Wednesday Roundup: Enough Bad News To Go Around

The information is flowing now about the TYC coverups, and the situation is becoming more troubling for state lawmakers and executive officials. The Dallas Morning News put together a report on complaints and allegations filed since 2000, and discovered that more than 750 have been filed in that time. That story chronicles what is turning into a real mess that probably could have been at least somewhat mitigated by strong leadership within the institution.

Or, things could have improved significantly if initial warnings sent to Senate Criminal Justice Committee aides in March 2005 had been followed up on by TYC officials or acted upon by staffers. TYC officials went though emails and memos distributed to staff for members of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, and produced a few on the situation from around the time investigations began, much to the chagrin of committee members. To me it feels like a failing on both sides; you can expect the finger-pointing to continue unabated.

In the midst of all this, a massive sweep of the facilities by law enforcement, including the Texas Rangers, was underway yesterday. I know it is early on into the investigation, but why hasn't anyone been arrested? And what's with Special Master Kimbrough saying:

If you are part of this gig, you need to move on, or we're going to find you and prosecute you.

That seems to imply to me that if they bail out now they won't be prosecuted. That doesn't seem to square up with Texas' new, tougher stance on child molesters with chronic histories of abuse. Literally, lawmakers in this state approved of a bill that provides for the death penalty in some child sexual abuse cases, and they did it yesterday, so this implication of clemency-via-quitting seems out of place.

Rick Perry has declared some legislation on the matter to be of emergency status, and rightly so: the legislation creates an inspector general post within the organization and provides for what is more or less the TYC's own police force. You'd think, with youth incarceration, that the need for oversight would have been considered previously. I think this is another example in which conservative government is proven to be largely reactive, rather than proactive.

In other news, speculation continues on the Libby verdict and What It All Means. The coverage at Firedoglake has been thorough and well-written, and this rundown of the aftermath and news coverage is worth reading. The New York Times has some ideas about what this verdict will do to Cheney's power and legacy, and TPMCafe has reactions from some Democratic presidential candidates.

Last on Libby for right now, Joshua Micah Marshall from Talking Points Memo had the line of the day.

Finally, we haven't said much about Ann Coulter's incredibly dumb misstep from this last weekend other than to relay it to you, for which I know you are grateful. However, I would like to point out that she is not just getting flak from liberals and gays over her comments about John Edwards. Advertisers have been dropping off her website as blogs have fueled that fire, and now newspapers have started to drop her syndicated column. Incredibly enouch, the Lancaster New Era in Pennsylvania dropped her column precisely because their readership is Republican and conservative, rather than in spite of that fact. It is a crazy world we live in, and Coulter may end up paying dearly for this one, joke or not.