email from Mrs. Bill Clinton, pushing for Gonzales firing

[Gopher Broke]

Dear Friend,

Today I called on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign. Join me in calling for him to step down.

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/resignnow

Why should Gonzales resign? Because he is at the center of a widening scandal over the firing of several U.S. attorneys -- firings we now know to be political. These attacks on the impartiality of the federal government's prosecutors are a genuine threat to the foundations of our justice system.

It's so bad that one U.S. attorney in Arkansas was fired to make room for a former aide to Karl Rove.

Gonzales's chief of staff has already resigned over the firings, but the attorney general himself is ultimately responsible for what happened. Join me in asking for him to resign now.

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/resignnow

Gonzales isn't the only one who needs to answer for this scandal. President Bush and his staff must come clean about their involvement in these politically motivated firings. I've joined the call for a full and thorough investigation to determine all the facts.

But it is time for the attorney general -- who repeatedly and falsely claimed the firings were based on performance -- to step down. He has clearly forgotten the difference between his current job as America's top law enforcement officer and his old job as President Bush's personal attorney.

Join me today in calling on Alberto Gonzales to resign.

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/resignnow

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Hillary Rodham Clinton

[Gopher Broke]

Funny how nobody is talking about the many US attorneys that Bill Clinton fired in 1993

[Mr. K]

Is this scrappleface?

[upchuck]

Apparently The Hildabeaste feels she is baggage immune.

A fatal mistake, IMHO.

[P-40]

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/resignnow

Is there a hidden message in that link?

hillaryclinton resignnow

[twonie]

Her entire life is Scrappleface. And notice how she starts out her missive "Dear Friend"? That's because she only has one friend, and she knows it. She is the Ted Baxter of politics.

[TommyDale]

Dear Hillary:

When your husband took office, he wanted to get rid of an Arkansas Federal Prosecutor (and just between us -- we know why, don't we?) so he fired all 93 Federal Prosecutors. So why the sudden interest in politically motivated firings?

You didn't seem to have a problem when you had the White House Travel Office removed, then even went out of your way to attempt to discredit them, which they were able to prove later.

If I were you, I would shut the pie hole.

Citizen

[massgopguy]

Is that the US Attorney in Arkansas that you had put in office to replace the one that was investigating White Water, Mrs. BJ?

[Mr. K]

I just signed the petition under the name Bent One.

I wrote:

"I just hate it when a president fires US attorneys. I think anyone who does it should resign or be impeached.... oh, wait...."

[RC2]

Yup.....out of 93, Mrs. Bill Clinton's husband fired 92 of them.

[econjack]

Gonzales isn't the only one who needs to answer for this scandal. President Bush and his staff must come clean about their involvement in these politically motivated firings. I've joined the call for a full and thorough investigation to determine all the facts.

I'm sure she's really just interested in what's best for us and this couldn't possibly be politically motivated.

Oh...by the way, Schrillary, while you're in the mood for creating investigations, let's start one on what really happened to Vince Foster.

[poobear]

Why is it that everything the Clinton's accuse Republicans of doing they are 100 times guilty of the same things or worse?

Is the MSM deliberately ignoring the fact that Janet and Bill FIRED EVERY US ATTORNEY before setting up their administration?

There is a pattern here and it is getting really old.

[Judith Anne]

Dear Mrs. Clinton:

This is not a scandal, and no one needs to resign over it.

For making a mountain out of a molehill and seeking to aggrandize yourself with it, YOU might consider resigning, though.

It would be the decent thing to do.

Duh! What was I thinking? Never mind.

Judith Anne

[Williams]

The republican political cut and run has become so extreme that Rush Limbaugh is on the last few days practically begging the republicans to fight back. But so far they won't. The republicans are so used to keeping their mouths shut about the most obvious democrat wrongdoing, it has become a fatal disease.

I've been posting this complaint for years, and always get the defeatist reaction "Oh yeah, well the MSM won't report it." Limbaugh must hear the same thing, because he went out of his way to say that if a GOPer would call a press conference to blast Hilary, it would get coverage.

