1 Boring Old Man

I’m somewhat stunned by the ambivalence of many of my fellow Beltway pundits to  the seriousness of the charges in the U.S. Attorneys scandal.

…

The central question is whether the Bush administration has used the U.S. Attorneys as a systematic weapon in targeting the opposition party, rather than rooting out corruption and malfeasance wherever it appears. The natural inference from the evidence so far – and the conflicting stories from the administration – is that the eight fired attorneys were not being partisan enough.

Officials Investigated by the Justice Department
2001 thru 2006

The Tables in the article get confusing because the authors get a bit obtuse discussing the null cell issue in a Chi-squared table. But it doesn’t take a Math Degree to see the point. The Justice Department is prosecuting [persecuting] the hell out of Democrats at the local level, while maintaining parity at the State and National level. Sullivan’s conclusion? The Republicans are using the U.S. Attorneys to attack Democrats, but confining it to local officials where it’s "off the radar." Sullivan sees this as Karl Rove’s M.O. – dirty tricks that don’t show.

Reason for Suspicion
By Paul Kiel – March 27, 2007
TPM Muckraker.com

Having spent some time digging into the administration’s stated reason for U.S. Attorney Carol Lam’s firing, it’s time to cleanse the palate with the reasons why we’re so suspicious. So here we go.

• Lam was never confronted over her approach to immigration prosecutions…
• In November, shortly before Lam was fired, a Justice Department official brainstormed about how to explain firing several U.S. attorneys: "The one common link here is that three of them are along the southern border so you could make the connection that DoJ is unhappy with the immigration prosecution numbers in those districts."
• Lam was fired midway into a historic, wide-reaching public corruption investigation that targeted a number of Republican members of Congress and the executive director of the CIA…
• Lam’s investigation into Duke Cunningham and others is never mentioned in the Justice Department emails…
• The FBI’s bureau chief in San Diego has said, "I guarantee politics is involved" in Lam’s firing…
• May 11, 2006, the day after Lam informed the Justice Department that she planned to execute a search warrant on CIA Executive Director Kyle "Dusty" Foggo and the same day that it was reported that her investigation had spread to Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Alberto Gonzales’ chief of staff Kyle Sampson wrote to a White House official: "The real problem we have right now with Carol Lam that leads me to conclude that we should have someone ready to be nominated on 11/18, the day her 4-year term expires."
• Less than a month after Lam had been told she was fired, but before it had been made public, Sampson wrote to his Justice Department colleagues, "… we granted 1-month extensions for Bogden and Chiara, but not Carol — right?"…

• Firing U.S. Attorneys who are prosecuting corrupt Congressmen
• Doctoring intelligence to enter a war of conquest
• Unilaterally ignoring our treaties with the United Nations and the Geneva Conventions
• Secret invasion of privacy and ignoring the F.I.S.A. courts
• Over-riding the Constitutional Separation of Church and State
• Rewriting Congessional Legislation with Signing Statements
• Inventing a new governmental principle – the Unitary Executive. 

It is nearly impossible for any of us to get our mental arms around the scope of possible illegality perpetrated by this administration against the American people these last six years, starting with how this cabal seized power. There are only so many congressional staffers, and there is no Department of Justice anymore after the attorney firings that has an interest in digging this up. The only way to grasp this and put together a large case against the adminstration in its remaining two years would be for a large group of folks with passion and research skills, who share a conviction that we are being led by criminals, to band together in one giant research project to spilt up assignments and scandals and put together the paper trail for Congress to follow. There are so many areas to dig into, but it could be done.

I wonder where we could find hundreds if not thousands of folks who would be willing to act as an army probing the administration from thousands of angles?

George S. Cardona Named Acting United States Attorney

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney George S. Cardona was named yesterday by the Justice Department as acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California pending the appointment of Debra Wong Yang’s successor.

“[Yang] was very good as U.S. attorney and she’ll certainly be missed by the office,” Cardona told the MetNews.  “We’ve got a large number of excellent assistants and we’ll try to keep doing the good things we’ve been doing.”

A permanent successor has yet to be appointed for the top federal prosecutor, who resigned from her post effective Friday in order to co-chair Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s national crisis management practice starting Jan. 1. 

Cardona, who was previously the number two person under Yang, said that he is not seeking the presidential appointment, but declined to say why.

“I haven’t put my name in as a candidate,” he said, adding that he could not estimate when his term as interim leader would end.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office could not give an estimated time frame within which to expect a permanent appointment, or the names of those under consideration. Beverly Hills attorney Nathan Hochman, a former assistant U.S. attorney, has reportedly expressed interest in the position.

