Attorney Firings: What the White House Wanted to do, But Didn't (Aziz Huq at HuffPost)

Aziz Huq



03.14.2007
Attorney Firings: What the White House Wanted to do, But Didn't (18 comments )

In the coming days, commentators will be scrambling for their thesauruses to find new ways to describe the mounting criticism of Attorney General Gonzales (try "calumny" or "obloquy" for starters). But it's worth lingering on one perhaps the most illuminating aspect of today's news: What the White House wanted to, but didn't, do.


According to internal White House emails, White House Counsel Harriet Miers suggested in early 2005 that all 93 U.S. Attorneys be removed and replaced. We need to know a lot more about the scope and detail of this plan, and critically, its relation to the provision in the March 2006 Patriot Act that allowed the White House to circumvent both legislative and local controls on prosecutorial appointments.

Let me explain why. Back in early 2005 , as President Bush began his second term of office, most U.S. Attorneys were already his appointees. As one email chain disclosed yesterday reveals , the White House knew that precisely 77 were Bush II appointees). To be sure, these appointees had been subject to nomination and confirmation by the Senate, as required by Article II of the Constitution. But it had been President Bush who had selected them (just as he selected Carol Lam, David C. Iglesias, Paul K. Charlton, Daniel K. Bogden, and the other recently terminated prosecutors). So why even risk the political contention and fallout of a nationwide purge?

The emails disclosed yesterday are somewhat revealing on this point. They include correspondence from Gonzales chief of staff Kyle Sampson in which he "strongly recommend" the use of the Patriot Act provisions, (page 7 of this document ) because it would allow the White House to bypass "home-State Senators"--including, it's worth noting, Republicans--and vest more control in the Executive. ....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aziz-huq/attorney-firings-what-th_b_43401.html