The DoJ email dump was on my mind when I woke up this morning [I guess someone put a pea under my matress]. In the emails in the last post, Monica Goodling is setting up the order for she and Kyle Sampson to take over hiring and firing – make it un-numbered [secret], use positions rather than names, communicate about it using email "outside the system." It’s all happening in early to mid January.
Yet remember this from the earliest email dumps?
It’s the timing that’s stuck in my craw. The earliest copies of Sampson’s negotiations with Miers were in early January 2006. At almost the same time, Goodling was already drafting the AG’s coming order to turn hiring and firing over to operatives, she and Sampson. It sounds to me like there was a lot of wheeling and dealing in early January 2006, gearing up for a firing of some kind or another.
What difference does the timing make? It has to do with "volition." In this January email, Sampson points out the problems with firing. By March 2006, they had a plan to deal with the problems in place. They had a provision to go around the Senate in the Patriot Act and an order delegating personell matters to Sampson and Goodling:
Which brings me to my point. All of this planning had to do with firing the U.S. Attorneys right after the midterm elections. When they lost, there was a postponement for several weeks, during which they revised their plan and girded their loins for opposition from the new Democratic Majority. Then, they fired seven Attorneys on December 4, 2006.
The powers that be claim that all of this was a routine personell matter. No one believes that – at least no one with even the slightest bit of information about the sequence of things. But, as the scandal broke, mor things came to light. There were others, eased out over the year before the firing. Heffelfinger in Minnesota was replaced with Rachel Paulose, probably because of his advocacy for Native Americans. Tim Griffin, a Rove aid and clone unseated Bud Collins in Arkansas. In Missouri, Todd Graves, a solid citizen, was replaced with a Republican operative and weasel, Bradley Scholzman. It’s highly possible that Scholzman got put in place early to file a suit designed to influence the Missouri Senatorial race.
These new emails do add something. They strengthen the case that the U.S. Attorney firings were a carefully orchestrated Republican ploy to influence elections and further Administration policies. Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson were grunts in this campaign [add Sara Taylor, recently resigned and still behind a firewall]. This is criminal activity, and it’s going to come to light. It can’t be swept under the rug anymore. There’s too much evidence already. Is there a Special Prosecutor in the house?
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