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Fired U.S. Attorney: "It's Morning in America"

Reached by phone today, David Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney for New Mexico, was quick in his reaction: "It's morning in America, Paul."

Asked if he felt vindicated, he said yes, citing the long stream of resignations of those connected to the firings. And he said he was hearing expressions of relief from friends in the Justice Department. "Finally," said one. "All the leaves have fallen off the tree and now the tree has fallen," another told him.

"I doubt that this kind of scandal will happen again in our lifetimes, during future administrations," he told me. "It's been instructive, and it's been destructive to the integrity of the Justice Department." But he's "hopeful," he said.

Iglesias' formula for restoring confidence in the Justice Department was simple, and similar to what Democrats have been urging today: "Get an attorney general who's respected by the courts and by Capitol Hill and somebody who has experience as a federal prosecutor.... You need someone who understands that the attorney general has to say no to the president sometimes."


Comments (49)

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"I doubt that this kind of scandal will happen again in our lifetimes"

Wishful thinking. If the Constitutional separation of powers isn't restored, then it most certainly will happen again.

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Senators, be careful who you put in there next. I hardly think Frances Fragos Townsend is going to be much more than a "yes-woman" to GWB. It's not like I trust Chertoff, either....

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can't wait to hear what carol lam has to say.

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Perhaps Hillary Clinton can pledge to not replace U.S. Attorneys for political reasons (and denounce her husband for doing so as well)?

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Kabuki.

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Readers of the Muck: over at Dkos they are praising Josh and the team to the max for today, as well as for saving everything from social security to the constitution and nominating him for a Pulitizer. Check it out and if you are a Dkos user, add your voice to the huzzahs:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/27/134330/454

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Jake, did you get your veteran's shipment of Viagra from VA today? What's with the frantic, rapid-fire, palpatating comments?

Are you on the clock?

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Congratulations TPMMuckraker , David Iglesias, and all the other USA's. There are more mornings to come and more work to be done. The Republican Party would do well to use David Iglesias, James Comey, and David McKay as icons.

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"Finally," said one. "All the leaves have fallen off the tree and now the tree has fallen," another told him.

If they think felling the tree will do the job they're sadly mistaken. The goddam root is the problem. Bring in the heavy equipment because this sucker runs deep.

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The U.S. Attorneys scandal is not the only subject about which AG Gonzales is alleged to have perjured himself. See Leahy's letter requesting perjury investigations on 5 different matters involving AG's testimony. Recently, justice department prosecutors have made statements in open court to the effect of "How can I possibly pursue a perjury charge in light of the Attorney General?" in the months since AG's dubious testimony has increasingly accrued.

There are career DoJ prosecutors who don't have any confidence in their ability to pursue perjury charges because of this AG. does that faze you at all?

Hillary Clinton (and the other Democratic candidates) should just pledge to uphold the constitution and promise transparency in the DoJ. That's mountains more than we're getting now.

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Bush should nominate Arlen Specter for Attorney General.

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"Get an attorney general who's respected by the courts and by Capitol Hill and somebody who has experience as a federal prosecutor.... You need someone who understands that the attorney general has to say no to the president sometimes."

My magic 8-ball says: not bloody likely.

code word: free

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I'm guessing someone has already been picked and that person is responsible for Karl Rove's bye bye. Not that they'll necessarily be trusted or clean, but who would take the job as shackled as it has been?

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Jake is really fired up about this issue. First it's Shumers a hypocrite for not denouncing JFK for hiring RFK. Now it's Hillary for not denouncing her husband. Jake is apparently unaware all new presidents replace US attorneys regardless of party affiliation.
0 for 2. Please try again Jake!

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John Cornyn will be the next AG.

Thoughts?

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Methinks the good former USA is reading DailyKos:
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2007/8/27/85414/3540/1#c1

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It will be Townsend; she knows where all the skeletons are and will be worse than Abu because she's got functioning frontal lobes. Sorry, Mr. Iglesias, the scandal will never be over until we pry the cold, dead fingers of Cheney off the levers of power. That the Weimar Democrats can't bring themselves to do that is our national tragedy, and probable doom.

