Contempt is a good word

Found here and there, but you can't go wrong with Indianz.com:

Judge find Bush officials in contempt on trust

Secretary of Interior Gale Norton on Tuesday said the Bush administration plans to challenge a federal judge's stinging ruling which declared her and Indian affairs aide Neal McCaleb "unfit" to manage money belonging to 500,000 Native Americans.

Speaking to reporters at an economic development conference in Arizona, Norton refused to answer direct questions about U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth's rebuke. "I have not yet had the opportunity to review his decision," she said.

Nonetheless, Norton was unwilling to accept being found in contempt of court for her handling of the Individual Indian Money (IIM) trust. Echoing a statement made by a Department of Justice official who disputed the finding, she spoke of the forthcoming court dispute.

"We believe it is appropriate to seek an appeal," she said, "and so we will be exploring the opportunities for doing so."

The response came hours after Lamberth issued a 267-page opinion that said Norton and McCaleb "deliberately" gave false and misleading information about attempts to fix the trust and become more accountable. In reports to the court, the Bush officials made "fraudulent" claims of progress, the ruling noted.

"The Department of Interior has truly outdone itself this time," Lamberth wrote. "The agency has indisputably proven to the court, Congress, and the individual Indian beneficiaries that it is either unwilling or unable to administer competently the IIM trust."

I suppose this will set off another round of self-congratulatory rhetoric about how the system works, eventually (seven-month deliberation on this ruling alone, f'r instance), and about how things are getting "better" and blah de fucking blah.

Not damned likely, though. Instead, if it's mentioned at all, expect to hear about how this covers actions of the Clinton administration as well, so the blame can be placed on him.

Because Republicans are the party of personal responsibility.

That of other people. Preferably Democrats.

Want to know more?

Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles, who swore under oath that he is in charge of Indian trust, came "perilously close" to perjuring himself by trying to smear a court investigator, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.

In a scathing decision largely directed at the controversial Bush appointee, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth recited a laundry list of behaviors that bordered on misconduct. Griles omitted key facts, stretched the truth and violated legal ethics principles by going public with the Bush administration's disdain for court oversight, the 18-page ruling stated.

"In this regard, the Deputy Secretary's declaration exhibits an alarming lack of candor and comes perilously close to perjury by omission," Lamberth wrote.

The harsh words came in response to an "unwarranted and meretricious" attack on Joseph S. Kieffer III, the trust fund court monitor. Griles, along with two senior Department of Interior officials, accused the investigator of bias and asked for his dismissal.

Didn't think so.

Oh yeah, there will also be much made of whoever appointed Judge Lamberth. Does this make any fucking difference? No. Just comes up whenever a judge goes rogue for some reason. Anybody want to explain this one?