Tuesday, March 27, 2007
A Big Deal
The U.S. attorneys story has been a puzzling one for some time. I will admit that I'm not sure what is going on. The regulars in the comments section (at least those identifiably on the starboard side of the political equation) think I've been giving it too much attention.
Well, no one's given it as much attention as Josh Marshall. He addressed why he thinks this is a "big deal":
This isn't the same as Bill Clinton firing the U.S. attorneys at the beginning of his term; while an extreme, it's about par for the course for a new administration to get rid of the attorneys from the previous one -- especially if they are of a different party. On the other hand, it IS unusual for prosecutors to be canned in the middle of a term.
But, putting all of that aside is the behavior of the attorney general. Alberto Gonzales has forced the president's supporters to accept the fact that the attorney general is either duplicitous or incompetent -- neither choice being a happy one:
Finally, an aide to the AG decides that she will not testify in order to preserve her Fifth Amendment rights -- though in such an odd way as to invite even more questions.
Somehow, after slowly developing over several weeks, this story went zero-to-sixty very suddenly -- a discussion of transcript-less "interviews" between members of Congress and White House aides metastasized into a Fifth Amendment declaration in just days.
Yes, this is now a very big deal.
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Well, no one's given it as much attention as Josh Marshall. He addressed why he thinks this is a "big deal":
What we seem to see are repeated cases in which US Attorneys were fired for not pursuing bogus prosecutions of persons of the opposite party. Or vice versa. There's little doubt that that is why McKay and Iglesias were fired and there's mounting evidence that this was the case in other firings as well. The idea that a senator calls a US Attorney at home just weeks before a federal elections and tries to jawbone him into indicting someone to help a friend get reelected is shocking. Think about it for a second. It's genuinely shocking. At a minimum one would imagine such bad acts take place with more indirection and deniability. And yet the Domenici-Iglesias call has now been relegated to the status of a footnote in the expanding scandal, notwithstanding the fact that there's now documentary evidence showing that Domenici's substantial calls to the White House and Justice Department played a direct role in getting Iglesias fired.Josh is a liberal and what he is saying is obviously through his particular prism. However, I think the points he is raising are legitimate.
So what you have here is this basic line being breached. But not only that. What is equally threatening is the systematic nature of the offense. This isn't one US Attorney out to get Democrats or one rogue senator trying to monkey around with the justice system. The same thing happened in Washington state and New Mexico -- with the same sort of complaints being received and acted upon at the White House and the Department of Justice. Indeed, there appears to have been a whole process in place to root out prosecutors who wouldn't prostitute their offices for partisan goals.
This isn't the same as Bill Clinton firing the U.S. attorneys at the beginning of his term; while an extreme, it's about par for the course for a new administration to get rid of the attorneys from the previous one -- especially if they are of a different party. On the other hand, it IS unusual for prosecutors to be canned in the middle of a term.
But, putting all of that aside is the behavior of the attorney general. Alberto Gonzales has forced the president's supporters to accept the fact that the attorney general is either duplicitous or incompetent -- neither choice being a happy one:
- The Corner's Jonah Goldberg: "Some readers are cross with me for using the word "lied" in reference to Gonzales. Okay, he may simply have been deeply, deeply, confused, out of touch and unprepared to give a press conference which was supposed to put an end to the "scandal" and instead poured gasoline on it. ... Maybe, just maybe, a good "CEO" would have asked his staff, "Hey, before I unequivocally tell the world I was out of the loop, let's double check and make sure I wasn't in the loop. Okay?" ... Doesn't Gonzales need to spend more time with his family?
- Captain's Quarters: "Even if Gonzales didn't intend to deceive -- that is to say that he honestly didn't recall sitting in on that meeting -- wouldn't a competent CEO (as he described himself) do some research before making categorical statements? ... Gonzales and others who have presented misleading versions of the project are either incompetent or deceptive. We should not accept either in the office of the highest-ranking law enforcement officer of the United States, regardless of whether he is a Republican or Democrat.
- Power Line's Paul Mirengoff: ".... politics aside, Gonzales should not continue to serve if he lacks the president's confidence. I have no idea where Bush is on this, but my confidence in Gonzales, already shaky, would diminish if it turns out that Gonzales misrepresented his involvement in the firings to the press. As noted, though, it's not clear that Gonzales did this.
Finally, an aide to the AG decides that she will not testify in order to preserve her Fifth Amendment rights -- though in such an odd way as to invite even more questions.
Somehow, after slowly developing over several weeks, this story went zero-to-sixty very suddenly -- a discussion of transcript-less "interviews" between members of Congress and White House aides metastasized into a Fifth Amendment declaration in just days.
Yes, this is now a very big deal.
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, George W. Bush, Republicans, U.S. Attorneys
