All Blog Posts from Political Hotsheet

Tension is palpable among Democrats and Republicans on the House Oversight Committee that is (sort of) investigating Countrywide Mortgage's sweetheart loans to VIPs.

The Democrat in charge of the Committee, Edolphus Towns of New York (left), has himself received loans from Countrywide and has for months refused Republican requests to subpoena records in the case. Today, as Committee Republicans — led by Rep. Darrell Issa — were poised to force an open vote on the subpoenas at a Committee business meeting, the meeting was abruptly cancelled. Only Republicans showed up and Democratic chairs remained empty.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) During The Committee Meeting

Republicans voiced suspicion that Chairman Towns cancelled the meeting to avoid the subpoena vote. Democrats countered by saying the meeting was cancelled due to "disagreement among Democratic members (on) whether to subpoena records on the mortgage industries' political contributions to Republicans."

A Republican staffer captured video of Democrats leaving their own separate meeting during the time the Committee business meeting was supposed to be convened.

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Seven former CIA directors sent a letter to President Obama on Friday urging him to use his authority to reverse Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to re-open and pursue cases of prisoner abuse within the CIA in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

In August, Holder appointed a U.S. prosecutor to begin a criminal probe of CIA questioning of terror suspects during the Bush administration, reversing the course set by the Bush administration. The investigation potentially exposes CIA employees and agency contractors to criminal prosecution.

"Attorney General Holder's decision to re-open the criminal investigation creates an atmosphere of continuous jeopardy for those whose cases the Department of Justice had previously declined to prosecute," the former officials wrote. "Moreover, there is no reason to expect that the re-opened criminal investigation will remain narrowly focused."

Allowing a political appointee to reopen an already-closed case would "seriously damage the willingness of many other intelligence officers to take risks to protect the country," the officials wrote, since they would run the risk of facing "endless criminal investigations" for actions that may have previously been deemed legal.

"Those men and women who undertake difficult intelligence assignments in the aftermath of an attack such as September 11 must believe there is permanence in the legal rules that govern their actions," the letter said.

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Former attorney general Alberto Gonzales says that there is "no question" that his reputation has taken a turn for the worse after undergoing an investigation into his role in the firings of nine federal prosecutors.

Still, he says that being the attorney general was a "remarkable privilege" and that he stands by his service.

In an interview with the New York Times, Gonzales says that it "sometimes makes him angry" that his character has been damaged by his work at the White House.

Law firms haven't been offering him jobs, Gonzales said, although there has been some interest.

"In a tough economic climate, I can understand why a company or a firm would want to make sure that the investigations are complete and there is no finding of wrongdoing before they make a hiring decision," Gonzales said.

Gonzales also says that he hasn't been in contact with former President George W. Bush since he left office.

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Vermont Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy told CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer Sunday that nobody in America, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, is "above the law."

Leahy was responding to a report in the New York Times that Cheney ordered the Central Intelligence Agency to withhold information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress.

"If, as the New York Times says, we have the vice president of the United States telling people to break the law, now that's a pretty serious matter," Leahy said on CBS' "Face The Nation." "Either he did, or he didn't. If he did, that's something we ought to know."

He said finding out what happened is important because "usually if something is done wrong by one [administration] and it's exposed, the next one tends to behave themselves."

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This post was written by Igor Kossov.

This week might bring another ethical embarrassment to the Democrats, who have been stung in recent weeks by revelations of misconduct by some of President Obama's nominees for key positions. The FBI is investigating Representative John P. Murtha's relationship with a defense lobbying group whose offices they raided in November.

Murtha is the chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Committee, a group of lawmakers that decides how much money goes to military spending. Sources tell the Washington Post that the FBI is looking at whether Murtha, along with fellow Democratic Reps. James P. Moran and Peter J. Visclosky, handed out defense contracts based on illegal contributions from lobbyists.

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