Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation actually led to a convention in a court of law.

Rogers should be ashamed of himself, but I know better.

Mr. Grin Keeps on Grinning

After taking an incomprehensible stance on the Iraq War Resolution in the House of Representatives, Congressman Mike Rogers (aka Mr. Grin) voted with the Bush Republicans and then introduced his own proposal. You can read it here. It has gone absolutely nowhere in the House of Representatives. He had to know it would go nowhere. He is, afterall, a veteran Congressman. So you have to ask the question: what was the point?

Now he can't be bothered with the needs of Michigan farmers.

St. Johns dairy farmer Kerry Nobis wants to be able to hire foreign workers year-round to help with his 800 cows.

During a visit to Washington with other representatives of the Michigan Farm Bureau, Nobis argued that the country's foreign-worker program should be more flexible.

But he said the argument didn't seem to have much impact.

His congressman, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, "believes that in the interest of national security, our first priority has to be a secure border and once that is achieved, we can work to address unique situations like the dairy producers," spokeswoman Sylvia Warner said.
-snip-
Nobis, 36, was skeptical. "We can't wait around forever while they secure the border," he said.

Over five years after 9/11, Mr. Grin would rather keep people out who want to come to our country to work, to the detriment of our state's farmers, while still not providing a plan for a "secure border." Again, makes you wonder what he's actually doing.

As was noted yesterday, Mr. Grin would like to see the FBI's alleged abuses of the Patriot Act be investigated, but is still foggy about Alberto Gonzales's far-less-than-stellar job performance as Attorney General.

Rogers, typically a strong supporter of the Bush administration, also said that the recent controversy over U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the firing of several U.S. attorneys was not handled well. The administration has denied accusations that the attorneys were let go for political reasons.

"It was generally not well-done," Rogers said, but he refused to join a handful of Republicans who have called for Gonzales to resign. He said he'd rather let the situation play itself out.

Ah, the Wait-and-See Approach. This is rather surprising from a former FBI agent, someone who investigated suspected wrongdoing and gathered evidence so that U.S. attorneys could use such evidence against alleged criminals. You'd think he'd be a lot more concerned over the cheap politicization of hiring and firing federal prosecutors.

Well, now that more incriminating e-mails are being released, the public is finding out more about what was going on behind the U.S. attorney firings, like this:

At one point, McNulty questioned the dismissal of U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden in Nevada. "I'm a little skittish about Bogden," McNulty wrote in a Dec. 7 e-mail to Gonzales' chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, two days before the firings. "He has been with DOJ since 1990 and, at age 50, has never had a job outside government."

Still, McNulty concluded: "I'll admit have not looked at his district's performance. Sorry to be raising this again/now; it was just on my mind last night and this morning."

It looks more like this was not simply "generally not well-done." I was outright despicable. The most egregious has to be Carol Lam's firing.

In an E-mail from Kyle Sampson, then the chief of staff to the attorney general, to White House deputy counsel William Kelley on May 11, 2006, Sampson cryptically referred to "the real problem we have right now with Carol Lam that leads me to conclude that we should have someone ready to be nominated on 11/18, the day her 4-year term expires."

The day before, Lam had contacted the Justice Department to inform it of search warrants issued for Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, who had just resigned as No. 3 official at the CIA and was eventually indicted in connection with a bribery scandal that put former Republican Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham behind bars. Two days later, the FBI raided Foggo's home and former office.

As the clear evidence of gross incompetence and negligence piles up, Democrats and even some Republicans are calling for Gonzales' resignation. But based on what we've seen of our Congressman Mr. Grin, residents of Michigan's 8th Congressional District can expect little more than his grin.

[cross-posted on Honest Errors]

Being in the minority helps Rogers develop a conscience

Mike Rogers has finally gained a conscience and gained the desire to try and place a check on the Bush Administration’s roll back of civil liberties, actually do some oversight and conduct an investigation of some of this administration’s wrong-doing. What’s the reason for the conversion of Bush’s biggest cheerleader? Simple. He’s in the minority.

The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus –long a supporter of Rogers - reports:
U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, has been a strong supporter of the Patriot Act. However, he said a lack of clear guidelines may make it too easy for unwarranted views into private personal and business records.
Rogers said a congressional committee he sits on should look into possible FBI mismanagement of domestic intelligence-gathering methods. Rogers, a fourth-term representative, is a former FBI agent.
A recent U.S. Department of Justice report found weak internal control over "national security letters," a tool created by the Patriot Act in 2001 to ease the collection of information — like business and phone records — in national-security investigations.

Is this a new thing? Of course not, but since the committee is now controlled by Democrats there will finally be some oversight and accountability for a change. Where was Rogers for the last six years?

Although we know Rogers had no choice on what the committee looks at because he is a minority member, we can rest assured there will be no tough questions from him. Rogers remains a Bush cheerleader, although not quite as vocal, and we just need to take a look at his stance on U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Despite other Republicans asking for his resignation over the firings of Bush appointees who refused to illegally target Bush enemies, the controversy over renewal of the Patriot Act and a report last week that the FBI had underreported its use of national security letters to snoop on Americans, Rogers said Gonzales should stay.

Rogers, typically a strong supporter of the Bush administration, also said that the recent controversy over U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the firing of several U.S. attorneys was not handled well. The administration has denied accusations that the attorneys were let go for political reasons.
"It was generally not well-done," Rogers said, but he refused to join a handful of Republicans who have called for Gonzales to resign. He said he'd rather let the situation play itself out.