NewsTrust - U.S. Attorney Firings - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Independent)

Where Have You Gone, Ferdinand Pecora?

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Michael Winship - Apr. 26 (Opinion) - No, it's Ferdinand Pecora. Who is he, you may ask, and guess that maybe he once played infield for the Dodgers or sang Faust at the Metropolitan Opera. But back in the '30s, during the depths of the Great Depression, Ferdinand Pecora emerged as an unlikely hero, leading a sensational Senate investigation of what caused the '29 market crash.

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Gonazlez Resigns

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:41:06 -0700

American Thinker - By Rick Moran - Aug. 27 (Opinion) - Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez has resigned as reported by several media outlets including the New York Times: Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzalz, whose tenure has been marred by controversy and accusations of perjury before Congress, has resigned. A senior administration official said he would announce the decision later this morning in Washington. Mr. Gonzales, who had rebuffed calls for his resignation, submitted his to President Bush by telephone on Friday, the official said. His decision was not immediately announced, the official added, until after the president invited him and his wife to lunch at his ranch near here. Mr. Bush has not yet chosen a replacement but will not leave the position open long, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the resignation had not yet been made public.

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The Goods on Goodling and the Keys to the Kingdom

Thu, 24 May 2007 15:37:01 -0700

Brad Blog - By Greg Palast - May. 24 (Opinion) - Bush-Cheney operatives sent hundreds of thousands of letters marked "Do not forward" to voters' homes. Letters returned ("caged") were used as evidence to block these voters' right to cast a ballot on grounds they were registered at phony addresses. Who were the evil fakers? Homeless men, students on vacation and -- you got to love this -- American soldiers. Oh yeah: most of them are Black voters.

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Monica Goodling

Wed, 23 May 2007 12:07:58 -0700

Obsidian Wings - By hilzoy - May. 23 (Opinion) - I've been listening to Monica Goodling's testimony while I do other things, and it has done very little so far to clarify any of the underlying questions the US Attorney scandal has raised. She has admitted asking political questions, like how people voted, during job interviews for career appointees, and while she scrupulously avoided claiming that Paul McNulty perjured himself before Congress, she did say that she believed not just that his testimony was inaccurate, but that he was aware of the truth when he gave it. But she has not said anything to clear up the central question: who put the US Attorneys on the firing list, and why?

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'It was just the dishonesty of it'

Tue, 22 May 2007 12:15:02 -0700

The Carpetbagger Report - May. 22 (Opinion) - By now, everyone has heard all about the 2004 showdown in John Ashcroft's hospital room. What we haven't heard much of, however, is any kind of explanation from the Bush gang as to what transpired that night. Press Secretary Tony Snow brushed it off last week, suggesting that Ashcroft really wasn't that sick, and that Comey's version of events were just "one side" of the story (he wouldn't give the other side). A few days later, Snow's deputy, Tony Fratto, wouldn't even go that far, refusing to answer any questions about the confrontation. At one point, Fratto said the White House won't even concede that the Card/Gonzales/Comey meeting occurred at all.

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Greg Palast on How Rove May Have Already Stolen the 2008 Election

Thu, 17 May 2007 22:29:23 -0700

BuzzFlash - May. 17 (Interview) - We've got the documents. We ain't guessing. When I say they had caging lists targeting innocent black soldiers, I have the lists. I have the soldiers' names. We spoke to their families. In fact, interestingly, "60 Minutes" came into our office and said, "My God, to prove what these caging lists are, you're going to have to make hundreds of calls and spend hundreds of hours going through this stuff." And we said, "Yeah, it's reporting. Try it. It won't hurt you."

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Gonzales's Law School Classmates Send Him a Message

Wed, 16 May 2007 17:34:54 -0700

Harper's - By Scott Horton - May. 16 (Advocacy) - In a letter published in the Washington Post, Alberto Gonzales's Harvard Law School classmates (class of '82) write to say how ashamed they are to be associated with him. "Your country and your President are in dire need of an attorney who will do the tough job of providing independent counsel, especially when the advice runs counter to political expediency."

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Comey Testifies that the President Broke the Law

Tue, 15 May 2007 17:19:22 -0700

Balkinization - By Marty Lederman - May. 15 (Opinion) - Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey just completed his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Much of the testimony concerned the inicident on March 11, 2004, when Comey, AG Ashcroft and AAG Jack Goldsmith (OLC) refused to sign off on the legality of the NSA "terrorist surveillance" program.

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The Gonzales Eleven

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 09:52:38 -0700

Harper's - By Scott Horton - Apr. 27 (Opinion) - At this point it seems reasonably clear that the total number of U.S. attorneys who were sacked in connection with the Karl Rove-directed purge plan to politicize the prosecutorial process exceeds the eight originally identified. Sen. Feinstein has already identified facts and documents surrounding the turnover in Los Angeles that strongly suggest it was part of the same scheme.

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A Gonzales resignation is not enough

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 08:38:37 -0700

Salon - By Joe Conason - Apr. 20 (Opinion) - After his disastrous appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday morning, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales -- the clueless, hapless figurehead aptly nicknamed "Fredo" by President Bush -- may soon be gone. Or the president may stubbornly cling to Gonzales, despite his manifest incompetence and dishonesty, which are plainly no obstacle to service in the Bush administration.

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Bush Pleased With Gonzales Performance

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 11:03:47 -0700

Outside the Beltway - By James Joyner - Apr. 20 (Opinion) - I missed the hearings yesterday but, from what I gather, the president is alone in his assessment. Not only did most of the Republicans on the committee, including conservative stalwarts like Sam Brownback and Tom Coburn, directly or indirectly tell Gonzales to resign, even the staunchest administration supporters in the blogosphere thought it was dreadful.

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Coburn To Gonzales: Spend More Time With Your Family

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 15:57:18 -0700

Captain's Quarters - By Ed Morrissey - Apr. 19 (Opinion) - I stopped live-blogging the Senate Judiciary Committee testimony of Alberto Gonzales at the lunch break, and at that time Gonzales appeared to be struggling to explain himself even to the Republicans on the panel. Apparently it got no better for the Attorney General after the committee came back into session. Charles Grassley (R-IA) wondered why Gonzales's story kept changing, and Tom Coburn (R-OK) bluntly told him to quit: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales confronted a fresh call for his resignation from a fellow Republican Thursday as he struggled to survive a bipartisan Senate challenge to his credibility in the case of eight fired prosecutors. "The best way to put this behind us is your resignation," Sen. Tom Coburn bluntly told Gonzales, one GOP conservative to another.

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How Bush's Justice Department has "blown it"

Sat, 31 Mar 2007 16:20:59 -0700

Salon - By Bud Cummins - Mar. 31 (Opinion) - In recent weeks, I have been asked continually whether I think any number of specific prosecutions and other activities by the Department of Justice around the country reveal "politicization" of the department by the Bush administration. The answer is: I have no specific information about that. But the question goes to the most important issue highlighted by the controversy over the dismissal of myself and seven other United States attorneys: the credibility of the Department of Justice. The president had an absolute right to fire us. We served at his pleasure, and that meant we could be dismissed for any reason or for no reason. And we all accepted that fact without complaint. When challenged by Congress, the leaders of the Department of Justice could have refused to explain. Or, they could have explained the truth. But apparently the truth behind some or all of the firings was embarrassing. So, instead, they said it was because of "performance." We didn't accept that, because it wasn't the truth.

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