Have you ever heard of anything so outrageous? It was the language used that set me off. Since when is DELIBERATELY MISLEADING CONGRESS just a "mistake?" Whoops, I had a little accident? The dog piddled on the floor, but didn't really mean to do it? I spilled my milk. Yeah, that's right up there with, "Oh-oh, I think I just misled Congress! Now how did I let that happen?"
The other thing that gets me, back with the old GOP Congress, was their tendency NOT to swear in these guys when they'd come and testify, saying, essentially, "Oh, we know they'd never lie to us, so there's no reason to swear them in. It just takes too much time." Yeah, right. And gives them an excuse to cross their fingers behind their backs.
There's a DAMN good reason to swear in these cabinet officers and political appointees, and that's because WHEN they do lie, they can be held accountable for it more easily.
Was that GOP Congress a bunch of bonafide suckers or what?!
Gonzales rejects calls for resignation; e-mails show 2-year plan to oust prosecutors
By Associated Press
Wednesday, March 14, 2007 - Updated: 03:19 AM EST
WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales rejected growing calls for his resignation Tuesday as scores of newly released documents detailed a two-year campaign by the Justice Department and White House to purge federal prosecutors.
Gonzales acknowledged his department mishandled the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys and misled Congress about how they were fired. He said he was ultimately to blame for those ”mistakes” but stood by the firings.
"I acknowledge that mistakes were made here,” Gonzales told reporters at a news briefing after he canceled an out-of-town trip. ”I accept that responsibility.” He promised changes "so that the mistakes that occurred in this instance do not occur again in the future.”
[Yeah, I bet you promise. Does your promise have any more weight than when your office originally misled Congress? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice... don't get fooled again.]
He focused on his department’s dealings with Congress concerning the firings rather than the actual dismissals - which Democrats have suggested were politically motivated - and the planning behind them.
”I believe very strongly in our obligation to ensure that when I provide information to the Congress that it’s accurate and that it’s complete. And I am very dismayed that that may not have occurred here,” he said.
Gonzales also accepted the resignation of his chief of staff, Kyle Sampson. The aide, along with then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers, had begun discussing possible firings of U.S. attorneys in early 2005, according to e-mails released Tuesday.
[And we could have had Harriet Miers in the Supreme Court. Now isn't that a comforting thought?]
[...]
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Tuesday. (AP)Gonzales, himself a former White House counsel, has been friends with President Bush for years, going back to when he served as Bush’s secretary of state in Texas. Bush retains full confidence in the attorney general, said spokesman Dan Bartlett, traveling with Bush in Mexico.
"He’s a standup guy,” Bartlett said of Gonzales.
[Yo Alberto! I'd be happy to accept YOUR resignation too. He's a standup guy, all right. All that means is that he sometimes stands up when he lies to Congress.]
Democrats clamored for Gonzales’ to resign. Republicans also said they were outraged at being misled over the circumstances of the firings. GOP Rep. James Sensenbrenner, a Judiciary Committee member, said the situation could cause Gonzales to ”die by a thousand cuts.”
For nearly two months, Democrats have accused the Justice Department of playing politics with the prosecutors’ jobs. They suggested some of the U.S. attorneys were fired for either investigating Republicans or failing to pursue cases against Democrats.Several ousted prosecutors have told Congress they were improperly pressured by Republicans on pending cases.
Top Justice officials, including Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, have maintained in congressional testimony the dismissals were based on the prosecutors’ performance, not politics. The fired prosecutors headed the U.S. attorneys’ offices in Albuquerque, N.M.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Las Vegas; Little Rock, Ark.; Phoenix; San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle.
The e-mails released Tuesday revealed that the firings were considered and discussed for two years by Justice Department and White House officials. The issue first arose in a February 2005 discussion between Sampson and Miers, officials said. At the time, Miers suggested the possibility of firing all 93 U.S. attorneys. Such purges of the political appointees often come at the beginning of a new president’s administration, not midway through.
The e-mails show Sampson discouraged the across-the-board housecleaning but began a review to weed out prosecutors whom the administration deemed to be performing poorly.
In a Sept 13, 2006, e-mail to Miers, Sampson listed one prosecutor, Bud Cummins in Little Rock, as ”in the process of being pushed out.” Five others - in Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, San Diego and Seattle - were listed as U.S attorneys ”we should now consider pushing out.”
[...]
Sampson then drew up an elaborate five-step plan to replace the targeted prosecutors with as little political fallout as possible, which he sent in a Nov. 15, 2006, e-mail to Miers, deputy White House counsel William K. Kelley and McNulty.
[...]
"We’re a go for the US Atty plan,” Kelley wrote in a Dec. 4, 2006, e-mail to Sampson and Miers. ”WH leg, political, communications have signed off and acknowledged that we have to be committed to following through once the pressure comes.”
The term ”WH leg” refers to the White House office of legislative affairs, which deals with Congress. Copies of dozens of Sampson’s e-mails to various White House and Justice Department officials were released by Congress and the Justice Department.
They also included documents from J. Scott Jennings, the White House deputy political director, who e-mailed Sampson about the Little Rock prosecutor’s replacement from an address with a ”gwb43.com” domain name. That domain is registered to the Republican National Committee, according to a Network Solutions tracking system.
Cummins told television station KTHV in Little Rock on Tuesday: ”It’s a serious mistake to allow the political people from the White House and other parts of government to get inside the doors of the Department of Justice. There are huge issues at stake there and I’m afraid it’s happened now and the damage is done.”
Democrats on House and Senate judiciary panels said they would subpoena Miers, Rove and other White House and Justice Department officials if necessary to have them testify about the reasons for the firings.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., renewed his call for Gonzales to resign and was joined by a host of other Democrats, including national party chairman Howard Dean and presidential hopeful John Edwards of North Carolina.
"This purge was based purely on politics, to punish prosecutors who were perceived to be too light on Democrats or too tough on Republicans,” Schumer said. ”Attorney General Gonzales has either forgotten the oath he took to uphold the Constitution or just doesn’t understand that his duty to protect the law is greater than his duty to protect the president.”
[...]
Republicans also joined in the criticism.
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said the dismissal of the U.S. attorney in Las Vegas was ”completely mishandled by the United States attorney general.” And Sensenbrenner warned that the Justice Department was ”going to have to come up with some answers” in explaining the firings.
"If they don’t, they’re going to lose everyone’s confidence,” Sensenbrenner said. ”What I’d like to hear is the truth.”
[I sure hope Sensenbrenner isn't holding his breath.]
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