Cookie Jar Politics

The slime and muck of the Republican Party and King George's administration continue to be exposed, and believe me it is not pretty. It looks like they all have their hand in the proverbial cookie jar. Here are some of the latest examples that have come to light: Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) sells off all his stock in his FAMILY OWNED COMPANY even though the stock is in a "blind trust" to ward off any hint of conflict of interest. Ya right!! I guess Billy Boy is more than a doctor, he also performs miracles by bringing sight to the "blind" trust. Perhaps that is why he sold his, and his immediate family's stock just days before the value went down. HCA gets subpoena to produce documents. NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- HCA Inc. (HCA) said Friday it has received a subpoena from the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York. The Nashville, Tenn., hospital operator said the subpoena calls for the production of documents, and HCA believes it relates to the sale of HCA stock by Sen. William H. Frist. It plans to cooperate fully with the subpoena. The stock closed Thursday at $45.90, down 3.2%. Karl Rove: Now this guy is just oh so squeaky clean and covered with Teflon nothing sticks to him right? Well maybe not. Of course we all know he is among those being investigated concerning the Valerie Plame outing. Now comes word that he may also be tied to Jack Abramoff Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff bragged two years ago that he was in contact with White House political aide Karl Rove on behalf of a large, Bermuda-based corporation that wanted to avoid incurring some taxes and continue receiving federal contracts, according to a written statement by President Bush's nominee to be deputy attorney general. And just how close are his ties? Well TPM's Josh Marshall reports: In all the Abramoff business I'm surprised there has not been more mention of Susan Ralston. In Jack Abramoff's heyday at Preston Gates and then later at Greenberg-Traurig, executive assistant, the one who helped dole out the skyboxes, basically administratively ran his whole shop as near as I can figure. Then when Karl Rove came to town, she took pretty much the same job with him, becoming his gatekeeper at the White House. In other words, Susan Ralston was Karl Rove's personal assistant. (Josh Marshall is now reporting that Susan Ralston's new title is "Special Assistant to the President & Assistant to the Senior Advisor.") And to top it all off Rove is in charge of the clean-up in NOLA after Katrina. Now remember that until he learned the day before he was to be indicted, David Hossein Safavian was the administrator of the Office of Management and Budget for the White House, and in charge of recommending the awarding of contracts to companies doing the cleaning up for FEMA. Well I can guarantee you this much, they sure are "cleaning up", since the top three contracts awarded were "no bid contracts" to Haliburton (previously run by DICK CHENEY) and it's subsidiaries. Rep.Tom Delay (R-TX): This jerk is so covered in slime it is too deep to even write here about. So I would direct you instead to The Tom DeLay Scandals from Slate Magazine. Oh what a tangled web of dirty politics that is the Bush administration and the Republican Party. The "Family Values" party that vowed to bring "clean and open politics" to Washington. Not to mention of course how King George was going to bring bi-partisan cooperation back to the administration.