Gonzales, of course, spent most of his testimony insisting that he made all the relevant personnel decisions, even if he remembered no details of the actual decision-making process.

Did he perjure himself?

Gee, I would have thought that Gonzales or Sampson might have mentioned the order when they testified before Leahy's committee.

BTW, Kyle Sampson registered Cascade Consulting LLC in VA on 3/22/07. I wonder who his clients are. The US taxpayers better not be indirectly footing Sampson's legal bills.

Of course he can't remember. He doesn't dare to remember. He won't remember. Its beyond him how those things just...happen.
He must go. He should go. His commander in chief won't let him.
Who would hop into that catbird seat?

I think these attorneys need to start forming a Union.

I heard that Gonzales testified that he didn't recall signing that memo but he did recall that at some point he did!?!

Similar to a commet I tosses up on Atrios' site:

What's extremely critical for people to keep in the back of their minds - this is just DOJ. Similar programs were going on in the rest of the government.

hen Waxie & Co. turn their attention to this, they need to track down how many similar delegation orders were given in other Departments and Agencies, and look into how the folks delegated the responsibility also worked with "Karl's Project".

I am really tired of hearing the expression "senior DOJ officials" in charge of hiring/firing/evaluating these USA's. We all know Kyle Sampson and Goodling. Gonzales invoked "senior DOJ" personnel a dozen times in his various explanations, but I have yet to see the list. I want to know why they aren't deposed.

How many of these hired appointees (chosen by Sampson and Goodling) were graduates of Regent? Since there are 150 of them in the bush administration, and considering the magnitude of Goodling's influence, it would be very interesting to find out how many of her "political warriors for Jesus" are embedded in the DOJ.

Best evidence yet that Alberto is a Court Eunuch.

No executive of any competence or standing would issue such an order. It abandons the most important responsibilities of a manager, and delegates them to junior appointees without the wit or wisdom to perform them, except under orders from someone other than Mr. Gonzales. His failure to disclose his cowardly act also set a trap for any DOJ lawyer interacting with Goodling and Sampson without knowledge of their explicit authority to hire or fire them.

Alberto Gonzales is a disgrace to every lawyer and manager who has tried to be competent, to do his or her duty without fear or favor. He blatantly abandoned his responsibilities, and left those who relied upon him at the not so tender mercy of bureaucratic hit men. He should resign and never practice law again; something he apparently hasn't done in quite some time.

I just read Murray Waas's story and it is terrific! Does Waas know what is going on at the DOJ or what? In his last go-round, Waas told us about a secret cabal at the DOJ working on our behalf.

I think D. Kyle Sampson is in big trouble now!

Just to help anybody else trying to remember the timeline (it took me awhile to scroll all the way down to it: the USA story on TPM is downright voluminous at this point):

Sampson got his start working for Hatch, as his counsel on the Senate Judiciary committee.

He never actually worked for Rove, or not exactly. He was under Gonzalez, as Deputy White House Counsel from 2001 to 2003. Joined the DoJ as counselor to Ashcroft in 2003, became chief of staff under Gonzalez in 2005.

Everybody except me remembers all this, I suppose, but the Wass article suggests that the plan was comprehensive and even had a certain amount of legal cover. The question is when they first came up with it. Sending Sampson over to the DoJ under Ashcroft was a very early step. Maybe Comey will have something to say about these early days, when he was still there (I assume).

Funny--but was Ashcroft the first of the political resignations?

You misspoke, Abu Gonzo didn't make the DOJ a stunted appendage of the White House, he made it a stunted and deformed appendage of the Repugnican Party.

Code word: Free, as in what we are no longer.

Another example of Alberto Gonzales mimicing what the President does and mistaking it for competent management. George does such things because he hasn't got a clue, and because he has a hundred retainers to hide that from him and what he does from the public. Just because George can clear his desk that way, does mean that Alberto can, or that he can hide it from the public without those fearless retainers.

