[Rhodes22-list] Speaking of politicians.

Wed Apr 4 13:08:47 EDT 2007

Wally,

This is a 'tempest in a teapot', something, anything, to run interference
during the last two years of a lame duck Presidency.  Here is an editorial
from the WSJ on the subject.

Brad

---------------

*The Hubbell Standard*
Hillary Clinton knows all about sacking U.S. Attorneys.

*Wednesday, March 14, 2007 12:01 a.m.*

Congressional Democrats are in full cry over the news this week that the
Administration's decision to fire eight U.S. Attorneys originated
from--gasp--the White House. Senator Hillary Clinton joined the fun
yesterday, blaming President Bush for "the politicization of our
prosecutorial system." Oh, my.

As it happens, Mrs. Clinton is just the Senator to walk point on this issue
of dismissing U.S. attorneys because she has direct personal experience. In
any Congressional probe of the matter, we'd suggest she call herself as the
first witness--and bring along Webster Hubbell as her chief counsel.

As everyone once knew but has tried to forget, Mr. Hubbell was a former
partner of Mrs. Clinton at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock who later went
to jail for mail fraud and tax evasion. He was also Bill and Hillary
Clinton's choice as Associate Attorney General in the Justice Department
when Janet Reno, his nominal superior, simultaneously fired all 93 U.S.
Attorneys in March 1993. Ms. Reno--or Mr. Hubbell--gave them 10 days to move
out of their offices.

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.

Equally extraordinary were the politics at play in the firings. At the time,
Jay Stephens, then U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia, was
investigating then Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, and was "within
30 days" of making a decision on an indictment. Mr. Rostenkowski, who was
shepherding the Clinton's economic program through Congress, eventually went
to jail on mail fraud charges and was later pardoned by Mr. Clinton.

Also at the time, allegations concerning some of the Clintons' Whitewater
dealings were coming to a head. By dismissing all 93 U.S. Attorneys at once,
the Clintons conveniently cleared the decks to appoint "Friend of Bill"
Paula Casey as the U.S. Attorney for Little Rock. Ms. Casey never did bring
any big Whitewater indictments, and she rejected information from another
FOB, David Hale, on the business practices of the Arkansas elite including
Mr. Clinton. When it comes to "politicizing" Justice, in short, the Bush
White House is full of amateurs compared to the Clintons.

 And it may be this very amateurism that explains how the current
Administration has managed to turn this routine issue of replacing
Presidential appointees into a political fiasco. There was nothing wrong
with replacing the eight Attorneys, all of whom serve at the President's
pleasure. Prosecutors deserve supervision like any other executive branch
appointees.

The supposed scandal this week is that Mr. Bush had been informed last fall
that some U.S. Attorneys had been less than vigorous in pursuing voter-fraud
cases and that the President had made the point to Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales. Voter fraud strikes at the heart of democratic institutions, and
it was entirely appropriate for Mr. Bush--or any President--to insist that
his appointees act energetically against it.

Take sacked U.S. Attorney John McKay from Washington state. In 2004, the
Governor's race was decided in favor of Democrat Christine Gregoire by 129
votes on a third recount. As the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and other media
outlets reported, some of the "voters" were deceased, others were registered
in storage-rental facilities, and still others were convicted felons. More
than 100 ballots were "discovered" in a Seattle warehouse. None of this
constitutes proof that the election was stolen. But it should have been
enough to prompt Mr. McKay, a Democrat, to investigate, something he
declined to do, apparently on grounds that he had better things to do.

In New Mexico, another state in which recent elections have been decided by
razor thin margins, U.S. Attorney David Iglesias did establish a voter fraud
task force in 2004. But it lasted all of 10 weeks before closing its doors,
despite evidence of irregularities by the likes of the Association of
Community Organizations for Reform Now, or Acorn. As our John Fund reported
at the time, Acorn's director Matt Henderson refused to answer questions in
court about whether his group had illegally made copies of voter
registration cards in the run-up to the 2004 election.

 As for some of the other fired Attorneys, at least one of their dismissals
seemed to owe to differences with the Administration about the death
penalty, another to questions about the Attorney's managerial skills. Not
surprisingly, the dismissed Attorneys are insisting their dismissals were
unfair, and perhaps in some cases they were. It would not be the first time
in history that a dismissed employee did not take kindly to his firing, nor
would it be the first in which an employer sacked the wrong person. No
question, the Justice Department and White House have botched the handling
of this issue from start to finish. But what we don't have here is any
serious evidence that the Administration has acted improperly or to protect
some of its friends. If Democrats want to understand what a real abuse of
power looks like, they can always ask the junior Senator from New York.

