NEWS: Republican Style "Fuck You"

POLITICS: Republican Style "Fuck You"

I’m not sure if it is sheer stupidity or pure arrogance, or maybe a horrifying combination of both, but the office of the Attorney General is fucking amazing. The shit storm surrounding the Department of Justice is unprecedented. Let me break it down.

Nine US attorneys were fired earlier this year in what is looking more and more like a partisan attack. Questions surround many of the firings. In San Diego, Carol Lam was fired while investigating Duke Cunningham – the most corrupt Congressman in the history of the House. Lam was zeroing in on CIA executive director Dusty Foggo, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis and possibly the Vice President.

In New Mexico, David Iglesias received what he considered to be threatening phone calls from Representative Heather Wilson and Senator Domenici. Both let him know of their disappointment that he would not be seeking indictments against Democrats during the lead up to the November elections.

A former federal prosecutor in Maryland has claimed he was forced out in 2005 because he was investigating the state’s Republican governor for possible corruption charges. A former Department of Justice lawyer claims that a lawsuit against tobacco companies was weakened due to government interference. New Hampshire Democrats believe an investigation into a phone jamming case was stalled and mishandled at the local level when it appeared that prominent Republicans and White House officials were involved.

The White House lied about Karl Rove’s involvement in the purge. They claimed he had nothing to do with the firings, but emails were found that show Rove was very involved, if not totally in control. The Attorney General’s Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson resigned his position. And to top it all off, Gonzalez appears to have committed perjury during a January congressional hearing.

Earlier this week, the nonpartisan congressional watchdog Democracy 21 questioned whether or not Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty had allowed political interference to affect the investigation and prosecution of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The scandal was expected to be huge but it seems to have just petered out.

So what is the Attorney General to do in this precarious moment? When many are questioning his integrity, whether or not he has broken the law and if he used his office as an extension of the White House, leaving a stain on the Justice Department forever? How about this:

Fucking, what? Talk about hubris. The White House and Department of Justice not only want toss out the rule of law but they also want to tell America to “fuck off” while they are at it. The timing of this move will not be lost on Democratic and Republican Congressmen who are already angered by the Attoney General's actions.

The federal prosecutor claims Abramoff has provided "substantial assistance" in another corruption scandal investigation and is still working with investigators. Abramoff was sentenced to six years for his part in a fake $20 million wire transfer during their 2000 purchase of the SunCruz Casinos. He has also pleaded guilty to three charges in the corruption case and has yet to be sentenced.

And the pigs get fatter at the trough.

From a purely political standpoint, the Democrats would be wiser to make this all about Karl Rove and go relatively easy on Gonzalez.

If Jerry Lewis were any more of a crook he'd be running for president alongside the Hamburglar. I'm pretty sure he wore a nylon over his face at all the committee meetings.

Yes he was my representative, and yes he burns my brisket!

And the White House plans to fight Congressional testimony tooth and nail. They plan to go behind closed doors A) So they aren't required by law to tell the truth and B) So the public will never know what is said even if they do.

I loved Jay Leno's joke (for once) about this:

"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?" "...No."

It's more than hubris, Gonzalez is a sociopath, pure and simple. Lying, torture, executions... he loves being part of it all. What's Spanish for "House (slave)", anyway?

Samson is gonna blow the lid off the whole deal when he testifies. I want those fucking crooks frog-marched out of Washington and into Levinworth.

It just keeps piling up, that's all...illegal wire taps, child molestation, a fuck you to New Orleans, the sacrificing of human lives in a baseless war...gee, what more could they possibly do to destroy America? I like to think the list is pretty much exhausted by now.

But probably not.

"The only difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein

If Gonzales and Rove are complicit, I think that the Democrats should go after both of them.

No one complained when Clinton's administration fired all U.S. attorneys. And I didn't hear Schumer say a word when Clinton replaced the one in charge of the land scandal in arkansas with one of his buddies from law school.

Whomever is within the President's administration and appointed Attorney General, he or she has the right to fire U.S. attorneys for whatever reason. Its allowed, and every President does it. This story is trying to make something out of nothing. Which is nothing new with the media these days.

Fox News is profoundly misrepresenting the significance of these events.

