sen. sheldon whitehouse on white house staffers'. . .

. . ."inappropriate" access to criminal cases,
and investigations, under alberto gonzales. . .

christy hardin smith at firedoglake
has made this point far more eloquently
than i might, here, but i've tried to
capture -- in 3 minutes of video and
graphics -- both the set-up, and the
"take-down" of alberto gonzales
at the senate judiciary committee hearing
on april 19, 2007. . .

gonzales admits that about 447 people have
access to non-national-security criminal
cases and investigations data, via the gonzales/
bush DoJ, while only 3 had such access via
president clinton and reno. those three were very
very high-ranking officials. here, it seems,
fairly low-level, political appointees have
such access -- over four hundred of them.

[ed. note: improved youtube video
here, now -- more graphics, music and
20 seconds of additional "set-up" . . .]

so -- where is alberto gonzales' press release
dated friday (or this morning!), saying he will
immediately, and permanently, close this
swiss-cheese access system the white house
staff-rats presently enjoy, given his clear
agreement with senator whitehouse that this
sort of access is "highly improper"?

where? here? no, but this is
a much better way to handle access:


where? here? nope -- the bush/gonzales way: