The Email That May Take Down Alberto Gonzales

I'm not too sure Gonzales will be taken down, but I doubted Rumsfeld would. What I am sure of is Cheney will be next to last to go and Bush absolute last if the purge continues.

An important point of contention in the rapidly escalating controversy over the recent mass-firing of U.S. Attorneys is whether the Bush administration ever intended to invoke its authority under Section 546 of Title 28. This provision, which was inserted at the last second into the Patriot Act reauthorization last year, allows the Attorney General to bypass the normal Senate confirmation process and simply install U.S. Attorneys at his discretion.

When he testified before Congress in January, Alberto Gonzales was adamant that the Administration had no intention of invoking this provision:

This is a good compilation over at The Anonymous Liberal.

I personally am delighted when their tactics come back and bite them in the ass.

Domenici says he called fired prosecutor

This is one can of worms that seems to be getting more interesting all the time.

New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici acknowledged Sunday that he called a federal prosecutor to ask about a criminal investigation, but insisted he never pressured nor threatened his state's U.S. attorney.

The prosecutor, David Iglesias, was fired by the Justice Department in December. Iglesias says he believes he was dismissed for resisting pressure from two members of Congress before last year's election to rush indictments in a Democratic kickback investigation.

Ethics experts said Domenici's conduct may have violated Senate rules, which generally bar communications between members of Congress and federal prosecutors about ongoing criminal investigations.

Iglesias, a Republican, has said he would not name the lawmakers unless asked under oath.

A House Judiciary subcommittee subpoenaed the prosecutor last week to appear Tuesday and testify under oath. He also was scheduled to appear before a Senate committee the same day. Domenici refused last week to say if he had contacted Iglesias, insisting in a brief interview with the Associated Press, "I have no idea what he's talking about."

But in his statement Sunday, the Republican senator said he called Iglesias last year and asked "if he could tell me what was going on in that investigation and give me an idea of what time frame we were looking at.

Please note Domenici's typical first response. Typical in a Republican sort of way..."I have no idea what he's talking about."

Why don't they learn? If he had told the truth, assuming he now is, at the start this might have blown over, but now he's caught in a lie.

I'd like to be fair here. The call as described by Domenici seems perfectly harmless although I have no idea why he personally would make the call rather than dispatch an aide. But he lied...Lied...LIED! No benefit of the doubt is due. He was trying to pressure the prosecutor. I find him guilty. Can we hang him for that? I'M JOKING!

(read more)

So about all those U.S. Attorneys who were fired

Ya just know this is gonna get worse, much worse. Read what Kevin Drum has to say.

The list of prosecutors was assembled last fall, based largely on complaints from members of Congress, law enforcement officials and career Justice Department lawyers, administration officials said.

My guess is that they've decided this is their only remaining chance of escaping from this scandal with their hides intact. After all, the evidence suggests that the U.S. Attorneys in question were actually fired for partisan reasons: either being too tough on corrupt Republicans or not tough enough on corrupt Democrats. With the vultures circling and stonewalling no longer a viable strategy, the only option left was to confess to some lesser misdemeanor and hope that the press would buy it.

They're following the same pattern they always follow. Denial if possible. Lie about why they did something. That would be blaming others in this case. Admit a little bit more about what they did. And eventually they're completely exposed. They never learn.

Of course, why should they learn? There are never any real consequences. And they never get at all embarrassed about being caught.

5 ousted U.S. attorneys received positive job evaluations

Uh, ya don't think someone's lying about all this do ya? Just asking

Although the Bush administration has said that six U.S. attorneys were fired recently in part because of "performance related" issues, at least five of them received positive job evaluations before they were ordered to step down.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, using authority he gained in March from a little-noticed provision of the Patriot Act, has appointed interim U.S. attorneys from the Bush administration's inner circle. The firings and appointments have raised concerns that Gonzales is politicizing the process.

Supporters of the U.S. attorneys and Justice Department officials familiar with the job evaluations suggested in interviews that top Justice Department officials may have exaggerated the role job performance played in the firings.

A Justice Department official who spoke on behalf of the administration said the dispute might simply be a matter of "semantics."

"Performance-related can mean many things," said the official, who asked to remain anonymous because the Privacy Act bars officials from discussing personnel decisions. "Policy is set at a national level. Individual U.S. attorneys around the country can't just make up their policy agenda."

Performance reviews of U.S. attorneys are conducted every three to four years by a team of experienced Justice Department officials, who interview judges, staff members, community leaders and federal agents. In some of the five cases, the reviewers made recommendations for improvements, but overall their assessments were positive, Justice Department officials said.

For instance, Daniel Bogden, the U.S. attorney in Nevada, was described in his last job performance evaluation in 2003 as being a "capable" leader who was highly regarded by the federal judiciary and investigators.

"He didn't get any dings," said a Justice Department official with knowledge of the review. "The overall evaluation was very positive."

Of course Bush is packing the courts. He doesn't even bother with "subtle" anymore.

(read more)