Repugs Now Demanding AG Gonzalez be Fired!

[chefmike]

8)

:lol:

:P

Sununu calls for Gonzales‘ dismissal
2007/3


By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire on Wednesday became the first Republican in Congress to call for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales‘ dismissal, hours after President Bush expressed confidence in his embattled Cabinet officer.

Gonzales has been fending off Democratic calls for his firing in the wake of disclosures surrounding the ousters of eight U.S. attorneys.

But the president expressed confidence in Gonzales, a longtime friend, and defended the firings. "What Al did and what the Justice Department did was appropriate," he said.

Sununu said the firings, together with a report last Friday by the Justice Department‘s inspector general criticizing the administration‘s use of secret national security letters to obtain personal records in terrorism probes, shattered his confidence in Gonzales.

"I think the attorney general should be fired," Sununu said.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[White_Male_Canada]

No laws broken. The `Rats have lost their mojo on defeating the USA in regards to the WOT so they switch gears to some baseless accusations.

Very amusing 8)

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Take sacked U.S. Attorney John McKay from Washington state. In 2004, the Governor's race was decided in favor of Democrat Christine Gregoire by 129-votes on a third recount. As the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and other media outlets reported, some of the "voters" were deceased, others were registered in storage-rental facilities, and still others were convicted felons. More than 100 ballots were "discovered" in a Seattle warehouse. None of this constitutes proof that the election was stolen. But it should have been enough to prompt Mr. McKay, a Democrat, to investigate, something he declined to do, apparently on grounds that he had better things to do.

In New Mexico, another state in which recent elections have been decided by razor thin margins, U.S. Attorney David Iglesias did establish a voter fraud task force in 2004. But it lasted all of 10 weeks before closing its doors, despite evidence of irregularities by the likes of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or Acorn. As our John Fund reported at the time, Acorn's director Matt Henderson refused to answer questions in court about whether his group had illegally made copies of voter registration cards in the run-up to the 2004 election.


As for some of the other fired Attorneys, at least one of their dismissals seemed to owe to differences with the Administration about the death penalty, another to questions about the Attorney's managerial skills. Not surprisingly, the dismissed Attorneys are insisting their dismissals were unfair, and perhaps in some cases they were. It would not be the first time in history that a dismissed employee did not take kindly to his firing, nor would it be the first in which an employer sacked the wrong person.

As everyone once knew but has tried to forget, Mr. Hubbell was a former partner of Mrs. Clinton at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock who later went to jail for mail fraud and tax evasion. He was also Bill and Hillary Clinton's choice as Associate Attorney General in the Justice Department when Janet Reno, his nominal superior, simultaneously fired all 93 U.S. Attorneys in March 1993. Ms. Reno--or Mr. Hubbell--gave them 10 days to move out of their offices.

At the time, President Clinton presented the move as something perfectly ordinary: "All those people are routinely replaced," he told reporters, "and I have not done anything differently." In fact, the dismissals were unprecedented: Previous Presidents, including Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, had both retained holdovers from the previous Administration and only replaced them gradually as their tenures expired. This allowed continuity of leadership within the U.S. Attorney offices during the transition.

Equally extraordinary were the politics at play in the firings. At the time, Jay Stephens, then U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia, was investigating then Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, and was "within 30 days" of making a decision on an indictment. Mr. Rostenkowski, who was shepherding the Clinton's economic program through Congress, eventually went to jail on mail fraud charges and was later pardoned by Mr. Clinton.

Also at the time, allegations concerning some of the Clintons' Whitewater dealings were coming to a head. By dismissing all 93 U.S. Attorneys at once, the Clintons conveniently cleared the decks to appoint "Friend of Bill" Paula Casey as the U.S. Attorney for Little Rock. Ms. Casey never did bring any big Whitewater indictments, and she rejected information from another FOB, David Hale, on the business practices of the Arkansas elite including Mr. Clinton. When it comes to "politicizing" Justice, in short, the Bush White House is full of amateurs compared to the Clintons.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009784

[chefmike]

Very amusing 8)


Very amusing indeed.... 8)

GOP support for Gonzales wanes
By Klaus Marre
March 14, 2007

Some congressional Republicans are growing increasingly skeptical about the Justice Department’s handling of the U.S. attorney controversy, with some of them declining to defend Alberto Gonzales as many Democrats are calling for the embattled attorney general to resign.