There was nothing wrong with the firings themselves. What was wrong, and illegal, is that at least some the firings (among other things) constituted obstructions of justice by unlawfully interfering with federal investigations and prosecutions for political gain.

Those are the allegations, at least. They may yet prove unfounded, but they're serious offenses.

And no president in my lifetime, not even Nixon, has ever done that.

One of the chief reasons no president has ever done it before is because the appointment of federal prosecutors formerly required confirmation by the Senate, but a probably unconstitutional provision of the Patriot Act waived that requirement, and, once that was done, the White House immediately began contemplating possible actions to exploit that provision for political purposes, as demonstrated in the relevant emails.

This is totally standard for a new US president to do at the start of a term. They get a new attorney general, they get new attorneys. It's normal. Bush fired all of Clinton's people at the start of his term. That's why no one said shit about it.

Someone fired key people who were investigating key areas in the middle of his term which is without precedent, at least within recent history.

Zarth essentially beat me to it, but the difference between President Clinton and President Bush is staggering (and for God's sake, since when in the Republican mind did Clinton doing it equal all legally hunky-dory? If Clinton doing it = legal, then stop using him as a scapegoat for everything wrong about the country; if it isn't, then don't justify your own actions by saying he did it too!). The unofficial rules governing the federal prosecutor's role include the fact that, since you do serve at the lesirure of a President, you offer your resignation at the end of the President's term; he decides whether to retain you or no. This goes for elections when parties switch control and when it doesn't. But in 1992, none of the prosecutors installed by Bush I tendered their resignation, so Clinton dismissed them all. After that, however, Clinton fired exactly one of those prosecutors for gross malfeasance.

In this case, however, Bush fired the prosecutors for what appear to be specifically political reasons. While this in itself is not illegal, the fact that it a) interferes with investigations into political corruption and b) it appears damned well designed to interfere with investigations of political corruption make it de jure obstruction of justice, not to mention what military men might term "conduct unbecoming". In simple terms, Alberto Gonzalez' actions not only violated laws concerning interfering with investigations (obstruction of justice), but it's also a damned plain example of douchebaggery in an office where douchebaggery simply cannot be tolerated. The Attorney General is supposed to be more than the sum of politically expedient calculations, because he also is supposed to serve the interests of justice. Alberto Gonzalez failed this. Ergo, the guy ought to legitemately get shitcanned.

Jesus holy motherucking Christ!

This stupidity again?

This was addressed just yesterday. Must we do it again?

Yes, Suicide Girls must be FAIR AND BALANCED **blip** FAIR AND BALANCED **blip** FAIR AND BALANCED **blip** FAIR AND....

We are sort of stuck with stupid people being attached to very stupid ideas so long as Faux News has a place in the TV schedule.

What do you expect from lying criminal psychopaths? Let's hope Waxman lets Sibel Edmonds testify.

You stupid ass. TeenageWerewolf is right. Plus I come on here to look at weird naked chicks not hear bullshit politics from pornogrjavascript:insertSmilie('', 'insertTarget');
smileaphers.

?

No it's not "allowed" and, no, it's not making something out of "nothing". What happened here (which apparently you're missing the point) was these attorneys were fired because they were investigating GOP scum like Cunningham and other corrupt politicians. The attorneys received threats from other corrupt Congress scum, and would not back down. In order to kill the investigations (and in turn save GOP face in the '06 elections) Rove and the others ordered the firings. This is obstruction of justice and Gonzales lied to Congress which is perjury.

Some of the threatening calls were from Rep. Heather Wilson, the traitor who authored/sponsored the Military Commissions act which stripped the right of Habeas Corpus.

On the mention of Clinton firing attorneys....well he was just as criminal.

Yes they very much did complain.

Also, as I asked the last time the "Slick Willy did it first-est! Waaah!" defense was hauled up from the Crypt Of GOP Talking Points, show me when, exactly, Janet Reno lied to Congress about the firings of federal prosecutors.

No, he wasn't.

The President does have the right to replace federal prosecutors. Clinton did so en masse when he took office, and had the Senate advise and confirm the replacements.

Bush fired a select number of federal prosecutors and then had Alberto Gonzales lie to Congress as to both the reasons why and the methodology used to appoint their replacements. Now he's trying to stonewall a Congressional investigation.

Psilocybin? Mescaline? Desoxyephedrine? Tetrahydrocannabinol?