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Political notes from Free Press staff writers Terri Hallenbeck, Sam Hemingway and Nancy Remsen


9.29.2008

 

U.S. attorney dismissal controversy

Lots of news out of Washington these days, not much of it good for the Bush legacy.

Here's Sen. Patrick Leahy's comments on a controversy that's been dormant for a while -- The Report By The Inspector General And The Office Of Professional Responsibility On The Dismissal Of Nine U.S. Attorneys

September 29, 2008

“These findings by the Justice Department’s internal oversight offices add up to another disturbing report card on the conduct of the Gonzales Justice Department in the unprecedented firing of U.S. Attorneys for partisan, political reasons. Those of us who believe that law enforcement must never be infected by politics cannot help be dismayed by the report’s conclusion that the Attorney General and the other top officials ‘abdicated their responsibility to safeguard the integrity and independence of the Department.’ This report might have told us even more if the investigation had not been impeded by the Bush administration’s refusal to cooperate and provide documents and witnesses, just as they remain in contempt of Congress for failing to cooperate with the Judiciary Committee’s investigation. In this debacle as in others, the Bush administration’s self-serving secrecy has shrouded many of their most controversial policies -- from torture, to investigating the causes of 9/11, to wiretapping.

“This report verifies what our oversight efforts this Congress showed, that partisan, political interests in the prosecution of voter fraud and public corruption by the White House and some at the Department played a role in many of these firings. These abuses are corrosive to the very foundations of our system of justice. It is wrong and it is dangerous to undermine the nation’s premier law enforcement agency by injecting political biases to determine which cases should be prosecuted.

“The report also raises questions that are not yet resolved about the reasons for the firing and ‘inconsistent, misleading, and inaccurate’ statements to Congress and the press from Attorney General Gonzales and others at the Department. I will look carefully at the report’s recommendation that a prosecutor continue to explore these troubling facts, including inaccurate testimony to Congress, whether Attorney General Gonzales tried to shape the testimony of other Department officials, and the extent of White House involvement. Perhaps a prosecutor can break down walls others cannot.

“It was oversight in the new Congress two years ago that lifted the lid on the practices of those who were subverting our system by acting as if they were above the law. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation revealed a Justice Department gone awry. Attorney General Gonzales allowed politics to permeate the Department’s ranks, and then he tried to avoid accountability. He has provided the Inspector General the same response he gave so frequently to Congress: I don’t recall. The threads of secrecy of this administration – from the White House to the Executive agencies – will continue to unravel for years to come.”

-- Nancy Remsen

Comments:
Thank god we Pat Leahy in DC!!!
 
Once again, the Bush Administration shows itself to be the most clueless, corrupt, incompetent and illegitimate administration in US History.
 
Yeah for "leaky" Leahy!!
 
I forgot Leahy was still around! Thought he was still in Hollywood. Well, while most Senators and Reps are trying to do something about the financial crisis it's nice to know they gave our little retard something unimportant to do, you know, keep the idiot out of the way of the grownups!
 
Anonymous said...

"Yeah for "leaky" Leahy!!"

Nah, for nameless-nitwits with bupkis, little fraudulent fella.

OK, that's enough BP for me. You can start tryin' now, nitwit.

Always a pleasure.
 
Leahy is a dinosaur and needs to go. He is an embarrassment to all Vters.
 
Tom Costello for Lt. Gov!!!!!!!
 
Anonymous...

"Leahy is a dinosaur and needs to go. He is an embarrassment to all Vters."

Bush's injustice department gets raked over the coals in an independent report that the Bush Administration refused to cooperate with and Leahy's the "embarrassment to all Vters".

Sure, that must be why he's been there since 1974 and keeps getting reelected overwhelmingly.

Evidently, most Vermonters like the way he "embarrasses" them.

You're dumb, you're scum and ya got bupkis, punk. Grab your take back vermutt trash and tell your story walkin'.

The sooner Vermont sees the back of the lunatic-fringe likes of you receding into the distance, the better.

Disappear.
 
Leahy makes a career of hounding Republicans for firing 10 or so US Attorneys when Clinton fired ALL of them in 1993!

Please Pat, go back to Hollywood! They're casting for a new "Dumb and Dumber" flick.
 
bubba...

"Leahy makes a career of hounding Republicans for firing 10 or so US Attorneys when Clinton fired ALL of them in 1993!"

Nice try, bubbakis. No sale.

Every President routinely fires Federal Prosecutors when there's a change in administration. Clinton did it. Bush did it.

Bush fired his own prosecutors when they wouldn't launch bogus prosecutions against Democrats.

Them's the facts, schmuck. Read 'em and weep.

Take it where the climate suits your sheet, schmuck.

Disappear.
 
"Evidently, most Vermonters like the way he "embarrasses" them."

Makes a strong statement about the sad shape of the VT voter doesn't it. They are like sheep being led to slaughter. The only good news is VT has no impact on the national scene.
 
The sheep are those who have blindly followed the cowboy for eight years.
 
Anonymous said...

""Evidently, most Vermonters like the way he "embarrasses" them.""

"Makes a strong statement about the sad shape of the VT voter doesn't it."

No, it reveals what caseless, clueless, ignorant, anonymous, trash you are, little nameless-nitwit fella.

"They are like sheep being led to slaughter."

No, that would require and incompetent gop-slime Congress and Legislature to go along with the incompetent gop-slime President and Governor we've been saddled with, little factually-challenged fella.

Fortunately, despite the continued presence of trash like Larry Wide Stance Craig, Pete Dementia Domenici and Ted "not-guilty" Stevens in the Senate and the ethically-challenged, lunatic-fringe likes of Eric clueless-cretin Cantor, Roy Blunt and Bonehead Boehner and in the House, reason prevailed in '06 and we dodged that bullet.

Now it's time to clear out the rest of the gop-scum toxic waste, fumigate the White House, finish the job and clean the slime from the slate in '08, little fella.

"The only good news is VT has no impact on the national scene."

It doesn't, eh? Tell it to cheney after he forced Jim Jeffords to become an Independent and relieved Trent Lott and the gop-slime squad of their Senate Majority for a few months back in '01, before the sheep rewarded Bush for fallin' asleep at the switch and allowin' 9/11, the chicken-hawk slime likes of saxby chambliss morphed Vietnam triple-amputee Max Cleland into bin laden while clueless mcsame held his nose and looked the other way.

Of course, Pat Leahy is Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and will remain so for the foreseeable future. He'll just have a bigger Dem Majority to work with and, unless shrub pardons everybody including his own sorry butt on the way out the door, there will be no more bush injustice department to obstruct justice and we'll see just how little effort Vermont has on the National Scene, little factually-challenged fella.

Ya know, your ignorant anonymous ass could at least try to make me break a sweat, little fraudulent fella. Make an effort, ya mope.

Always a pleasure.
 
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