For the next few days at TPMCafe, we’ll be discussing Mark Schmitt’s new piece in Democracy Journal challenging the campaign reform movement. Mark outlines the argument in his first post here.
Many have noticed that Carol Lam’s name is noted for firing in the list drawn up at the Justice Department well before the Cunningham investigation even began. We’ll have more on that coming soon at TPMmuckraker. But look at the list closely. All the US Attorney names, save for those who were eventually fired, are redacted. So it’s impossible to evaluate what the strike through Lam’s name really means without knowing how many other US Attorneys were stricken on the same list.
Editorial pages from sea to shining sea call for Gonzales to walk the plank.
Republican justice, in more ways than one. This is from today’s Seattle Times …
Former Washington state Republican Party Chairman Chris Vance acknowledged Tuesday that he contacted then-U.S. Attorney John McKay to inquire about the status of federal investigations into the 2004 governor’s race while the outcome was still in dispute.
…
“Republican activists were furious because they felt that you had a Republican secretary of state [Sam Reed], a Republican county prosecutor in Norm Maleng and a Republican U.S. attorney, but still they saw the governorship slipping away, and they were just angry,” Vance said.
All those Republicans and they still couldn’t get any trumped up voter fraud indictments. No wonder they were angry.
Of course, these Republican officeholders — McKay, Reed and Maleng — understand their responsibilities and did the right thing.
Big breaking news: Senate votes to allow debate on proposal for withdrawal from Iraq!
Update: Here are the nine GOP Senators who voted against debate today.
Senate requests interviews with Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, and Miers’ deputy, William Kelley.
Winger v. Winger …
From the Journal OpEd page …
At the time, President Clinton presented the move as something perfectly ordinary: “All those people are routinely replaced,” he told reporters, “and I have not done anything differently.” In fact, the dismissals were unprecedented: Previous Presidents, including Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, had both retained holdovers from the previous Administration and only replaced them gradually as their tenures expired. This allowed continuity of leadership within the U.S. Attorney offices during the transition.
Bush I Assistant AG, Stuart Gerson, in today’s WaPo online chat …
It is customary for a President to replace U.S. Attorneys at the beginning of a term. Ronald Reagan replaced every sitting U.S. Attorney when he appointed his first Attorney General. President Clinton, acting through me as Acting AG, did the same thing, even with few permanent candidates in mind.
The Journal OpEd also continues their penchant for peddling ‘voter fraud’ falsehoods.
Get this: McCain is now beginning to tout his own courage for supporting escalation — in a political campaign web video.
Good eye, or good ear, from TPM Reader JB. Apparently, the White House and Alberto Gonzales are so miffed with Kyle Sampson for doing the whole Attorney Purge on his own that they’re letting him stay on the job — from which he supposedly resigned on Monday — indefinitely as he “goes job hunting.”