The Senate Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed documents from the Department of Justice directly related to how Wisconsin U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic handled the case against State employee Georgia Thompson.

(For the back story, search Thompson in the search box above.)

Specifically, they’re requesting all documents related to Biskupic’s handling of the case, as well as “communications between the Department of Justice and any other outside party, including political party officials, regarding the case against Ms. Thompson or the United States Attorney’s handling of that case.”

Much to the chagrin of the Republican Party of Wisconsin and it’s associated media outlets, this story isn’t going away. If anything, it’s heating up.

You can read the full letter here.

Good news for Democrats:

Public approval for Congress is at its highest level in a year as Democrats mark 100 days in power and step up their confrontation with President Bush over his handling of the Iraq War, the issue that overshadows all others.

Overall approval for Congress is 40 percent. The survey shows Bush’s approval ratings remain in the mid-30 percent range, that a striking 39 percent strongly disapproves his handling of foreign policy and the war on terror, and that the public has scant hopes that the president and Congress can work together to solve the country’s problems – AP

I don’t know why 39% strongly disapprove is considered “striking”. Our foreign policy has been shaped as if designed from a combination of fortune cookie inserts and reruns of America’s Funniest Home videos – when Bob Saget was host.

Even members of the President’s own party are starting to abondon the sinking ship that is his Iraq policy:

QUESTION: Do you favor a withdrawal of all United States military from Iraq within the next six months?

ANSWER: Yes 52% No 39% Undecided 9%

- Strategic Vision poll of 600 likely Iowa Republican caucus goers conducted March 30-April 1, 2007

They must not be getting the talking points there in Iowa about how great things are going and any attempt to end this war would lead to “chaos”.

Iowans are an engaged lot, and I expect you’ll see other states follow this trend in the coming months as well.

It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it deserves mentioning. Progressive Wisconsin weblogs played (and continue to play!) a big part in unearthing important information about US Attorney Steven Biskupic’s role in the US Attorney scandal.

Wisconsin’s progressive weblogs have been all over the Georgia Thompson conviction being overturned in the past 10 days, which led many of us to question why that case was even prosecuted by Bush US Attorney appointee Steven Biskupic. That led to more questions about his role in the national US Attorney scandal and again, many of us asking questions that the major Milwaukee media wasn’t about his impartiality in the run up to the 2004 and 2006 elections.

One of the MJS gossip mongers took notice and did his own digging around only to find a direct link between the White House and the Wisconsin GOP that suggest the sudden call for crackdown on nefarious “voter fraud” was anything but coincidental.

Over the weekend, some of the bigger national progressive weblogs like Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos have picked up on the story as well as the New York Times, which will only lead to more people interested in learning the truth, which is a good thing.

And the snowball started rolling because of local grassroots action by Wisconsin’s progressive weblog community.

I only say that because it’s usually the conservative weblogs, not so much of the state, but on the National level that seem to have success with moving issues up the media scale. That’s not to say what we did and what they’ve done is the same thing. Many conservatives relish in the fact that they use that process to ruin people’s lives or to push false information which they then cite from the “MSM” to vindicate their viewpoint.

It’s important for those who write Wisconsin progressive weblogs to see what happened here, and how effective we can be in pushing important issues to the forefront of the national debate.

Patrick McIlheran: Collective bargaining is nothing more than “legal extortion”.

I wonder what the folks actually running the presses that print his increasingly rambling and incoherent articles think about that?

This is the kind of person the MJS hires to write “editorial content” three days a week, an unequivocal anti-labor advocate who compares organized labor with criminal behavior.

Is that a viewpoint that really represents the citizens of Milwaukee and all of Wisconsin?

In light of recent allegations that many US Attorneys across the country were fired because they weren’t pushing “Democrats are committing voter fraud” cases, or they were canned because they were going after any elected official who happened to be a Republican, like “Duke” Cunningham, it’s interesting to note the US Attorneys who didn’t get fired. Like the US Attorney for Eastern Wisconsin, Steven Biskupic.

When you consider the almost unparalleled action that took place this week with the George Thompson appeal, you have to wonder why a case against her was even pursued. As the judges on the appellate court said, there was only the “thinest of evidence” against her.

So why would a US Attorney – who normally only bring forth airtight cases – pursue a case with such “thin” evidence? It was part of a broader goal that we’re learning more and more about as the US Attorney scandal moves forward: accuse Democratic candidates of voter fraud and corruption to scare voters into not voting for them. And it’s starting to look like it took place in Wisconsin as well.