On 4/4/07, TN Rhodey <tnrhodey at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Brad,
>
> Of course the AGs serve at the President's descrection however I think you
> might be wrong about the firings/replacement starting with Clinton. I
> thought the AG firings started at least as far back as Reagan and was then
> followed by Bush and Clinton. I thought W's issues have more to do with
> the
> timing....if he would of done this in the first year or so it would have
> merely followed precedent ...by waiting he left the door open to
> criticism.
>
> Wally
>
> >From: "Brad Haslett" <flybrad at gmail.com>
> >Reply-To: The Rhodes 22 mail list <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> >To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> >Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Speaking of politicians.
> >Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 08:26:04 -0600
> >
> >Wally,
> >
> >AG's serve at the President's discretion.  Clinton wholesale replacing
> ALL
> >of them at once was a first. The press at the time barely mentioned it.
> >Bush
> >replaced 8 out of almost 100.  Big deal.  This is a huge non-story that
> >ranks right up there with the one about whats-her-name dying, you know
> the
> >one, that blonde chick with the big hooters.
> >
> >I've been tied down with airplane hangar issues and taxes but plan to get
> >on
> >the lake soon.  I haven't bothered to look and see if the front that
> passed
> >here last night has made it past you, but it is chilly this morning.  At
> >least there's some wind.
> >
> >Brad
> >
> >On 4/4/07, TN Rhodey <tnrhodey at hotmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > The sailing here has been great the last few days!!!  I have been
> trying
> > > NOT
> > > to follow the AG firings but doesn't every President do the same thing
> > > Clinton did? I thought this was pretty standard when a new pres came
> > > in.....this may be a matter of bad timing? Wally
> > >
> > >
> > > >From: "Brad Haslett" <flybrad at gmail.com>
> > > >Reply-To: The Rhodes 22 mail list <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> > > >To: "The Rhodes 22 mail list" <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
> > > >Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Speaking of politicians.
> > > >Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 07:29:24 -0600
> > > >
> > > >Rummy,
> > > >
> > > >Speaking of amnesia, last Sunday we had George Stephanopoulos on his
> >ABC
> > > >news show discussing the firing of eight Attorney Generals, a
> non-event
> > > if
> > > >there ever was one, and little Georgie keeps a straight face through
> >the
> > > >whole thing.  What a fine piece of acting.  Did George share his
> > > experience
> > > >as spokesperson for the Clinton administration explaining the firing
> of
> > > >all,
> > > >every single friggin' AG in the US, including the one in Little Rock
> > > >investigating Whitewater?  No, he continued on, sure that most of the
> > > >country is too stupid to know or care. He was right. Want to know how
> > > much
> > > >press coverage that got when it happened?  About 20 seconds on one
> > > network.
> > > >Fair and balanced?
> > > >
> > > >Brad
> > > >
> > > >On 4/4/07, R22RumRunner at aol.com <R22RumRunner at aol.com> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Breaking News
> > > > > Scientists Study Memory Loss Among Politicians
> > > > > Near-amnesia Reaching Epidemic Proportions, Experts  Say
> > > > >
> > > > > An "unprecedented epidemic of memory loss" is
> afflicting  America's
> > > > > politicians, making it virtually impossible for them to  remember
> >key
> > > > > phone
> > > > > conversations, meetings, and memos, a spokesman  for the world's
> > > leading
> > > > > brain
> > > > > scientists said today.
> > > > >
> > > > > The  spokesman, Dr. Hiroshi Kyosuke of the University of Tokyo, is
> >one
> > > >of
> > > > > over four hundred eminent brain scientists who have gathered in
> >Oslo,
> > > > > Norway
> > > > > this week for a high-level research conference to probe  the
> recent
> > > > > phenomenon
> > > > > of memory loss that has plagued the nation's  politicians.
> > > > >
> > > > > "The question at hand is this: why are  politicians so good at
> > > >remembering
> > > > > contributors' names and phone  numbers but so bad at remembering
> > > > > everything else?
> > > > > " Dr. Kyosuke  said.
> > > > >
> > > > > Over the course of the conference, brain scientists  have
> presented
> > > > > research
> > > > > papers on a variety of subjects related to  memory loss, such as
> > > former
> > > > > New
> > > > > York mayor Rudolph Giuliani's  inability to remember a briefing he
> > > > > received
> > > > > about former police  commissioner Bernard Kerik's possible ties to
> > > > > organized
> > > > > crime.
> > > > >
> > > > > "That seems like the sort of thing that a normal human
> brain  would
> > > have
> > > > > no
> > > > > difficulty remembering," Dr. Kyosuke said. "What we  are learning
> at
> > > >this
> > > > > conference is that when it comes to  politicians' brains, we have
> so
> > > >much
> > > > > more to
> > > > > learn."
> > > > >
> > > > > On  Monday, a full day of the conference was devoted to a paper
> > > >entitled,
> > > > > "
> > > > > The Neuroscience of Scooter Libby," followed by a keynote  address
> > > given
> > > > > by
> > > > > Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
> > > > >
> > > > > While  many attendees considered Mr. Gonzales' speech a highpoint
> of
> > > the
> > > > > conference, the Attorney General offered a different assessment:
> "I
> > > >have
> > > > > no
> > > > > recollection of it."
> > > > >
> > > > > Elsewhere, President Bush said  he would devote the remainder of
> his
> > > >term
> > > > > to
> > > > > fighting global  warming, adding, "April  Fools!"
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > ************************************** See what's free at
> > > > > http://www.aol.com.
> > > > > __________________________________________________
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