The republicans don't just sell out their party by doing nothing, they sell the country out. They'll let Hilary establish the most corrupt government in US history.

[Thermalseeker]

If I were you, I would shut the pie hole.

No, no, no! We want her to keep talking and thereby show the masses how hypocritical she really is! Her coming out on this situation puts a huge bullseye on her head!

[L98Fiero]

"Funny how nobody is talking about the many US attorneys that Bill Clinton fired in 1993."

And nobody is talking about Johnny Carson either because neither has anything to do with Bush firing his OWN appointees.

It's no scandal but please stop throwing out the Clinton strawman. It's not the same.

[Dilbert San Diego]

There is an untold story of the U.S. Attorney's terminations.

In the case of Carol Lam, the U.S. Attorney in San Diego, there were concerns before she was terminated that she wasn't prosecuting certain drug smuggling and other cases; that charges weren't brought in cases where they should have been.

I had some personal involvement in a major trial in U.S. District Court in San Diego in 2005. This trial went on for six months. And Carol Lam was in that courtroom every day supervising that trial proceedings. As the U.S. Attorney, she supervised a large staff of attorneys and was responsible for several other trials that were going on at any given time. It makes sense to me that because she spent all her time on this one particular case, she wasn't taking care of her other responsibilities during that time period. She wasn't supervising staff, she wasn't able to make the decisions to prosecute cases, she wasn't able to plan prosecution strategy. In her case, anyway, there were criticisms of her job performance well before she was dismissed.

[jazusamo]

Here's a Thomas Sowell column from 1998 that brings up Bill and Hillary firing attorneys.

[dynachrome]

"Vince Foster
Ft. Marcy Park
Vfoster@moveon.org."

...has signed the petition.

[RightWhale]

Calling this a scandal is beyond the pale. Her campaign is distasteful.

[Vaquero]

She (Janet Reno)was not in charge from the beginning. Upon taking office, in an unexplained departure from the practice of recent Administrations, Miss Reno suddenly fired all 93 U.S. attorneys. She said the decision had been made in conjunction with the White House. Translation: The President ordered it. Just as the best place to hide a body is on a battlefield, the best way to be rid of one potentially troublesome attorney is to fire all of them. The U.S. attorney in Little Rock was replaced by a Clinton protege. The long-running Waco emergency that culminated in the deaths of eighty Branch Davidian men, women, and children again proved that Janet Reno was not in charge in the Justice Department. Webster Hubbell, Hillary's former law partner in Little Rock and Bill's man at Justice, coordinated tactics with the White House. The President did not even talk to his attorney general throughout the crisis.

[HAL9000]

Wow, she is really angry!

[TommyDale]

Vince Foster
Ft. Marcy Park

Well, that WAS his last known address! LOL!

[L98Fiero]

Polly wanna cracker?

You guys sound like parrots, repeating the same strawman you read on FR.

Bush fired his own appointees.

Trying to fight this faux scandal with faux information is not helpful.

[threeleftsmakearight]

Mrs. Bill Clinton is right, Gonzalez should resign...but not for her reasons. He should resign merely for allowing this to become a scandal in the first place. He should resign for allowing the Libby mess to go on. He should resign for not pursuing the Berger scandal more stridently. He should resign for not zealously going after the CIA leakers.

[stubernx98]

See todays WSJ opinion piece re this issue.

[layman]

Thank you for your support. I owe you a Lewinsky.

Sincerely,

Hillary Rodham Clinton

[TommyDale]

"...Bush firing his OWN appointees."

So this is REALLY much ado about nothing. Any employer can fire any employee at will. So what is the big deal? Why are the Democrats not letting go of this particular group of firings? They must fear that their coverup somewhere is going to surface!!

[Jeff Chandler]

The republicans don't just sell out their party by doing nothing, they sell the country out.

Bears repeating.

[Loyal Buckeye]

Mrs. Clinton:

I agree. It is unfair that the Democrats should have to take away from their time of undermining the Iraq War to undermine the Administration on such a minor issue.

Regards

[TommyDale]

And he should resign for allowing the Border Patrol agents to be sent to prison.

