Top Goldman Executive Director quits: "It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off"

if a top goldman exec quitting and splashing it all over an nyt op-ed doesn't cause a tsunami, it should...

When the history books are written about Goldman Sachs, they may reflect that the current chief executive officer, Lloyd C. Blankfein, and the president, Gary D. Cohn, lost hold of the firm’s culture on their watch. I truly believe that this decline in the firm’s moral fiber represents the single most serious threat to its long-run survival.

[...]

It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as “muppets,” sometimes over internal e-mail. Even after the S.E.C., Fabulous Fab, Abacus, God’s work, Carl Levin, Vampire Squids? No humility? I mean, come on. Integrity? It is eroding. I don’t know of any illegal behavior, but will people push the envelope and pitch lucrative and complicated products to clients even if they are not the simplest investments or the ones most directly aligned with the client’s goals? Absolutely. Every day, in fact.

even though smith doesn't touch on the damage goldman and its ilk have created in the larger world, even a focus on the greed relationship goldman has created with its clients is something coming from an insider... it's good to have perceptions validated...

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WOO-HOO...! Nevadans finally shake off Ensign...!

even from here in kabul, i can rejoice to see that arrogant loser bite the dust...

Nevada Sen. John Ensign announces resignation

Nevada Sen. John Ensign announced Thursday he will resign amid an ethics investigation, insisting he's done nothing wrong but saying he could no longer subject his family and constituents to further investigation.

Ensign said in a statement that he will send Vice President Joe Biden a letter Friday making the resignation official.

"While I stand behind my firm belief that I have not violated any law, rule, or standard of conduct of the Senate, and I have fought to prove this publicly, I will not continue to subject my family, my constituents, or the Senate to any further rounds of investigation, depositions, drawn out proceedings, or especially public hearings," he said. "For my family and me, this continued personal cost is simply too great."

boo-freakin'-hoo...

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Oops...! House Ethics Committee screws up...!

you gotta think that if the ethics committee has identified 30 naughty little kids in the ranks of congress, how many more must there REALLY be...?

House ethics investigators have been scrutinizing the activities of more than 30 lawmakers and several aides in inquiries about issues including defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling, according to a confidential House ethics committee report prepared in July.

The report appears to have been inadvertently placed on a publicly accessible computer network, and it was provided to The Washington Post by a source not connected to the congressional investigations. The committee said Thursday night that the document was released by a low-level staffer.

[...]

The 22-page "Committee on Standards Weekly Summary Report" gives brief summaries of ethics panel investigations of the conduct of 19 lawmakers and a few staff members. It also outlines the work of the new Office of Congressional Ethics, a quasi-independent body that initiates investigations and provides recommendations to the ethics committee. The document indicated that the office was reviewing the activities of 14 other lawmakers. Some were under review by both ethics bodies.

imho, the level of corruption and the number of seriously ethically compromised congresspeople AND senators would be staggering if we knew the whole story...

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Can Conscience Define Us?

In a time when Americans live to work and define themselves by their work, Mike Gogulski (www.nostate.com), is defining himself with his conscience. In hard times, this becomes exponentially more difficult. If indeed we are forced to accept that our work defines us, shouldn't we consider what Mike writes in this holiday note?

Dear tool

24 December 2008 by Mike Gogulski

You are the technician tightening bolts on the Enola Gay. You are the clerk with the bad attitude behind the desk at the motor vehicles office. You are the janitor cleaning up the blood after the firing squad is finished. You are the programmer coding for the tax authority. You are the accountant for the land mine manufacturer. You are the policeman shooting the dog. You are the economist justifying inflation. You are the drill sergeant training men to kill. You are the legislator scheming for graft. You are the hangman tying the noose. You are the tech support person fixing the general’s email. You are the judge who beats his wife. You are the translator for the military ammunition tender. You are the inquisitor strapping the heathen to the rack. You are the logistics officer making sure the missiles get to the front line. You are the professor applying for the government grant. You are the plumber for the prison. You are the editor squelching the controversial view. You are the mathematician for the spy agency. You are the priest serving the pharaoh. You are the project manager bidding on the army contract. You are the installer putting up the surveillance camera. You are the bank officer filing the suspicious transaction report. You are the customs inspector. You are the teacher exhorting the students to pledge to the flag. You are the craftsman repairing the guillotine. You are the engineer designing the bomb. You are the businessman without conscience. You are the school principal paddling the student. You are the receptionist at the embassy. You are the security guard at the munitions dump. You are the agent infiltrating the activist group. You are the carpenter assembling the cross for the crucifixion. You are the chauffeur for the politician. You are the cop gassing the protester. You are the news commentator apologizing for war. You are the doctor preparing the lethal injection. You are the lawyer justifying torture. You are the research assistant at the bio-weapons lab. You are the informant ratting out the neighbor. You are the construction worker building the border fence. You are the graphic designer for the propaganda campaign. You are the soldier bayoneting the child.