Following "dotright" and all of the obvious reasons why the USA purge is more about 06 than 08: the levels of criminal activity, lying, politicization, spin control, etc. go so deep that it seems like they couldn't fathom the possibility of losing in 06.

When it was looking bleak, especially in the House, remember that Rove had "the math," or whatever it was, and was still optimistic about victory. It really seems like he didn't see the avalanche coming, and he certainly didn't see it in the Senate. (He was also busy getting Lieberman elected, which he knew would cover him on Katrina.)

So they wake up in November and it's a mess, but they have this great plan in place. Why not pull the trigger? Nov, Dec, and Jan are very clear in hindsight, but Rove and Bush didn't know what to expect from Pelosi or Waxman or the press, let alone TPM. And pulling the trigger might be the only way to make up the 06 losses for 08, to get back on track. Plus get rid of Carol Lam besides.

And finally, let's remember the email gap while POTUS was out of the country. It was a big deal to go ahead with this dramatic stage in the plan, even though they never thought the whole thing would unravel like it has. But they were used to getting away with everything, and POTUS no doubt decided to cowboy up just like he did with invading Iraq. What's the worst case scenario?

Just like Iraq, now we're looking at it, except in this case they're the losers, rather than all of us together, even though it's going to take a long time to make the DoJ functional again.

Now this leak -- from inside the administration and DOJ -- is playing HARDBALL with Gonzales.

Its clear now that Gonzales isn't going to resign, and Bush isn't going to fire him.

But, other Administration officials, backed up by Congressional GOPers who want to see Gonzales gone, have gone to the National Journal -- very much a non-partisan legal publication -- with not just this story, but the documents to back them up.

Sampson and Goodling are having their heads put on pikes.

I continue to believe the whole US Attorney firing issues is a faux scandal, with zero substance behind it.

But, Gonzales' conduct at the top - trusting people like Sampson and Goodling in the way that he did -- really is all the justification that is needed to run him out.

ding7777, you said it first. The language delegated authority in that secret order would apply to acting and interim USA's, who by definition are not subject to Senate confirmation.

If the order has not been rescinded, it still applies, since Congress has not rescinded the offending provision in the Patriot Act. (The House and Senate passed bills to do so at the end of March, but an agreed version has apparently not yet been sent to the President for signature.)

The Justice Department is already responding in its predictable way: "This order simply gives the chief of staff and the White House liaison the authority to execute certain decisions related to the hiring and termination of some non-career employees with, as the memo states, the approval of the attorney general."

Congress *really* needs to ask: "If this is so ordinary, why was it kept out of the Federal Register?"

Faux scandal .......... ? Someone has been at the Kool-Aid

BCE said:

Gonzo is finding out (with apologies to Lowell George) that "the same dudes you abuse on the way, you might meet up, on your way down".

While I agree with the substance, it was Allen Toussaint, not Lowell George, who wrote that line.

One of the things I have found most fascinating about the U.S. Attorney scandal is the revelation that mediocre little worms like Sampson and Goodling (a Regent Law School grad!)wielded power under Gonzales. It is absolutely astonishing that people who have accomplished nothing of note, were given such influence.

It is utterly comical, and at the same time, utterly baffling.

jdw writes:
Similar to a commet I tosses up on Atrios' site:

What's extremely critical for people to keep in the back of their minds - this is just DOJ. Similar programs were going on in the rest of the government.

hen Waxie & Co. turn their attention to this, they need to track down how many similar delegation orders were given in other Departments and Agencies, and look into how the folks delegated the responsibility also worked with "Karl's Project".

I seem to remember a couple years back hearing that the department of the interior was also being staffed with politicos at the functional level. I think that there was a directive, in writing (and this is from memory)to enforce decisions like permission to develop public land for private profit, mineral rights, grazing rights, etc. were to be approved by a WH political appointee before the decision could be authorized for execution - the directive said as much.

mbbsdphil at 8:20 said:
"No executive of any competence or standing would issue such an order. It abandons the most important responsibilities of a manager, and delegates them to junior appointees without the wit or wisdom to perform them, except under orders from someone other than Mr. Gonzales."

