Some nice press from the LA Times for TPM and TPMmuckraker's coverage of the US Attorney Purge.
--Josh Marshall
Is the attorney general apologizing for saying the purged U.S. attorneys were canned for "performance-related reasons"?
As I mentioned earlier, that's what McClatchy reported yesterday, and the AP has a similar report today on what transpired during a conference call between Gonzales and all the U.S. attorneys on Friday:
During the conference call, planned as a pep talk to raise morale at a Justice Department tainted by the firings and the FBI's misuse of the Patriot Act, Gonzales apologized for how the dismissals were handled and for suggesting there were problems with the prosecutors' job performances.
Without more information, it's hard to know what that means. Is he abandoning the Administration's defense that the prosecutors were removed for legitimate job performance reasons? Or is he saying that the Justice Department did act based on performance concerns but shouldn't have shredded the prosecutors' reputations in the process of defending the move? Since this was a "pep talk," I suspect it's the latter.
--David Kurtz
Some new news on the Kyle Sampson front. Remember, Sampson is Alberto Gonzales's former Chief of Staff who resigned on Monday. The following is a statement from Mr. Sampson's lawyer, Bradford Berenson ...
"Kyle did not resign because he had misled anyone at the Justice Department or withheld information concerning the replacement of the U.S. Attorneys. He resigned because, as Chief of Staff, he felt he had let the Attorney General down in failing to appreciate the need for and organize a more effective response to the unfounded accusations that the replacements were improper.""The fact that the White House and Justice Department had been discussing this subject since the election was well-known to a number of other senior officials at the Department, including others who were involved in preparing the Department's testimony to Congress. If this background was not called to Mr. McNulty or Mr. Moschella's attention, it was not because any of these individuals deliberately withheld it from them but rather because no one focused on it at the time. The focus of preparation efforts was on why the U.S. Attorneys had been replaced, not how."
Update: Compare and contrast with Sampson's very similar, yet significantly different, statement out last night. - PK
--Josh Marshall
The most interesting testimony in yesterday's House committee hearing on the CIA leak case came not from Valerie Plame Wilson but from James Knodell, director of the White House security office, who testified that the White House had neither undertaken an internal investigation into the leak nor taken disciplinary action against the leakers. Here's a copy of the letter committee Chairman Henry Waxman sent to White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten following the hearing.
--David Kurtz
Think Progress has a good catch, from NPR:
According to Justice Department sources, after Kyle Sampson resigned as the attorney general’s chief of staff on Monday, he was going to work as a lawyer in the legislative section of the department’s environment division. The Justice Department started to set up a new office for Sampson in that section, and he only resigned from the department on Tuesday, when the scandal surrounding eight fired U.S. Attorneys continued to grow.
Yup. Mistakes were made.
--David Kurtz
Take a look at what the U.S. attorney scandal has wrought by way of media coverage in Pittsburgh--and consider the implications for every federal prosecutor in the country. As Bud Cummins wrote yesterday in an email to TPMmuckraker, "Once the public detects partisanship in one important decision, they will follow the natural inclination to question every decision made, whether there is a connection or not." [Thanks to TPM Reader NW for the tip.]
--David Kurtz
Newsweek poll: "Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed-–including 45 percent of Republicans-–say the ouster of the federal prosecutors was driven by political concerns."
--David Kurtz
Helen Thomas keeps her front row seat in the new White House briefing room.
--David Kurtz
Kyle Sampson may have resigned as Alberto Gonzales' chief of staff, but he's showing signs of not being willing to be scapegoated for the entire U.S. Attorney scandal.
As Paul notes, Sampson's lawyer, former Bush Administration official Bradford Berenson, released a statement late Friday that includes this rat-jumping-ship gem:
The fact that the White House and Justice Department had been discussing this subject for several years was well-known to a number of other senior officials at the Department, including others who were involved in preparing the Department's testimony to Congress.
Sen. Schumer said this week that Sampson would not become the next Scooter Libby, a fall guy for a scheme hatched at the highest levels of the Bush Administration. Sampson seems to be saying the same thing.
