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Excerpt - In March 2007 the U.S. government charged Axion Corp., a small business in Huntsville, Ala., with illegally giving technical drawings for a Blackhawk helicopter part to manufacturers in China. The prosecutors seized Axion's assets and took away its government contract business. The company won an acquittal at trial a year later, but by that time, it was out of business. Axion is the latest in a string of aggressive prosecutions brought by Birmingham U.S. Attorney Alice Martin. Those prosecutions are marked by convictions overturned and innocent men wronged. Two judges have openly questioned whether she knowingly prosecuted innocent...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A Justice Department investigation finds former U.S. Attorney Todd Graves of the Western District of Missouri was forced out because of opposition from Missouri Sen. Kit Bond's office. The report by the department's internal watchdog says Bond's legal counsel, Jack Bartling, asked the White House at least twice in 2005 to remove Graves. Bartling told investigators that he wanted to remove Graves because of conflicts between the staffs of Bond and Graves' brother, U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, a Republican who represents northwest Missouri. Bartling said Rep. Graves' operation "did not run business" the way that Bond's office...

New York (AP) -- No criminal prosecutions are planned for former Justice Department officials accused of allowing politics to influence the hiring of prosecutors, immigration judges and other career government lawyers, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Tuesday. Mukasey used his sharpest words yet to criticize the senior leaders who took part in or failed to stop illegal hiring practices during the tenure of his predecessor, Alberto Gonzales. But, he told delegates to the American Bar Association annual meeting, "Not every wrong, or even every violation of the law, is a crime. In this instance, the two joint reports found only...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Karl Rove, who had been one of President George W. Bush's top aides, was subpoenaed on Thursday to testify before a congressional panel investigating the administration's firing of nine federal prosecutors. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers issued the subpoena after months of failed efforts to get Rove to voluntarily testify under oath. The Judiciary Committee, like its Senate counterpart, has been investigating for more than a year the administration's dismissal of nine of the nation's 93 U.S. attorneys in 2006. Despite White House claims to the contrary, critics charge the firings were politically motivated,...

Excerpt - WASHINGTON -- The government agency that enforces one of the principal laws aimed at keeping politics out of the civil service has accused the Justice Department of blocking its investigation into alleged politicizing of the department under former Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales. Scott J. Bloch, head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, wrote Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey last week that the department had repeatedly "impeded" his investigation by refusing to share documents and provide answers to written questions, according to a copy of Bloch's letter obtained by the Los Angeles Times. The Justice Department wants...

The U.S. Inspector General may recommend criminal prosecution of departed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at the conclusion of an investigation, possibly as early as next month, the fired former U.S. attorney for Western Washington told a Spokane audience Friday.... McKay said he was summoned to Washington, D.C., in June and questioned for eight hours about possible reasons for his firing by investigators with the Office of Inspector General, who will forward their final report to Congress. “My best guess is it will be released sometime next month,’’ and likely will include recommendations for criminal prosecutions of Gonzales and maybe others,...

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) on Wednesday released an interview with GOP lawyer Dana Jill Simpson implicating former White House adviser Karl Rove in the prosecution and conviction of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman (D) on corruption charges. In a closed-door interview with committee staff, Simpson recalled how Rob Riley, current Gov. Bob Riley’s (R) son, told her about Rove’s role in a plan to prosecute Siegelman if he did not back down from contesting the 2001 gubernatorial election results that handed the office to Riley. According to the transcript, Simpson described a 2005 conversation with Rob...

August 17, 2007 House Republicans are crying foul over the Democrats' probe into the U.S. attorneys' firings, calling it a "hoax" and a "shell game" that is aimed not at fact-finding but instead at influencing the 2008 elections. "There's a growing irritation among Republicans, because it's gone on so long. With all the digging you would expect to find something awkward or odd or unexplainable," said Rep. Chris Cannon, Utah Republican. Congressmen speaking on the record went only so far as to say that the investigation has yielded no results. Privately, Republican aides with intimate knowledge of the probe describe...

Then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft was "feeble," "barely articulate" and "stressed" moments after a hospital room confrontation in March 2004 with Alberto R. Gonzales, who wanted Ashcroft to approve a warrantless wiretapping program over Justice Department objections, according to notes from FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III that were released yesterday. One of Mueller's entries in five pages of a daily log pertaining to the dispute also indicated that Ashcroft's deputy was so concerned about undue pressure by Gonzales and other White House aides for the attorney general to back the wiretapping program that the deputy asked Mueller to bar...

Karl Rove may be leaving the White House at the end of August, but Democrats on Capitol Hill still want to see him testify on at least one issue – the firing last year of nine U.S. attorneys – and possibly more. Rove was subpoenaed by the Senate Judiciary Committee last month to testify on what he knew about the prosecutor purge, and when he knew it. Citing executive privilege, the White House refused to make Rove available for public questioning, although White House counsel Fred Fielding did offer House and Senate Democrats a chance to talk to Rove about...

