Frist aide forced out

Frist aide forced out in an effort to assuage Dems

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's (R-Tenn.) top aide on judicial nominees is expected to announce his resignation at the end of this week -- a sacrifice offered by the GOP leadership in hope of persuading the Democrats to wind down the fight over leaked Judiciary Committee memos.

The aide, Manuel Miranda, had spearheaded the Republican effort to push President Bush's judicial nominees through the Senate in the face of fierce Democratic opposition.

Miranda declined a request for comment. But The Hill has learned that he agreed to resign under pressure from Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). The Democrats have not agreed to scale back their demands for wide-ranging punishments following a full-blown leak inquiry.

...

 Miranda admitted to the sergeant at arms that he had read Democratic memos that a Republican staffer on the Judiciary Committee accessed through a glitch on the panel server. But it is unclear what rules if any Miranda broke. His defenders say that the files were openly available to Republicans through their desktop computers and that there is no such thing as a property right to a federal document.

Sergeant at Arms Bill Pickle's investigation of how internal Democratic memos were leaked to the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Times has halted the momentum Republicans built last year on judicial nominees. It has also generated bad publicity for Republicans.

 Frist's staff told The Boston Globe two weeks ago that Miranda had been placed on paid leave pending the results of the investigation. But Miranda's fate may have been sealed by Pickle, who urged Frist chief of staff Lee Rawls to sack him, according to several Senate aides.

Miranda confronted Pickle in an e-mail last week.

"Do you think that it is appropriate to go to the GOP bicameral [retreat] today and lobby Frist staff and senators to have me fired, as I am told you have been doing? Do you think that will at all taint the report which you are soon to issue? Do you think it is proper?" Miranda demanded of the sergeant at arms.

 "Right now I think that was pretty unfair," Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said of the probe's focus on Miranda. "I don't have the impression he did anything wrong and we just completely quit looking at was done and what was found [in the memos]. I don't know the details, but I would not be a friend in firing a highly qualified staffer."

uh, FRIEND TO WHO?!?!?!?!

•  OK.

  he had read Democratic memos that a Republican staffer on the Judiciary Committee accessed through a glitch on the panel server.

  I am supposed to buy that?
  Just on the principle, I don't think so.

  I hope this pseudo sacrificial lamb game changes nothing in the appraoch/response of the Dems.
  Jeesh, why do I have to worry tho.

  by Marisacat on Thu Feb 05, 2004 at 10:42:01 AM PDT

  •  And anyway.....

    .... how is an internal memo a federal document? I thought that federal documents get published in the federal register.

    If the Democrats don't get some PR juice out of this one, they're hopeless.

    by Marshall on Thu Feb 05, 2004 at 10:47:07 AM PDT

    •  Under the radar

      Thanks for the update, n69n.  I hadn't heard anything else about this story since it broke late January.  I hope the Dems don't take this "peace offering" seriously.  If they're willing to sacrifice 1 high ranking aide before any real inquiry takes place, there must be more to the story - and I'd be willing to bet that it goes higher than just Miranda.

      by spyral on Thu Feb 05, 2004 at 12:52:16 PM PDT

•  "Do you think it is proper?"

  "Do you think that it is appropriate...Do you think it is proper?"

  www.nornsisland.com

  by n69n on Thu Feb 05, 2004 at 11:16:08 AM PDT

•  What a crock ...

  ... to claim that the Democratic files were accessed by "a Republican staffer on the Judiciary Committee ...through a glitch on the panel server".

  Typical obfuscation (short version: lies). The glitch was more likely of human moral form, as in typing in the deceitfully obtained access/password characters.

  A point of (possible) interest: "Frist" is close to a German dialect form of the verb "frisst", meaning She/He/It eats heartily or wolfishly. My hope is that Sen Frist will have to wholeheartedly eat his words purporting innocence in this caper.  

  by murfmom on Thu Feb 05, 2004 at 11:18:22 AM PDT

  •  "Frist" = limit

    Also, "Frist" itself means "limit" in German.  Hope that means his days in Congres are numbered.

    by AlanF on Thu Feb 05, 2004 at 11:52:30 AM PDT

•  O/T

  I watched the last 25 minutes of C-Span today 6:05 to 6:30.

  Haven't been watching much of it the last 6 weeks.

  boy was there a bunch of whackos slamming on Kerry.  10 times worst than any talking points about Dean, when he was the frontrunner.

  Oh, and the women from alabama rambling about God sent Shrub to beef up our defenses.  What kind of Psychosis is that.  

  I read Screwballs transcript for Monday.  He had on whacko pat robertson.  He kept saying Bush is Blessed, and that everything he touchs turns out good.  It was the same day reports on the $800 Billion deficit and further job cut in January came out.  I get the feeling that Pat doesn't read a paper-web site or watch the evening news either.

  On CNN, Col. Pat Lang, former head of Cent. Com. Intel ripped Shrub and Cheney a new one, for manufacturing intel for war, and CNN cut him off.

  by Al Rodgers on Thu Feb 05, 2004 at 11:47:34 AM PDT

  •  Jane Fonda vs Bush

    it seems in a lot of the callers minds, terryMAC might as well be running Jane Fonda vs Bush.

    www.nornsisland.com

    by n69n on Thu Feb 05, 2004 at 12:28:29 PM PDT

    •  But it was a coordinated talking pt

      Over and over, but not just operatives.

      There must be mass propaganda going on on right wing radio and foxx

      You know I don't read Sullivan, I concluded that he's boring 14 yrs ago.

      but I wanted to read his reaction to the Mass decision yesterday.

      And here's a guy who's been YELLING about gay marriage for 10 yrs.  I saw him destroy Kristol in debate on the issue on C-SPan in 93.

      And here's his chief issue about to go down the tubes because of Shrub, and his blog was one childish item about botox after another ridiculous item in the news.  Nothing on the budget, jobs, medicrap, iraq, bin laden, the draft, corrupt intel.  As if these were the sleep days of 1997.

      Now this guy has a Psychosis to marry someone politically who beats him, and beats him, and beats him.

      by Al Rodgers on Thu Feb 05, 2004 at 12:42:37 PM PDT

    •  HoHo et. al. v Kerry

      It's also interesting that the whacko callers didn't engage in the fonda talking pt or were as intense when HoHo was the front runner.

      sure some of it can be attributed to bush being down 7 pts in gallup.

      And we've always said, HoHo more than anyone else, would peel away conservatives, libertarines, independents, and reagan democrats.

      But there's something else at work, and there are people who would vote for HoHo, Clark, and Edwards, by force of personality, if not policy, who won't vote for Kerry, and that will hurt in a close election.

       

      by Al Rodgers on Thu Feb 05, 2004 at 12:53:52 PM PDT

•  You guys missed the Pickle

  You guys missed the most important line of this entire article: "But Miranda's fate may have been sealed by Pickle, who urged Frist chief of staff Lee Rawls to sack him, according to several Senate aides"

  It is clear that the name Pickle only belongs to mysteriously powerful beings who come from another galaxy.  Whether they are here to do good or harm is yet to be determined but one should always be alert for their presence.  Remember that the old show "Quantum Leap" was based on Doctor Jonathan "Salty" Pickle, who used to skip around in time making tiny changes in history that ended up having major ramifications.

  Don't say I didn't warn you! :)

  by Soj on Thu Feb 05, 2004 at 01:23:42 PM PDT

  •  i believe you about the pickle.

    i believe you about the pickle.

    we've been missing you soj!

    www.nornsisland.com

    by n69n on Thu Feb 05, 2004 at 01:41:18 PM PDT