Gonzales Chief Of Staff Rebuts Rove Claim That Clinton Purged Prosecutors Too

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/13/sampson-rove-attorney/

Gonzales Chief Of Staff Rebuts Rove Claim That Clinton Purged Prosecutors Too

At a speech last week in Little Rock, Karl Rove described the Bush administration’s purge of federal prosecutors as “normal and ordinary,” claiming that Clinton did the same thing. “Clinton, when he came in, replaced all 93 U.S. attorneys,” Rove said. “When we came in, we ultimately replace most all 93 U.S. attorneys — there are some still left from the Clinton era in place. … What happened in this instance, was there were seven done all at once, and people wanted to play politics with it.” Watch it:

But in an e-mail to Harriet Miers on Jan. 9, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s chief of staff Kyle Sampson (who resigned yesterday) admitted that the Clinton administration never purged its U.S. attorneys in the middle of their terms, explicitly stating, “In recent memory, during the Reagan and Clinton Administrations, Presidents Reagan and Clinton did not seek to remove and replace U.S. Attorneys to serve indefinitely under the holdover provision”:




Former Clinton chief of staff John Podesta previously told ThinkProgress that Rove’s claims that the Clinton administration also purged attorneys is “pure fiction.” He added, “Replacing most U.S. attorneys when a new administration comes in — as we did in 1993 and the Bush administration did in 2001 — is not unusual. But the Clinton administration never fired federal prosecutors as pure political retribution.”

(The Gavel has more.)

[lancdem]

1. This group lies so much

it's not even worth keeping track of all their falsehoods anymore.

[Kikosexy2]

13. They can't argue...

their way out of it...so it's the usual...but,but,but it's Clinton's fault...

[NEOBuckeye]

21. ROVE: "Don't look at me! He started it!!"

Waaahhh. Waaahhh. Talk about pathetic.

[ORDagnabbit]

2. This is IMPORTANT!! the neo-cons are already using clinton as a precedent n/t

[The Doctor.]

9. There is no precedent...

What they're doing is lying... as usual.

Any idea why they canned all those attorneys in the past few months?

[ClintonTyree]

10. But it doesn't matter...

the lie is already out there and has been accepted as truth by the Reich-Wing-Nuts and non-curious independents. They'll parrot this at every opportunity and, of course, there won't be a REAL voice of truth around to rebut their lies every time they do. It's their modus operandi, it's worked for them for the past two decades at least and there's no stopping this type of attack. Ever.

They lie. Their followers believe the lies and the vicious cycle keeps repeating itself over an over again. It's extremely difficult to made inroads with normally sane, independent voters when we're up against the BIG GOP LIE MACHINE.

All these attorneys were canned because they were not viewed as sympathetic to the Bush White House. It was sort of an allegiance test. If they bent to the White House's wishes they were left alone, if not, they were removed. A judicial cleansing, to cover up the crimes and dirty tricks of the Bush administration, if you will. Several of them were investigating some Democrats' actions before the 2006 election. They wanted decisions made before the election to bolster their chances at re-election. The decisions were not forthcoming so these judges were viewed as, *not sympathetic to the Bush White House and GOP causes*. Hence, their dismissal. Stacking the courts all over the United States with Bush toadies.

Nice, huh? :grr:

[The Doctor.]

20. Take.... a... deep... breath...

Believe you me, I become furious over this shit as well... almost to the point of throwing things in public.

I hate the sheep. I HATE them for being sheep. I hate the machinations that make them sheep, but I do not excuse the sheep for allowing themselves to be sheep.

I've confronted these people on occasion and in various settings. Invariably they are left either stunned or blustering.

My favorite method to irritate the sheep is to have a 'hands free' conversation with my blue tooth device while in public. Psychologically, there is no 'shut off' switch when there is not a visual cue that someone is on the phone. Used to be that people would 'tune out' conversations when they saw someone holding a phone. With the hands-free system, that psychological switch is not automatically flipped and the conversation is difficult for a bystander to ignore.

I love when the opportunity presents itself and I can educate the freepers and the sheep. It is very important to be patient and ask questions in order to establish their lack of knowledge, then gently offer the explanations.

It doesn't hurt that I'm a registered Republican. Mentioning that is a nearly instant 'in' with the freepers on the street, and I keep my card in my wallet... that way I can illustrate my verbal credibility.

I am who and what I say I am, and I know what I'm talking about when I say it. I don't tell them that explicitly, but they get it nonetheless.

It is our obligation to educate these people, our fellow Americans, of the dire jeopardy our nation is in. It is not easy. They have been conditioned to ignore and are armed with an array of talking points, they do not have the necessary understanding of our Constitutional government, the base understanding of which would obviate this administration's criminal and treasonous conduct, and they are combative by nature as evidenced by a willingness to address all issues in a militant context.

But it is our job nonetheless.

As a patriot, an angry, overwhelmed, and outraged patriot... it is still incumbent upon me to keep trying, to keep fighting to inform and educate the willfully ignorant.

I may not have the opportunity to do this every day of the week, but I must take advantage of any and every opportunity I can find, or even make, to do so.

How could I claim my heritage, how could I claim to be an American Patriot if I did not?

