Saturday, March 24, 2007

Gonzales' Whopper


Can Attorney General Alberto Gonzales survive? Here's what AP reported on Friday night:

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales approved plans to fire several U.S. attorneys in an hourlong meeting last fall, according to documents released Friday that indicate he was more involved in the dismissals than he has claimed.

Last week, Gonzales said he "was not involved in any discussions about what was going on" in the firings of eight prosecutors that has since led to a political firestorm and calls for his ouster.

A Nov. 27 meeting, in which the attorney general and at least five top Justice Department officials participated, focused on a five-step plan for carrying out the firings of the prosecutors, Gonzales' aides said late Friday.

There, Gonzales signed off on the plan, which was drafted by his chief of staff, Kyle Sampson. Sampson resigned last week. Another Justice aide closely involved in the dismissals, White House liaison Monica Goodling, has also taken a leave of absence, two officials said.

The five-step plan approved by Gonzales involved notifying Republican home-state senators of the impending dismissals, preparing for potential political upheaval, naming replacements and submitting them to the Senate for confirmation.

Six of the eight prosecutors who were ultimately ordered to resign are named in the plan.


So Gonzales says he was involved in no discussions about the firing of the US attorneys. Then documents show that he attended a meeting in which a plan was cooked up for dismissing the prosecutors. Sure seems like he was lying. Or is his memory as bad as Scooter Libby's? Now if every Bush official who told a false story had to leave office, this administration would be a ghost town. But this whopper should win Gonzales a ticket to Palookaville. If it doesn't, there will be one more indication his boss is detached from reality--and integrity.

Posted by David Corn at March 23, 2007 11:52 PM

6 comments:

capt said...

New U.S. attorneys seem to have partisan records


[...]

Since 2005, McClatchy Newspapers has found, Bush has appointed at least three U.S. attorneys who had worked in the Justice Department's civil rights division when it was rolling back longstanding voting-rights policies aimed at protecting predominantly poor, minority voters.

Another newly installed U.S. attorney, Tim Griffin in Little Rock, Ark., was accused of participating in efforts to suppress Democratic votes in Florida during the 2004 presidential election while he was a research director for the Republican National Committee. He's denied any wrongdoing.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the four U.S. attorneys weren't chosen only because of their backgrounds in election issues, but "we would expect any U.S. attorney to prosecute voting fraud."

Taken together, critics say, the replacement of the U.S. attorneys, the voter-fraud campaign and the changes in Justice Department voting rights policies suggest that the Bush administration may have been using its law enforcement powers for partisan political purposes.


More HERE

*****end of clip*****

I wonder why Busheney would be stacking the US attorney offices with "voter suppression" sympathizers? What could be their thinking? I bet they wanted to make certain the 2008 election will be free, fair and above-board. Yep, that has to be it.



capt

Hajji said...

SPANKY HOME

Beer Cold

Fire nice

Head HYOOOOGE!

Smiles Wide!

-T

Anonymous said...

Enjoy the surge of smiles, beer, and homecoming, Hajji!

Anonymous said...

The Year Without Toilet Paper

These people aren't bitching about Al Gore. ;-))

capt said...

Welcome Home Spanky Thread!

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to say hi to all.

Bob in North Dakota

P.S. UND just qualified for the Frozen Four.