--David Kurtz
TPM Reader JT shares my reaction to last night's McClatchy account of Alberto Gonzales' conference call with U.S. Attorneys:
The Bushie justification of the firings rests entirely on their adamant insistence that the firings were based on poor job performance, even to the point of finding convoluted ways to explain away the consistently positive performance reviews so many were getting right up to the minute they were fired.So, if Gonzales has now admitted that the public statements about job performance were 'inaccurate', what is left as a rationale for firing the USA's except political reasons? Hasn't he just blown their whole defense here?
As I say, that raised my eyebrows, too. Without calling into question McClatchy's reporting here, because they have had a stellar record on this story, it is hard for me to believe that Gonzales didn't give a very carefully hedged apology that would have stopped short of saying the public statements about job performance were "inaccurate." This will be worth keeping an eye on because JT is right that if accurate this account leaves the Administration's defense in tatters.
--David Kurtz
More well-deserved kudos for TPMmuckraker.
Late Update: Greg Sargent's take on it all, straight from The Horse's Mouth.
--David Kurtz
GOP smear-tactic financier Bob Perry, of swift-boat fame, climbs aboard the Mitt Romney campaign.
--David Kurtz
In an effort to save his job, Alberto Gonzales apologized to all U.S. attorneys in a conference call today and brought in a veteran of the Ashcroft years as his interim chief of staff. The apology was not for the firings, but for how they were handled, according to McClatchy. and apparently included an apology for "inaccurate public statements about poor job performance." The interim chief of staff is Chuck Rosenberg, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia who previously served as chief of staff to then-Deputy Attorney General James Comey.
--David Kurtz
Valerie Plame Wilson testifying before the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, Friday March 16th, 2007 ...
--Josh Marshall
Earlier, we noted that a document dump related to the U.S. attorney firings was on its way... but now we're hearing that it's been postponed until Monday.
--Paul Kiel
White House tells Democrats that they'll just have to wait until next week for an answer as to whether they'll cooperate with the U.S. attorney probe.
--Paul Kiel
We've just unearthed the quote from Barack Obama that Bill Clinton is demanding that The Times pay more attention to.
--Greg Sargent
I've mentioned a few times recently that we've got some big changes coming soon at TPM. So with the good press TPMmuckraker.com has been getting for its reporting on the US Attorney Purge story, let me take a moment to tell you what we've got coming.
It's been about a year and a half now since our reporting here went from being a one man operation to a small team of reporters. That's when I got the idea to start the site that became TPMmuckraker.com. Needless to say, I really couldn't be happier with the results.
For its first year, TPMmuckraker.com was primarily focused on the expanding web of congressional corruption scandals. We still think Congress is the big story this year, but in a different way. With the Democrats now in power, how are they running the place? Differently than the GOP barons, or more of the same with a new party ID label after the names? And how well are they performing oversight of the executive branch? We want to see how good a job they're doing, what they're finding and -- perhaps most important -- what we can find that they should be looking at too. So on both counts, we think Congress is the story this year. That's why we want to put at least one full-time blogger-reporter on Capitol Hill every day to dig into the stuff we think our readers want to know more about, to dig in to stories that aren't getting the attention they should.
This will be part of a relaunch of the entire site -- with a redesigned TPM website with a expanded focusing on reporting and breaking news updated through the day, and daily video segements. We have either already hired or are in the process of hiring new staff to make all this possible. We'll still have the traditional TPM blog. And with the changes we're making I should be able to get back to doing more blogging myself, as I used to, which I'm glad about.
To regular readers, I'm eager to hear your comments and thoughts. I'll be discussing more of the details over the weekend and next week, when we'll be launching a new (voluntary) subscription drive to help make all this possible.
--Josh Marshall
Only the best can serve.
You know that former US Attorney John McKay was canned up in Washington state over the much mentioned 'performance problems'. Now one of the three men the White House is considering as his replacement is former Congressman Rick White (R-WA). The only problem, as TPM Reader JK points out, is that White is currently not authorized to practice law in the state. His law license was suspended in 2003 after he forgot to pay his bar fees.
According to the Seattle Times ...
White's license was suspended by the state Supreme Court in August 2003 for failing to pay his bar dues. He was reinstated to the bar in 2005 after paying a small fee, but currently holds an "inactive" status. That means he can not practice law in Washington until he pays his full bar dues, about $390, and demonstrates that he is current on required Continuing Legal Education classes, said Washington State Bar spokeswoman Judy Berrett.
