Harriet Miers' law firm scandal-- corrupt business and tax shelters

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

As though the already gathering spectacle of Bush's fiasco with the Harriet Miers nomination weren't enough entertainment as it is, now we have a scandal to add to the joy of a Rethug disaster-in-the-making. It turns out that Miers' Dallas law firm has been involved in some unacceptable and apparently illegal deals with its clients to evade paying their taxes and screw the US Treasury out of billions-- by finding offshore tax shelters that even Dubya's IRS felt obliged to go after and shut down. She not only assisted a number of firms in finding such borderline or blatantly illegal tax firms-- she charged them each about $50,000 a pop, essentially milking these firms for over $3 million to find the latest and greatest places to screw over the American people.

http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2005/10/miers_law_firm_.html
http://bluemassgroup.typepad.com/blue_mass_group/2005/10/tax_shelter_sle.html

Ah, on top of the fact that she's a Bush crony and an unqualified nominee with no Constitutional law experience whatsoever, and a defender of polluting and consumer-screwing big businesses to boot, her law firm's even been involved in more than a few shady deals with tax shelters. Not only is this against the law and a target for the IRS-- it's also further ammunition to attack the Bush Administration with.

Few things are more unpopular with the American public than companies and fat cats that refuse to pay their taxes while forcing hard-working and downtrodden poor and middle-class families to pay the difference. And Miers' firm supported not one, not two, but 70 such companies to screw over the Treasury and increase the burden on poor Americans.

Make sure to spread this story around far and wide so that it reaches the NY Times and WaPost-- don't let them continue to spin these things away and kiss up to Bush. Blog about it, make sure that it's heard. And, keep the fire on Reid, Schumer and any other DLC'er or Rethug-in-Dem's-clothing who's even thinking about casting a vote in favor of Miers. She's so ridiculously unqualified and repugnant a choice that the "NAY" votes should be almost unanimous in defeat of the Miers nomination.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Neo-Cronies, same old con. Nominated.

[JanusAscending]

2. Mark my words............

She will say, if questioned about this......"it all happened before she was born again"

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

3. Ha, LMAO

She'd probably believe that excuse too. The only thing more fun than watching a Rethug scandal unfold, is watching their lame attempts to escape from its grip.

[rucky]

9. the worse you were before finding jeebus...

the more points you score.

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

10. Fantastic images!

Tom Delay meets the Smoking Gun-- I like it!

[Donna Zen]

4. And look who's doing the vetting of the Supremes:

The Four Horseman

And from David Broder


snip...

It's too soon to judge this nomination. But my guess is that in the end it is the liberals who will have the most misgivings about Miers.

I came to that conclusion after a breakfast interview -- by coincidence the morning of the president's announcement -- with Leonard Leo, who is on leave as executive vice president of the Federalist Society to work with the White House on judicial confirmation issues.

I think we have a Corporate Christian Reconstructionist waiting for us.

[FreedomAngel82]

5. Maybe through this

a lot of the conservative Christians will realize the republicans don't care about what they want. Bush is nothing more then a corporation "president". Miers proves this even more and Cheney and Haliburton.

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

6. Indeed

Maybe the social conservatives and the grass-roots evangelicals will realize that we've been right all along-- that the Republicans are nothing more than a bunch of cronyist, corrupt, effete kiss-ups to big business who couldn't care less about their own base, let alone normal people in general. All those characterizations of the GOP as comprised of greedy, wealth-siphoning sycophants to power and money, are being laid bare even for the GOP base to see.

It would be a delicious irony for Bush's newest crony to be defeated by a coalition of not only Democrats but pissed-off grassroots conservative Republicans, who saw how George W. Bush, the Freepers and the LGFers pissed all over the destitute victims of Hurricane Katrina and Rita in the red states, then turned around to nominate to nominate a corrupt, big-business crony to one of the most important posts of the land. Perhaps the Reagan Democrats of 1984 will be mirrored by the Gore Republicans (or the Clark Republicans) of 2008. It's looking sweeter by the minute, and I'm already getting my campaign motors running.

[cassiepriam]

7. She is perfect for the job, as corrupt as the rest of them.

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

13. At one point, Bush referred to Harriet Miers as "a peer"

Little did we know at the time that he was referring to far more than her conservative credentials. I guess a crook will tend to appoint other crooks to high offices-- he needs the company, and Miers fits the bill to a T.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aKx0skMFDB.w&refer=top_world_news

All Dems (and any reporters lurking out there)-- it's time to whip out your detective suits and start digging. Bush and Miers have some things they don't want us to know about, and it's our job to make sure they're disappointed on this.

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

18. Even more to it-- she's in on the whole torture memo thing

So, Harriet Miers is not only a Bush crony and the chief of a corrupt law firm dispensing advice to big companies on finding illegal tax shelters. Turns out, she was also one of the people centrally involved in those memos by the White House authorizing torture, the ones that Bush, Rove and Alberto Gonzalez were so desperate to maintain a tight lid on:

http://www.antiwar.com/blog/index.php?id=P2417


How could it get any better than this? A totally incompetent nominee with a corrupt law firm *and* a central player in the torture memos. This looks more gorgeous every minute. Like a kid in a candy store-- so sweet.

[progressoid]

8. The obvious Noecon response to this is: "There is nothing unconstitutional

about offshore tax shelters"

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

11. Yeah, that's probably why Miers got nominated

What could be better for Shrub and the Neocons than to have a corrupt defender of tax shelters on the highest court in the land? That way, they figure they'll have at least one justice to defend them and their corrupt supporters when their own shelters in Bermuda and the Bahamas are discovered and the IRS comes after them.

It's basically the sort of situation that Kenneth Lay at Enron could've only dreamed of-- to have your judge basically in league with all the corrupt crap you yourself were doing, sitting on the bench to help exonerate your actions. Wow, Bush actually did it. The Senate needs to go ballistic on Miers. No holds barred-- this has to be merciless.

[Bushknew]

12. well said nt

[Neil Lisst]

14. She's been a servant of the powerful her entire life

What does she look like to you?

BEING THERE?

She looks to me like someone whose primary trait has been sucking up to whatever the power was, and serving it humbly.

I think she'll be a bad justice, but I think anyone Bush nominates will be bad. But others might be worse.

I'm delighted she has split the right down the middle.

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

15. Precisely-- she's a sycophant to power

Such a wonderful quality to have in a SCOTUS justice-- at least, if you're George W. Bush, and you've made our own career by sucking up to the rich and powerful despite your own manifest incompetence.

The Dems have got to start circling the wagons on this one and make sure that there's no way out for Shrub. He's in trouble, and we need to make sure that his nominee coughs up everything she knows on Bush's shady little past with her law firm and the National Guard secrets she seems to know so much about-- prior to categorically rejecting her if she isn't withdrawn beforehand.

[Neil Lisst]

16. MWG, she has avoided anything meaningful for decades

This is a person who has been around during a 35 year war in law over everything that matters, and never stood for anything. Even her slight forays into politics were about being mainstream, being in the middle and not standing for anything too controversial.

Anyone who spent their career representing her clientele cannot be a good arbiter of rights for the poor, the weak, the disadvantaged, the minority in gender preference, or race, or anything. That is our job as Democrats, and she's never done squat for any of them.

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

17. Yes-- I'm nominating your post

I couldn't have expressed it better, both in terms of why Miers must be rejected, or in terms of what we stand for as Democrats. Your words should be our slogan, our banner for 2006 and after. This is indeed what defines our party and why we support it.