Consider this press release a month before last years election:

“Election fraud and voting rights abuses dilute the worth of votes honestly cast. They also corrupt the essence of our representative form of government. As crimes against both the individual and the government, they will be dealt with promptly and aggressively.” – United States Attorney Steven M. Biskupic, October 17th 2006

Why would the US Attorney’s office put a dedicated Assistant United States Attorney on the case of voter fraud when there’s never been any substantial proof of voter fraud in Wisconsin just weeks before a tight election?

Why was US Attorney Biskupic so focused on the Georgia Thompson case, again in the middle of a tight election, especially considering the strength of the case he had against her?

I’m not saying right now that US Attorney Biskupic was unethical or did anything against the law at this point, because frankly the evidence doesn’t support it at this point in time.

And on a side note, that what separates me from many of the right wing rabid conservative bloggers out there, they’d have already gone off the deep end calling for resignations and using their media monopoly to push the story even further. I’m just asking questions and admitting that all the facts aren’t yet in.

However, the questions need to be asked about why US Attorney Biskupic seemed intent on pursuing a weak case involving the Democratic administration during an election cycle, and what if any role his focus on non-existent voter fraud had anything to do with Attorney General Gonzales firing other US Attorney’s who didn’t share his zeal in prosecuting non-existent crimes.

If you want a glimpse into how much the right wing media was foaming at the mouth about the Georgia Thompson case last year, check out this link that searches 620wtmj.com for the phrase “Georgia Thompson”.

While I fully expect to see the same people do what they do best in the coming days: start to make excuses – my favorite so far, “The only crime here is that we had a US Attorney who was too AGGRESSIVE OF A PROSECUTOR!” – and changing the subject when the facts don’t go their way, it’s amazing to go back and read just how rabid these people were at the time.

It’s also a good reminder of why no one outside their own equally right wing ranks takes them seriously.

Travelgate!!

The poster child for corruption in Wisconsin – according to Wisconsin conservative bloggers and Milwaukee based daily papers – has been set free by an appeals court in Illinois.

You may recall the name Georgia Thompson. It was used in ad after ad – literally millions of dollars of ads – in last Fall’s election by conservatives who tried to drum up some link between her and the Democratic Governor. She was the shining example of just how corrupt the Doyle administration was in their opinion, and Wisconsin’s largest daily paper was all to gleeful to play along.

There’s still a lot of information to come out about this case, but it appears as if an innocent woman just spent four months of her life in jail, and the media and especially conservative’s in this State owe her an apology.

What will be interersting to see is if this case in any way has connections to the US Attorney scandal where prosecuters across the country were pressured into putting cases together during the last election that Democrats were involved in voter fraud and other scandals.

How about that… a major superpower resolved a conflict without having to start a war!

While it’s doubtful, here’s to hoping someone in the White House was paying attention on how to deal with a crisis responsibly and without undue rhetoric.

No, really. Good luck running for President in Iowa.

You may have zero money, very little name recognition, and next to no one taking you seriously – except the folks at the MJS who are just beside themselves with excitment at even the thought of getting to write about you for another year – but if you even make it through the remainder of this year and to the Iowa caucus, that in itself would be a huge victory for someone with the above mentioned problems.

Unfortunately for you, it’s not the 1970′s and you’re not Jimmy Carter and Iowa isn’t the center of the electoral college universe anymore. America is looking forward to hearing about your “BIG” ideas like implanting the population with RFID chips, letting the Iraqi legislature dictate American military policy, and giving up public schooling to unaccountable private organizations.

As usual, Juan Cole hits the nail on the head about the supposed success of the surge we keep hearing about:

For all those journalists and politicians who keep insisting that there are new “glimmers” of “hope” in Iraq because of the new security plan started 6 weeks ago, here is a sobering statistic from the Iraqi government. (I’m looking at you, John McCain. See below for more on McCain).

Iraqis killed in February: 1806 (64.5/day)
Iraqis killed in March: 2078 (67/day)

As the wire services report, that is a 15% increase if figured by the month. – Juan Cole

And yet I just heard a piece on NPR where the interviewer started off the first question with, “By all accounts, the surge is working in Bahgdad…”.

Maybe things are looking pretty good when you’re John McCain and have the luxury of being surrounded by a full company of troops, five helicopters, snipers, and an entourage of humvees for protection, but for the average Iraqi, life is still full of death and destruction.

Maybe Milwaukee’s own Patrick McIlheran will write another entry in his weblog at the MJS to inform us again of how well things are going in Iraq this week?