Rove involved in attorney firings

[mburbank]

White House Says Rove Relayed Complaints About Prosecutors
By Ron Hutcheson, Marisa Taylor and Margaret Talev
McClatchy Newspapers Sunday 11 March 2007
Washington - The White House acknowledged on Sunday that presidential adviser Karl Rove served as a conduit for complaints about federal prosecutors as House investigators declared their intention to question him about any role he may have played in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Rove relayed complaints from Republican officials and others to the Justice Department and the White House counsel's office. She said Rove, the chief White House political operative, specifically recalled passing along complaints about former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias and may have mentioned the grumblings about Iglesias to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Iglesias says he lost his job as the top federal prosecutor in New Mexico after rebuffing Republican pressure to speed his investigation of Democratic officials in the state.
Rove said he did not suggest that any of the U.S. attorneys be forced to resign, Perino said.
The new details about Rove's involvement in the firings emerged as the top Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee declared their interest in talking to him. The committee is trying to determine whether the firings were part of an effort to exert political influence over federal prosecutions.
Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., confirmed their plans after McClatchy Newspapers reported that New Mexico's Republican Party chairman, Allen Weh, had complained to Rove and one of Rove's deputies about Iglesias. Iglesias was fired Dec. 7.
"Mr. Conyers and Ms. Sanchez intend to talk with Karl Rove about any role he may have had in the firing of the U.S. attorneys," said Sanchez spokesman James Dau.
"From what we've been hearing for weeks it seems he might have relevant information," he said. "He's clearly one of the White House officials we've been intending to question. The revelations from Mr. Weh certainly give us something else relevant and salient to talk about."

[mburbank]

Gonzales, Mueller Admit FBI Broke Law
By Lara Jakes Jordan
The Associated Press Saturday 10 March 2007
Washington - The nation's top two law enforcement officials acknowledged Friday the FBI broke the law to secretly pry out personal information about Americans. They apologized and vowed to prevent further illegal intrusions.

[mburbank]

"But the question should and must be asked: How could this happen? Who is accountable?" Mueller said. "And the answer to that is, I am to be held accountable."

So, he should be fired, right? I mean, in your job, if it was decided you were accountable for the law being broken, you'd be fired, right? And your job isn'y... you know... law enforcement.


Mueller said he had not been asked to resign, nor had he discussed doing so with other officials. He said employees would probably face disciplinary actions, not criminal charges, following an internal investigation of how the violations occurred.


Oh. Okay. As long as some employees get desciplined. I think it really shows some balls, thoug, that Mueller took accountability. I mean, the Buck stops here really means something. It means the guy that handed you the buck right before it stopped could face disciplanary action.

[Preechr]

OH YEAH IT'S ALL GOING DOWN NOW!!!

STACK-O-CARDS, BABY!!! STACK-O-CARDS!!!

[mburbank]

More like shooting fish in a barell. A barell that's just stuffed with fish and no water. Sort of like the way the VP hunts.

What a shocker that if someone looked they'd find that the already unprecedented powers of the patriot act were bing abused. Who'd have ever thought in a jillion years this adminstration would show a fundamental disrespect for the rule of law?

What a shocker that if someone looked they'd find returning vets getting shitty care? Who'd have ever thought in a jillion years this adminstration only cared about the troops as active cannon fodder?

What a shocker that if someone looked they'd find the justice department willing to fire republican appointees for not being doctrinaire enough? Who'd have ever thought in a jillion years this adminstration would value cronieism over competence?


Hmmmm. You don't suppose if we look we'll find that our energy policies were written by Halliburton, or that Dick Chenney had something to do with his old company getting all those no bid contracts? Nahhhhh.

It's not a house of cards or fish in a barrell. It's just the administration through no fault of their own having a really, really, bad week. Well, two weeks. And it's just coincidence. Coincidence and evil, evil Deomcrat partisanship. Being conducted by Democrats who were elected in a majority not because the ush administration is an obvious house of cards, but because sometimes bad things happen to nice countries.

I suppose it would be small of me to hope that half these bastards go to jail. And it would be even smaller that to hope that while there, they would be subject to 'alternative' interrogation methods.

Hey! I LIKE being small!

[Preechr]

Every complaint you just voiced is valid in terms of this or ANY administration, probably back to Washington. Well, there was no Halliburton then, specifically... But politics is politics just like always. Halliburton got no-bids from Clinton, too, with no help from Cheney. The Patriot Act in it's entirety was already compiled by federal and state prosecutors... just sitting around gathering dust until a suitable disaster came along and made it easy to pass. The VA system has ALWAYS sucked, though the quality of the medical care... if not the housing conditions... has generally been considered top-rate at Johns Hopkins. Presidents and all sorts of other politicians only exist to gain more and more power, regardless of your outdated "Rule of Law" mythology. Wasn't it Voltaire that outlined the difference between that and being "Ruled by Laws?"

[mburbank]

I thought I was the master of equating things.

"All administrations are corrupt" and "All administrations are equally corrupt" are NOT the same statement.

This is the beauty of our very cynical system of government. It assumes corruption, it assumes veniality, and it has pitted three branches of government against each other to make it suck the least amount possible. ANY assault on this sytem by ANY administration should be vigorously opposed by the people. I believe this administration is way out in front of many others at cynically and dangerously dmamaging this system.

[Geggy]

Originally Posted by Preechr

Well, there was no Halliburton then, specifically... But politics is politics just like always. Halliburton got no-bids from Clinton, too, with no help from Cheney.

Halliburton's subsidiary, KBR was offered a 5 year no-bid contract by the pentagon while it was under the direction of cheney, the sceretary of defense at the time in '92 before being outed and turned into the ceo of halliburton so yeah I would say he had a role in influencing the pentagon's decision in offering halliburton no bid contracts and carrying the company to becoming one of pentagon's top defense contractors during the clinton administration. I think it's beyond clear now that cheney was bullshitting when he announced he had severed his ties with halliburton as soon as he became VP. Independant investigative journalists have brought forth overwhelming evidence that he remains halliburton's largest shareholder to this day and continue to allow the company to influence US's policies.

[Ant10708]

overwhelming evidence!!!!!

[Ant10708]

overwhelming evidence!!!!!

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Couple of thoughts...

Harriet Miers wanted to fire ALL of the U.S. attornies. Sort of like Bill Clinton did...

Republicans at DOJ were fed up with a lot of these people, but the primary gripe seemed to revolve around inaction regarding voter fraud, NOT absuses stipulated under the Patriot Act.

[Preechr]

Now you are just one more part of the problem, Kevin.

...one more cog in the gnashing gears of the Republican Hat Machine.