[capt. norm]

Calling for someone's (Republican) firing is a very time-worn liberal (attention-getting) maneuver that is used when they can't come up with anything. Nobody gives a hoot who's resignation they call for anymore except maybe the droolers at DU and moveon.org .

Pelosi is stuck with the job of 'herding cats' with the dozens of agendas on her side of the aisle.

[MikeA]

Read all about The Hag's hypocrisy from today's Opinion Journal...

The Hubbell Standard
Hillary Clinton knows all about sacking U.S. Attorneys.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

Congressional Democrats are in full cry over the news this week that the Administration's decision to fire eight U.S. Attorneys originated from--gasp--the White House. Senator Hillary Clinton joined the fun yesterday, blaming President Bush for "the politicization of our prosecutorial system." Oh, my.

As it happens, Mrs. Clinton is just the Senator to walk point on this issue of dismissing U.S. attorneys because she has direct personal experience. In any Congressional probe of the matter, we'd suggest she call herself as the first witness--and bring along Webster Hubbell as her chief counsel.

As everyone once knew but has tried to forget, Mr. Hubbell was a former partner of Mrs. Clinton at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock who later went to jail for mail fraud and tax evasion. He was also Bill and Hillary Clinton's choice as Associate Attorney General in the Justice Department when Janet Reno, his nominal superior, simultaneously fired all 93 U.S. Attorneys in March 1993. Ms. Reno--or Mr. Hubbell--gave them 10 days to move out of their offices.

At the time, President Clinton presented the move as something perfectly ordinary: "All those people are routinely replaced," he told reporters, "and I have not done anything differently." In fact, the dismissals were unprecedented: Previous Presidents, including Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, had both retained holdovers from the previous Administration and only replaced them gradually as their tenures expired. This allowed continuity of leadership within the U.S. Attorney offices during the transition.

Equally extraordinary were the politics at play in the firings. At the time, Jay Stephens, then U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia, was investigating then Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, and was "within 30 days" of making a decision on an indictment. Mr. Rostenkowski, who was shepherding the Clinton's economic program through Congress, eventually went to jail on mail fraud charges and was later pardoned by Mr. Clinton.

Also at the time, allegations concerning some of the Clintons' Whitewater dealings were coming to a head. By dismissing all 93 U.S. Attorneys at once, the Clintons conveniently cleared the decks to appoint "Friend of Bill" Paula Casey as the U.S. Attorney for Little Rock. Ms. Casey never did bring any big Whitewater indictments, and she rejected information from another FOB, David Hale, on the business practices of the Arkansas elite including Mr. Clinton. When it comes to "politicizing" Justice, in short, the Bush White House is full of amateurs compared to the Clintons.





And it may be this very amateurism that explains how the current Administration has managed to turn this routine issue of replacing Presidential appointees into a political fiasco. There was nothing wrong with replacing the eight Attorneys, all of whom serve at the President's pleasure. Prosecutors deserve supervision like any other executive branch appointees.
The supposed scandal this week is that Mr. Bush had been informed last fall that some U.S. Attorneys had been less than vigorous in pursuing voter-fraud cases and that the President had made the point to Attorney General Albert Gonzales. Voter fraud strikes at the heart of democratic institutions, and it was entirely appropriate for Mr. Bush--or any President--to insist that his appointees act energetically against it.

Take sacked U.S. Attorney John McKay from Washington state. In 2004, the Governor's race was decided in favor of Democrat Christine Gregoire by 129-votes on a third recount. As the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and other media outlets reported, some of the "voters" were deceased, others were registered in storage-rental facilities, and still others were convicted felons. More than 100 ballots were "discovered" in a Seattle warehouse. None of this constitutes proof that the election was stolen. But it should have been enough to prompt Mr. McKay, a Democrat, to investigate, something he declined to do, apparently on grounds that he had better things to do.

In New Mexico, another state in which recent elections have been decided by razor thin margins, U.S. Attorney David Iglesias did establish a voter fraud task force in 2004. But it lasted all of 10 weeks before closing its doors, despite evidence of irregularities by the likes of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or Acorn. As our John Fund reported at the time, Acorn's director Matt Henderson refused to answer questions in court about whether his group had illegally made copies of voter registration cards in the run-up to the 2004 election.