Patience my friend, eventually they will listen... as we have been finding out more and more. Eventually the actions of the cabal in charge will affect them more and more personally, and no matter how the lie machine tries to deflect blame from the true criminals... they will begin to see.

I don't care if it requires the collapse of this nation. The message will bring them, with all their piss, vinegar, and vitriol, to the side that can restore America.

Hate them as I do, they are Americans after all...

And they are my brothers and sisters in freedom.

Time will bear this out, meanwhile... I just won't shut up.

Neither should you.

[OnyxCollie]

24. Breathing deep. Exhaling through the nose...

I feel more calm, but I still have concern that not once today did I hear on any news media the mention of the provision in the Patriot Act that allows all this to happen. Exposing that would rule out any connection to Clinton, as well as centering the attention on the WH. I was disappointed this evening when Stephen Colbert cut off his guest to tell a joke just the guest was about to reveal the provision.

So, it makes me kinda anxious. (I know, I know. Take a deep breath.)

[tandot]

3. How do we know that Rove is lying?

Well, he opened his mouth. They are all lying sacks of shit.

[Javaman]

4. So this guy resigned to spend more time with his family, right? lol

:eyes:

sounds like he wasn't a team player.

[LiberalFighter]

5. Reading US Code 28 Section 541(b) and have a question

It reads as follows:

Each United States attorney shall be appointed for a term of four years. On the expiration of his term, a United States attorney shall continue to perform the duties of his office until his successor is appointed and qualifies.

It doesn't state that the term ends officially when the President's term begins.

If a United States attorney is appointed in the middle or near end of the President's term is that United States attorney's term for a period of 4 years or the end of the President's term?

[Divernan]

11. Bingo! And Bush is just asshole enough to appoint 93 new GOP suckups

in the last week of his term. That's what he can do unless the Congress brings back the 120 day limit on "acting" USAs, which Gonzalez & Specter so cleverly deleted from the US Code.

On edit: My apologies for my newly gross language - the revelations of the last few weeks have just left me unable to express an opinion about Bush and his mignons without using some expletives.

[MsMagnificent]

28. But their appointment is only 4 years.

I think what that means is they keep that seat until either they are replaced by a new attorney (formerly Senate-approved) or reinstated for another term of 4 years -- that they serve until then so that the seat is not left vacant.

Good last question, but I believe since it is the prerogative of a new president to appoint whomever s/he wants, that term expires when the previous president leaves.

[gratuitous]

6. It's like complaining that Clinton appointed his own cabinet

Whenever the party in the White House changes, there are wholesale changes in appointed positions, from cabinet secretaries down to some surprisingly low level jobs. During the transition from Democrat to Republican or Republican to Democrat, political appointees from the prior administration often stay on until a successor can come on board. Sometimes the appointee who heads the office steps down anyway, and the office continues to be run by the career folks in the bureau.

People selling the idea that Clinton "fired" all of Poppy's U.S. Attorneys are either ignorant themselves, or are hoping that the public is ignorant. Either way, folks in a position to know better really should know better.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

7. the 'blaming on Clinton' is wearing a bit thin

[benld74]

8. Rove is an A**bag with too damn much power!

[Straight Shooter]

12. The bush administration is coming apart at the seams.

I was talking to a friend of mine just a while ago who is usually so cynical he thinks nothing will ever happen to this gang. He said to me, "I'd be surprised if Gonzales lasted another week."

Good riddance to bad rubbish. More on the way out, I hope.

[ejbr]

14. 13 U.S. Attorneys have been fired in U.S. history

THIRTEEN! And eight of them happened to have occurred under Bush's watch and they want us to believe that this is normal? What will it take to hang these bastards by their nuts? Do they have to anally rape infants during the state of the union address in order for the public to wake the f&ck up? After 6 years of this bullshit and there being no repercussions, I can't see anything happening EVEN WITH a Democratic Congress (who apparently are so weak-kneed, they refuse to add the provision to require Congress's approval before Bush attacks Iran):mad:

[lyonn]

17. Such cursing! Shame!

You took the words right out of my mouth. This bunch brings those words out the minute they speak. We are insulted by their lies daily.

[tblue]

19. To answer your questions: Yes, A very small noose, and Yes

[Tellurian]

15. It will be Gonzales that takes down the whole Bush Administration..

once the hearings begin...the Nixon Scandals, all over again!

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

16. BWWWAAAHAAAAHAAAAHAA!!!!! N/T

[Contrite]

18. So where is the "mainstream media" on this? Nowhere. n/t

[Maestro]

22. Actually the Crap News Network

is running on the front page. I haven't read what they posted so I don't know if it shows any bias toward the repukes.

www.cnn.com

[Contrite]

23. Thanks. They cover it pretty well. n/t

[PinkyisBlue]

26. NPR just ran an hour long segment on the Diane Rehm Show.

Of course, the Republican on the show spewed his lies, and yes, Clinton's name was brought up several times. The Democrat used facts to state his case, while the Repug. tried to show that the the evil Democrats were just picking on the administration. I have noticed that Repugs get two minutes to talk for every one minute allowed to the Democrats. That's a lot of verbal garbage.

[bdamomma]

25. one thing that bothers me, is that

Gonzo still lied, and those attorneys were not senate confirmed.

[Uncle Joe]

27. Kicked and recommended

Thanks for the thread babylonsister.