p. A01, WP: Statements On Firings of Prosecutors Are Key Issue

sure am glad this story is being kept alive.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/14/AR2007031400519.html

Statements On Firings of Prosecutors Are Key Issue

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 15, 2007; Page A01

In testimony on Jan. 18, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Justice Department had no intention of avoiding Senate input on the hiring of U.S. attorneys.

Just a month earlier, D. Kyle Sampson, who was then Gonzales's chief of staff, laid out a plan to do just that. In an e-mail, he detailed a strategy for evading Arkansas Democrats in installing Tim Griffin, a former GOP operative and protege of presidential adviser Karl Rove, as the U.S. attorney in Little Rock.

"We should gum this to death," Sampson wrote to a White House aide on Dec. 19. "sk the senators to give Tim a chance . . . then we can tell them we'll look for other candidates, ask them for recommendations, evaluate the recommendations, interview their candidates, and otherwise run out the clock. All of this should be done in 'good faith,' of course."

The conflict between documents released this week and previous administration statements is quickly becoming the central issue for lawmakers who are angry about the way Gonzales and his aides handled the coordinated firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year.....

We'll be hearing about this one for awhile.

Julie

Like who the Hell would ever believe them on the Hill. Some people might quip, "It's the job of Congress to mislead Congress." Well it's the job of the WH to compete with Congress but not to flat out lie and that's what this is.

As I read it, it seemed clear that there will be no legal action, although it's not out of the question. but I understood clearly why Gonzo has to go. He's a liar, his chief of staff is a liar, and the rest involved deceived or watched deception in communication and claims to congress.

How can you stay in office with that label? He's gone along with his aids.

It's hard to match this hilarity.

In the evolving story of the US Attorney Purge, you know that a principal part is played by this little known provision of the USA Patriot Act which allows the Attorney General to appoint US attorneys without senate confirmation (TPMmuckraker played the central role uncovering how the provision ended up in the bill). Up until -- what? days ago? -- the White House was promising to veto any attempts to overturn this critical bit of legislation packed with constitutional import and critical to the prosecution of the war on terror. Now, says the Justice Department, in the words of McClatchy News Service, the provision was "designed by a mid-level department lawyer without the knowledge of his superiors or anyone at the White House."

It's like some pulsing gyre of Anglomania -- George Orwell meets Monty Python, with Benny Hill along for the ride.

The separation of powers issue is just down the memory hole. Now it was just some Justice Department lawyer freelancing.

So not withstanding the fact that we now have emails of the Attorney General's Chief of Staff discussing the importance of using the AG's new power to avoid senate confirmation, apparently this is how the whole thing came about ...

more: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/013058.php

This article by Dan Eggen in tomorrow's Post lays out in gentle but clear and persuasive terms why Attorney General Gonzales and his Deputy, Mr. McNulty, will soon be ending their tenure at the Department of Justice. Simply put, they lied to Congress. As Eggen correctly notes, prosecutions for lying to Congress are uncommon. And the standards of proof might well be too great to sustain one. But by common sense standards it's clear that neither man testified truthfully when they answered senators' questions earlier this year. Even the emails now public make that clear. That visible deceit in covering up an emerging scandal will be too much for them to stay in office. Sen. Sununu's (R-NH) announcement will be followed by others.

more:http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/013059.php