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Friday, April 13, 2007


Big News In The Fired US Attorneys Case

The White House had the temerity, the absolute gall, to pick replacements for the fired US attorneys before they actually fired them.

The Justice Department identified five Bush administration insiders as replacement U.S. attorneys almost a year before most of the prosecutors were fired, contrary to repeated claims that no such list had ever been drawn up, according to documents released today.

E-mails sent to the White House in January and May of 2006 by D. Kyle Sampson, then chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, list potential replacements for U.S. attorneys in San Diego, San Francisco, Grand Rapids, Mich., and Little Rock, Ark.

The replacements on the list were all high-level administration insiders, including two who have gone on to different U.S. attorney postings: Jeff Taylor, now chief prosecutor in the District, and Deborah Rhodes, now U.S. attorney in Alabama. The others were Rachel L. Brand, currently head of the Office of Legal Counsel, and Daniel Levin, a former senior Justice and White House official, the memos show.

I am shocked and outraged.  How dare the White House keep a list of potential replacements for US attorneys who aren’t performing their jobs as the administration thinks they should.  Do these people think they’re in charge of the country or something?

All sarcasm aside, I still don’t get this controversy.  Despite the position the Democrats are trying to take right now, US attorneys are very much a political position.  They are political appointees, after all.  Plus, all over this country state and county prosecutors are voted into office each election.  They even run on party tickets.  The Clintons replaced every single one of this nation’s US attorneys when they took office.  Why?  Because they wanted people in those positions who would prosecute according to their policies.  That’s part of what the President does.  Appoints people to federal offices to pursue his (or one day her) policies.

I know we all want to claim the moral high ground and claim that US attorneys aren’t political, but let’s be realistic.  If US attorneys weren’t political they wouldn’t get their jobs through the political process.  Bush did nothing wrong, and this whole controversy is a big nothing.

Does this tick you off? Click here to email your elected representatives right here on Say Anything, or comment below.

Comments

I am clutching my pearls over this!

This administration acts like . . . like . . . nazis, or something, firing and hiring people like that!

We all know for example that no Democratic administration would ever fire political appointees, ever!

Ken McCracken on April 13, 2007 at 03:43 pm

Well, except it was okay when Saint Clinton did it.

He could do no wrong, after all.

Ken McCracken on April 13, 2007 at 03:44 pm
Avatar for Hawk

If this is a nothing issue, why do they lie?  Is it because lying is a habit for them?

Hawk on April 13, 2007 at 03:56 pm

I hope there are not any missing keys to the computers?

Zsa Zsa on April 13, 2007 at 04:34 pm

Hawk: What are they lying about? You like to make charges and almost never provide any facts.

The Congress has no Constitutional right to any documents, paper or electronic of the Adminsitration. Has anyone heard “Separation of Powers?” So, Bush should have said, “No documents!” Except the Liberals in the Congress and the MSM would spin that to mean they are guilty and hiding something.


In keeping silent about evil, in burying it deep within us, so that it appears nowhere on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousandfold in the future.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The Gulag Archipelago

Neiman on April 13, 2007 at 04:42 pm
Avatar for Hawk

Hawk: What are they lying about? You like to make charges and almost never provide any facts.

Gonzales has lied numerous times about this.  His former Chief of Staff directly contradicted him.

Congress has oversite powers.  This is certainly more important than when Republicans held hearings on the mail of Socks the Cat.

Hawk on April 13, 2007 at 07:51 pm

Sampson may have mistakenly misconstrued the events rather than lied but there’s just so much fodder for those who question the Administration’s credibility. Take this post from politburo diktat for example…and don’t forget to zoom in on the email.

There may not be any clear cut evidence of wrong doing but how is a reasonable person supposed to accept the Administration position on this issue?


“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. ”

Arthur Schopenhauer

MikeAdamson on April 13, 2007 at 08:03 pm
Rob
Rob
22123 comments
Send a private message

Gonzales has lied numerous times about this.  His former Chief of Staff directly contradicted him.

Lied or just misspoke?  Can you prove intent here, or are you just a partisan twit jumping to conclusions?  I mean, why lie about this?  What the Bush administration did was perfectly legal and in keeping with what past administrations have done.

Congress has oversite powers.

Congress has the power to confirm the President’s choices for US attorney.  That’s as far as their power in the matter goes.

For someone who routinely complains about the President overstepping his constitutional bounds, you certainly don’t shy away from encouraging Congress to exceed its constitutional bounds.

It’s a balance of powers, moron.  You can’t just favor the legislative branch over the executive branch now because your party has power over one and not the other.


The purpose of government shouldn’t be to do good, but simply to refrain from doing evil.

Rob on April 13, 2007 at 08:07 pm
Avatar for Hawk

When their is a Democratic President in two years I will remember that you don’t believe that Congress has investigative or oversight powers.

Hawk on April 13, 2007 at 08:17 pm

When their is a Democratic President in two years I will remember that you don’t believe that Congress has investigative or oversight powers.

I honestly don’t see Hillary winning the election, men will come out in droves to vote against her. Also, women dispise her as well and will come out to vote against her. Obama is a non starter as well as Edwards. I think the election is the GOP’s to lose.


Check out:
Goon’s North Dakota Red Neck
Goon’s World

goon on April 13, 2007 at 08:31 pm

Goon…I hope you are right.  Hillary makes me sick! I don’t think I can handle the Clinton’s again…

Zsa Zsa on April 14, 2007 at 04:53 am
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