Going, going ... Gone-zales!

posted by The Sailor @ 5:55 PM Permalink

UPDATE:

President Bush was pleased with the Attorney General's testimony today.

A few highlights from today's Senate Hearing regarding Abu Gonzales:

"I think it's clear to me that some of these people just had personality conflicts with people in your office or at the White House and, you know, we made up reasons to fire them."

"I'm concerned about your recollection, really, because it's not that long ago."

"There are some very serious problems, Mr. Attorney General. [...] Your ability to lead the Department of Justice is in question."

"We have to evaluate whether you are really being forthright in saying that you, quote, 'should have been more precise,' close quote, when the reality is that your characterization of your participation is just significantly, if not totally, at variance with the facts."

"I believe you ought to suffer the consequences that these others have suffered, and I believe that the best way to put this behind us is your resignation."

And those were the Republicans' comments.

Labels: Bush, corruption, Torture, United States Attorneys

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Oh boy, oh boy, Alberto! ... or ... a Roving I will go

posted by The Sailor @ 6:22 PM Permalink

Statements from Alberto Gonzales:

"I value their independence, their professionalism, what they do in the community, and these decisions were not based on political reasons"

and speaking before the Senate Judiciary Committee January 18th:

"I would never, ever make a change in a United States attorney position for political reasons or if it would in any way jeopardize an ongoing serious investigation. I just would not do it."

and

"To think we made these changes to retaliate or because they didn't carry out certain prosecutions?" he said. "That did not occur here. I stand by the decision to make the changes."

Yet the changes were explicitly made because of complaints from Repub congress critters and state RNC heads that immigration and 'election violations by Dems' were at the heart of the firings.

It gets worse:

"This story is really now a two-part issue," CREW's Melanie Sloan told CNN. "First there's the use of the RNC e-mail server that's inappropriate by White House officials and secondly we've also learned that there were between March of 2003 and October of 2005 apparently over 5 million e-mail that were not preserved and these are e-mail on the regular White House server."

Perino stressed there's no indication the e-mails were intentionally lost, but she was careful not to dispute the [...] allegations.

And even worser:

Rove E-Mail Sought by Congress May Be Missing
RNC Took Away His Access to Delete Files in 2005

A lawyer for the Republican National Committee told congressional staff members yesterday that the RNC is missing at least four years' worth of e-mail from White House senior adviser Karl Rove that is being sought as part of investigations into the Bush administration, according to the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
[...]
they took action to prevent Rove -- and Rove alone among the two dozen or so White House officials with RNC accounts -- from deleting his e-mails from the RNC server. Waxman (D-Calif.) said he was told the RNC made that move in 2005.

Hmmm, and what did Gonzales previously have to say about the deletions of WH emails? I'm so glad you asked:

Rove warned in 'manuals, memos, and briefings' to save emails

Further complicating the picture in White House adviser Karl Rove's deleting of numerous e-mails, the Los Angeles Times reports today that the White House had established a policy of saving emails related to official business and warned staff not to delete them.
[...]
Among a set of employee manuals from 2001, a memorandum from former White House counsel and current Attorney General Alberto Gonzales explains that "any e-mail relating to official business...qualifies as a presidential record."

Another manual reads, "If you happen to receive an e-mail on a personal account which otherwise qualifies as a presidential record, it is your duty to insure that it is saved as such by printing it out and saving it or by forwarding it to your White House e-mail account."

Once again, they are hoist on their own retard petard.

Labels: Bush, corruption, GOP, United States Attorneys

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Gonzales "… an unsuitable steward of the law…"

posted by Bill Arnett @ 11:37 AM Permalink

A short time back four of the biggest of big-time conservatives, David keene, Richard Vigurie, Bob Barr, and Bruce Fein banded together to form the American Freedom Agenda with a ten-point list of things bush has done to destroy freedom, run the country into the ground, assume excessive power, and their plan bring about restoration of the checks and balances provided by our forefathers.

Happily, it seems that they are starting with Abu Gonzales and the U.S. Attorney scandal, and they have written to demand that bush fire the A.G. immediately as he has proven himself to be "…an unsuitable steward of the law…", which should be apparent to everyone familiar with this matter.