As for some of the other fired Attorneys, at least one of their dismissals seemed to owe to differences with the Administration about the death penalty, another to questions about the Attorney's managerial skills. Not surprisingly, the dismissed Attorneys are insisting their dismissals were unfair, and perhaps in some cases they were. It would not be the first time in history that a dismissed employee did not take kindly to his firing, nor would it be the first in which an employer sacked the wrong person.
No question, the Justice Department and White House have botched the handling of this issue from start to finish. But what we don't have here is any serious evidence that the Administration has acted improperly or to protect some of its friends. If Democrats want to understand what a real abuse of power looks like, they can always ask the junior Senator from New York.

[threeleftsmakearight]

It's not a strawman to point out the difference in reaction to similar stories. It's not a strawman to be frustrated by news stories that refuse to acknowledge that US attorneys have been fired by presidents before. The media is framing this story to make it appear as if this is unique to Bush.
Personally, I think you just like to use the term "strawman".

[poobear]

You know fiero, you and others like you are the reason I leave this forum from time to time.

The fact is Bush can fire anyone he wishes. Bill did too.

Bite me and Admin Mods forgive me.

[achingtobe]

Hillary got a huge assist from the President who just said -- per CCN (if that can be trusted) -- that he was very unhappy with the mishandling of the firing of the US Attorneys.

Gonzales liftoff from DC into private life in T-minus 48 hours. Buh-bye. Thanks for embarrassing our President.

[L98Fiero]

"So what is the big deal? Why are the Democrats not letting go of this particular group of firings?"

The liberals are claiming, falsely of course, that Bush fired them because they were not dilligent enough in prosecuting Democrats and weren't willing to give Republicans a free ride.

Absoloute nonesense. Scandal-hunting is all it is. Just out to get Bush.

[texastoo]

Mrs. Bill Clinton is right, Gonzalez should resign...but not for her reasons. He should resign merely for allowing this to become a scandal in the first place. He should resign for allowing the Libby mess to go on. He should resign for not pursuing the Berger scandal more stridently. He should resign for not zealously going after the CIA leakers.

He should resign for his part in the Ramos/Campean immunity of a known drug smuggler. He should resign for stating that drug dealers just had a run of bad luck with no mention of the victims.

Right now I just heard Bush say we are a "nation of law". Gotta go barf.

[texastoo]

Mrs. Bill Clinton is right, Gonzalez should resign...but not for her reasons. He should resign merely for allowing this to become a scandal in the first place. He should resign for allowing the Libby mess to go on. He should resign for not pursuing the Berger scandal more stridently. He should resign for not zealously going after the CIA leakers.

He should resign for his part in the Ramos/Campean immunity of a known drug smuggler. He should resign for stating that drug dealers just had a run of bad luck with no mention of the victims.

Right now I just heard Bush say we are a "nation of law". Gotta go barf.

[peggybac]

This woman is psychotic. There's no other explanation for her beliefs and behavior. No sane person would say and do the things she does and this letter proves it. She is truly a dangerous woman and must be stopped.

[From The Deer Stand]

The republican political cut and run has become so extreme...

Amen! The White House and Congressional Republican are a bunch of gutless weenies who have to have a chapped rear-end from constantly having their tail tucked between their legs. Please, Republicans, GET AGGRESSIVE!

[TommyDale]

From the Opinion Journal:

"The supposed scandal this week is that Mr. Bush had been informed last fall that some U.S. Attorneys had been less than vigorous in pursuing voter-fraud cases"

There you go. The reason the Democrats are screaming to high Heaven about these firings is that they are going to be exposed for the voter fraud. Who would have guessed such a thing?

[texastoo]

Absoloute nonesense. Scandal-hunting is all it is. Just out to get Bush.

No, it is incompetence on A. Gonzales part. He stated that he didn't know anything about the firings. Big mistake covering his a$$. He most definitely should have known about the firings of the President's choice of U.S. Attorneys. This is where it is.

