Comments (24)

John wrote on January 29, 2007 5:39 PM:

Bush is stacking the deck. Its a "pre emptive strike against" those who might make life uncomfortable for the Bush gang.

rumpole wrote on January 29, 2007 5:50 PM:

The head of opposition research for the R's in the gore campaign is now going to be USA for the State of Arkansas. I wonder if he'll start investigating all things Clinton?

oldtree wrote on January 29, 2007 5:53 PM:

gotta appreciate Jack; he gets things on air that no one else will put but Keith. sorry, Catherine Crier is mad as well. But 3 hours a day of all available NOOZ programming, and really more like 1 hour at best. It has that liberal bias. so it's probably true.

Dennis wrote on January 29, 2007 6:01 PM:

John is right, "Bush IS stacking the deck.

"When all is said and done, we'll see just how much respect for the Courts is owed. Let'em earn it. Lately, I'm not impressed.

You don't have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

Mrs panstreppon wrote on January 29, 2007 6:20 PM:

Q. of the Day: Do you think politics has anything to do with the Bush administration's appointment of federal prosecutors?

Jack: We decided to start the week with an easy question.

Cheryl wrote on January 29, 2007 7:46 PM:

And CNN tells us that a new Newsweek polls shows that 58% of the public wish the Bush administration was OVER. That's like impeached isn't it, out of office. That is a majority of Americans that want Bush impeached. Is congress listening. Does congress understand what that means, the GOP doesn't.

And Bush is making idle threats to Iran. Bush pretends to have big stick, but he ain't got one. More "bring em on" BS, as Bush never learns. Bush wants to go to war with Iran but the public doesn't. Surely there are a few generals that want to go screaming to congress, we've got no army and Bush wants WW III, can't we impeach the SOB or something BEFORE he does really something stupid without listening to anyone?

Richard L. Adlof wrote on January 29, 2007 8:08 PM:

I have this re-occurring dream where twelve to fifteen sub-committees a day send a supeona to both our elected Executive Branch officers and their toady Alberto Gonzalez . . . Each night they will be lead off in cuffs to spend the night for one or more instances of Comtempt o' Congress . . . Every morning they get hosed off then are handed a fresh stack of supeonas . . . Then they get lead off to the days respective hearings.

I know it is a petty little dream, a guilty pleasure that is sure to end with three evil-doers being boiled or water-boarded in a country with a name that ends in -stan . . . or maybe an all expense trip to the Hague . . . Sigh.

A guy can dream about Justice Department folk let go for actually DOING their jobs being hired by the Congress to work on investigating the folk who tried to squelch their careers . . .

Am I bad for having this little dream?

huh? wrote on January 29, 2007 8:16 PM:

a critical point he left out:

A (un?)surprisingly large percentage of the the fired US Attorneys were investigating prominent cases of corruption in government. Take Dick Cunnigham's USA for example.

Where is Rule of Law and Checks and Balances when this sorry excuse for a president simply appoints corrupt officials without any oversight from Congress?

wtmesq wrote on January 29, 2007 10:55 PM:

He forgot "....according to reporting started on TPM.COM...."

ks wrote on January 30, 2007 4:12 AM:

Please do not forget, it was Arlen Specter that gave him the ability to hire these guys without congressional approval.

ApplePie wrote on January 30, 2007 9:01 AM:

ks - Thanks for pointing out the Arlen Specter link - he ought to be publicly shamed for his actions to allow free rein (or is it reign) by Bush. Is anyone surprised? - Bush has eliminated others, in the past, that sought to do right and expose his and others corruption & lies - can you say Plamegate? It is a pattern of a dishonest administration who will do and say anything to remain in power and further disseminate their ideologies.

DEFuning wrote on January 30, 2007 4:09 PM:

Cho, Avahome and Roxy have an interested exploration of this over at the ePluribus Media Journal
http://www.epluribusmedia.org/features/2007/20070127_gonzales_seven_p1.html

Frank wrote on January 30, 2007 9:57 PM:

Nice going for that Bush enabler Spector. His legislative antics are so syncophantic, it is an embrassment. Of course the AG is stacking the deck..It is for the same motive as the attempt to get an adoring female white house legal counsel a vacancy on the Supreme Court. It would be reckless to think otherwise. The administration is preparing for the legal battles ahead.

So many dirty hands has helped this empty cowboy hat to sit in the white house. The dirtest is the SCOTUS. Is it any wonder that the rule of law in this country is a joke.