Deborah Wong Yang was not one of the fired Attorneys. She resigned a month before the firings began to take a high profile private sector job. But frankly, I smell a huge rat here, as do others. She was winding up to investigate Representative Jerry Lewis, R-California, who is implicated in big-time bad doings. Suddenly she resigns a month before the heads begin to roll. She says that it was unrelated to the coming blood bath, but I wonder.

Recall that Kyle Sampson over and over suggested trying to ease people out rather than fire them – let them resign and "save face." And there are all of those lists with the names whited out. And Congressman Lewis is still walking the streets while being suspected of major league corruption. And, the replacement U.S. Attorney doesn’t want to go out for Senate Confirmation giving no reason?

I’m betting this was a harbinger of things to come – an eased out U.S. Attorney "saving face;" a permanent interim replacement who doesn’t have to go before the Senate; a dropped Republican Corruption Case. Senator Diane Feinstein, D-California has been on top of this very suspicious incident. Lets hope she stays on it…

I hate to be so obvious, but Goodling’s evoking the 5^th Amendment is a bit over the  line [to say the least]:

"The American people are left to wonder what conduct is at the base of Ms. Goodling’s concern that she may incriminate herself in connection with criminal charges if she appears before the committee under oath," Leahy said.

…

In the declaration presented to the Senate committee and released by her attorneys today, Goodling, 33, says Schumer, Leahy and other lawmakers have already "drawn conclusions" about the U.S. attorney firings. As a result, Goodling says, she has decided to "invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege against self incrimination and decline to answer any and all questions from the committee or its staff."

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

"The potential for legal jeopardy for Ms. Goodling from even her most truthful and accurate testimony under these circumstances is very real," said the lawyer, John Dowd.

"One need look no further than the recent circumstances and proceedings involving Lewis Libby," he said, a reference to the recent conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff in the CIA leak case.

Marked  by  Karl Rove.
Fired  last  December.
Not Senate Reviewed.

• Mary: the left coaster
• Digby: Hullabaloo
• Josh Marshall: TPM
• Christy Hardin Smith: Firedoglake
• McClatchy News Service

There are practical obstacles to removing and replacing U.S. Attorneys. First, wholesale removal of U.S. Attorneys would cause significant disruption to the work of the Department of Justice. Second, individual U.S. Attorneys often were originally recommended for appointment by a home-state Senator who may be opposed to the President’s determination to remove the U.S. Attorney. Third, a suitable replacement must be found in consultation with the home-state Senator, the difficulty of which would vary from state to state. Fourth, a background investigation must be completed on the replacement — a task often complicated if the outgoing U.S. Attorney stays in office. Fifth, after nomination, the Senate must confirm the replacement.

None of the above obstacles are insuperable. First, a limited number of U.S. Attorneys could be targeted for removal and replacement, mitigating the shock to the system that would result from an across-the-board firing. Second, the Department of Justice’s Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA) could work quietly with targeted U.S. Attorneys to encourage them to leave government service voluntarily; this would allow targeted U.S. Attorneys to make arrangements for work in the private sector and "save face" regarding the reason for leaving office, both in the Department of Justice community and in their local legal communities. Third, after targeted U.S. Attorneys have left office or indicated publicly their intention to leave office, then the Office of the Counsel to the President can work with home-state Senators and/or other political leaders in the state to secure recommendations for a replacement U.S. Attorney. Finally, after background investigations are complete and the replacement candidate is nominated, the Attorney General can appoint the nominee to serve as interim U.S. Attorney pending confirmation, thereby reducing the time during which the leadership of the office is uncertain.

SEC. 502. INTERIM APPOINTMENT OF UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS.

• Section 546 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by striking subsections (c) and (d) and inserting the following new subsection:
• (c) A person appointed as United States attorney under this section may serve until the qualification of a United States Attorney for such district appointed by the President under section 541 of this title.

The language that was replaced by PL 109-177 specified that if a US Attorney resigned before the end of his term, that the Court nominated an interim US attorney until the Senate acted on a Presidential nomination.The term for the interim US Attorney was limited by law to 120 days. Now, the President makes the appointment, there is no limit to the interim appointment, and there is required no Senate oversight

He ticked off 11 states that he said could be pivotal in the 2008 elections. Bush has appointed new U.S. attorneys in nine of them since 2005: Florida, Colorado, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Arkansas, Michigan, Nevada and New Mexico. U.S. attorneys in the latter four were among those fired.

Update: A Conservative friend responded to a letter of mine in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution yesterday about this with: "Your faithful libertatian friend, keeper of logic and perspective, wishes to point out that resisting a show trial over nothing and fighting a war are not comparable" which is, I think, the Administration’s current Talking Point. Boy, is he off base this time?! This is certainly not nothing…