"I am only in favor of executing on a plan to push some USAs out if we really are ready and willing to put in the time necessary to select candidates and get them appointed. It will be counterproductive to DOJ operations if we push USAs out and then don’t have replacements ready to roll immediately. I strongly recommend that as a matter of administration, we utilize the new statutory provisions that authorize the AG to make USA appointments. [By sidestepping the confirmation process] we can give far less deference to home state senators and thereby get 1.) our preferred person appointed and 2.) do it far faster and more efficiently at less political costs to the White House," – Kyle Sampson, Alberto Gonzales’s Chief of Staff.
We now know that a political purge of U.S. attorneys was directed by the president through the attorney-general, and was enabled by the Patriot Act. The alleged reason for removing the U.S. attorneys – which the administration took a while to come up with – is that the U.S. attorneys were insufficiently devoted to rooting out Democratic voters’ alleged voter fraud. (For a guide to this scam, see Josh Marshall’s long obsession, which now seems a little more justified and a lot less boring than it once did. For TPM’s full backfill on the U.S. Attorneys story, click here.)
It seems to me pretty obvious that they’ve been caught trying to rig the justice system to perpetuate Republican control of the House and Senate. It seems to me that this originates with the president and Karl Rove. And it seems more than obvious to me that Alberto Gonzales should resign. No attorney-general with this kind of cloud over him can faintly summon public confidence as a neutral enforcer of justice.
(Photo: Win McNamee/Getty.)
The Dish 