Posted by AzBlueMeanie: I previously reported that President Obama will visit Arizona on August 16: Advertisement The Obamas will visit the Grand Canyon and Phoenix, said Adam Abrams, western regional press spokesman for the White House. Details of the president's public appearances were not immediately available. Obama's visit to Arizona will coincide with the national convention … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: It appears that the "Sham-Wow!" budget deal from last Friday is now officially dead, taking with it Sen. Jack Harper's four amendments (one of which would have screwed Tucson out of its Rio Nuevo funding). The Senate has killed the decoupled sales tax referral measure and the linked personal and corporate income … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The Arizona Senate defeated a bill Wednesday that would have put Gov. Jan Brewer's proposed sales tax hike on the ballot for voters to decide. Arizona Senate defeats bill with sales tax hike The GOP can't find more than 15 votes even with a special dispensation from their lord and master of … Read more

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Former Pennsylvania Republican Senator "Man On Dog", Rick Santorum, is exploring running for president in 2012. No, seriously (stop laughing). From Politico: Add former Sen. Rick Santorum to the list of potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates. POLITICO has learned Santorum will visit first-in-the-nation Iowa this fall for a series of appearances before … Read more

by David SafierAl Melvin didn't sign Grover Norquist's No New Taxes Pledge in 2008, that's certain. He's not listed among those who signed on Norquist's site. However, he did sign it in 2006. Does that make him a fair weather No Tax Pledger? "I solemnly swear, I will not vote for any new taxes, except … Read more

Posted by AzBlue Meanie:

The House Judiciary Committee has released the transcripts of interviews under oath of former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and former White House chief of staff Karl Rove. Congress Releases Rove And Miers Interviews On U.S. Attorney Firings | TPMMuckraker:

The House Judiciary committee has posted the transcripts of its interviews with Karl Rove and Harriet Miers, about the U.S. attorney firings.

The Rove transcripts are here. The Miers transcripts are here.

The House Judiciary Committee has also released thousands of pages of e-mails related to the U.S. Attorney firings. U.S. Attorney Firings: White House And RNC Docs Released | TPMMuckraker:

On the U.S. attorney firings, Congress has also released thousands of pages of White House and RNC emails and other documents pertaining to the firings.

Here are the White House documents. Here are the RNC documents.

Talking Points Memo is credited with first exposing the U.S. Attorneys firing scandal. In this post by Justin Elliot, he reports that E-Mails: On Election Eve, Miers Tried To Intervene With DOJ About Sensitive Renzi Case:

It's just days before the mid-term elections, and you're sitting in the White House watching a close Congressional race when it bubbles up that the the Republican incumbent, long dogged by corruption rumors, is under federal investigation.

That's the situation the Bush White House found itself in when it was reported in late October 2006, first on blogs, that U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton was investigating Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ).

And that's when the damage control machine kicked into gear.

Scott Jennings, deputy to Karl Rove, and White House Counsel Harriet Miers intervened to try to get the Justice Department to throw cold water on the reports of an investigation, despite the DOJ's policy not to confirm or deny the existence of ongoing probes, according to e-mails released by the House Judiciary Committee today. (Read them here.)

In the two days following Miers and Jennings' emails, articles appeared in the press quoting DOJ officials saying the investigation was in "preliminary stage" — which it was not.

One piece in the Arizona Republic, speculating that the news about the investigation was politically-motivated, quoted a DOJ official: "I want to caution you not to chop this guy's (Renzi's) head off." That's the type of statement that surely helped Renzi in the heated days before the election.

Renzi went on to win reelection, but was indicted on wide-ranging corruption charges in April 2008. The case is still pending.

The Jennings/Miers e-mails make for rich reading. On October 24, Jennings wrote, under the subect "re: our call":

"The person I called you about [Renzi] said the USATTY in his area, as well as the local FBI office, said they were unaware of any investigation."

Miers replied, describing how she intervened to pressure the DOJ on its public stance:

Scott, I just finished speaking with [Deputy AG] Paul McNulty. He said what we suspected he would. He has been contacted by a number of frustrated members of the Congress asking why people can't be vindicated in the event nothing is going on. He acknowledged that the situation is frustrating, but reiterated their position that they cannot confirm or deny the existence of an investigation. He said the AG did an interview last week to put things in as good as a perspective as possible by explaining that no one should be talking and that a refusal to deny should be given no meaning beyond that Justice does not admit or deny the existence of an investigation. I observed that at some point, immediately preceding an election, unattributed statements about the existence of an investigation was rankly unfair. He is continuing to think about the situation, but I did not get a lot of encouragement that they will deviate from normal course.

In other words: despite being told it was DOJ policy not to confirm or deny the existence of an investigation, Miers asked Paul McNulty, the deputy attorney general, to knock down the reports of a probe. But she "did not get a lot of encouragement that they will deviate from normal course."

In the next two days, the articles citing anonymous DOJ officials appeared, falsely reporting the probe was in early stages. It's still not known who made those leaks and whether anyone directed them to do it.

Asked about the emails in her House Judiciary interview, Miers had — surprise — a hard time recalling specifics.

In a lengthy exchange, the lead House interviewer, Rep. Adam Schiff, attempts to pins down Miers on the Renzi episode — and gets nothing but denials and claims of ignorance. Asked how she hoped the DOJ would "deviate" from its standard practice, Miers says "I didn't hope one way or the other."

That claim, of course, is belied by her email to Jennings.