Redstate

"Drinko de Mayo" any day of the month for a Kennedy

That's emerging is that it really is all about defense contracts, late-night poker games, good cigars, and hookers.  "Supposedly the Cunningham scandal was the last straw," the source said. "This administration may be on the verge of a major scandal."

[H/T:  A BIG HONKING HUGE HEADLINE on Drudge]

Oh well, guys.  Here we go again in yet another round of "pass the bucket, time to bail."  If it turns out to be for real, I have to ask:  Is anyone getting tired of carrying the water?

treated Kennedy with kid gloves, when the odor of alcohol was noted at the scene.

I doubt any regular joe would have gotten by without having to blow a breathalizer or do a field sobriety test.

The Kennedy privilege marches on, and one more Kennedy gets by with breaking the law.

NO, absolutely NO "regular Joe" would have been treated with kid gloves and not had a breathylizer test after just missing a parked police officer and crashing into a barrier.  The time difference gave Kennedy enough time to avoid the DUI charge (if there was one) and make a politically-palatable statement, surrounded with enough mystery and intrigue that it'll never get decided one way or the other.

The evidence, if any ever existed, of his alcohol consumption is gone.  Now it's all hearsay and mindless chatter.  But any other person would have been cuffed, sat down in a cruiser, taken to headquarters, and breathylized.  It's a complete travesty of police procedure and someone in the DC police should lose their job because of it, possibly five or six people.  

While Kennedy has a lot of explaining to do, the Capital Police have even more to do, and I can't think of a single valid reason to not do a field sobriety test or breathalizer given the circumstances.

Sounds like the police higher ups turned the thumb screws in an attempt to cover this one up.

Is that nobody who is African-American has stood up and highlighted how unfair Kennedy's treatment was.  If it was a black man who crashed his car into a barrier after almost colliding head-on with a Capitol Police officer's parked car, and he was staggering and had red eyes, etc., that guy would in all likelihood still be sitting in jail right now.  

Instead Kennedy gets a chauffeur ride home, wakes up the next day and "doesn't remember a thing" and then checks himself into a $$$ addiction clinic, while keeping his office (apparently.)

Where's the outrage?

handed prime example #1 in her "racism" defense of her assault on a police officer.

Although I wonder if the reason the police provided the ride home instead of to the pokey was because of who he was (a Kennedy) or if they routinely sweep the DWI type offenses under the rug for congress critters, and this story couldn't be fully swept because of the accident.

I was stopped for speeding enough times (in places that are nowhere near as security-sensitive as post 9/11 Washington D.C.) to know that if there is even any hint of alcohol consumption you had better be able to pass the test or spend the night in jail.  Nobody except Congressman Kennedy and a few other people could have gotten this kind of treatment, and it's a basic corruption of police procedure to say otherwise.  

We can test this out, but unfortunately we'd all wind up in jail.  Here's the procedure:

Tonight is Saturday night, so go to a big American city and have a few too many.  Or pop a few pills, whatever your pleasure.  Then get back in your Mustang at 2:30 in the morning, forget to turn your headlights on, and proceed to narrowly miss colliding with a police officer and crash into a fixed object.  I think we should repeat the circumstances exactly and control for all the variables except that you must not be a Kennedy and must not be a Congressman.  

I have the number of several bail-bondsmen you can call tomorrow morning.  You'll need them, so if anyone wants to try this, please contact me now.

The NYDaily News is most likely trying to develop, or follow, an action line for, or by, the rest of the partisan press:

CIA boss Goss is cooked

Johnson vouched for the integrity of Foggo and Goss but said, "Dusty was a big poker player, and it's my understanding that Porter Goss was also there [at Wilkes' parties] for poker. It's going to be guilt by association."

"It's all about the Duke Cunningham scandal," a senior law enforcement official told the Daily News in reference to Goss' resignation.

"Supposedly the [Cunningham] scandal was the last straw," the source said. "This administration may be on the verge of a major scandal."

The Daily News is still following this since-debunked action line (from the same article) that calls into question its credibilty:

CIA Director George Tenet took blame for the since-debunked claim in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address that Iraq had purchased enriched uranium from Africa -- a major part of his case for why the U.S. should go to war.

(emphasis mine)

The White House and the CIA dismiss reports on Goss:

The White House on Saturday denied that President Bush had lost confidence in just-resigned CIA Director Porter Goss, saying there was a "collective agreement" the agency needed a new leader now.