See this article in Time, where their letter and its intent are revealed:

In what could prove an embarrassing new setback for embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the eve of his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, a group of influential conservatives and longtime Bush supporters has written a letter to the White House to call for his resignation.…The two-page letter, written on stationery of the American Freedom Agenda, a recently formed body designed to promote conservative legal principles, is blunt. Addressed to both Bush and Gonzales, it goes well beyond the U.S. attorneys controversy and details other alleged failings by Gonzales."Mr. Gonzales has presided over an unprecedented crippling of the Constitution's time-honored checks and balances," it declares. "He has brought rule of law into disrepute, and debased honesty as the coin of the realm." Alluding to ongoing scandal, it notes: "He has engendered the suspicion that partisan politics trumps evenhanded law enforcement in the Department of Justice."…The letter concludes by saying, "Attorney General Gonzales has proven an unsuitable steward of the law and should resign for the good of the country... The President should accept the resignation, and set a standard to which the wise and honest might repair in nominating a successor..."…Signatories to the letter include Bruce Fein…; David Keene…, Richard Viguerie…, Bob Barr…, as well as John Whitehead, head of the Rutherford Institute…

When Nixon found himself sinking fast, responsible party statesmen told him he would be impeached if he didn't resign. He did the honorable thing for the country (and his party, which in this context is fine) and resigned. bush, of course, knows no shame, lies relentlessly, is demonstrably a far worse president than Nixon, and he lacks even a smidgen of the class Nixon had.

It is high time that responsible leaders of the GOP came together to forcefully identify and call for the correction of the problems bush has created for the nation and the world. And apparently they intend to condemn bush practices in the harshest terms and most public manner possible. This is a good thing.

I am certainly aware that there is more than bit of self-preservation involved with this effort, as bush has so seriously damaged the GOP, and proven that the GOP is incapable of governing, that there is significant damage control to be done by these men. But that's okay, and I will applaud their efforts to restore checks and balances and rid ourselves of the despicable despot currently residing in the people's house at 1600 Pennsylvania.

Will they succeed? I pray so and wish them luck - they'll need it when bush/cheney/rove fire up the famous Republican smear campaigners, liars, talking heads, and other people to attempt to thoroughly trash the AFA and discredit the conservatives running it.

Labels: Bush, Conservatives, corruption, Crime, flip-flops, GOP, United States Attorneys

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What about the USAs who weren't fired?

posted by The Sailor @ 6:21 PM Permalink

Sure, we've heard a lot about the US Attorneys who were appointed and then fired by Bush because they weren't 'loyal Bushies', how about the ones who kept their jobs? What exactly do you have to do to be a 'loyal Bushie?'

From the article below I guess it means they have to prosecute Dems right before a close election ... and then have their prosecution overturned after the election when "the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago called the charges unfounded"

Ex-state worker freed from prison by federal appeals court

MADISON, Wis. - Georgia Thompson's lawyer says the former state worker wrongly lost her job, her home, her liberty and her good name _ all as the result of a conviction that a federal appeals court vacated for lack of evidence.

Freed from prison on the court's order Thursday, the woman whose conviction on fraud charges became a political football in last fall's race for Wisconsin governor may finally start to rebuild her life.
[...]
In arguments Thursday on her appeal, the three-judge panel of the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago called the charges unfounded.

"It strikes me that your evidence is beyond thin," Judge Diane Wood told prosecutors. "I'm not sure what your actual theory in this case is."

The court then acquitted Thompson on the spot and ordered her immediate release from the prison she entered in November to serve an 18-month term.
[...]
Republicans last fall cited the case in television ads to question the ethics of Doyle, a Democrat who wound up defeating Republican Mark Green to win a second four-year term. The governor had countered that he never met Thompson, and neither he nor his aides pressured her.

Congress should be taking a close look not at just the USAs who were fired, but at what the ones who weren't fired did to keep their jobs.

Labels: Bush, corruption, United States Attorneys

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