How can you sleep at night?



Merry Christmas, you fucking tool.

I carry the chains of Jacob Marley, forged from the sins of my past life. Even though I am not a man of faith, I do believe there is a cost for our behavior in this life. Removing the links in those chains are the focus of my current personal and professional life.

I will not work for companies or corporations that undermine the basic and universal ethical rules that we all know are right. It has cost me a lot of money, time, and friends.

Yes, you must survive and provide for your family. However, consider if you wish to survive by the suffering of others. Real change starts with the individuals, who choose to participate in a society bereft of ethical guidelines, dedicating themselves to following the guidance of their own conscience.

Something to consider for the New Year.

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The progressive blogosphere doesn't walk its talk, Think Progress edition

"d" list bloggers deserve respect too...

Dear Think Progress Colleagues:

I sent in a blog post to Think Progress yesterday regarding the omission of the allegation of perjury on the part of General Ricardo Sanchez in media and blog coverage of his recent speech. I waited the requisite four hours and, since I did not receive a response, put up the post on my own weblog. Imagine my surprise this morning when reading The Progress Report to see that you had decided to call attention to that allegation. Imagine my further surprise when I saw my own words printed verbatim.

The Progress Report

"A memorandum written and signed by Sanchez on Sept. 14, 2003, contained as an enclosure the specific interrogation techniques authorized to be used in Iraq, and also noted that these methods were potentially in contravention of the Geneva Conventions."

And, yes, I DO take it personally

"The memorandum written and signed by General Sanchez on September 14, 2003, contained as an enclosure the specific interrogation techniques authorized to be used in Iraq, and also noted those that were potentially in contravention of Geneva."

I find the lack of the simple courtesy of even sending a private email with a thank-you for the tip to be both disappointing and sadly unprofessional. You can be certain I won't make the same mistake twice.

i take great pains to credit all sources whether they be news media outlets or bloggers... the last thing i want to do is try to pretend that all the stuff i put out here is the product of my own fertile mind and diligent research... i don't think it's too much to ask to expect the same treatment in return...

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Turkmenistan deja vu AND it has ENORMOUS GAS FIELDS!

there i was, innocently skimming through my nyt emailed headlines, when suddenly, a familiar name¹ ... hark² , i said to myself, what is THIS...? turkmenistan...?

Seeking the Persona of New Turkmen Leader

the article's headline triggered the association... i hurriedly went to my blogpost archives, and, sure enough, there it was...

How do journalists get to the REAL truth?

why, yes, indeed, i HAD posted on turkmenistan, and only a week and a half ago too... (no smart remarks about short-term memory loss, please...) it was all about ken silverstein's undercover exposé of washington lobbyists in harper's magazine where he posed as the representative for a group of turkmenistan investors.. (while a journalistic coup, it nonetheless ignited a small brushfire of ethical criticism, see here)... under his assumed persona, silverstein met with two p.r. agencies, seeking to contract their services for improving the image of turkmenistan, a country silverstein and many others characterize as "slightly less Stalinist" than north korea... part of what each agency proposed in response was to conduct an intensive p.r. campaign to improve turkmenistan's image with both congress and the public, in part by strategically placing favorable news items in major media outlets... well, stick me in a dress and call me shirley if the nyt article doesn't come across as just that kind of placement...

Since a rigged election in February, the new president [Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov] (whose name is pronounced gur-BAHN-goo-lee bair-dee-mukh-ha-MAY-doff) has assumed a job extraordinary in both its oddness and its possibilities. He has succeeded the megalomaniac who called himself Turkmenbashi, the Leader of All Turkmens.

With this post, Mr. Berdymukhammedov sits atop a personality cult so pervasive that even in death the identity of the president is inseparable from that of the country.

But he has inherited more than golden statues and unchecked dominion over a frightened population. He holds the keys to enormous gas fields and state coffers, and has lines of eager suitors from China, Russia, Turkey, Iran, Israel, the European Union and the United States.

