Jane Harman, McAuliffe & Haim Saban

Reincarnated — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:06:18 GMT

The national blogs erupted yesterday when Jeff Stein's article on CQ was published. Draditional at Daily Kos has an excellent diary about this:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo...

Yesterday, the Blogosphere erupted with Jeff Stein's CQ article suggesting that Jane Harman may have interfered in the prosecution of alleged Israeli spies in exchange for a committee chairmanship in the 2006 congress. The information was based upon leaks from wiretaps, according to the CQ article, of a "suspected Israeli agent". Today the NY Times adds new information that should send a chill down everyone's spine. The wiretapped "suspected Israeli agent" was working closely with California Billionaire, Haim Saban, a Major Democratic Donor. This whole affair is starting to smell rotten....

And draditional is so right.....the whole affair IS starting to smell rotten - and as we know, a fish always rots from the head, down.

There is speculation that the "suspected Israeli agent" might be Haim Saban himself, someone working for Saban, etc.

Check these out:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.c...

http://blogs.jta.org/politics/...

What a mess. But the mess is quickly spreading to all of those who are connected to Saban. And as we all know, Saban has contributed in excess of $251,000.00 to Terry McAuliffe's campaign this year, as well as hosting a large fundraiser for McAuliffe at Saban's home in California.

McAuliffe's relationship with individuals such as Saban on a national level is one of the biggest reasons why McAuliffe should not be nominated to head the ticket this fall. Each time one of these individuals gets themselves into political hot water, the damage quickly spreads to those they are associated with.

The fallout from this scandal is going to be huge and if McAuliffe is the nominee, it could have HUGE consequences for Virginia Democrats.

Ad if McAuliffe were smart, he would return Saban's HUGE contribution along with every penny that was raised at the Saban's fundraiser.

UPDATED: 5:38 p.m., EST

Jane Harman was interviewed on NPR'S ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.

Dana Houle at Daily Kos has a diary regarding Harman's interview:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/...

Essentially Harman would not acknowledge that the conversations reported in the CQ and NYT articles even took place. When asked by host Robert Segal about the reported calls, she first responded by referring to "phone calls that may or may not have taken place," and then again said, "I don't know if there was a phone call like this." Segal asked her about the conversation she's reported to have had with Haim Saban, supposedly an agreement of a quid pro quo where she would lobby the DoJ on behalf of accused Israeli spies working for AIPAC in return for his lobbying of Nancy Pelosi to make Harman chair of the Intelligence committee. Harman asked Segal in response, "How do we know?" This response on her part showed her falling back again to the position that it's unclear whether the conversations ever took place.
She repeatedly called for a release of all transcripts of conversations in which she was purportedly picked up on a wiretap, and then, she said, "We'll see what I may or may not have said."
But then she screwed up. She raised the question of whether the wiretaps were legal--which implied that she accepts their existence, contradicting her previous claims of skepticism that the conversations in fact took place. She wondered whether other members of Congress were or are being wiretapped. And then she stepped in it further by claiming, "The person I talked to was an American citizen."
Segal immediately caught the inconsistency, asking, "but if you know it was an American citizen...." He then immediately followed up with, "you're saying it was an American citizen..." Harman deflected both questions, instead declaring it an "abuse of power that Members of Congress are wiretapped and maybe some part of some investigation" and "I was never told by the Justice Dept that I was being investigated." This latter bizarre statement implies she thinks she's entitled to something other citizens are not: notification that their possible illegal actions are being monitored, so they would then know to no longer conduct their potential illegal activities in a manner enabling wthe DoJ to build a case.

Blue Commonwealth - Saban

Jane Harman, McAuliffe & Haim Saban