Should Gonzales Go?

Human Events ^ | March 20, 2007 | John Gizzi

[HaveHadEnough]

There are memos that explicitly say this. I don't make things up.

The Justice Department laid out a five-step plan for firing seven U.S. attorneys on Dec. 7. entitled, “Plan for Replacing Certain United States Attorneys.” The step-by-step instructions were sent by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, as an attachment to an e-mail. Sampson resigned March 13, 2007. The e-mail was released that same day by the House Judiciary Committee.

On Dec. 7, the Justice Department was to simultaneously notify the Republican home-state senators of the impending dismissals, as well as those attorneys being dismissed.

In his calls to the prosecutors, Mike Battle, who oversees all 93 U.S. attorneys, was to say that the administration is grateful for their service but decided to “give someone else the opportunity” to serve in the post starting Jan. 31, 2007, according to the memo.

Titled “Prepare to Withstand Political Upheaval," this part of the memo predicted the fired prosecutors would make “strenuous” efforts to save their jobs by appealing to other officials in the Bush administration. The memo contained responses to likely questions from those fired and said “Recipients of such 'appeals' must respond identically.” Anticipated questons and suggested responses included:

“What?”
“U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president (there is no right nor should there be any expectation that U.S. attorneys would be entitled to serve beyond their four-year term).”

“Who decided?”
“The administration made the determination to seek the resignations (not any specific person at the White House or the Department of Justice).”

“Why me?”
“The administration is grateful for your service, but wants to give someone else the chance to serve in your district.”

“I need more time!”
“The decision is to have a new acting or interim U.S. attorney in place by January 31, 2007 (granting “extensions” will hinder the process of getting a new U.S. attorney in place and giving that person the opportunity to serve for a full two years).”

Justice Department officials are then directed to name replacements and submit them for Senate confirmation.

[iopscusa]

Gonzales is toast...it is too bad that the Dems will get credit for getting rid of this weak failure of an AG...open borders are only one reason, lack of prosecution of Bergler, Davis, NYT/WashPost/ on & on. then this from La Raza VP & his buddy, Cecilia Munoz told the Washington Post: “Many people were not aware of Judge Gonzales’ long history with our affiliates in Texas, and moving then-Gov. bush to the right posture, from our perspective, on key civil rights issues like anti-English only requirements, like anti-immigrant ballot initiatives, bilingual education, and affirmative action.”

At least he may not get a shot at the USSC! I have had massive disdain for this guy since he became AG.

[conservative in nyc]

That's the memo I was talking about. You are correct - the USAs were told that the administration wanted to go in another direction. As the memo makes clear, the USAs were never given the real reason for their firings, though. It's unfortunate that all of this will become public now, but it has been brought on by Chuck Schumer's continuous demagoguery, trying to claim that the USAs were fired for investigating Republicans. That's simply not true.

There's even a draft list of the DOJ's reasons for each firing, along with bullet points of negative information from their office reviews in the materials released today. These were prepared in anticipation of a closed-door hearing of the House or Senate Judiciary committees. After reading it, I think the case for Lam's (San Diego) dismissal, for example, was very solid even if she could only have been fired for cause. Lam's office had a marked decrease in the number of immigration and gun prosecutions, which were two of the administration's key priorities. In fact, things got so bad that even Senator Feinstein was concerned about that office's lax immigration enforcement.

[SuzyQue]

No, he shouldn't go because dimocrats demand it. However, he certainly should go for ineptitude and being a liberal. Immediately.

[anonsquared]

I for one think Gonzales should go. After all, he did authorize federal troops to go in and terrorize American citizens who were only trying to exercise their Second Amendment rights. Citizens were shot and killed. Elderly people, children and babies in their mother's arms were burned alive.

Oh wait, that was Janet Reno, nevermind.

[tennmountainman]

"Send him to Mexico where his loyalty is"

Send him down to help the Border Patrol. They need a couple of agents since Gonzales put two of them in jail.

This article hits it squarely. Gonzales will be a distant memory soon, just like the Harriet Miers. He can apply to be chairman of La Raza.

[baubau]

The guy shiuld have never been appointed.

Besides being not up to par for the job, he's pro 3rd world illegal and legal immigration.

[RatRipper]

Fight the Rats over the US Attorney firings, win that battle, then fire him for being a lousy AG.

[Lancey Howard]

"Many conservatives burrowed within the Department of Justice have long complained that Gonzales has permitted career government employees and hold-overs from Democratic Administrations to remain in perches of power and thereby water down conservative directives from the top. As one conservative and Federalist Society member in the Justice Department told me: “This is definitely not Ronald Reagan’s Justice Department, I assure you. You have holdovers from Clinton calling the shots in a lot of places here.” "

____________________________________________________

Every day lately my respect for President Bush diminishes a little more.
Upon reading this today, it has diminished a lot. What a colossal waste.

[Lancey Howard]

(( ping ))

DO NOT MISS this one. Whew...!

[Lancey Howard]

Not only no but HELL NO!

Did you read this?

[hosepipe]

[ Should Gonzales Go? ]

Should have never been appointed..
ALL of the attorneys should have been let go 7 years ago..
Bush is a wimp..

[Lancey Howard]

It is amazing how many posters apparently read only the thread title before responding. This guy Gonzales has been a nightmare from the beginning. The scary part is that Bush is the person ultimately responsible for his own foul, corrupt Justice Department. Certainly Gonzales should go, but who would Bush appoint in his place? Somebody as weak and lame, or worse? Wow....

What a colossal waste.

[Howlin]

Is it true that they really weren't fired, they were just not re-hired? Their terms were up?

[NRA2BFree]

Yes!! He has been a lousy AG!

[onyx]

That's right. Never be rolled by the democrats.

[Howlin]

have long complained that Gonzales has permitted career government employees and hold-overs from Democratic Administrations to remain in perches of power and thereby water down conservative directives from the top.

Would that be the very same "career government employees" that John Ashcroft left in place because the U.S. Congress wouldn't let him fire them OR demote them?

Don't blame Gonzales for that.

[Lancey Howard]

bttt

[ReleaseTheHounds]

About the only good thing you can say about Alberto is that at least Bush only appointed him to be AG instead of a Supreme nominee. He really would have been another David Souter. And the Bush legacy grows and grows.