What The Hell Is Really Going On HERE?

While no one was awake or paying attention, the White House went to court:

FROM MSNBC: WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is laying out a new secrecy defense in an effort to end a court battle about the White House visits of now-imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The administration agreed last year to produce all responsive records about the visits "without redactions or claims of exemption," according to a court order.

But in a court filing Friday night, administration lawyers said that the Secret Service has identified a category of highly sensitive documents that might contain information sought in a lawsuit about Abramoff's trips to the White House.

Abramoff? We're still dealing with issues related to Abramoff? Talk about a story with legs. One would have thought that Jack would be sitting in his cell, having washed his hands of this and finished telling everything he knew.

But no, it gets better:

'Sensitive Security Records'
The Justice Department, citing a Cold War-era court ruling, declared that the contents of the "Sensitive Security Records" cannot be publicly revealed even though they could show whether Abramoff made more visits to the White House than those already acknowledged.

"The simple act of doing so ... would reveal sensitive information about the methods used by the Secret Service to carry out its protective function," the Justice Department argued.

"This is an extraordinary development and it raises the specter that there were additional contacts with President Bush or other high White House officials that have yet to be disclosed," said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group that filed the suit. "We've alleged that the government has committed misconduct in this litigation and frankly this is more fuel for that fire."

A response by White House spokesman Trey Bohn referred to the Secret Service, saying, "We have nothing to add to the USSS. position as stated in the court filing."

Unadulterated bullshit, that's what this is. The White House is on the cusp of getting caught doing something ELSE that betrays the Constitution, ignores the rule of law, and does nothing but feed money into the Republican political apparatus.

Your Republican Party at work.

Will Abramoff STILL be a relevant issue on 2008? It's starting to look like he will be.

"I don't know him," Bush said at the presidential news conference in January 2006. "I've never sat down with him and had a discussion with the guy."

After Bush's comments, Abramoff wrote an e-mail to the national editor of Washingtonian magazine saying that Bush had seen him "in almost a dozen settings, and joked with me about a bunch of things, including details of my kids. Perhaps he has forgotten everything, who knows."

Another lie, another example of pure corruption, another stain on a record full of stains.

What else is there to be outraged about? What else have they done in the last 24 hours. I'm sooooooo glad dignity and honor have been restored to the White House. I'm so glad the adults have been in charge for the last seven years. You know, this country has been so very well taken care of by having two former oil men in charge and by having such professional corporate types running things.

Yeah, it's hard to find the appropriate level of outrage. I'm just being half-heartedly sarcastic because I just can't believe it...I can't.

Wow.

Remember the D.C. Madame Story?

Well, it didn’t quite go away after all, although it did lay low for a few weeks. Today, a new wrinkle was added, when the judge ruled that Ms. Palfrey can disseminate her call logs. All over D.C., sales of antacids went through the roof.

I wonder how many husbands walked in their front doors tonight and said, "Honey, sit down. We need to talk."

In a ruling filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Judge Gladys Kessler vacated two previous orders that barred veteran pimp Deborah Palfrey from selling or distributing a decade's worth of phone records for Pamela Martin & Associates, the escort service Palfrey founded in 1993 and ran for 13 years. In the ruling, Kessler rejected various prosecution arguments, including the claim that potential witnesses could be harassed if the phone logs were disseminated. Before Kessler issued a pair of temporary restraining orders, Palfrey provided ABC News with four years worth of her escort service's phone logs, which the network used for a May sweeps report on "20/20." The records are Palfrey's own property and not the subject of a government forfeiture action. As such, Kessler ruled, she was not going to take the "extraordinary step of freezing the personal property of an individual, not yet convicted of any crime, and barring her from giving away that property." (emphasis added)

(h/t The Smoking Gun)

So – how many resignations tomorrow? And of those without the sense to resign, how many will have their clearances investigated? (Here's hoping all of 'em.)

I have been saying from the outset that if you think this latest incarnation of a D.C. Madame is about sex, I have a bridge to sell you. This is about national security, and people with top-level clearances consorting and cavorting with hookers.

The Friday news-dump just got a whole lot more interesting!

I have some questions...

[UPDATE Below]

I am sitting over here, on the left side of a red state, furiously looking for answers to seemingly vital questions that no one is bothering to ask. This is irritating me to no end.

I don’t care about the sexual aspect of the DC Madam scandal.

I care about the National Security aspect.

Doesn’t anyone else see any parallels with the Profumo Affair? Except the American production features multiple Profumos! Deputy Secretary of State getting massages in his home from $300 escorts and "central american gals" is a big deal and reason for concern.

The war planner that authored the “Shock & Awe” strategy has been named. Multiple Pentagon officers and high level officials have been alluded to. ABC news reportedly has the phone records. It is the responsibility of the national press as a constitutionally protected check against government abuses to reveal this information.

This is absolutely a matter of National Security.

I have a couple of questions for the State Department and the Pentagon.

--What are you doing to ensure national security?

--What is the status of these individuals with regard to their respective clearances and access to secrets?

I am speaking as someone who knows a little something about security clearance protocol. If an Airman from Whiteman AFB gets busted with a hooker on Troost, he ain’t goin’ to complex anymore.

So why are these people, with the highest level access – who actually do the war planning!!! – still on their jobs given the nature of these allegations?

I guess I have a question for the mainstream media too…

Where the hell is the National Security beat? Why is this question not being asked by them?

UPDATE: Dana Milbank at the WaPo has an interesting gossip column take on the case. Yet still no one is asking the hard National Security questions.

[Cross-posted from Watching Those We Chose]