He has promised reform, and there are signs of change, including a slight easing of the government’s iron grip over the populace.

question... is this news or is it a p.r. placement...? i lean toward news mainly because the article does go on to state the following...

• Turkmenistan is governed in part by fear, a place where uttering the president’s name in public can cause people to flinch, whisper and hush.

• Diplomats describe [Saparmurat Niyazov, the dictator who had ruled since the Soviet Union’s collapse, and Berdymukhammedov's predecessor] with words diplomats do not typically use: madman, sadist, freak, thief.

• [Niyazov] assembled a government that was opaque and impenetrable. Six months after his death, no one pretends to be able to peer in.

• [O]ne European diplomat, describing interactions with Turkmen officials ... “They are afraid to talk in all meetings, because everything is bugged as far as they know.”

it's up to us to decide - truth or spin, real or memorex... but, don't forget, TURKMENISTAN HAS ENORMOUS GAS FIELDS...!

1. hark
Pronunciation: 'härk
Function: intransitive verb
Etymology: Middle English herkien; akin to Old High German hOrechen to listen, Old English hIeran to hear
: to pay close attention

2. dé·jà vu
Pronunciation: "dA-"zhä-'vü, -'v[ue]
Function: noun
Etymology: French, adjective, literally, already seen
1 a : the illusion of remembering scenes and events when experienced for the first time b : a feeling that one has seen or heard something before
2 : something overly or unpleasantly familiar

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How do journalists get to the REAL truth?

there's an interesting journalistic ethics kerfuffle percolating... a number of news outlets, including alternet, picked up on ken silverstein's exposé of washington lobbyists in this month's harper's magazine... silverstein went undercover to gather information for the lengthy article, assuming the alias, "kenneth case," and, according to bill moyers' blog, posed...

...as the representative of a fictitious investment group with business interests in Turkmenistan, and approached several prominent Washington lobbying firms to see how they might bolster the image of Turkmenistan as a viable international economic and diplomatic partner.

from the harper's article...

The U.S. General Accounting Office estimated in 1990 that less than half of foreign lobbyists who should register under FARA [Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938] actually do so, and there is no evidence that matters have improved. In theory, violators can be heavily fined and even sent to prison, but almost no one has been prosecuted for ignoring the act, so there are few risks for non-compliance. Those firms that do register generally reveal little information beyond the names of their clients, the fees they pay, and limited information about whom they contact. Because disclosure requirements are so lax, it is nearly impossible to monitor the activities of foreign lobbyists. What little knowledge we do have of lobbyist-orchestrated diplomacy—including most of the projects discussed above—has been gleaned not from FARA filings but from serendipitous revelations or investigative reporting.

Which leaves Americans to wonder: Exactly what sorts of promises do these firms make to foreign governments? What kind of scrutiny, if any, do they apply to potential clients? How do they orchestrate support for their clients? And how much of their work is visible to Congress and the public, and hence subject to oversight? To shed light on these questions, I decided to approach some top Washington lobbying firms myself, as a potential client, to see whether they would be willing to burnish the public image of a particularly reprehensible regime.

why turkmenistan...?

Given that my first pick, North Korea, seemed too reviled to be credible, I settled on the only slightly less Stalinist regime of Turkmenistan. Until his sudden death last December, President-for-Life Saparmurat Niyazov built a personality cult that outdid that of any modern leader except possibly Kim Jong Il. High school students were required to study The Ruhnama, Niyazov’s book of personal and spiritual wisdom, described on its official website as being “on par with the Bible and the Koran.” The self-declared “Turkmenbashi,” or “Leader of all Ethnic Turkmens,” Niyazov had his image plastered on billboards and buildings across the country, as well as on the national currency, salt packets, and vodka bottles. He named after himself not only a town but an entire month of the year (the one we unenlightened non-Turkmen still call January). Any opposition to the Turkmen government is considered to be treason, and thousands of political dissidents have been imprisoned. In 2004 a man seeking permission to hold a peaceful demonstration was sent to a psychiatric hospital for two years.