So it's basically onward and upward with meritocracy.
--Josh Marshall
Former US Attorney Bud Cummins writes in to TPMmuckraker.
Update: Here's our conversation with Cummins, who is, to understate it, very unhappy with the Justice Department.
--Paul Kiel
We hear there's another big document dump coming late this afternoon.
We're also hearing the press briefing today was a doozy.
Late Update: Yep, turned out to be true. It was a doozy.
--Josh Marshall
Here's a transcript of Tony Snow getting all hazy about the details of the idea to fire the U.S. attorneys.
Also, see him try to spin away the mention of 80-85 percent of U.S. attorneys as "loyal Bushies."
--Paul Kiel
Ahhh ... the artful ways things are described. Just out from Dan Eggen at the Post ...
The White House retreated today from its claim that former counsel Harriet E. Miers first came up with the idea of firing U.S. attorneys, another apparent shift in the Bush administration's evolving version of events behind the controversy.White House press secretary Tony Snow told reporters that it was no longer clear who first initiated the idea of dismissing a large number of the 93 federal prosecutors following the 2004 elections.
"It has been described as her idea but . . . I don't want to try to vouch for origination," Snow said, referring to Miers. "At this juncture, people have hazy memories."
Hazy memories. I'll bet.
At this point in the game, isn't the technical description for the status of this kind of false statement 'no longer operative.' Someone get Tony to brush up on his Watergate lexicon. Gonna be a bumpy ride.
--Josh Marshall
Confirmed: Bill Clinton slams New York Times for unfairly covering wife and going soft on Obama.
Update: Obama responds to Bill's remarks.
Late update: Times declines comment on Bill's criticism.
--Greg Sargent
Some quick updates on a couple of 2008 races that are attracting the attention of national Dems right now.
Dem strategists are certain that Oregon GOP Senator Gordon Smith is more vulnerable than he looks, but they're struggling to find the right Dem to challenge him.
Meanwhile, on the House side, Dems are planning to make the seat of Florida GOPer C.W. Bill Young one of 2008's top targets.
--Greg Sargent
Andrew Sullivan raises a very good question about the White House's likely need to find a new Attorney General. A logical person to replace Gonzales might be Deputy AG McNulty. But he's as implicated as his boss. So he's out. So is Bush loyalist Harriet Miers. So she's out too. In fact, most of the Bush insiders who are legal types are implicated. And even setting aside particular people, the senate would probably look very askance on another Bush pal as AG.
The political logic of the situation (ethical logic too, but we're far past that point, aren't we?) strongly suggests that the White House should tap a broadly respected lawyer public figure who can reestablish trust in the Department.
But can the president afford to have someone like that at the Justice Department right now? With all the investigations and potential investigations in play? A straight-shooter who will have justice's back rather than the White House?
This might be the only factor weighing in favor of Gonzales holding on to his job.
--Josh Marshall
Is that your final answer?
Disgraced Attorney General Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson looks over the shoulder of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as Gonzales testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 6th, 2006.
--Josh Marshall
We're sitting here listening to the Plame testimony in the House. And the exchange has just come to focus on the 2004 Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Iraq intel report. If you've been a longtime reader of this site, you know that the Niger story was one I reported on extensively for almost two years. The fallout from the story has now spilled out in many directions, not least of which was the recent Libby conviction. But I do hope we can finally have review and scrutiny of that report. The section of the report dealing with Niger, Wilson and Plame is simply a tissue of lies. It's a shame on the Democrats who served on the committee who got gamed into approving it.
You can read through our archives for detailed discussions of the report's contents. But it is a deliberate construction of half-truths, flat out lies and intentional misdirection -- all quite conscious on the part of the authors -- meant to discredit Wilson and thus protect the president. Then-Chairman Roberts (R-KS) prostituted his office by working in concert with the White House to obstruct and misdirect the investigation he was supposedly in charge of leading. And of course the conclusions of the report have become socially acceptable lies repeated endlessly by virtually every Republican in Washington and every conservative editorialist, most recently David Brooks in the Times, but certainly by many others.
To give the matter some current currency, the US Attorney Purge story gives a reminder, if any were needed, of how routinely senior members of the current administration lie to the public and Congress. And it is an example of how much more we can learn when we have a Congress sitting in Washington willing to do some oversight.
