BUSH TAKES AFFIRMATIVE ACTION : A SUMMONS TO GREATNESS?

George’s Curious Appointments .

Examples Abound

1) Viveca Novak of Time Magazine , no relation to Bob , proffers allegedly exculpatory testimony that pundits speculate will aid Karl Rove in his so far successful life long attempt to avoid the dreaded indictment. Viv’s hubby is nominated by President Bush for a term on the Federal Election Commission.

2) Catherine Martin’s husband Kevin Martin , replaced Colin Powell’s son , Michael, as Chmn. of the FCC. Ms. Martin was Vice President Cheney’s press secretary and is a key witness in the CIA Leak Investigation. Her knowledge of what Cheney and Libby discussed during the Veep’s July 12, 2003 trip to Norfolk, Va. is extraordinarily important in determining Cheney’s possible involement in the Plame Leak.

3) By several accounts Cheney staffer John Hannah is a target of the Fitzgerald probe. Unconfirmed accounts claim that Hannah is a cooperating witness. This doesn’t seem to jive with the fact that Mr. Cheney promoted Hannah to replace Libby in one of his dual roles , Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs.

4) In July 2003, Rove’s personal aide , Susan Ralston, was promoted to the position of assistant to the President. The key issue is on what date Ms. Ralston was promoted . Before or after she received the phone call from Time Magazine’s Matt Cooper on July 10, 2003 ? In her first grand jury appearance Ralston is alleged to have testified that the Cooper phone call was not logged because the phone call was transferred through the White House switchboard , not directly to Rove’s office.
Later , she is recalled for a second appearance before the grand jury? Did she change her testimony ? Immediately following that second whirl before the grand jury , Filipino media reported that she was preparing to transfer to the Commerce Dept , serving on the Asia Pacific Islanders Commission created by GW. Bush - via executive order in May, 2004. As Mr. Bush signed the executive order , Ms. Ralston and others were photographed standing next to President Bush.
The transfer never took place.

5) Accompanying Ms. Ralston during her first round of testimony was longtime Bush "body man" and personal traveling secretary , Israel "Izzy" Hernandez. On May 26, 2005 The President nominated Mr. Hernandez to serve in the post of of Assistant Secretary for Commerce for Trade Expansion . This was a promotion from his previous job in the admininistration , senior aide to Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and assistant to the President.
Before being tranferred to Commerce , Hernandez received the princely sum of 141 ,000 in annual salary.
He testified before the CIA Leak grand jury in early August 2005 and was confirmed by the US Senate two months and 5 days after he made his first and apparently only trip to Prettyman Court House

6 ) The US attorney for the Eastern District of Va. , and lead supervising prosecutor in the AIPAC investigation, Paul McNulty, was promoted by President Bush to the No.2 post at Justice , Deputy Attorney General of the United States.

7 ) Two days ago the the lead supervising prosecutor in the Jack Abramoff probe , the head of the Justice Dept’s public integrity division , Noel Hillman, was nominated to a US Federal Court District judgeship for the state of New Jersey .

8 ) The US Attorney for Guam was not so lucky . One day after he subpoened documents relating to the bizaare relationship Jack Abramoff had with the Guam Superior Court - he was their lobbyist - Mr. Frederick Black was demoted and replaced by a man who was related to the one of the target’s of Mr. Black’s now spiked investigation.