1 Boring Old Man

In a long term psychotherapy, there are moments when one learns something new, and there follows a period of "working through" in which each element of the history has to be reconsidered in light of this new information or changed perspective. The result is a new narrative. The facts are often unchanged, but their meaning may be radically altered. The "work" part of "working through" is accurate – both therapist and patient have become uncomfortable with the previous version of the story, and have to "work" to get the narrative to make sense again.

I woke up this morning with that kind of altered perspective feeling. Our second dog, a stray who adopted us can stay inside at night now, but at some very early moment hears the call of the wild and needs to return to his forest. Usually, one of us lets him out and goes back to bed [while our first dog, a domesticated princess, snoozes away]. This morning, instead of going back to bed, I find myself sitting in front of a computer re-reading Murray Waas’ article. Is it a trick? Is he being set up? No, he’s not that kind of reporter; and he quotes Senior Administration Officials; and he has the documents. No, it’s true.

What does it mean? Alberto Gonzales signed over hiring and firing at the Department of Justice to two young political operatives – his Chief of Staff and the DOJ Liason to the White House, retaining only figurehead approval to keep things Constitutional. That essentially puts the line of authority for the DOJ staff directly below the White House. Is that really a change? They’ve always said the U.S. Attorneys "serve at the pleasure of the President." Yes, it really is a change. It cuts out any input from the senior staff in the Department of Justice. The Federal Prosecutors are no longer legal, they’re political. So, who is above the two DOJ Operatives?

Time to revisit the narrative [after going back to bed and sleeping on it for a bit]:

The Problem

It’s the Department of Justice and the Federal Prosecutors, plain and simple. John Ashcroft really messed up and somehow Patrick Fitzgerald got appointed. Nothing much could be done about it. So now Al is in place, but the scandals just keep coming. Something needs to happen to get all these scandals off of the radar scope. They’re killing us at the polls. We could just replace them all! Harriet…

Phase 1 [January 2006]

Phase 2 [March 2006]

There has to be some way to appoint our people that doesn’t make waves in the Press or in the DOJ. We need to find a way to get around the Home-State Senatorial nominations and around the Senate confirmation. We need to be able to directly appoint our people quietly. Here’s what we’ll do…

So, we now learn that Alberto Gonzales delegated the hiring and firing of the U.S. Attorneys to Kyle Sampson and the DOJ White House Liason. That gets around the ripples inside the DOJ, and it insulates the Attorney General from charges of being political, he’s just being administrative. Next came the second part of the two pronged plan – sticking a piece in the Patriot Act that gets around both the Home-State Senators and the Senate confirmation process – the AG appoints Interims and we’ll just never get around to nominating anyone. That part of the plan came off without a hitch. The Congress didn’t even know it was in the Patriot Act.

Phase 3 [November 2006]

The best time to move is right after the midterms. That’ll keep it off the radar. Fitzgerald’s a lost cause. We’ll have to just ride that one out. Heffelfinger’s out of the way. Get to work on Debra Wong Yang with Lewis and Paul Charlton with Renzi. Stall Carol Lam until then. And, by the way, don’t forget the Indian thing…

Prepare to Withstand Political Upheaval: U.S. Attorneys desiring to save their jobs (aided by their allies in the political arena as well as the Justice Department community), likely will make efforts to preserve themselves in office. We should expect these efforts to be strenuous. Direct and indirect appeals of the Administration’s determination to seek these resignations likely will be directed at: various White House offices, including the Office of the Counsel to the President and the Office of Political Affairs; Attorney General Gonzales and DOJ Chief of Staff Sampson; Deputy Attorney General McNulty and ODAG staffers Moschella and Elston; Acting Associate AG Bill Mercer; EOUSA Director Mike Battle; and AGAC Chair Johnny Suitton. Recipients of such "appeals" must respond identically:

• What? U.S. Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President (there is no right, nor should there be any expectation, that U.S. Attorneys would be entitled to serve beyond their four-year term).
• Who decided? The Administration made the determination to seek the resignations (not any specific person at the White House or the Department of Justice).
• Why me? The Administration is grateful for your service, but wants to give someone else the chance to serve in your district.
• I need more time! The decision is to have a new Acting or Interim U.S. Attorney in place by the end of the year (granting "extensions" will hinder the process of getting a new U.S. Attorney in place and giving that person the opportunity to serve for a full two years).

Okay. They’ve run it by the AG at Justice [it’s part of that Memo]. We’ve got things in place for calling the Senators and Leads. Kyle’s got people straight at the DOJ ["not any specific person at the White House or the Department of Justice"]. When the Chief gets back, I’ll give him a heads-up without details. He has to know, but he can’t be involved.