Jason McClure from Legal Times in on cspan now. Very interesting

[napi21]

Q&A. US Attorney's all serve "At the Pleasure of the President" and he has the right to hire and fire them at will. I KNOW that's true!

I WONDER at whatpoint does the firing of these 8 US Attorney's become alegal problem for the Justice Dept. or the President?

We as Dems may not LIKE what happened, but it MAY be perfectly legal and these hearings are really all for show!

[Jackpine Radical]

1. IIRC Archibald Cox served at the pleasure of Nixon too,

so firing him was legal. Legal, but a very bad and desperate move.

[mod mom]

2. F*#! THE "PLEASURE OF THE PRESIDENT"! This cabal is in the WH due to FRAUDULENT

ELECTIONS! We need the Dems to move quickly to IMPEACH before more lives are ruined.

INDICT
IMPEACH
IMPRISON
NOW!

[madame defarge]

3. However...

I remember reading somewhere yesterday that the last time any US attorneys were fired was in 1981, and then it was 3. I think the number of attorneys being fired under suspicious/false reasons is the issue, not that the president has the right to hire/fire.

[cspanlovr]

4. That's depressing.

[The Witch]

5. self-delete

self-delete

[hlthe2b]

6. You don't get to intimidate those working in the US Attorney's

office in order to prevent exposure of corruption in ones own party... That's called obstruction of justice.

[The Witch]

7. was he only on for a half hour?

damn, I missed him... freakin heartburn..

:waits for video to go up on c-span.org:

[terisan]

8. US Attorney Oversight in Appointments Process? Changed last year by Specter?

I understand that prior to the passage of a bill in the waning days of the last Congress there was a mechanism for oversight of appointments, that this was changed by a little-noticed insertion into the bill which now allows Bush to appoint without oversight (supposedly inserted by Senator Specter).

Please correct me if I am wrong.

I think that as many of the members of Congress are lawyers and many remember the Nixon firing of Archibald Cox, special prosecutor, these are more than show hearings. This is an issue they understand thoroughly, can be passionate about, and can use to shed some light on the Bush administration. I think it resonates with Congress just as the Bush administration's sleasy treatment of wounded veterans resonates with the public.

Daniel Schorr on NPR this week compared it to the Saturday Night firing of Archibald Cox.

I understand there is legislation in the works to repeal the passage Specter put into the law.

[riderinthestorm]

9. But it sounds as though there was some pressuring going on

We are only getting solid information on one of the fired US Attorneys (I believe only 3 were subpeonaed) which indicates that Domenici and Wilson were crossing legal boundaries with their actions towards Iglesias.

I would bet there are similar issues with all of the firings which will make whether their service "at the pleasure of the President" moot. While it is technically true that they can be fired at any time, if they were fired to (in reality) obstruct an investigation, that's a BIG legal problem.

And 8 being fired at the same time is unprecedented and deeply troubling.

[napi21]

11. Four of the fired attys were subpoenaed and are testifying today.

H.E. “Bud” Cummins, III
Former U.S. Attorney
Eastern District of Arkansas
Little Rock, AR

David C. Iglesias
Former U.S. Attorney
District of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM

Carol Lam
Former U.S. Attorney
Southern District of California
San Diego, CA

John McKay
Former U.S. Attorney
Western District of Washington
Seattle, WA

There is ALSO a HOUSE Judiciary Committee Hearing tomorrow. I don't know if the same four will be testifying at that one of if it's some of the others. Todays' hearing is of course the Senate Judiciary.

[Frances]

10. See other DU threads for more complete info

But as I recall, Congress had to approve the appointments UNTIL a Repub shill working for Arlen Specter slipped in an amendment to the Patriot Act saying that Bush could make appointments without Congressional approval. The prosecutor in Arkansas was fired so that a former Repub operative and a close friend of Rove could replace him.

[Norquist Nemesis]

12. Hearing starting now on CSPAN 3

They just said this is the second hearing. I wasn't around yesterday afternoon. :shrug:

http://www.c-span.org/watch/cs_cspan3_wm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS3

:popcorn:

[ROakes1019]

13. at the pleasure

The president may nominate, as with any cabinet post etc., but the Senate confirms. This latest end run around Senate confirmation is a product of the Patriot Act and has been abused in this case. Previously, the president could appoint a US Attorney for something like three months but the Patriot Act made it possible for a temporary appointment to become permanent.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

14. Did he introduce himself like "Hi, I'm Jason McClure. You may remember me from..."? -nt