With the Libby verdict, many, even those sympathetic to the truth, view this matter as essentially concluded. But a cloud of official lies still hangs over the city. It centers on the Niger-Wilson story but grows out from there to cover everything that happened in the lead up to the war. To date, there has been no serious effort to investigate what happened. Again, there's been no serious effort to investigate what happened in the lead up to the war. Each investigation has been aimed -- to differing degrees -- at covering up and diverting blame. A strong statement, but a fact that needs to be said.
--Josh Marshall
Good question from TPM Reader TB ...
Does anyone know what Fitz's "rating" was on the loyalty scale sent to Miers by Sampson? Imagine the #$*%storm if they wanted to fire him from his home job to tamp down the Wilson controversy they way they acted on the warrantless wiretaps probe.
Excellent question. I believe the answer is that Fitzgerald's rating is redacted on the US Attorney ratings list released by the White House.
Sure would be interesting to see the actual document without the redactions.
--Josh Marshall
My biggest suspicions about the US Attorney Purge, as you know, center on the firing of former San Diego US Attorney Carol Lam, who led the investigation and prosecution of Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA). Well, the guy who broke the Duke story, Copley news service's Marcus Stern and the Copley team that kept on it until long after Duke was in the slammer -- Jerry Kammer, Dean Calbreath, George E. Condon Jr -- have written a book. It's called The Wrong Stuff: The Extraordinary Saga of Randy "Duke" Cunningham, the Most Corrupt Congressman Ever Caught. It's not out till May, I think. But I can't wait to read it. Certainly going to be worth picking up a copy.
--Josh Marshall
Okay, we've spent the last couple days putting together a US Attorney Purge timeline stretching from 2001 until this very day. Like all our timelines this is a TPM community project. We've got the main information up there. But take a look. If there's a key date or event we don't have up there, send us an email and let us know. If at all possible, send us a specific link and citation for what you're referring to. And, certainly, if you think you've found an error, tell us that too.
So take a look and let us know what you think.
--Josh Marshall
TPMmuckraker gets some nice press from the Columbia Journalism Review for being way ahead of the pack on the US Attorney Purge.
--Josh Marshall
Earlier, ABC reported that an email shows that the whole idea of replacing U.S. attorneys originated with Karl Rove.
We've got the email for you right here.
Update: I guess the fired prosecutors weren't "loyal Bushies?"
Update: We've just updated with a statement from the Justice Department.
--Paul Kiel
Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR) is number two.
"For the Justice Department to be effective before the U.S. Senate, it would be helpful" if Gonzales resigned.
--Paul Kiel
Your Senate.
Today the Dem-controlled Senate fell well short of passing a resolution calling for withdrawal -- while overwhelming passing a measure renouncing the defunding of the war.
--Greg Sargent
Uh-oh. New from ABC ...
New unreleased e-mails from top administration officials show the idea of firing all 93 U.S. attorneys was raised by White House adviser Karl Rove in early January 2005, indicating Rove was more involved in the plan than previously acknowledged by the White House.The e-mails also show Attorney General Alberto Gonzales discussed the idea of firing the attorneys en masse while he was still White House counsel — weeks before he was confirmed as attorney general.
The e-mails directly contradict White House assertions that the notion originated with recently departed White House counsel Harriet Miers and was her idea alone.
Three lies and you're out, Alberto.
--Josh Marshall
More Tony Snow.
MR. SNOW: I'm not -- how would you define "political decision-making"?Q Well, decision-making that involves politics.
Q How would you define it, Tony?
MR. SNOW: Well, it's a loaded term.
--Paul Kiel
Oops. Time to make more room on your U.S. attorney purge scandal scorecard.
Today, CREW sent a letter to the House's chief sleuth, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), requesting an investigation into the White House's use of outside email addresses. If it's a slippery way of avoiding keeping a record, it's potentially a violation of the Presidential Records Act. More here.
--Paul Kiel
One-time maverick McCain relaunching the Straight Talk Express. Literally.
--Greg Sargent
"There are a lot of things going on at the Department of Justice."
Tony Snow fights off questions about the administration's role in the purge during the press gaggle this morning.
--Paul Kiel
Murray Waas lands another blow on Alberto Gonzales.
