TPM Reader GB has what really is the first, second and third question for the mendacious Attorney General …
In your senate testimony you said you were sure that none of the attorneys were fired for improper reasons. Given your admitted lack of close scrutiny of the process for selecting which attorneys would be fired, why are you sure of this?
Law prof Marty Lederman takes his own stab at it.
New details emerge on Todd Graves’ firing. The White House told Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) that Graves was canned for “performance” reasons. But that’s not what DOJ told Graves in his firing call. We’ve got the scoop at TPMmuckraker.
(ed.note: As I mentioned over the weekend, our new reporter-blogger, Laura McGann, started at TPMmuckraker.com on Monday. And in the post linked above, she was, to the best of my knowledge, the first to report on the firing call Graves received back in January 2006. The Times followed a short time later with more details — jmm.)
(ed.note: Sticking up for your reporters on the night shift edition: The Times also has an excellent editorial in Thursday’s paper on the Graves-Schlozman story. The editorialist notes that in addition to the rest of Schlozman’s sundry villainies, “McClatchy Newspapers reported that Mr. Schlozman also has been accused of hiring Justice Department lawyers based on their political party.” I would be remiss if I didn’t note that Paul Kiel first reported this story two weeks prior to McClatchy’s piece. You can see Paul’s original piece here — jmm.)
Late Update: Now there are reports on the story from WaPo and the Post-Dispatch. Beyond the details of Graves’ ouster and replacement by Bradley Schlozman, which we’ve been discussing for several days, there are two key points to focus on here. The first is that the congressional investigation has been going on for some three months. And the Department of Justice has repeatedly stated that eight US Attorneys were fired. That was clearly false. And there’s a second point. We now know of several cases in which US Attorneys appeared on DOJ firing lists and then by supposed coincidence just happened to resign. The Graves revelation now puts the weight of evidence strongly in the favor of the conclusion that few if any of these resignations were unforced. No proof yet. But that has to be the assumption.
And there’s one more point with respect to tomorrow’s testimony by Attorney General Gonzales. There’s been a lot of back and forth and speculation about all the faulty memories, the fact that virtually every senior official at DOJ has denied any role in actually choosing the names on the firing list and all the various claims of privilege. At the risk of stating the obvious, this is all of a piece. For three months the White House and the clique around Attorney General Gonzales have been involved in a concerted effort to cover up what happened here. And the intensity of the effort points to how bad the real story is. This has been obvious to anyone who has been following this story closely since January. But the fact that the DOJ has been collectively lying about the number of fired US Attorneys for all these months just confirms how true it is. Consider this: with all the document dumps, no emails or documents relating to Graves’ firing? How can that be? The truth is that we still know very little about what happened here. Very little.
Today’s Must Read: Success! Alberto Gonzales says he’s “weathered the storm.”
Breaking: For the first time, House Dems have scheduled a straight up-or-down vote for today on whether to withdraw from Iraq.
In today’s episode of TPMtv, our questions for Alberto Gonzales…
In case you think too many Republicans are getting restive with Bush administration corruption and incompetence, there are still sycophants and lickspittles like Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) to carry on the honored tradition. Cannon is on the House Judiciary Committee and says about today’s Gonzales hearing âI hope heâs clear, direct and unapologetic. Iâm really tired of innuendo and repeated use of the word corruption. If [Democrats] canât produce tomorrow, the story ought to disappear.â
Then again, Cannon was the employer and key enabler of convicted Abramoff crook David Safavian. So I guess he’s not crazy about the word ‘corruption.’
We’re covering Alberto Gonzales’ hearing today over at TPMmuckraker.
Some early gems:
Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) sets the tone for the hearing.
Gonzales answers a question with “”I think I may be aware of that.”
Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) pushes Gonzales to hurry up and indict Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA).
I am woman, hear me spin!
Up in Minnesota, those four career prosecutors who voluntarily demoted themselves to protest how Rachel Paulose, the fresh-faced, hard-right new U.S. attorney there, was running the office are still unhappy. Now it’s about Paulose’s not-so-subtle suggestions in the media that the four stepped down because they couldn’t deal with having a young, female boss. You can read their letter to her here.
AG Gonzales explains that he’s referred to eight US Attorneys being fired rather than nine because those eight were “part of this process” of firing the eight US Attorneys. So Todd Graves didn’t count. Apparently he was a special case.
Gonzales on why White House Counsel Harriet Miers wanted Lewis prosecutor Debra Yang fired: Because she was sensitive to Yang’s financial situation and that she wanted a more lucrative job. Said Gonzales: “Ms. Miers may have known about Ms. Yang’s concern about being able to remain on the job due to financial reasons.”
See the video here.
Needless to say it’s always helpful to fire someone when they’re looking for more profitable employment.