[Rhodes22-list] Speaking of politicians.

Wed Apr 4 14:30:55 EDT 2007

Well, thank God Steve Alm didn't get fired:

http://www.pritchettcartoons.com/alm.htm

BTW, they're not attorney generals, they're attorneys general.

Steve Alm

On 4/4/07 1:06 PM, "TN Rhodey" <tnrhodey at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Brad,
> 
> What?.....This editorial really doesn't address the coment in my email.....I
> will do some checking but I think you are wrong about this starting with
> Clinton. I don't think anyone is saying that Clinto did not fire AGs. I just
> don't think it started with the Clinton's. You post doesn't shed any light
> in either direction. - 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 12:08:47 -0500
>> 
>> 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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