Following Niyazov’s demise, Minister of Health Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the Turkmenbashi’s personal dentist, became acting president. Berdymukhamedov was relatively unknown when he was declared acting president. Some have speculated that he is the Turkmenbashi’s illegitimate son, which would explain his unexpected ascendancy. He had been responsible, according to the BBC, for implementing Niyazov’s 2004 reform of the health service, “which many observers have blamed for its near collapse.” Berdymukhamedov was confirmed as president in an election held in February—he ran against five other candidates, all from the ruling party, and won 89 percent of the vote—in a balloting that he described as being held “on a democratic basis that has been laid by the great [late] leader,” but which just about everyone else deemed to be a sham.

one of the firms approached by silverstein, posing as kenneth case, was apco, the 2006 pr agency of the year according to pr week magazine... from apco's website...

APCO Worldwide is a global communication consultancy specializing in building relationships with an organization's key stakeholders. These relationships are critical to the full range of challenges our clients face.

We believe an organization's reputation is the culmination of how such challenges are managed. In the end, this work builds and protects an organization's value and the value of its products and services.

It is our goal to be your trusted partner of choice and help you create this value – by pushing the boundaries of communication and providing global service, culture by culture.

"case" met with several "key professionals" of apco this past february who presented him and a colleague with what i would characterize as a high-powered dog-and-pony show touting apco's capabilities, its connections in congress, and its proposed strategy for turkmenistan... according to Barry Schumacher, a senior vice president at APCO Associates...

"This really is an opportunity to define the new government of Turkmenistan."

the subsequent article in harper's, a powerful inside look at how lobbying firms operate in d.c., even generated an interview with bill moyers... the issue that has subsequently emerged centers on the ethics of undercover journalism, and, in fact, there is even a poll up on moyers blog asking readers to register their opinion of undercover journalism... needless to say, silverstein's article provoked a response from apco... here is a portion of apco's response, taken from their website...

In violation of recognized journalistic principles, Silverstein neither asked us for comment nor gave us an opportunity to respond to his “facts”. In addition, Silverstein appeared on Bill Moyers Journal on PBS and neither he, nor representatives of the program, contacted APCO for comment. Had they asked, we would have told them these facts:

* In advance of the meeting, and to help us determine if a meeting should take place, we began our standard due diligence by contacting people in the policy community who are expert in the region to determine their view of the new government. Our due diligence gave us reason to hold a preliminary meeting to determine the legitimacy of the client.
* We then held a preliminary meeting where we told Silverstein, “Case”, we would need more information before we would be comfortable moving forward, and that if we decided to proceed, we would need to register the representation with the U.S. Department of Justice in a manner fully consistent with U.S. law and regulation. This regulation requires full disclosure, whether working directly for the government or on behalf of business interests which benefit the government indirectly, contrary to Silverstein’s representations.
* We ended the meeting politely and without any commitment or contractual relationship. There was never a further meeting, therefore no way for Silverstein to determine whether we would have taken the assignment.

as a refugee from many years in the corporate world, i can tell you flat out that there is no way in hell silverstein would have been able to see what he saw and hear what he heard had he approached apco as a journalist... no way would they have allowed him to see their presentation on turkmenistan... rather than being shown what apco presented to someone they believed was a good faith representative of the interests of turkmenistan, they would have given silverstein the journalist version of their dog-and-pony show, a presentation that would have been qualitatively and substantially different from the one he was shown... yes, i have qualms about undercover journalism, particularly the "under false pretenses" part... however, in these days of undiluted spin and outright lies that are passed off as truth, i don't know of another way to get a clear picture of what's REALLY going on...

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A Conflict Of Interest?

RAWSTORY reports:

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday announced that she had picked ten colleagues to serve on subcommittees that investigate alleged Congressional ethics violations. But two of the ten Democratic Congressional members selected also donated money to Rep. William Jefferson, the Louisiana Democrat who was indicted on 16 public corruption counts on Monday and may soon be the target of a congressional ethics probe, RAW STORY has learned.

The ten Democrats will be serving in Pelosi's 'ethics pool,' a group of House members who can be appointed to investigative subcommittees by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct in order to look into ethical complaints. But two of the group, Reps. Barbara Lee (CA) and Gregory Meeks (NY) have donated money to the campaign and the legal defense funds of Rep. Jefferson, who is alleged to have received bribes related to a business venture in Nigeria, among other crimes.

EARTH TO DEMOCRATS: Saying the 110th Congress will be "the most honest and ethical one in history" is nothing more than empty rhetoric if you don't clean up your own backyard. Nor can you claim that you are any different then the Repubs. Something about logs and eyes comes to mind here...

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The wingers anti-Calvert crusade. Dems, are you listening?

this is so very cool... they could actually earn some of my respect if they continue in this vein...