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David Iglesias for AG!

And I really hope that President Obama will nominate him to something. Yeah, partisanship is hardly in the top ten bad things going on in this country right now, but there's something to be said for having a place at the table for honorable people with differing views.

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Someone who will not abuse FISA.

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..."I doubt that this kind of scandal will happen again in our lifetimes"...

Who's to say it isn't happening right now? We still haven't gotten to the bottom of the USA firings, much less, say, the surveillance or torture scandals. Sure, various DoJ honchos have resigned but unless I missed something, the administration hasn't announced any significant changes in the way the DoJ is doing business. I haven't noticed a flood of new investigations or guidelines or hirings. In fact, our president seemed pretty happy with the situation and has encouraged stonewalling and misdirection. I'm sure it's satisfying for Iglesias to see Gonzales out but I don't think the problem is solved.

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Pat Fitzgerald

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Heh. You said "thoughts" and "John Cornyn" in the same posting! Good one! Heh.

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Has anybody called Carol Lam?

Beyond that, I can't believe you people are still falling for Jake's trolling.

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SC = snake, as in jake

did your RNC check finally go thru? how many times did it bounce before clearing?

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If you didn't know how Iglesias views reality, you know now. To aspire to the bygone days of Reagan's criminal behavior is disgusting. He must be proud that less people died, or that he was fighting imaginary communism. Reagan fed his little rummy and cheney their saddam to fight the bad iranians. poor folks that got in his way in america central didn't matter to these "people" at all. Los Contras. hilarious enemies that Reagan's same boys are doing drug deals with, and pimping for Noriega all the while
Iglesias ignored the lawbreaking by his superiors and could have been a whistleblower. but no. only when he had his hair mussed did he complain.
how much lower must the bar be to find someone that can rise to such high standards as our constitution calls for? Iglesias needs a step ladder. some need an extension ladder. some are out of luck because even a fire truck's huge extension ladder won't go high enough.
why don't we have one choice where the person doesn't need a ladder?

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For the record, I have never taken Viagra nor have I ever received a RNC check -- I'm retired -- what's your excuse for posting here?

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We are going to find out something about dems in a hurry. So far every person nominated by Bush for anything has lied through their teeth in their confirmation hearings. If Bush nominates someone with a conservative record all the senate has to do is refuse to confirm if the person says one word different than what their record says. The senate doesn't even need a hearing actually. Just review the record and go from there. Confirmation hearings have become a contest to see who can tell the biggest whopper.

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..."I doubt that this kind of scandal will happen again in our lifetimes"...

I think Mr. Iglesias has gotten a bit carried away by the moment. Under Bush, politicization is rampant throughout DoJ and virtually every department and agency of the Federal government.

For every abuse we learn about, there are countless others that go unnoticed except by those bureaucrats who now lack whistleblower protections and fear for their careers should they speak out. Morning in America? Not by a long shot.

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I've been humming "Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead!" all day today. I'm not holding my breath that this is going to change anything, though.

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Liz Holtzman's prescription for steps towards Cheney/Bush impeachment was to impeach Gonzo, then force commitment to appoint a special prosecutor as a criterion for confirmation. Step saved. Probes of all abuses of power and law-breaking must continue.

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Cut the head off the rotting fish, not just the anal fin.

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"Hillary Clinton (and the other Democratic candidates) should just pledge to uphold the constitution and promise transparency in the DoJ. That's mountains more than we're getting now."

If I'm not mistaken, Gonzales took this same oath... didn't work, did it? So, what is the reasoning for repeatiing the same thing again. If there are no penatlies for corruption, corruption will continue... and get worse.

We elected people to these positions to stop the corruption, not just change the ones dioing the corruption, and if I do not see this mandate carried through, I for one will make my voice as loud as possibe and continue to support someone new until an honest person is elected that ACTUALLY follows through with the mandate, not just pay it lip service.

Afterall, it'll be much easier to have another Gonzo in office now that the path has been laid.... only this next time, he will probably be a democrat and the Republicans will be hollering about corruption while the democrats sit back and explain that the Republican Gonzo was much worse and the new investigations are just witch hunts....