Isn't that exactly what the president is doing by having his headhunter Hadley search for a War Czar? Same principle, isn't it?

Somehow, I think these people think that this sort of thing gives them some protection.

Code=soap

Who among the MSM will be the first at a press conference to ask Bush about this whole topic, as well as the refusal of the White House to investigate the Plame outing--as required? My guess is- - - - no one; it's not newsy enough.

I just think that they (The Bushies) are the Mafia and then it all makes sense.

How could Bush come out and say Gonzales did a great job before the Senate Oversight Committee? Well, Jon Stewart when interviewed last Friday by Bill Moyers had it right: Gonzales did what a good Mafia soldier is supposed to when he gets caught -- he didn't talk. I'll be surprised if Gonzales resigns.

It may already be too late to impeach Cheney and Bush, but we must try -- for the sake of our Constitution, our country, our children.

Every now and then I get a cold feeling that if we let them stay in until 2008, we may wake up in 2009 and find they are still in the White House. They must go -- NOW!

what's the context of this order?

what was happening at the time - march 2006?

i would guess that there was at least some effort to put folks in place to protect from doj's rulings about spying, easily the most explosive part of this unfinished investigation.

Now when do we get the "missing" e-mails? It's apparent that their brazeness is only matched by their stupidity in covering their tracks. This is the Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight... but could get a lot of other people shot.

What a horrible waste of human energy.

At the end of the day, it is not DOJ that makes these SES and Schedule C appointments... It is Presidential Personnel.

And unless the President has delegated authority to an underling, appointment authority is under his hand for any of the political appointments in his Administration.

So there are two critical facts to unearth here:

1/Who at White House Presidential Personnel knows about this DOJ "handler" system; and

2/Who designed and authorized its set up?

And one critical observation. If the President or his delegated designate is not signing off on these appointments but just some crony somewhere in the bureaucracy is -- many of these appointments may never have been administratively legal. You can serve at the "Pleasure of the President" only when the President appoints you.

code word: seppuku

Not really. But it ought to be. And all of ShrubCo should line up on the lawn of the White House and do the right thing and give the security dogs a shot at their entrails. The world would breath a sigh of relief. It really would.

"HOW MANY OTHER SECRET ORDERS DO WE NOT KNOW ABOUT?

The ship of state is stinking!
Posted by: TheraP"

I agree. Especially any "secret orders" involving the declaration of martial law.

The other day I read that Blackwater is expanding their mercenary franchise across America. They have training facilities in the East, the Midwest and are trying to build another on the West Coast.

As the Bush ship of state continues to leak and sink beneath the waves, will Blackwater be called upon to try to plug the holes? To plug U.S. citizens who can't stand Bush and his corruption anymore?

And don't forget, the Bush administration gave a $385 million contract to one of their other crony corporations last year to build "detention centers" around our country, for detaining immigrants..."and for other purposes."

Unfortunately, at least for the Bush administration and it's religioius fanatic followers, almost 70 percent of U.S. citizens don't seem to like them very much, with many of these 70 percent of patriotic U.S. citizens owning guns, who won't take too kindly to having their democracy stolen from them, if push comes to shove.

April 30, 2007 11:16 PM

Cascade Consulting LLC's address:

4927 25TH ST
SOUTH ARLINGTON, VA 22206

4927 25th St is D. Kyle Sampson's home address. Kyle and his wife, Noelle, bought the house in June 2004 for $425k, apparently free and clear.

Now will someone ask Sampson where he came up with the $425k in June 2004?

I suspect that Gonzalez has been using this sort of technique throughout his career. Some reporters should look for old acquaintances of AG AG who might be able to shed more light on this sort of incompetence.

So do we believe that the leaker is a whistleblower and this isn't a calculated move to throw somebody under the bus to protect somebody else?