Thomas Charles's blog

Al Franken now leads in the MN Senate Recount.­ 

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Roy Blunt will be having a press conference in half an hour to announce his plans.  With Eric Cantor having already announced his plans to run, rumors are rampant that Blunt won't be seeking re-election as Whip.

If that proves true, isn't that all but a retirement announcement?  And if so, will he serve out this term?  Seems doubtful.

Let the jockeying in Southwest MO begin!

Today, Mark Halperin does his "Five Most Important People Not In Politics Running For President" and adds an Honorable Mention.

Saw W. this weekend.  It was a good movie in a scary sort of way.

If I am not mistaken, in the archival footage from the first Gulf War, I believe I heard the voice of St. Louis' own, Charles Jaco.

From the Center for American Progress:­

 Â­

New
Report Details How McCain’s Radical Health Plan Hurts Missouri Families

The
Center for American Progress Action Fund, in partnership with the Wonk Room, is
releasing a new report detailing how Sen. John McCain’s health care plan would
cause hundreds of thousands of Missouri
families to lose their coverage, and raise taxes on the middle-class.

Click
here to read the report.

CAPAF
is working with the Service Employees International Union, Change to Win,
Health Care for American Now and the Economic Policy Institute to make
Americans aware of the negative effects of John McCain’s radical health care
plan.

From p. 103 of the DOJ report:

However, William Mercer, the Principal Assistant Deputy Attorney General at the time, told us that he recalled Sampson voicing at some point ­“real concerns” about Graves’s wife’s contract be­cause it did not reflect well on the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Margolis told us that he would not have been surprised if the license fee contract issue “played a huge role” in Sampson’s decision to place Graves on the U.S. Attorney removal list. As Margolis recalled it, Sampson was “really hot about it” because Sampson thought the arrangement made the Department and the Administration “look bad,” despite Margolis’s finding that Graves did not commit any misconduct.72 However, Margolis could only speculate as to Sampson’s thinking because he was never consulted on the decision to remove Graves and was not even aware of the resignation request until it was made public in May 2007.­­

From the DOJ report on the U.S. Attorney firings comes this tidbit about Senator Kit Bond's counsel, Jack Bartling:­­

Bartling said that at some point, possibly in a third call to the White
House Counsel’s Office, he also raised the issue of Graves’s wife accepting a no-bid contract from Governor Blunt that paid considerably more than what the highest-paid state employees made. Bartling told us that he viewed that appointment as posing a conflict of interest for Graves as the chief federal law enforcement officer in the western part of the state, who might be called upon to investigate allegations against the Blunt Administration. (emphasis added p. 106 DOJ Report on the Firings of U.S. Attorneys.)

Dixton was the only person from the White House Counsel’s Office
involved in the Graves matter who agreed to be interviewed by us, and he confirmed that Bartling called him about Graves. Dixton told us that Bartling called him in the spring of 2005 and expressed interest in changing the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri when Graves’s 4-year term expired in October 2005. Dixton stated that while he had no distinct recollection of doing so, he probably brought Bartling’s request to the attention of Sampson and Deputy White House Counsel William Kelley. However, Dixton said he recalled having only one conversation with Bartling, and he did not recall discussing the issue of Graves’s wife’s no-bid contract during that conversation.

In approximately August 2005, the responsibility in the White House Counsel’s Office for legal issues in the Eighth Circuit (which includes Missouri)was assumed by Associate White House Counsel Richard Klingler. We determined that based on the timing of the calls from Bartling, it is likely that at least Bartling’s final call raising the issue of Graves’s wife’s state contract to the White House Counsel’s Office was taken by Klingler rather than Dixton. Klingler, who now works at a private law firm, informed us through the White House Counsel’s Office that he declined to be interviewed in our investigation.

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What more can be said?