US Attorney-gate: Kudos to the Whitehouse

[waiting for hope]

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has not been a major figure in the US Attorney scandal, but he did the best job today so far in the Judiciary Committee hearing with former Gonzales chief of staff Kyle Sampson. So I just wanted to put up a short diary to highlight Whitehouse's amazing job today.

On the flip, for the anatomy of a five-minute witness destruction...

~Snip~

And then, Whitehouse asked how many cases Sampson and Monica Goodling have ever worked on. Sampson mentioned a couple cases he helped with, and didn't know about Goodling. Whitehouse then cut to the chase; he expressed his concern that these major decisions about firings were being made by people with such inexperience. This set Sampson right on his heels, put him on the defensive, and forced him to defend the process and get himself out of responsibility at the same time. So he extracted the answer from Sampson, that this was Gonzales and Miers' deal, without having to say it himself, which was much more powerful.

And on follow-up, Sampson said, "You'll have to ask the principals." Which includes the White House counsel, who the WH won't allow to testify. So Sampson's essentially agreed that invoking executive privilege will obstruct the investigation.

A masterful performance. One I would expect from a former prosecutor.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/3/29/132417/479

The path to impeachment is getting wider and wider...:evilgrin:

[Roland99]

1. Juicy!

[Eurobabe]

2. I have been very impressed with EVERYTHING Whitehouse has asked

in the hearings re: Plame, re: Mueller and now Sampson. He's a great addition to the Dem side.

Rhode Island is lucky to have such a fine Senator.

[Justice Is Comin]

3. His background was said to

be very valuable as they were disseminating the document dump.