Molinillo
Look Who's Back Manuel Miranda is still playing games. You may remember Miranda as the former Republican aide at the center of “Memogate”
You may remember Miranda as the former Republican aide at the center of Memogate -- last year's scandal that involved Republican staffers on the Judiciary Committee stealing and leaking Democratic strategy memos. Miranda resigned in the wake of that scandal, but he has all along shamelessly defended two-years-worth of Republican snooping though Democratic computer files. An on-going Justice Department criminal probe continues to focus on Miranda.
Meanwhile, Miranda has found the time to be the chair of something called the National Coalition to End Judicial Filibusters (NCEJF), which looks to be a GOP astroturf group cultivated just in time to help Miranda's former boss, Sen. Bill Frist, press forward with the nuclear option to end judicial filibusters.
Earlier this month, Miranda and NCEJF sent out a letter to Republican senators urging them to end judicial filibusters. With typical Republican subtlety, the letter compared recent Democratic use of the filibuster to the royal tyranny King George III wielded over the American colonies. (Of course, the competition among Republican demagogues is always fierce, and it looks like Frist is set to one-up his old employee at next week's Democrats-are-against-people-of-faith conference at a Kentucky megachurch.)
In today's Washington Times, Miranda goes ballistic against Sen. John McCain. McCain opposes the nuclear option.
He will have no presidential hopes if he pursues this course, said Manuel Miranda, a former Frist staffer who now chairs the National Coalition to End Judicial Filibusters. This very well may be the first primary campaign between Bill Frist and John McCain.
Mr. Miranda's coalition -- a group of more than 150 conservative organizations that don't normally take part in judicial fights but are deeply involved in Republican primaries -- has begun a letter-writing and e-mail offensive in not only Mr. McCain's home state of Arizona, but also the key primary states of Michigan and South Carolina.
The Times, of course, neglects to mention Miranda's shady past.
In an era that has seen the resurrection of the political careers of death-squads-supporter John Negroponte and Iran/Contra liar Elliott Abrams, Miranda's re-appearance is something of a sideshow. Still, it's worth noting that the man spearheading lobbying efforts on behalf of the nuclear option is the same man who remains at the center of a Justice Department criminal inquiry.