Walt R wrote on February 8, 2007 10:24 PM:

Precedent and Pattern to US Attorney Removals

Bush removal ended Guam investigation
US attorney's demotion halted probe of lobbyist

By Walter F. Roche Jr., Los Angeles Times |

August 8, 2005

WASHINGTON -- A US grand jury in Guam opened an investigation of controversial lobbyist Jack Abramoff more than two years ago, but President Bush removed the supervising federal prosecutor, and the probe ended soon after.
The previously undisclosed Guam inquiry is separate from a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia that is investigating allegations that Abramoff bilked Indian tribes out of millions of dollars.
In Guam, a US territory in the Pacific, investigators were looking into Abramoff's secret arrangement with Superior Court officials to lobby against a court reform bill then pending in Congress. The legislation, since approved, gave the Guam Supreme Court authority over the Superior Court.
In 2002, Abramoff was retained by the Superior Court in what was an unusual arrangement for a public agency. The Los Angeles Times reported in May that Abramoff was paid with a series of $9,000 checks funneled through a Laguna Beach, Calif., lawyer to disguise the lobbyist's role working for the Guam court. No separate contract was authorized for Abramoff's work.
Guam court officials have never explained the contractual arrangement. At the time, Abramoff was a well-known lobbying figure in the Pacific islands because of his work for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Saipan garment manufacturers, accused of employing workers in what critics called sweatshop conditions.
Abramoff spokesman Andrew Blum said the lobbyist ''has no recollection of his being investigated in Guam in 2002. If he had been aware of an investigation, he would have cooperated fully." Blum declined to respond to detailed questions.
The transactions were the target of a grand jury subpoena issued Nov. 18, 2002, according to the subpoena. It demanded that Anthony Sanchez, administrative director of the Guam Superior Court, turn over all records involving the lobbying contract, including bills and payments.
A day later, the chief prosecutor, US Attorney Frederick A. Black, who had launched the investigation, was demoted. A White House news release announced that Bush was replacing Black.
The timing caught some by surprise. Despite his officially temporary status as the acting US attorney, Black had held the assignment for more than a decade.
The acting US attorney was a controversial official in Guam. At the time he was replaced, Black was directing a long-term investigation into allegations of public corruption in the administration of then-Governor Carl Gutierrez. The probe produced numerous indictments, including some of the governor's political associates and top aides.
Black, 56, had served as acting US attorney for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands since 1991, when he was named to the post by the president's father, President George H. W. Bush.
The career prosecutor, who held a senior position as first assistant before accepting the acting US attorney job, was demoted to a staff post. Black's demotion came after an intensive lobbying effort by supporters of Gutierrez, who had been publicly critical of Black and his investigative efforts.
Black declined to comment for this article.
His replacement, Leonardo Rapadas, was confirmed in May 2003 without any debate. Rapadas had been recommended for the job by the Guam Republican Party. Fred Radewagen, a lobbyist who had been under contract to the Gutierrez administration, said he carried that recommendation to top Bush aide Karl Rove in early 2003.
After taking office, Rapadas recused himself from the public corruption case involving Gutierrez. The new US attorney was a cousin of ''one of the main targets," according to a confidential memo to Justice Department officials.
Rapadas declined to comment and referred questions about his recusal to Justice Department officials who did not respond to requests for comment.
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.

Federal Prosecutor in Terrorism Case Sues His Boss Ashcroft
NewsMax.com Wires
Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2004
WASHINGTON – A federal prosecutor in a major terrorism case has taken the rare step of suing Attorney General John Ashcroft, alleging the Justice Department interfered with the case, compromised a confidential informant and exaggerated results in the war on terrorism.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino of Detroit accused the Justice Department of "gross mismanagement" of the war on terrorism in a whistleblower lawsuit filed late Friday in federal court in Washington.
Justice officials said Tuesday they had not seen the suit and had no comment.
The suit is the latest twist in the Bush administration's first major post-Sept. 11 terrorism prosecution, which is in danger of unraveling over allegations of prosecutorial misconduct.
Convertino came under internal investigation last fall after providing information to a Senate committee about his concerns about the war on terror. His testimony came just months after he helped convict some members of an alleged terrorism cell in Detroit.
The government now admits it failed to turn over evidence during the trial that might have assisted the defense, including an allegation from an imprisoned drug gang leader who claimed the government's key witness made up his story.
Convertino is seeking damages under the First Amendment and Privacy Act, alleging he has been subjected to an internal investigation as retaliation for his cooperation with the Senate and that information from the internal probe was wrongly leaked to news media.
The lawsuit states Convertino first complained to his superiors more than a year ago about Justice's interference in the Detroit terrorism trial, saying Washington supervisors "had continuously placed perception over reality to the serious detriment of the war on terror."
The lawsuit includes excerpts of an e-mail from another prosecutor in the case that Convertino says "identified some of the gross mismanagement which was negatively impacting the ability of the United States to obtain convictions in a major terrorist case."
The e-mail from the other prosecutor shows he complained at the time that efforts by Justice's terrorism unit in Washington to "insinuate themselves into this trial are, nothing more than a self-serving effort to justify the existence" of the unit.
"They have rendered no assistance and, are in my judgment, adversely impacting on both trial prep and trial strategy," the e-mail cited in the lawsuit states.
Convertino also accused Justice officials of intentionally divulging the name of one of his confidential terrorism informants (CI) to retaliate against him.
The leak put the informant at grave risk, forced him to flee the United States and "interfered with the ability of the United States to obtain information from the CI about current and future terrorist activities," the suit alleges.
The prosecutor is being represented by National Whistleblower Center, which has represented FBI agents and other whistleblowers in recent cases involving terrorism. Its chief lawyer successfully helped Linda Tripp win damages under the Privacy Act for the leak of information from her Pentagon personnel file after the Monica Lewinsky affair.
© 2004 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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