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Sure, the anal fin might be gone, but you can bet that the new AG will have been dying to fill that hole...

I've never heard of a resignation due to a NAME being dragged through the mud. The innocent ones fight it and provide evidence of their innocence.

No, Bush, Gonzo had to resign because he's guilty.

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Jake,
However hard you wish, Hillary Clinton won't be nominated.

~ Jess

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Now that I think of it, Larry Craig is a shoe-in for the position of AG... (bada-bing!)

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There is an ad hoc repug committee searching the mens rooms of airports and parks as we speak for candidates. Tommorrow the swingers papers, then so they leave no stone unturned the federal prisons.
I think that'll cover most of official GOP elites!

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Perhaps you folks forget that Francis Townsend ran the office relating to the FISA court under Janet Reno, cited the administration as primary fault for Katrina reaction, and has refocused the administration on actual counterterrorism operations (without hype), and was a career prosecutor before all that. Some of us can't figure out why she is still welcome in their camp, but for undeniable ability.

Hardly a yes-person for this ,or any, administration. Most people who have done the fact-checking will agree. Don't assume that everybody is bad just because some are truly atrocious. Find out the facts first.

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Well, that leaves Cheney as the last semi-competent operator in the White House machine. Everyone else is under so much scrutiny and too busy finding their sea legs to commit any further serious crimes until the end of this sad administration.
I share the hope with Iglesias that lessons are learned and we don't see this happen again, but the same vague sense of dread lingers as after Watergate: will the public remain outraged or will this so jade everyone that future and seemingly lesser transgressions of the law are tolerated. Worse, like Cheney and Rove after Watergate, will devious minds of the future powers-to-be contemplate these events with an eye to getting away with it next time -- to greater effect and a lengthier run?

It should signal the end of active criminality on the part of this administration at least.

Kudos to the TPM crew for keeping this story alive long enough to bypass the vast indifference of the MSM -- no car crashes, helicopter or crotch shots -- and arrive at this day.

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Well, that leaves Cheney as the last semi-competent operator in the White House machine. Everyone else is under so much scrutiny and too busy finding their sea legs to commit any further serious crimes until the end of this sad administration.
I share the hope with Iglesias that lessons are learned and we don't see this happen again, but the same vague sense of dread lingers as after Watergate: will the public remain outraged or will this so jade everyone that future and seemingly lesser transgressions of the law are tolerated. Worse, like Cheney and Rove after Watergate, will devious minds of the future powers-to-be contemplate these events with an eye to getting away with it next time -- to greater effect and a lengthier run?

It should signal the end of active criminality on the part of this administration at least.

Kudos to the TPM crew for keeping this story alive long enough to bypass the vast indifference of the MSM -- no car crashes, helicopter or crotch shots -- and arrive at this day.

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...Townsend...

I agree, Townsend would be a disaster. She's about as insider as they come and I can't see the Dems shooting her down.

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Frances Fragos Townsend? I've worked for her. She's brilliant at managing up. Seems to have a sixth sense for what her bosses want to hear, and delivers it firmly & quickly, as if it's her independent, considered evaluation. Bush would find her totally satisfactory. Her after-action report recommendation on Katrina was, after much study, that the President should have been more closely involved: somewhat subtle but effective brown-nosing.

Managing down is quite another story. This alone disqualifies her as AG, in charge of 28,000 or so employees. If past is prologue, high-level career people left at Justice might decide to retire now, after all. How Justice is still functioning at all is a mystery. It doesn't need more defections of the competent and experienced.

She has little federal prosecutorial experience, just a bit of the Pizza Connection Case as far as I know. This is disturbing. An AG who knows little federal criminal law is a real liability when so many career lawyers have left. Who would there be to raise and brief her knowledgeably on a multitude of federal criminal law issues?

In fact, she is apparently rather short on non-federal prosecutorial experience, as well. She got out of the courtroom and -- though still describing herself as a "career prosecutor" -- onto the ladders of power ASAP. (She was very close to AG Janet Reno in the Clinton Administration. The moment she got a Bush appointment she started calling herself a "lifelong Republican.")