“I have supported Mr. Gonzales,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) Wednesday. “But I think what we are seeing, particularly with regard to the [revelations of this week] … is kind of a loss of confidence in what is coming out of his department.”

Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.) said he “expressed real concerns over leadership at the Justice Department a year and a half ago [during the reauthorization of the Patriot Act].”

Sununu pointed out that President Bush would have to make any decision with regard to Gonzales’s future. But he voiced some frustration with how the Patriot Act reauthorization was handled, saying the Department of Justice (DoJ) then had “missed an opportunity” to address the concerns of lawmakers and avoid confrontations.

Sununu, who will likely face a challenging reelection race next year, also pointed out that a recent report on the use of national security letters showed that many of the concerns that he and others had voiced were “very well founded.”

Asked if he had lost confidence in Gonzales, Sununu said his “confidence level was weak to begin with.”

Earlier this week, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) called DoJ’s handling of the matter “an embarrassment.”

Other Republicans stood behind the attorney general. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Gonzales has done a good job of handling the controversy and addressing the problems that have surfaced.

“If he has the support of the president, [then] he has my support,” Graham said, adding Gonzales “did a good job yesterday to take responsibility.”

Bush, who was visiting Mexico, told reporters Wednesday that he still has confidence in Gonzales but that he was not pleased with how the firing of the U.S. attorneys had been handled.

“I talked to him this morning, and we talked about his need to go up to Capitol Hill and make it very clear to members in both political parties why the Justice Department made the decisions it made, making very clear about the facts,” Bush said. “The fact that both Republicans and Democrats feel like that there was not straightforward communication troubles me, and it troubles the attorney general, so he took action. And he needs to continue to take action.”

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said the controversy surrounding the firing of the U.S. attorneys has become a “political exercise,” noting that President Bill Clinton fired all 93 U.S. attorneys when he took office.

Hatch said Gonzales is “doing a great job,” but added that DoJ could have been more open with regard to its reasons for firing the eight U.S. attorneys.

Many Republicans have adopted a wait-and-see pattern with regard to Gonzales, but are careful not to back him squarely.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said it is not time for the attorney general to resign, though he also noted that there is cause for concern.

“There have been some pretty serious questions raised about his performance, and those questions have to be answered,” Thune said.

Asked about Gonzales’s chances of remaining on the job, Thune said he had a better chance of winning his NCAA basketball pool than to setting any odds for what the future would hold for the attorney general.

http://thehill.com

[chefmike]

:D

[specialk]

:P

[chefmike]

LMAO...or maybe he'll be able to get a job building that new border fence!

[chefmike]

Oh dear!

LAURIE KELLMAN | AP | March 16, 2007 06:01 PM EST

WASHINGTON — The White House dropped its contention Friday that former Counsel Harriet Miers first raised the idea of firing U.S. attorneys, blaming "hazy memories" as e-mails shed new light on Karl Rove's role. Support eroded further for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Presidential press secretary Tony Snow previously had asserted Miers was the person who came up with the idea, but he said Friday, "I don't want to try to vouch for origination." He said, "At this juncture, people have hazy memories."

The White House also said it needed more time before deciding whether Miers, political strategist Rove and other presidential advisers would testify before Congress and whether the White House would release documents to lawmakers.

"Given the importance of the issues under consideration and the presidential principles involved, we need more time to resolve them," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. She said White House Counsel Fred Fielding suggested to the House Judiciary Committee that he get back to members on Tuesday.