CIA officials dismissed suggestions that Goss' resignation was tied to controversy surrounding the CIA's executive director, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo.

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said Goss' resignation also was not related to the recent firing of a CIA officer that Goss said had unauthorized contacts with the press; the firing that found support within the agency and the White House.

If accurately reporting the news does not fit the partisan-media template, they frequently create their own.

I believe Porter Goss is much too intelligent to have let himself become embroiled in the Cunningham scandal.

If she points out the difference, then if her charges are dropped, it will point out that the elected elite are above the law. Exactly as most people suspect. What if they decide to charge Kennedy after she points out the hypocrisy? That will prove her point that blacks are treated differently than elite whites, and that can't be good. She is not the type to stay quiet on this matter, but others in Washington may want her to keep her mouth shut.

It's an ugly situation that does not have too many good outcomes. I suspect everyone will try to bury the whole thing.

Could Goss have actually been trying to reform the CIA, and been stonewalled by the entrenched bureaucracy?  Could he be resigning in protest without verbally protesting?

If he were gearing up for a Senate run, they would have announced it differently than this...

Without grand jury evidence, that's my best hypothesis... Thoughts?

It doesn't have to do with the law -- it has to do with your importance.  I don't want to turn it into a racial issue, necessarily, but the fact that Kennedy was able to crash his car into a barrier and basically get a ride home IN WASHINGTON DC is frankly amazing.

My overall point, if you read it carefully, is that nobody -- black, white, yellow, brown, gay, straight, what have you -- would have gotten that kind of an "extra life" benefit.  I'm a white dude who has talked right up close and personal with enough white cops in my time, in embarrassing circumstances, to know that firsthand.

Kennedy got the Starlight Express ride back to the Mayo Clinic, but there are very few other people in Washington, regardless of the amount of melanin in their skin, who would have.

About the black/white issue, my question is rhetorical.  My concern is that in this case it seems that the person culpable didn't get the same treatment all the rest of us would have.

Does anyone have a premium membership at Rasmussen? They are listing a WV Senate Poll under the premium membership. I'd like to know if it is a new one, or the old February poll and if it is new, how much does Raese (or whoever wins the primary) have to make up.

is going to be paltry, given the fact the police opted to provide limo service rather than do their jobs, and administer the breathalizer or field sobriety tests.

A good defense attorney (and Kennedy will have one of those) will eat the police and prosecution up on this.

Nope, McKinny, at the very least can argue racism in the media with this one.

Although, the fact that Kennedy is a Dem and has the last name Kennedy may be what keeps her mouth shut, but I don't think it is the risk that Kennedy might get charged and screw her "racism" defense.

Although, I don't think this is a matter of racism, it is a matter of privilege (I am not even convinced that a congressman without the last name Kennedy would have been given the limo service home in lieu of a breathalizer and a trip to the pokey).

This is it, the last game of the best first round series in a long time: Lakers/Suns.

TNT's been running Rocky I-IV as pre-pregame, which is almost as bloody as Leandro Barbosa and Raja Bell have gotten, as they've stupidly stuck their mouths in right behind Kobe's back.

... and pretty convincingly, too. Thus significantly reducing the risk that the earth would crack open as a result of the Clippers reaching the third round of the playoffs...

You resign if you are protesting a decision made above you in the chain of command, not below you. For your hypothesis to be correct, that means someone above him is bucking the clean up. Yet everyone knows that is what Bush sent him to do. Furthermore, if you resign for that reason, you make it public, otherwise it does no good. You can object privately all you want and never get into trouble if you tow the line publicly.

...They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place....

It was designed to prevent one party from arresting their opponents and then calling a quoroum with only their party members.

Thus Kennedy can't get drug charges until after Congress isn't in session.

It doesn't matter anymore whether Kennedy was drinking at the time of his crash.  He's admitted to having taken Ambien - and entered treatment for addiction to same - and his driving (lights out, wrong lane, swerving, missing a police car and crashing into a barricade) would be prima facie evidence of impairment.

D.C. could easily prosecute this one if they chose to.  The question is, what will they choose?  

(BTW, in DC and elsewhere it is common for first time offenders to get "diversion" which means, in essence, complete a government treatment program and charges will be dropped after six months.)