Gonzales, Waas reports, helped shut down an internal Justice Department investigation of the warrantless wiretapping program that likely would have ended up focusing on him.
--Paul Kiel
Senate committee authorizes subpoenas for Justice officials -- but holds off on the White House.
--Paul Kiel
Greg Anrig and Micah Sifry chime in on the future of the campaign reform movement.
--Andrew Golis
Is the surge working?
Spencer Ackerman reports for TPM from Baghdad -- introducing you to, among other things, the "high-profile car bomb."
--Paul Kiel
David Broder rushes to the GOP's defense, attacks The New York Times for questioning the party's political health.
--Greg Sargent
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.
Who wants to guess how many days remain before Gonzales decides his presence at Justice is becoming an obstacle to the fulfillment of President Bush's important law enforcement policy objectives?
--Josh Marshall
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 ...
The e-mails released Wednesday show Moschella corresponding in 2004 with a Los Angeles attorney named Daniel Collins, who had previously worked for the Justice Department.In telephone interviews, Moschella and Collins both said Collins had floated the idea of taking district judges out of the vacancy-filling process back in 2003, when he was still at Justice. A former assistant U.S. attorney, Collins said the ability of a district court judge to appoint an interim U.S. attorney if the Senate did not confirm a nominee raised constitutional questions about the separation of powers.
In 2004, Collins said Moschella e-mailed him saying he wanted to pursue such a change. Collins said he did not ask Moschella what triggered his interest and Moschella did not volunteer it.
Collins warned Moschella that if district judges lost their appointment power, the Justice Department would have to figure out how to fill the vacancies. Among the options were making rolling appointments; putting the deputy U.S. attorney in the job temporarily, or allowing the interim appointee to remain indefinitely, Collins said Wednesday.
Collins said that the last option "was certainly never my intention." He added that he did not know why Moschella chose to draft the provision that way.
Just sort of thinking out loud. Just the sort of option two pals come up with when brainstorming about how to solve a critical separation of powers issue that had never occured to anyone before.
--Josh Marshall
Hear TPMmuckraker's Paul Kiel discussing the US Attorney Purge this evening on Open Source Radio.
--Josh Marshall
If you've got some money to wager, the odds on a Gonzales resignation before the end of the month don't look like they've quite caught up with the late afternoon news.
(ed.note: TPM is a news and commentary site with occasional bonus snark. This is not investment advice. Get a clue. Blah, blah, blah ...)
--Josh Marshall
Great pictures to see.
Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD), recuperating, March 13th, 2007 ...
More pics on the Johnson senate website.
--Josh Marshall
They're getting it. From the AP ...
Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Wednesday she believes the ouster of San Diego U.S. Attorney Carol Lam was connected to Lam's prosecution of former Republican congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham, even though the Bush administration has denied it."In my heart of hearts I do, no matter what they say," Feinstein, D-Calif., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in an interview with The Associated Press.
--Josh Marshall
BREAKING! 9/11 Mastermind who confessed to being mastermind after being captured like five years ago confesses again at Gitmo hearing and now the transcript is released by the Pentagon to get Gonzales off the front pages!
BREAKING!
--Josh Marshall
TPMmuckraker's Paul Kiel will be on Open Source with Christopher Lydon at 7 EST tonight discussing the U.S. attorney purge story.
--Josh Marshall
The problem wtih having Kyle Sampson as the fall guy -- he's not the only one who knew.
--Paul Kiel
First Republican senator to call for Alberto Gonzales' resignation: Sen. John Sununu (R-NH).
More soon.
Update: Here's the AP story.
--Paul Kiel
Exclusive: MoveOn privately demanding that House Speaker Pelosi's office toughen up bill to end Iraq War.
--Greg Sargent
To purge or not to purge? Another hole poked in the Justice Department's claim of "performance related" reasons behind the mass firing.
--Paul Kiel
Down in Mexico today the president said the US Attorney firings are in fact a "customary practice." Totally false. We'll have more in a bit.
According to the president, the whole issue is just "confusion" on the part of folks outside the administration.
--Josh Marshall
Lawyer to the Netroots Adam Bonin on the campaign reform movement: "It's not that we don't trust reform; it's that we don't trust the reformers. With good reason."
