Keep digging into GOP's purge

[stonebone]

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., called the eight recently ousted U.S. attorneys "pawns in a political chess game." The hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee have confirmed his assessment. U.S. attorneys serve at the president's pleasure, but what happened to these high-level professionals was nothing short of a political purge.

A number of these fired U.S. attorneys testified that they were let go after their offices probed Republican officials for corruption or had refused to indict Democrats when the evidence was insufficient. It appears they were too independent for a White House that is used to having political hacks in jobs that call for experienced public servants.

.......

This administration has a record of taking essential government jobs like the head of FEMA and turning them over to partisan hacks. The nation's chief federal law enforcers are supposed to be politically neutral. Cummins of Arkansas was replaced by J. Timothy Griffin, a former deputy to White House aide Karl Rove.

Under pressure from Senate Republicans and Democrats, Gonzales agreed to make high-level officials in the Justice Department available to discuss the tainted personnel decisions. He also committed the administration to supporting the return of the old rules where appointments of U.S. attorneys had to be confirmed by the Senate in short order or a federal judge would make the selection. Congress should waste no time in passing this legislation.

In the meantime, Congress should keep digging. The Senate Ethics Committee has already opened an inquiry into Domenici's actions. And the House should do the same with Wilson and Hastings.


http://www.sptimes.com/2007/03/10/Opinion/Keep_digging_into_GOP.shtml

[job777]

1. Not for nothing

but Clinton fired them all.

[salin]

2. I believe most do at the beginning of terms - and I don't recall

any stories about Clinton, or previous presidents, directing firings for the USAs not politicizing their positions (eg going after the opposite party and dodging investigations of own party). One of the big differences now, is that there was a tiny provision in the Patriot Act that allows a pres to appoint new USAs without those appointments going through the confirmation process.

[grasswire]

3. bipartisan of him, wasn't it?

Good show, Bill.

[niyad]

4. citations, please?

[LiberalFighter]

5. Get your facts straight

Presidents may fire U.S. attorneys, and they do so routinely at the beginning of a new administration.

It is unusual to fire U.S. attorneys in mid-term except in cases of gross misconduct.

The administration has managed to bypass the confirmation process by taking advantage of an obscure provision slipped into last year’s PATRIOT Act amendments. Until then, the U.S. Attorney General was permitted to appoint an interim U.S. Attorney for a maximum of 120 days, after which time the vacancy would be filled by the federal district court until a successor could be confirmed. The new provision removes the 120-day expiration date, allowing the Attorney General to appoint interim U.S. Attorneys on an essentially permanent basis, without Senate confirmation.

Former Arkansas USA Bud Cummins told the Wall Street Journal that “a top Justice official asked for his resignation in June, saying the White House wanted to give another person the opportunity to serve.” Cummins was finally forced out in December, replaced with Timothy Griffin, formerly the research director of the Republican National Committee.

Beginning of Clinton Admin
All 93 United States Attorneys knew they would be asked to step down, since all are Republican holdovers, and 16 have resigned so far. But the process generally takes much longer and had usually been carried out without the involvement of the Attorney General.

Likewise, in 2001 the Bush Administration replaced Democratic prosecutors with Republican prosecutors.

[ray of light]

6. where's the journalistic articles supporting your claims?

Where's the nonpartison articles and investigations supporting your claims.

Typical right-winged response.

Can't stand upon the merits of what your guy does so you pass the buck back to Clinton.

[ray of light]

7. Speaking of purging...

their first nonpartison ETHICS lawyer fired for not doing what they wanted was Jesselyn Radack.

Check out her story here
http://www.patriotictruthteller.net

Buy her book. It's not like the media is going to actually tell the truth about her involvement now when they failed to tell the truth 4 years ago!