Gonzales must resign now. "Mistakes were made."

Link to Washington Post Article

And, from Slate:

Firing of US Attorney may have violated discrimination law Mike Sheehan
Published: Wednesday April 4, 2007
A fired U.S. Attorney is "striking back" at the Bush administration for what he feels is his improper dismissal, Newsweek reports.

"The Justice Department called David Iglesias, the U.S. attorney in New Mexico, an 'absentee landlord' -- a key reason listed for his firing last December," write Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball for Newsweek. "Just one problem: Iglesias, a captain in the Navy Reserve, was off teaching classes as part of the war on terror."

The explanation used by aides to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for the firing of Iglesias -- that, among other things, he "was spending too much time away from the office" -- may be a further complication in the embattled Gonzales' struggle for self-preservation.

According to Newsweek, Iglesias confirmed "that he was recently questioned by lawyers for the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal watchdog agency, to determine if his dismissal was a violation" of a federal law (USERRA) barring workplace discrimination against U.S. military servicemembers.

Iglesias is filing a formal legal complaint with the agency over his termination by Justice, report Isikoff and Hosenball.

"I want to make sure they didn't fire me because of my military duty," Iglesias told Newsweek. "When I was away from the office, it wasn't like I was going on vacation in Europe."

Excerpts from the Newsweek article, available in full at this link, follow...
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Firing_of_US_Attorney_may_have_0404.html

The following is an excerpt from a new article on Justice in opednews.com. What is happening at Justice is nothing more than what Bush is doing to the federal government in general. He continues to appoint heads of agencies who are anti-government. This is similar to appointing the fox to run the chicken coop.


"There's more to this than meets the eye. The justice department is being stacked with extreme right wing, underskilled, partisan media theater types who are taking American Justice down an anti-immigrant, theocon road that will lead to weaker protections for the most vulnerable in society, while taking the heat off of corporate perpetrators and wealthy landlords.

Is the Minneapolis case part of the bigger attorneygate? That's something that congressional hearings should and will explore. Even if it is not clearly shown, this look inside the Bush/Gonzales justice department is ugly and shows the further deteriorization of government-- a problem that has become systemic, throughout, it seems, all levels of national government infrastructure. The brazen insertion of underskilled, incompetent partisans is weakening America and putting the nation at risk. When Grover Norquist said he wanted to starve government so it was so small he could drown it in a bathtub, we did not have the intimations that government would also be poisoned by toxic, incompetent managers as well. I guess it's easier to kill a weakened creature, and that's what the right wing leadership, under Bush is perpetrating.

As long as Bush is in charge, this will continue, as evidenced by the three interim appointments he made this week of people the congress had already rejected."

This seems to be her Web page), Goodling's chief claim to professional fame appears to have been loyalty to the president and to the process of reshaping the Justice Department in his image (and thus, His image). A former career official there told the Washington Post that Goodling "forced many very talented, career people out of main Justice so she could replace them with junior people that were either loyal to the administration or would score her some points." And as she rose at Justice, according to a former classmate, Goodling "developed a very positive reputation for people coming from Christian schools into Washington looking for employment in government."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


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Start digging, and Goodling also looks to be the Forrest Gump of no comments: Here she is in 1997, fielding calls from reporters to Regent's School of Government admissions office. Asked whether non-Christians were admitted, she explained that "we admit all students without discrimination. We are a Christian institution; it is assumed that everyone in the classes are Christians." Here, in 2004, she's answering phones at the Justice Department about whether then-Deputy Solicitor General Paul Clement knew about the abuses at Abu Ghraib when he told the Supreme Court that the United States does not torture. Said Goodling, in lieu of taking the Fifth: "We wouldn't have any comment." (Jenny Martinez, who argued against Clement that day at the court, suggested to Salon's Tim Grieve: "When Mr. Clement said to the court that we wouldn't engage in that kind of behavior, either he was deliberately misleading the court or he was completely out of the loop." Sound familiar?)

Goodling is only one of 150."no higher calling than public service," on documents bearing his signature. (He also snatched the last bit of fun out of his press conferences when he covered up the bared breasts of the DoJ statue the "Spirit of Justice"). No surprise that, as he launched a transformation of the Justice Department, the Goodlings looked good to him.

One of Ashcroft's most profound changes was to the Civil Rights Division, launched in 1957 to file cases on behalf of African-Americans and women. Under Ashcroft, career lawyers were systematically fired or forced out and replaced by members of conservative or Christian groups or folks with no civil rights experience. LINKFreedom Project to carry out "even greater enforcement of religious rights for all Americans." In his view, the fight for a student's right to read a Bible at school is as urgent a civil rights problem as the right to vote.

We may agree or disagree on that proposition, but it certainly explains how Goodling came to confuse working to advance Gonzales' agenda with working to advance God's. But while God may well want more prayer in the public schools, it's not clear He wanted David Iglesias fired on a pretext. In an excellent 2005 article about Regent in the American Prospect Online, Christopher Hayes points out that more than two-thirds of the students at Regent identified as Republicans, and only 9 percent identified as Democrats. As he concludes, "what students are taught at a place like Regent, or even Calvin and Wheaton, is to live out a Christ-centered existence in all facets of their lives. But what they learn is to become Republicans."

Is there anything wrong with legal scholarship from a Christian perspective? Not that I see. Is there anything wrong with a Bush administration that disproportionately uses graduates from such Christian law schools to fill its staffing needs? Not that I see. It's a shorthand, not better or worse than cherry-picking the Federalist Society or the bar association. I can't even get exercised over the fact that Gonzales, Rove, and Miers had their baby lawyers making critical staffing decisions for them. The babybaby lawyers had extremely clear marching orders.