--Andrew Golis
President Bush: "I do have confidence in AG Al Gonzales. I talked to him this morning, and we talked about his need to go up to Capitol Hill and make it very clear to members in both political parties why the Justice Department made the decision it made."
Once they come up with a story they can stick to, I guess Gonzales can go up to the Hill and tell the senators what it is.
Update: Here's video.
--Josh Marshall
Good eye, or good ear, from TPM Reader JB. Apparently, the White House and Alberto Gonzales are so miffed with Kyle Sampson for doing the whole Attorney Purge on his own that they're letting him stay on the job -- from which he supposedly resigned on Monday -- indefinitely as he "goes job hunting."
--Josh Marshall
Get this: McCain is now beginning to tout his own courage for supporting escalation -- in a political campaign web video.
--Greg Sargent
What does it mean that the Justice Department's purge meister wanted Carol Lam gone before she even got going on the Duke Cunningham case?
As Josh promised, here's our take.
--Paul Kiel
Winger v. Winger ...
From the Journal OpEd page ...
At the time, President Clinton presented the move as something perfectly ordinary: "All those people are routinely replaced," he told reporters, "and I have not done anything differently." In fact, the dismissals were unprecedented: Previous Presidents, including Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, had both retained holdovers from the previous Administration and only replaced them gradually as their tenures expired. This allowed continuity of leadership within the U.S. Attorney offices during the transition.
Bush I Assistant AG, Stuart Gerson, in today's WaPo online chat ...
It is customary for a President to replace U.S. Attorneys at the beginning of a term. Ronald Reagan replaced every sitting U.S. Attorney when he appointed his first Attorney General. President Clinton, acting through me as Acting AG, did the same thing, even with few permanent candidates in mind.
The Journal OpEd also continues their penchant for peddling 'voter fraud' falsehoods.
--Josh Marshall
Senate requests interviews with Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, and Miers' deputy, William Kelley.
--Paul Kiel
Big breaking news: Senate votes to allow debate on proposal for withdrawal from Iraq!
Update: Here are the nine GOP Senators who voted against debate today.
--Greg Sargent
Republican justice, in more ways than one. This is from today's Seattle Times ...
Former Washington state Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance acknowledged Tuesday that he contacted then-U.S. Attorney John McKay to inquire about the status of federal investigations into the 2004 governor's race while the outcome was still in dispute....
"Republican activists were furious because they felt that you had a Republican secretary of state [Sam Reed], a Republican county prosecutor in Norm Maleng and a Republican U.S. attorney, but still they saw the governorship slipping away, and they were just angry," Vance said.
All those Republicans and they still couldn't get any trumped up voter fraud indictments. No wonder they were angry.
Of course, these Republican officeholders -- McKay, Reed and Maleng -- understand their responsibilities and did the right thing.
--Josh Marshall
Editorial pages from sea to shining sea call for Gonzales to walk the plank.
--Josh Marshall
Many have noticed that Carol Lam's name is noted for firing in the list drawn up at the Justice Department well before the Cunningham investigation even began. We'll have more on that coming soon at TPMmuckraker. But look at the list closely. All the US Attorney names, save for those who were eventually fired, are redacted. So it's impossible to evaluate what the strike through Lam's name really means without knowing how many other US Attorneys were stricken on the same list.
--Josh Marshall
For the next few days at TPMCafe, we'll be discussing Mark Schmitt's new piece in Democracy Journal challenging the campaign reform movement. Mark outlines the argument in his first post here.
--Andrew Golis
From CBS ...
Wednesday, appearing on CBS' The Early Show, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales praised Lam's efforts, but said Lam focused too much on public corruption cases.Controversy surrounding Lam's firing, along with seven other U.S. attorneys, has renewed calls for Gonzales' resignation, which he has thus far rejected.
"We advised Ms. Lam of these other priorities — that she needed to focus on other issues as well. A U.S. attorney can't just focus on one particular problem," Gonzales said. "A U.S. Attorney has to focus on all the needs of the community."
So true.
--Josh Marshall
Creative bios at WaPo?
TPM Reader TS writes in to note that in the Washington Post online chat this morning they have "Stuart M. Gerson, acting attorney general at the start of the Clinton administration and now a D.C. lawyer." Oddly, for someone in the Clinton administration, his answers seemed quite generous to the