Fielding called a staff member of the House Judiciary Committee Thursday afternoon, saying he needed to clear the White House's position with Bush, according to an official who works for the panel. That official spoke only on condition of anonymity because the conversation had been private.

After receiving word of the delay, committee chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., said his panel would vote next week on subpoenas for Rove, Miers and other officials.

Snow's comments came hours after the Justice Department released e-mails Thursday night pulling the White House deeper into an intensifying investigation into whether eight firings were a purge of prosecutors deemed unenthusiastic about presidential goals.

Snow said it was not immediately clear who first floated the more dramatic idea of firing all 93 U.S. attorneys shortly after President Bush was re-elected to a second term.

"This is as far as we can go: We know that Karl recollects Harriet having raised it and his recollection is that he dismissed it as not a good idea," Snow told reporters. "That's what we know. We don't know motivations. ... I don't think it's safe to go any further than that."

Asked if Bush himself might have suggested the firings, Snow said, "Anything's possible ... but I don't think so." He said Bush "certainly has no recollection of any such thing. I can't speak for the attorney general."

"I want you to be clear here: Don't be dropping it at the president's door," Snow said.

Subpoenas demanding testimony from White House officials could come next week.

Conyers said the House Judiciary Committee "must take steps to ensure that we are not being stonewalled or slow-walked on this matter." He said, "I will schedule a vote to issue subpoenas for the documents and officials we need to talk to."

"We hope that this delay is not a signal they will not cooperate," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who is leading the Senate's probe into the matter. "The story keeps changing, which neither does them or the public any good."

Meanwhile, a Republican House member suggested it might be time for Gonzales to go.

"It is ultimately the president's decision, but perhaps it would benefit this administration if the attorney general was replaced with someone with a more professional focus rather than personal loyalty," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif. He complained of "a pattern of arrogance in this administration."

Republican Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire has called for Bush to replace Gonzales, and a Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee, speaking on condition of anonymity, has said he plans to do the same next week.

House Democratic Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina said the controversies reflected poorly on administration officials generally.

"They don't know anything about running government. They're just political hacks," Clyburn said at a news conference in Columbia, S.C. "Gonzales is just a political hack."

Other GOP lawmakers have joined Democrats in harsh indictments of Gonzales' effectiveness but have stopped short of saying he should be fired.

"I do not think the attorney general has served the president well, but it is up to the president to decide on General Gonzales' continued tenure," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

The latest e-mails between White House and Justice Department officials show that Rove inquired in early January 2005 about firing U.S. attorneys. They also indicate Gonzales was considering dismissing up to 20 percent of U.S. attorneys in the weeks before he took over the Justice Department.

In one e-mail, Gonzales' top aide, Kyle Sampson, said an across-the-board housecleaning "would certainly send ripples through the U.S. attorney community if we told folks they got one term only." The e-mail concluded that "if Karl thinks there would be political will to do it, then so do I."

Sampson resigned this week amid the uproar.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a vote for next Thursday on authorizing subpoenas for Rove, Miers and her deputy, William K. Kelley. The panel already has approved the use of subpoenas, if necessary, for Justice Department officials and J. Scott Jennings, a White House aide who works in Rove's office.

E-mails between the White House and the Justice Department suggest that Jennings was involved in setting up a meeting on a possible replacement for soon-to-be-fired New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias and in responding to "a senator problem" with the proposed replacement of Bud Cummins, then U.S. attorney for Arkansas.

Among the Justice Department officials named in the subpoenas is Associate Deputy Attorney General William E. Moschella. Lawmakers want him to testify about whether the White House consented to changing the Patriot Act last year to let the attorney general appoint new U.S. attorneys without confirmation.

In an interview with The Associated Press this week, Moschella said the change was not aimed at bypassing the Senate but ending meddling by judges in filling vacant prosecutors' jobs. Under the former law, federal judges could appoint interim U.S. attorneys in jobs that were vacant for more than 120 days.

"There's a conspiracy theory about this and it's nothing other than that," Moschella said.

[trish]

The toast is burning!!