"A group of men and women across this nation ... are tired of defending a party that continually puts into positions of power known perverts, louts, and corrupt common criminals," RedState.com editor Erick Erickson wrote in a post Monday outlining his "battle plan" against Republican leaders. "We must be willing to wage war upon them until they bend to common sense and decency."

RedState is encouraging its readers to refuse to support Republican re-election efforts until Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) is booted from the House Appropriations Committee. The site, which averages more than 25,000 visits per day, posted a "declaration of war" against Republican leaders Friday.

Calvert is replacing fellow California Republican Rep. John Doolittle, who has stepped down from the committee in the midst of an FBI investigation into his wife's business association with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Erickson says Calvert is just as corrupt as Doolittle, citing press reports outlining a questionable land deal in which Calvert made more than $400,000 profit. Calvert sold the property for nearly $1 million in 2006 after securing millions of dollars in federal earmarks to build a traffic interchange 15 miles away.

of course ken denies the charge, claiming that the "facts were twisted" to create an IMPRESSION of ethical impropriety... uh-huh... ok, ken, we'll concede that COULD be a possibility... but don't you suppose the redstaters might have a problem with this OTHER juicy item, backed up by the hard evidence of a police report...?

On Nov. 28, 1993, just after midnight, Corona [CA] police found a car near the southeast corner of Victoria Park. They spotlit the interior, and a woman’s head rose from the driver’s lap. He began to drive off. Police had to instruct him three times to stop before he complied. One officer noticed the man’s unzipped pants and exposed penis. The driver hid his manhood with his untucked shirttails and claimed, “We’re just talking. That’s all. Nothing else.” He went on to tell authorities that he was Ken Calvert and had picked up a woman he’d never met when she asked for a ride. His companion, Lore Lorena Lindberg, told authorities a different story: she claimed to have met Calvert earlier that night at the Office Bar in Corona. She admitted to being a convicted prostitute and heroin user. The only item on which the congressman and the prostitute agreed is that they only “pulled over to talk.”

power... money... arrogance... hypocrisy... lying... sexual indiscretion... they all seem to go together, don't they...? ken calvert... a heckuva guy...!

now, how about a few dems click on over to redstate and take a few pointers cuz i'm not liking what i'm hearing...

House Democrats are suddenly balking at the tough lobbying reforms they touted to voters last fall as a reason for putting them in charge of Congress.

Now that they are running things, many Democrats want to keep the big campaign donations and lavish parties that lobbyists put together for them. They're also having second thoughts about having to wait an extra year before they can become high-paid lobbyists themselves should they retire or be defeated at the polls.

The growing resistance to several proposed reforms now threatens passage of a bill that once seemed on track to fulfill Democrats' campaign promise of cleaner fundraising and lobbying practices.

it's in large part the uncontrolled flow of huge rivers of cash that has gotten us to such a sorry spot in this country... let me post a comment from jim burke to an earlier post that is so common-sensical, it positively leaps off the page...

I have only one practical solution to offer. No more private or corporate campaign donations of any kind. No RNC/DNC campaign money, No personal fortunes allowed for campaigning. The only money allowed for a campaign would come from the Treasury. An allowance amount based on the position and for a fixed period before the election. Mandatory equal air time for all candidates by media outlets as a public service.

After a few elections, folks not part of the Millionaires club might have a shot at getting elected.

Of course, auditable election results would be a mandatory requirement as well.

Just a dream I have.
Jim Burke | 05.14.07 - 8:13 am | #

sweet... very sweet...

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Nonnie, nonnie, boo-boo, Wolfie's guilty

shame on YOU...!

A World Bank panel has found the International Financial Institution's President guilty of a 'conflict of interest,' according to a breaking report at the New York Times website.

"A bank committee formally transmitted its findings that he was guilty of a conflict of interest in arranging for a pay raise and promotion in 2005 to Shaha Ali Riza, his companion," wrote Steven Weisman late on Monday afternoon.

like i said the other day...

the burden of acting or not acting ethically lies squarely with paul wolfowitz and blaming anyone or anything else is a gigantic load of bullshit... to avoid any appearance of impropriety, shaha riza should have resigned and severed all formal business contact with both the bank and its president, her main squeeze, and if she wouldn't do that, it was up to wolfowitz to dismiss her... nothing else would have sufficed...

kellems must have known this was coming or at least had a very strong suspicion... do you suppose he'll go back to work for darth now...?

