With Wall Street's fate hanging in the balance, and with Sarah Palin's incoherence sparking interest in Thursday's vice presidential debate, it was easy to overlook a major story that got less attention than it deserved yesterday. The Justice Department released a nearly 400-page report with this jaw-dropping bottom line: "Our investigation found significant evidence that political partisan considerations were an important factor in the removal of several...U.S. attorneys."
Remember the controversy over the sudden dismissals of nine U.S. attorneys...the Bush administration had sullied the long-held principle that justice should be administered in an impartial, nonpartisan way...Attorney General Alberto Gonzales...Kyle Sampson, the Gonzales aide who played a key role in the firings? Remember Monica Goodling, the Justice Department's liaison to the White House, who went so far as to ask prospective Justice appointees to wax eloquent about why they wanted to "serve" George W. Bush?
The Justice Department conducted as thorough an investigation as it could, and it concluded that there was evidence of White House political meddling in "at least three of the removals." The joint probe by the department's Office of the Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility recommended further investigation to determine "whether the totality of the evidence demonstrates that any criminal offense was committed."
The investigators reported being stonewalled by the White House, saying they...could determine from the limited evidence they were allowed to uncover, what we suspected and feared seems to have been true. The Bush administration seems to have removed at least three federal prosecutors -- who are supposed to be even-handed and apolitical in the way they do their jobs -- for partisan political reasons.
The report says "it appears" that Missouri U.S. attorney Todd Graves "was told to resign because of a political dispute among Missouri politicians, not because of an objective assessment of his performance." Specifically the dispute was between Republican Sen. Christopher S. "Kit" Bond and Graves's brother, a Republican congressman.
Arkansas U.S. attorney Bud Cummins "was not removed for any performance reasons," the report says. "Rather, the evidence shows that the main reason for Cummins's removal was to provide a position for former White House official Tim Griffin."
The most egregious case, according to the report, was that of New Mexico U.S. attorney David Iglesias. The evidence showed that Iglesias was removed because of complaints from Republican Sen. Pete Domenici and other GOP officials and party activists who believed he was not being aggressive enough in pursuing certain voter fraud and public corruption cases -- by happenstance, cases against Democrats. Gonzales and his deputies at Justice never looked into Iglesias's handling of those cases and, in fact, never even asked him about them. They just fired him.
The investigators wanted to ask White House political czar Karl Rove, White House counsel Harriet Miers, Goodling, Domenici and Domenici's chief of staff about any role they played in Iglesias's dismissal. All refused to be interviewed.
In releasing the report, Attorney General Michael Mukasey announced that he had ordered a new investigation to "pursue this case wherever the facts and the law require," including possible criminal charges. By most accounts, Mukasey has taken pains to cleanse Justice of the partisan taint that Gonzales left behind. Whatever ultimately comes of this disgraceful episode, however, we already know enough to put it in context.
The people who have been running our government for the past eight years have nothing but contempt for government. They believe only in politics and ideology, in that order. First, win elections by any means necessary. Second, once in a position to act in the public good, govern with the ideological conviction that government is either irrelevant or harmful to the public interest. You can draw a straight line between firing U.S. attorneys for political reasons and turning a blind eye to the ruinous excesses of Wall Street. What's impartial justice against the possibility of gaining political advantage? Why shackle the hallowed free market with government oversight? And, if you want to draw the line a little further, who cares if the prospective vice president appears to know nothing about anything?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/29/AR20080929026...
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@Asymmatrix i believe that the us attorneys offer their resignations (or what ever). most are not asked to resign, however and are asked to stay on. the new administration could replace all of them, but in practice, i dont think that is what happens.
gggreggg 1 year ago
Because replacing US Attorneys at the BEGINNING of the term, as all Presidents do, poses ZERO ethical problems. When they're fired MID-TERM, however, because they are not sufficiently carrying out a specific PARTISAN AGENDA, it's an illegal abuse of power.
Asymmatrix 2 years ago
CLINTON FIRED ALL 93 OF THEM NONE OF U FUCKING LEFTIES SAID A WORD, no wonder all the people are finally standing up for themselves
btwall60 2 years ago
watch "must see"
free
for
all
tv
to get a clue about K.Rove in Bushes!
Realizalize 3 years ago
watch "must see"
free
for
all
tv
to get a clue about what she was doing!
Realizalize 3 years ago
I hope everyone is at the very least writing letters of protest to their representatives in government. Even if nothing comes of it, if we're filing letters of protest we will not go down in the historical record as not having given a shit.
Silence = consent.
HalcyonRain321 3 years ago
Truth... Rise!
federaljackdotcom 3 years ago
Never, in all my life, did I EVER completly understand and whole heartedly support the insane perspective from a historical source....
"KILL THEM ALL AND LET GOD SORT THEM OUT" ..............until now.
Snowflake70 3 years ago
God shall do all the punishing.
GoodMeBad 3 years ago
...the backlog of broken laws is so long and the bipartisan entanglements so deep..not even all the king's horses and men could put it back together again..
marcusyizong 3 years ago