She was often in error but never, ever in doubt. Our office understood that she wanted to go on the federal bench. I know no one who regarded her temperament as judicial.

Not Chertoff either, please! (Is it true that he drafted great chunks of the original Patriot Act, whose more than 300 pages just happened to be sitting there ready to go on 9/11? ) Justice has had already had its Katrina Quotient.

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Forced resignation from Gonzales is the first step for Americans to voice their strong disapproval for the Bush administration. It is no surprise to anyone that our president and his administration have stirred and cause scandals within White House and hid truth from the American public. Similar to the dealings with the war in Iraq, this administration has been feeding lies to the public. Now the war has proven to be a failure and is causing more violence, terror and poverty in this world. According to the Borgen Project, it only takes $19 billion dollars annually to eradicate world hunger and poverty. However, our government has already spent more than $450 billion dollars over this fruitless war in Iraq. It is time for the Bush Administration to take a real interest in the lives of the American people as well as people who are in desperate needs around the world. Stop the lies and stop poverty now.

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"Bush should nominate Arlen Specter for Attorney General.

Posted by: PAvoter Date: August 27, 2007 3:55 PM "

1) Too presidential and shrewd for this White House, and 2) Specter might not take it under these circumstances. So I say, BRING BACK RUMSFELD!

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"Bush should nominate Arlen Specter for Attorney General.

Posted by: PAvoter Date: August 27, 2007 3:55 PM "

1) Too presidential and shrewd for this White House, and 2) Specter might not take it under these circumstances. So I say, BRING BACK RUMSFELD!

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I have a great deal of admiration for James Comey because (1) he stood up to Gonzales and Card; (2) he refused to sign off on the WH's intelligence "activities" which he believed to be unconstitutional; (3) he threatened to resign rather be used. However, he will never be nominated by Dumbya because (a) he is honest; (b) he has integrity; and (3) he is almost 7 feet tall and GWB is just a wunky lil ol' pipsqueak! Imagine how that would look in a photo op. Georgie would have to stand on a box.

And people, you're still playing footsies with Jake. He's a TROLL, fgs. Ignore his sorry ass. Maybe he'll go bother the people on HuffPost, or Am. Free Press, or something. He's an idiot. Let it go.

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Jake is Karl Rove's son. Ignore him please. Not bright enough to use a different handle on other lib sites. Ignore. Pat Fitzgerald for AG. He did let Rove off the hook but probably had his and his families lives threatened. Comey is also a good choice. Any dem saying Chertoff is a good choice should be ashamed. Townsend is a sycophant as well. Refer recently to her obfuscation while defending the intelligence report. The dems have to stand up here and demand someone competent. They have the high ground here but will probably cave AGAIN. Huge kudos to Josh and everyone at TPM for leading the way on the Attorneys scandal and removing Gonzales. Celebrate, you deserve it. Small donations would be in order. Thank you all!

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I think Chimpy McFlightsuit should stamp his wittle foot on the deck of the Mission Accomplished aircraft carrier and install Harriet Myers in a recess appointment.

That'll prove that he's King George, the Decider, and is sooooooo mad at those wascally Democwats who took away all his yes men and keep threatening to say that bad "n-word." (No)

He should relax, though. In order to counter the Republicans who were born without a conscience, God made sure the Democrats were born without a spine.

Consequently, it will be business as usual until the day this dipshit leaves office, if he ever does. Then then next dipshit will come in and it will be business as usual, etc. Rinse and repeat.

Non-violent Apathists Unite! Or whatever. I need a nap.

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Knowing Bush he will probably nominate Harriet Miers again. She has to be qualified for something, right?

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Jess:

Care to make a wager on whether Hillary Clinton is the nominee?

djcrow22:

I am not Karl Rove's son -- in fact, I am old enough to be his father -- as for "using a different handle on other lib sites" why would I want to lie about my name? I do agree that the Defeatocrats will probably cave AGAIN.

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