Helen Thomas: Gonzales On Shaky Ground

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Helen Thomas: Gonzales On Shaky Ground
By Helen Thomas
Thursday, 15 March 2007

WASHINGTON -- If there is one federal agency that should always be squeaky clean, it is the Justice Department.

But under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales -- the nation's chief law enforcement officer -- an embarrassing stench has arisen in the department because of the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

Some irate Democratic lawmakers -- especially Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. -- are calling for his resignation for what smacks of politicization of the Justice Department.

Gonzales took responsibility for mistakes that were made but insisted that he would not resign. He told a news conference Tuesday that the firings were the "right decision."

The prosecutors apparently were targeted by Republican members of Congress unhappy with their work, though Justice Department officials generally gave the eight good performance evaluations before their sudden terminations.

We now have learned that in early 2005, former White House counsel Harriet Miers asked a Justice Department official whether it would be feasible to sack all 93 federal prosecutors when their four-year terms expired to make way for new Republican appointees.

Gonzales rejected the idea as too disruptive. His more politically astute chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, told Miers that such a wholesale firing would overtax the department. Instead, Sampson suggested dismissing limited groups to "avoid the shock to the system that would result from an across-the-board firing."

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at Janet Reno for an example of the proper conduct of Attorney General.
Everyone took shots at her because she was not in anyone's pocket.