03/22/2007
The leader of the Justice Department team that prosecuted a landmark lawsuit against tobacco companies said yesterday that Bush administration political appointees repeatedly ordered her to take steps that weakened the government’s racketeering case.
Sharon Y. Eubanks said Bush loyalists in Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales’s office began micromanaging the team’s strategy in the final weeks of the 2005 trial, to the detriment of the government’s claim that the industry had conspired to lie to U.S. smokers.
She said a supervisor demanded that she and her trial team drop recommendations that tobacco executives be removed from their corporate positions as a possible penalty. He and two others instructed her to tell key witnesses to change their testimony. And they ordered Eubanks to read verbatim a closing argument they had rewritten for her, she said.
"The political people were pushing the buttons and ordering us to say what we said," Eubanks said. "And because of that, we failed to zealously represent the interests of the American public."
12/01/2005
Sharon Y. Eubanks had led a group of career government lawyers who this summer recommended a $130 billion penalty against the tobacco industry, in part to fund smoking-cessation programs for millions of Americans. Her supervisors, appointees at the department, scaled back the proposal to $10 billion.
The shift triggered an uproar in Congress during the closing days of the tobacco trial in June, when requests from lawmakers prompted an investigation into whether there was political interference.
So, I was sitting around thinking last night, why do I think this Attorney firing case "has legs" [to use Mary Matalin’s phrase]? I thought it from the start, as did a lot of other people. Is it because it has to do with trying to subvert justice? Is it the straw that broke the camel’s back? Is it because Gonzales has been such a company man, defending legal positions that fly in the face of common sense? Thinking back on it, I think I started thinking that right after reading the very first emails that were released. They sounded "chronic" – like they were doing something that was standard operating procedure.We know this Administration Manipulated the Intelligence System. We know that this Administration manipulated the Press. We suspect strongly that they manipulated the Voting System. We’ve seen them manipulate the Justice System in Judicial Appointments. But, now, it appears they have "chronically" manipulated the Justice System at the level of the Prosecutors.
High-ranking Justice Department officials said there was no political meddling in the case, and the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) concurred after an investigation.
What about manipulating the EPA? I remember a lot of gov’t workers who worked for the EPA quitting because of the stuff going on when the Bush Administration came into power.. Is there anything they have not manipulated?
They’re always talking about “investigations.” What good are investigations if it’s the guilty doing the investigating? The Bush Administration needs to be investigated and not by one of it’s own. We can all see the smoking gun, now we just need the people who can oust the jerks to act on it.
joyhollywood, actually that’s a great question. I think they’re afraid to “play it straight,” any “it.” They remind me of Paranoid patients I saw during my career. Politicians, even crooked politicians, know that you win a few and lose a few. In fact, the skill of politics is knowing how to lose graciously, and only win when it really matters. Paranoid people want to win them all. To lose is to be less than. It’s not about getting things done, it’s about “being a winner.”
Another way to say what I’m trying to say is simpler. These people are crazy. I don’t mean that lightly. They are extremely paranoid and secretive. I suspect Cheney as being the nidus of the paranoia, and Rove of being the sociopatic gunslinger. It’s a really sick, paranoid group.
And to Smoochie’s point – “oust” is right. They are too sick and too entrenched to work with. The only solution is OUT, which, as is becoming increasingly apparent, is no easy task. My hope is that as they are backed further and further into a corner, they will act crazier and crazier, until even their supporters will realize that “oust” is the only choice. It’s like playing chess in an asylum…