No, the real concern here is that Goodling and her ilk somehow began to conflate God's work with the president's. Probably not a lesson she learned in law school. The dream of Regent and its counterparts, like Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, is to redress perceived wrongs to Christians, to reclaim the public square, and reassert Christian political authority. And while that may have been a part of the Bush/Rove plan, it was, in the end, only a small part. Their real zeal was for earthly power. And Goodling was left holding the earthly bag.

At the end of the day, Goodling and the other young foot soldiers for God may simply have run afoul of the first rule of politics, codified in Psalm 146: "Put no trust in princes, in mere mortals in whom there is no help."

A version of this article also appears in the Outlook section of the Sunday Washington Post.




Joe(makes you sick, doesn't it?)Nation

Joe
Joe, thanks for that.

BBB

WASHINGTON - Joining a growing list of Republicans, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Sunday that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should consider resigning. The possible presidential candidate said the botched firing of U.S. attorneys has destroyed Gonzales' credibility as the nation's top law enforcer.

"I think the country, in fact, would be much better served to have a new team at the Justice Department, across the board," Gingrich said. "I cannot imagine how he is going to be effective for the rest of this administration. ... They're going to be involved in endless hearings."

Joe, I also thank you for that enlightening piece. The situation at Justice is worse than I thought.

This is a real pity, because Justice use to be, in general, the height of professionalism. Its young attorneys were usually the honors grads of the top law schools, who did a great job in representing the interests of the country. I gather that this has changed, and that the present focus is on representing the interests of Bush and the Republicans.

This whole thing could be cleared up with just one sentence by President Bush...
"All of the fired US attorneys were fired at my direction".

That would end the whole matter,because the President does not have to have a reason to fire somebody.
Every attorney serves at the "pleasure of the President".
If he isnt pleased,they get fired.

A major issue here is what was done by the US Attorneys who were not fired. Here is a comment by Paul Krugman on this point.


There's a lot of talk now about a case in Wisconsin, where the
Bush-appointed U.S. attorney prosecuted the state's purchasing
supervisor over charges that a court recently dismissed after just 26
minutes of oral testimony, with one judge calling the evidence "beyond
thin." But by then the accusations had done their job: the unjustly
accused official had served almost four months in prison, and the case
figured prominently in attack ads alleging corruption in the Democratic
governor's administration.

No, that wouldn't have cleared it up. The DoJ said the WH had nothing to do with the firings. It only would have pointed out the lies told by DoJ officials. The same lies that are being investigated now.

Mysteryman wrote:
think?)Nation

GOP activist: There is concern about what may be in these e-mails RAW STORY
Published: Monday April 9, 2007

A "back-channel e-mail and paging system" used by Republican operatives has become a White House "headache" now that Democrats are demanding answers, according to a report in Monday's LA Times.
damn voters
_________________
"A time will come when a politician who has willfully made war and promoted international dissension will be...surer of the noose than a private homicide"
- H. G. Wells

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blueflame
Polykiloposter


Joined: 27 Aug 2004
Posts: 16773
Location: key west
Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 10:15 am Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Six US Attorneys pull 'double duty' in DC; Some serve as Gonzales aides RAW STORY
Published: Tuesday April 10, 2007

Six US Attorneys pull "double duty" in Washington, DC, with some serving as aides to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, which "take them away from regular duties in their districts for months or even years at a time, according to officials and department records," an article in Tuesday's Washington Post reports.

"Acting Associate Attorney General William W. Mercer, for example, has been effectively absent from his job as U.S. attorney in Montana for nearly two years -- prompting the chief federal judge in Billings to demand his removal and call Mercer's office 'a mess,'" Dan Eggen writes. "Another U.S. attorney, Michael J. Sullivan of Boston, has been in Washington for the past six months as acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He is awaiting confirmation to head the agency permanently while still juggling his responsibilities in Massachusetts."

Eggan continues, "The number of U.S. attorneys pulling double duty in Washington is the focus of growing concern from other prosecutors and from members of the federal bench, according to legal experts and government officials. The growing reliance on federal prosecutors to fill Washington-based jobs also comes amid controversy over the firings of eight other U.S. attorneys last year. One of them, David C. Iglesias of New Mexico, was publicly accused by the Justice Department of being an 'absentee landlord' who was away from his job too much."

Along with Mercer and Sullivan, the paper also singles out Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, who headed up the CIA leak probe; Mary Beth Buchanan from the Western District of Pennsylvania, who also serves as the acting director of the Office of Violence Against Women; Connecticut's Kevin J. O'Connor, who has served as associate deputy attorney general since December 2006; and Chuck Rosenberg from the Eastern District of Virginia, freshly promoted to Gonzales' Chief of staff.

Excerpts from article:
link

House panel subpoenas Gonzales

What word to describe that deer-in-headlights situation Gonzales has found himself in? "Quaint", I think.

Please show me how mu post was authoritarian?
The President has the power to fire the US attorneys if he chosses.
EVERY President has had that power.
They do not have to explain their reasons for firing people.

So,you can question the President all you want,with my blessing.
But he doesnt have to explain why he fired someone,and nothing you can say will change that.

One thing I will point out though.
By demanding explanations from the President about why he fired someone,or by passing legislation blocking his authority to appoint or fire someone,you are also denying the next dem President the same authority.
Be careful what you wish for,you might get it.

The president has to explain to the American people anything they ask.

You don't seem to realize that he is a servant.

Cycloptichorn