Some Republicans have now been using the talking point that it's no big deal that Bush fired the eight prosecutors at the Justice Department -- because Bill Clinton fired 93 prosecutors when he came into office. This point is completely disingenuous. And the people making it are smart enough to know that it is.
For policy reasons every president replaces all of the prosecutors at the Justice Department in the beginning of their term. George H. W. Bush did, Bill Clinton did and so did George W. Bush. And when George Bush did this in 2001 it was not a scandal or a problem. It was completely normal.
This case is different because he fired the prosecutors for political rather than policy reasons. He was punishing some of them for going after Republican legislators and not going after Democrats before the elections, right or wrong. While this might be legal because the prosecutors serve at the discretion of the president, is it really what you want your president to do?
If Hillary Clinton wins, do you want her firing any prosecutor who goes after corrupt Democrats in the middle of her term? Or coercing her Justice Department to pursue cases against Republicans, whether it's justified or not?
This is a terrible precedent of allowing politics to corrupt the Justice Department. That's why so many Republicans as well as Democrats are furious. Remember almost all of the prosecutors fired were Republicans and originally appointed by the Bush administration. But they had principles and believed in doing their job rather than being hatchet man for Karl Rove and Alberto Gonzales.
In a perverse kind of way, it actually gives me faith that we haven't lost all the Republicans in the country. There are still some that have not been tainted by this administration and that still have strong principles left. Karl Rove and Alberto Gonzales are certainly not among them.
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A Dishonest Republican Talking Point on the Prosecutor Scandal
Posted Mar 15th 2007 3:27PM by Cenk Uygur
Filed under: Scandal, George Bush, Young Turks, Republicans, GOP, Hillary Clinton, U.S. Attorneys
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Reader Comments ( Page 5 of 5)
61. To the people who have written that no evidence has yet appeared suggesting that the firings were political: WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN SMOKING?????! The White House and Justice Department have already handed over hundreds of pages of e-mails documenting that without a doubt this entire process has been deeply and corruptly political, including numerous smoking guns showing that this all came from the mind of Karl Rove, and giving quite specific details about the pressure put on the various prosecutors by the White House, the Justice Department, and Republican elected officials such as Sen. Domenici. Very detailed e-mails from Kyle Sampson show that there was a conspiracy not only to remove U.S. attorneys from office either for not pusuing overblown "voter fraud" accusations, or for successfully prosecuting crooks such as Randy "Duke" Cunningham. And there are hundreds of pages yet to be released. What is indisputable is that this was politically motivated, and further, that in several cases, the fired U.S. attorneys had refused (as in the Washington state situation) to try to use the machinery of the Justice Department to essentially overturn a gubernatorial election (WA state) or undermine an election process (Missouri, other states). The reason the White House and Justice Department can't get their stories straight, after several revisions of stories in the past week, is that the underlying and true story is one of corruption and malfeasance. Of course, no one wants to admit to that! There is absolutely no question that Alberto Gonzalez must be fired; the question is, how much political will is there on both sides of the aisle in Congress to pursue this to its meaningful conclusion? The level of corruption and mendacity in this case is unprecedented, in an administration that has seen more ethical scandals than any in history, and that is more incompetent than any in history, with the most incompetent attorney general in history (well, actually, the TWO most incompetent attorneys general in history, one after the other!), and the most incompetent and corrupt president in history overseeing the most incompetent and corrupt administration in history. Finally, the game is beginning to be over for the Bushies. No wonder they all look like the proverbial deer in the headlights!
Martin at 12:30PM on Mar 19th 2007
62. It is truly amazing that the word PARTISAN would come out of the Chimps mouth. What would you call what happened in the 90's to Hillary and Bill. A walk in the park. Neo Con controlled Senate and House. They went on a witches hunt, first in Whitewater. Came up empty. Then the BJ and came up looking stupid. But of course the moronic Neo Con's Spent $60 million of our dollars. I guess there was no partisanship. Wait! The Neo Con's don't tax and spend. What a bunch of maroons, as Bugs Bunny would say.
Now that the shoe is on the other foot. The Dem's in control. Blubbya W Blubbya rants that all of this testimony under oath would a detriment to the Presidency.
BushCo, states that all US attorney's work for him. True enough. But the matter at hand is not who/wnom they might work for. It is when you diecide to fire them.
It was so easy to eliminate 8 prosecutors in an instance. But yet when Harriet Meirs and Karl Rove was talking about doing it in 2005. They were squarely behind all of the firings until it was suggested not at the moment.
If Rove and Meirs and their deputy's have nothing to hide they have nothing to worry about and should not fight testifying under oath. What BushCo proposes is just plain ludicrous. What is BushCo hiding?
Talk about bringing down a corrupt regime.
BushCo and his greedy partners know that they are in serious trouble.
Senator Patrick Leahy, as Blubbya W Blubbya would say: BRING ON THE SUBPOENA'S
Ray at 1:04AM on Mar 21st 2007
63. Ed Pollacki:
First of all you should enroll At the University at Crawford to be better edumacated.Ed please learn to spell and use your grammaticals correctly. You type like your beloved idiot in our White House speaks.
Answering your Neo Con comment about the liberal press. Ed, look at the Unfair and Unbbalanced network of Rupert Murdock's "stooges.' They were all on the left until Murdock opened his wallet to pay these traitors to act like the are Right Wingers.
In reference to Watergate. It wasn't the Dem's that did the stealing. It was a bunch of nice (sic) boys that kissed NIxon ass that did the robbery. They caused the downfall of Nixon and his corruption.
All of you (22%) Neo Con's stop your belly aching. You lost in the November. Now! Butch up and get ready to lose again in '08.
Ed, Liberal press? I think not.
Ed, along with your 22% of dumb down, brain washed right wingers. GET A LIFE, GET A GRIP
Ray at 1:31AM on Mar 21st 2007
64. Dennis, you might want to ask Laura Bushie about the friend that she murdered when she was so drunk that her friend went flying through the windshieldo of Laura's car. Dennis, I guess there was no cover up there? Lol!
Dennis guess what? You're right I guess money does talk.
Dennis, why is it that when ever you Right wing neo con's lose or have nothing worth while to say? You revert to the past. Dennis that was then. This is now. Live it to the fullest. Oh! Wait we can't Blubbya W Blubbya has ruined the country!!!!!!!!!
Dennis, get your facts then speak.
Ray at 1:30AM on Mar 21st 2007