[L98Fiero]

Good points.

[jdsteel]

It's also misdirection. They are hoping it will continue to insulate Wm. Jefferson, D from LA and other of his ilk.

[Williams]

Don't lose sight of the forest for the weeds. OK, Gonzales made a statement, or his assistant did, which proved inaccurate. Get over it.

The democrats are not trying to "clean up" any situation. they want to destroy the Bush administration, and especially voter fraud investigations. These are very immoral, lying, corrupt people.

And yes, there is no reason the GOP should not SAY IT because it's true.

The democrats, including top leaders, called this president a racist murderer over a hurricane. You do NOT take that stuff lying down, or you suffer the consequences. We are all suffering the consequences.

[Howlin]

Hey, I've got a good answer to this question:

Gonzales isn't the only one who needs to answer for this scandal. President Bush and his staff must come clean about their involvement in these politically motivated firings. I've joined the call for a full and thorough investigation to determine all the facts.

How about "I don't recall?"

ARKANSAS ALTZHEIMER'S

Number of times that Clinton figures who testified in court or before Congress said that they didn't remember, didn't know, or something similar.

Bill Kennedy 116
Harold Ickes 148
Ricki Seidman 160
Bruce Lindsey 161
Bill Burton 191
Mark Gearan 221
Mack McLarty 233
Neil Egglseston 250
Hillary Clinton 250
John Podesta 264
Jennifer O'Connor 343
Dwight Holton 348
Patsy Thomasson 420
Jeff Eller 697

FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES: In the portions of President Clinton's Jan. 17 deposition that have been made public in the Paula Jones case, his memory failed him 267 times. This is a list of his answers and how many times he gave each one.

I don't remember - 71
I don't know - 62
I'm not sure - 17
I have no idea - 10
I don't believe so - 9
I don't recall - 8
I don't think so - 8
I don't have any specific recollection - 6
I have no recollection - 4
Not to my knowledge - 4
I just don't remember - 4
I don't believe - 4
I have no specific recollection - 3
I might have - 3
I don't have any recollection of that - 2 I don't have a specific memory - 2
I don't have any memory of that - 2
I just can't say - 2
I have no direct knowledge of that - 2
I don't have any idea - 2
Not that I recall - 2
I don't believe I did - 2
I can't remember - 2
I can't say - 2
I do not remember doing so - 2
Not that I remember - 2
I'm not aware - 1
I honestly don't know - 1
I don't believe that I did - 1
I'm fairly sure - 1
I have no other recollection - 1
I'm not positive - 1
I certainly don't think so - 1
I don't really remember - 1
I would have no way of remembering that - 1
That's what I believe happened - 1
To my knowledge, no - 1
To the best of my knowledge - 1
To the best of my memory - 1
I honestly don't recall - 1
I honestly don't remember - 1
That's all I know - 1
I don't have an independent recollection of that - 1
I don't actually have an independent memory of that - 1
As far as I know - 1
I don't believe I ever did that - 1
That's all I know about that - 1
I'm just not sure - 1
Nothing that I remember - 1
I simply don't know - 1
I would have no idea - 1
I don't know anything about that - 1
I don't have any direct knowledge of that - 1
I just don't know - 1
I really don't know - 1
I can't deny that, I just -- I have no memory of that at all - 1

But it is time for the attorney general -- who repeatedly and falsely claimed the firings were based on performance -- to step down. He has clearly forgotten the difference between his current job as America's top law enforcement officer and his old job as President Bush's personal attorney.

Calling Bruce Lindsey and Webb Hubbel.

[TommyDale]

LOL! Thanks for that enlightening post. I love the term "Arkansas Alzheimer's"....

[Stark_GOP]

The US attorneys are employeed by the sitting President and hold that office for as long as the sitting President wants.
He can fire them for any reason and without cause.

It does not matter who appointed them.

[Howlin]

Hell, she took it 250 IN ONE DAMN DAY!

[newcthem]

I emailed the honorable senator suggesting that since these firings were far less egregious than that of her perverted husband, that her call for Gonzales firing was obviously fueled by her bigotry and hatred of Mexican Americans.