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Oh, puh-l-e-e-e-e-eze, Wolfie, give it a rest

this would be funny if it weren't so pathetic...

[I]n a new characterization, Wolfowitz asserted that the ethics dispute, far from an indictment of him personally, amounts to a shared institutional breakdown. He portrayed the crisis as a misunderstanding -- the product of decent intentions gone awry, combined with vague and dubious bank rules.

"While I am prepared to acknowledge that we all acted in good faith at the time and there was perhaps some confusion and miscommunication among us, it is grossly unfair and wrong to suggest that I intended to mislead anyone, and I urge the committee to reject the allegation that I lack credibility," Wolfowitz wrote. "Rather than attempt to adjudicate between our conflicting interpretations of the events that occurred here, the board should recognize that this situation is the product of ambiguous bank rules and unclear governance mechanisms."

Oh... My... God... the burden of acting or not acting ethically lies squarely with paul wolfowitz and blaming anyone or anything else is a gigantic load of bullshit... to avoid any appearance of impropriety, shaha riza should have resigned and severed all formal business contact with both the bank and its president, her main squeeze, and if she wouldn't do that, it was up to wolfowitz to dismiss her... nothing else would have sufficed...

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A creature legally dead while biologically still alive

this analysis by slavoj zizek in today's nyt is very, very good... let me say that again - very, VERY good...

While the scope of Mr. Mohammed’s crimes is clear and horrifying, it is worth noting that the United States seems incapable of treating him even as it would the hardest criminal — in the civilized Western world, even the most depraved child murderer gets judged and punished. But any legal trial and punishment of Mr. Mohammed is now impossible — no court that operates within the frames of Western legal systems can deal with illegal detentions, confessions obtained by torture and the like. (And this conforms, perversely, to Mr. Mohammed’s desire to be treated as an enemy rather than a criminal.)

It is as if not only the terrorists themselves, but also the fight against them, now has to proceed in a gray zone of legality. We thus have de facto “legal” and “illegal” criminals: those who are to be treated with legal procedures (using lawyers and the like), and those who are outside legality, subject to military tribunals or seemingly endless incarceration.

Mr. Mohammed has become what the Italian political philosopher Giorgio Agamben calls “homo sacer”: a creature legally dead while biologically still alive. And he’s not the only one living in an in-between world. The American authorities who deal with detainees have become a sort of counterpart to homo sacer: acting as a legal power, they operate in an empty space that is sustained by the law and yet not regulated by the rule of law.

his bottom line...

This is why, in the end, the greatest victims of torture-as-usual are the rest of us, the informed public. A precious part of our collective identity has been irretrievably lost. We are in the middle of a process of moral corruption: those in power are literally trying to break a part of our ethical backbone, to dampen and undo what is arguably our civilization’s greatest achievement, the growth of our spontaneous moral sensitivity.

i believe that people are fundamentally good... i also believe that we all are exposed, consciously or unconsciously, and, some would say, deliberately, to a daily barrage of input that deadens our sensitivities, represses our natural empathy, and inures us to pain and suffering... this is a terrible tragedy, one which we must all struggle to change... and it's for nothing less than to save our collective souls...

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Subverting the independence and objectivity of federal prosecutors is just fine

this is the kind of country our wise media pundits of the totalitarian right are working their asses off to create...

Politicians should be allowed to call federal prosecutors and question them about ongoing cases, says Weekly Standard co-founder Fred Barnes.

Referring to phone calls made by Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) to US Attorney David Iglesias prior to his firing, Barnes told host Brit Hume on Fox News Special Report, "I don't think there's anything wrong with these phone calls that were made."

They called Iglesias "and asked if what was an indictment of a former Democratic official was going to happen before election day," he continues. "Well now, that seems perfectly okay to me, if they do that."

The fact that Iglesias was fired shortly after the phone calls in question is not brought up by anyone on the Fox News panel.

but, wait, it gets worse...

Fellow panelist Mara Liasson of NPR later concedes, "Ethics experts down the line say that elected officials are not supposed to inquire about ongoing cases."

"Why?" exclaims Barnes in reply. "That's nonsense! Total nonsense!"

to avoid even the whiff of partisan pressure, members of congress and those in the various agencies of the executive branch who are not officially involved in a case, should keep their bloody noses out... why would you even want to risk the APPEARANCE of coercion...?

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