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USA Purge "Messenger" Talks to NPR
Michael Battle, the man who ran the Justice Department office that oversees all U.S. attorneys, and who made the actual phone calls to the fired U.S.A.s, gave an interview to NPR today.
As you'd expect, he doesn't have a whole lot to add. Was he asked before the firings about which U.S.A.s weren't doing a good job? Yep, but he couldn't think of any at the time. And he sat down to that infamous November, 2006 meeting with the DoJ leadership not knowing what Kyle Sampson had up his sleeve. As it turned out, they were going to fire a bunch of prosecutors, no one else there seemed to know much about it, and Battle was the one who was going to make the phone calls.
So Battle, following orders, made the calls. And it was "distasteful." A couple of months later he left, but he wants the world to know that his departure had long been planned and was unrelated. So there: his story is told.
Josh
Zachary
Bush & Co. have doone a masterful job of isolating any one form any responsibility, tasking different parts of a job to different folks who never seem to know the whole picture.
What does that remind you of ?????????
November 2, 2007 4:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
I listen to this interview this morn he almost came clean but still was a loyal Bushie and not ansewer any of the important ? fully or to myself truthfuly.
November 2, 2007 5:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
They can hire whom they please, fire whom
they please, ClintonCo did it to, but
I have no confidence in their integrity
anymore. And, you can expand that 'they'
to include any/as many people you want
to, there. What do government jobs like
that pay, now, 120, 150k/yr? I think they
need to chop the federal budget in HALF,
and fire lots and lots and lots and lots
of people. Let's get this country back
on a cash basis, get back to making stuff
and building stuff and really doing stuff
and not just printing money as the
situation requires in order to hire
friends, lackeys, cronies, and so forth.
The only difference between the Mob
and the Government is that Government
is supposed to be subjected to thorough
public oversight, have that public
accountability and so forth. When that's
gone what you have left, well, what
DO you have left, then? Be it selective
enforcement, lack of enforcement,
6-7 digit lawyers basically buying the
outcome of trials, fraud and corruption
in our government is something that
needs to be addressed. Our country is
now 9 trillion in the red, our national
reputation is a mess, all because for
YEARS bad business in the name of The People has been ignored, tolerated,
hidden from public view, so yes, go
forth and fire lots of people, and
ensure that what's left is competetent,
professional, publicly accountable,
and as unbiased as is humanly possible,
and correctly safeguarded with checks
and balances and has sufficient
public oversight to prevent against
partisan manipulation. So, that means
they have to stay apolitical. That's
a pretty high standard...can they do it
or not? UNICOR's waiting for that next
batch of fresh employees...hmmm....
November 2, 2007 9:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Knock off the lame 'Clinton did it too' defense of what's gone on in the Justice Department.
November 3, 2007 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Battle comes off looking like just another 'Uncle Tom' for Massa Bush & a 'Clarence - I still got my Dignity! - Thomas'. Sad. The brother could have done better. But he thought have been a Political COUP GOVERNMENT would look good on his resume. Were I to consider him for a job, his DOJ job would surely call his Integrity & Honor into question.
Yes, he 'Sold out America'...and can't even begin to admit it - even to himself.
November 4, 2007 12:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
And with Rudy, you get the Mob to run the government! So yeah, lets cut the funding for law enforcement in half -- that'll fix everything.
November 4, 2007 9:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
How did Battle know he had authority to fire the USAs when the decision to fire them is vested in the President, who supposedly was not at the meeting, supposedly did not give any written communication to fire them, and who originally made public statements that he did not know anything about the firings?
IOW - Did the President of the United States fire them (in which case, why did he plead ignorance later) or not?
November 4, 2007 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mary,
The President does as he is told by his handlers; they all need to be taken down.
November 4, 2007 9:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Michael made me homeless in one minute back in 2001. If his victims had been asked about his integrity, he would've never been appointed to anything, not even cleaning toilets.
November 21, 2007 11:50 PM | Reply | Permalink