The U.S. Attorney Firings

If you’re not outraged at this one, you’re either not paying attention or don’t understand what appears to have occurred.

This is so incredible it’s almost difficult to believe that even the Bush administration could be this freaking stupid.

Let’s see, how to explain this one. It appears that the Bush administration is using an obscure provision in the Patriot Act, intended to allow for the rapid replacement of U.S. Attorneys killed by terrorist action, to replace attorneys that haven’t co-operated politically with the Republican Party. Oh yeah, and to do so without the approval of the nominee by the Senate. In other words, they’re stepping around the advise and consent provision of the U.S. Constitution!

By co-operating politically I mean prosecuting Democrats on corruption charges, whether it is justified or not, and not prosecuting republicans on corruption charges, whether it is justified or not, in order to influence the outcome of elections!

The stupidity factor comes in from the literal avalanche of e-mails floating around showing (a) this was precisely what they were doing and (b) that the White House, including the ever popular Karl Rove and Harriet Miers, and probably Georgie himself, were in this up to their necks.

Then Gonzales gets up in front of Congress and lies about it so blatantly that only a complete idiot could have believed him.

The first prime example is the U.S. Attorney from New Mexico who appears to have been fired because he resisted pressure from Senator Pete Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, applied in a phone call before last year's election, to indict Democrats in a high-profile corruption scandal! The second prime example is the U.S. Attorney from San Diego, who was apparently fired because she successfully prosecuted a Republican Congressman!

On the flip side, a U.S. Attorney from New Jersey appears to have retained his job because he gave in to pressure to open an investigation against Bob Menendez just prior to last year’s election, an investigation that the Republicans used as the only basis for their barrage of negative ads about Menendez. Luckily the people of New Jersey weren’t taken in by that nonsense.

Hey, it could have been worse, Ms. Miers, First Admirer of Bush the Unhinged, wanted to replace ALL 93 U.S. Attorneys with loyal Republican appointees that would toe the party line and follow orders. This is the kind of person that Bush felt was appropriate to nominate for the Supreme Court? Now, more than ever, I’m convinced I was right about her. At least Alito, conservative as he may be, is a man of integrity and not just a political hack.

Gonzalez definitely has to go. Twisting the law and trying an end run around Congress for political reasons is bad, but lying to Congress about it is unforgivable. In the meantime what about Bush and his gang of incompetents? Nixon got found out by accident, but these yahoos held Congress and the rest of us in such contempt that they didn’t even try to hide what they were doing!

It’s important to note the difference between this incident and the not unusual step of replacing all U.S. Attorneys when a new president enters office. First of all, those replacements are all reviewed and approved by Congress in compliance with the advise and consent clause. These appointees are on an “interim basis” and it appears the administration can delay putting them before Congress indefinitely. This brings me a side issue, how the hell could such a provision get by the goddamned Congress? Are those assholes all asleep down there? I guess the ACLU, which I thought at the time was being a little hysterical about the Patriot Act, was right after all.

Second, what’s unusual here is the replacement of the president’s own appointees. One has to ask why? Rarely is a U.S. Attorney replaced after a second term election other than for gross incompetence. The White House line is they were replaced because they didn’t aggressively address “Voter Fraud.” The problem is no one seems to be aware of any fraud in the districts where the firings occurred. Yes, “Voter Fraud,” that’s Republicanese for locking out Blacks and other minorities who tend to vote Democrat.

Please explain to me why this administration, with its disdain for the constitution and its penchant for bald faced lying, should not be impeached? How much is enough? They’ve been lying and trying to run around the law since day one! And yes I mean the whole administration. Bush and Cheney should both be booted out and Pelosi (heaven help us) should be installed as interim president until the next election.