A president removes a U.S. attorney, and Congress demands to see privileged files related to the firing. The president refuses, noting that "these suspensions are my executive acts," and "based upon considerations addressed to me alone." The Senate has a meltdown, arguing it has oversight authority over the removal of administration officials and threatens to censure the attorney general. If this sounds familiar, it shouldn't, since it's the story of a long-forgotten battle that President Grover Cleveland fought with Congress in 1885. One reason it is long-forgotten is because nothing happened. The Senate was steamed that Cleveland wouldn't cough up...

BI Director Robert S. Mueller said Thursday the government's terrorist surveillance program was the topic of a 2004 hospital room dispute between top Bush administration officials, contradicting Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' sworn Senate testimony. Mueller was not in the hospital room at the time of the dramatic March 10, 2004, confrontation between then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and presidential advisers Andy Card and Gonzales, who was then serving as White House counsel. Mueller told the House Judiciary Committee he arrived shortly after they left, and spoke with the ailing Ashcroft. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Thursday issued a subpoena for top White House adviser Karl Rove to compel him to testify about the firing of several U.S. attorneys. “The evidence shows that senior White House political operatives were focused on the political impact of federal prosecutions and whether federal prosecutors were doing enough to bring partisan voter fraud and corruption cases,” Leahy said. “It is obvious that the reasons given for the firings of these prosecutors were contrived as part of a cover-up and that the stonewalling by the White House is part and parcel of that same...

WASHINGTON - A group of Senate Democrats called Wednesday for a special counsel to investigate whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales perjured himself regarding the firings of U.S. attorneys and administration dissent over President Bush's domestic surveillance program. "We ask that you immediately appoint an independent special counsel from outside the Department of Justice to determine whether Attorney General Gonzales may have misled Congress or perjured himself in testimony before Congress," four Democratic senators wrote in a letter Wednesday, according to a draft obtained by The Associated Press. "It has become apparent that the Attorney General has provided at a minimum...

WASHINGTON - Angry senators suggested a special prosecutor should investigate misconduct at the Justice Department, accusing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Tuesday of deceit on the prosecutor firings and President Bush's eavesdropping program. Democrats and Republicans alike hammered Gonzales in four hours of testimony as he denied trying, as White House counsel in 2004, to push a hospitalized attorney general into approving a counterterror program that the Justice Department then viewed as illegal. Gonzales, alternately appearing wearied and seething, vowed anew to remain in his job even as senators told him outright they believe he is unqualified to stay. He...

The Bush administration's vow this week to block contempt charges from Congress could prove to be a successful strategy for protecting White House documents about the multiple firings of U.S. attorneys, Democratic legal scholars and legislative aides said yesterday. This week, Bush administration officials disclosed that they will never allow a U.S. attorney to pursue contempt charges on behalf of Congress, noting that the Justice Department cannot be required to act against a decision by the president. But administration officials and other legal scholars, including some Democrats, noted that Justice Department lawyers in the Clinton administration made a similar argument...

Defense lawyers in different cases are raising new questions about government prosecutors and potential political biases. WASHINGTON — For months, the Justice Department and Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales have taken political heat for the purge of eight U.S. attorneys last year. Now the fallout is starting to hit the department in federal courtrooms around the country. Defense lawyers in a growing number of cases are raising questions about the motives of government lawyers who have brought charges against their clients. In court papers, they are citing the furor over the U.S. attorney dismissals as evidence that their cases may...

Excerpt - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Justice Department is investigating U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's meeting with a former top aide about the controversial firing of federal prosecutors last year, according to a letter released on Thursday by the Senate Judiciary committee. In testimony before the House Judiciary committee, the former aide, Monica Goodling, said Gonzales told her about his recollections of the dismissals in March, shortly before she resigned. Gonzales, in earlier testimony before the committee, said he had not gone back to talk to staff involved in the firings "in order to protect the integrity" of the investigations....

WASHINGTON -- The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Monday he will vote for a no-confidence resolution against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, after long questioning the leadership and independence of President Bush's longtime friend. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, said he's concerned like others in his party that the resolution, sponsored by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, and up for a test vote later in the day, was a Democratic effort to embarrass Bush and prompt Gonzales to resign. But Specter has long said that Gonzales has exercised poor leadership on a host of issues... "If you ask Arlen...

Here's an interesting addition to the growing, un-revealed, unofficial presidential campaign of Ex-Sen. Fred Thompson : J. Timothy Griffin, the former RNC research whiz and Army JAG prosecutor who served, briefly, as a U.S. Attorney in the second district in Arkansas. Griffin, you'll no doubt recall, was selected with White House input to replace prosecutor Bud Cummins in AR when Griffin returned from serving a tour of duty in Iraq. Griffin is advising Thompson on communications and message and will probably be a consultant to Thompson's presidential campaign. Griffin was a very early, very informal adviser to AR Gov. Mike...

CBS News: Sources Say Corruption Charges To Be Brought Against Democratic Congressman William Jefferson waves as he leaves a polling place, Dec. 9, 2006. Despite being the subject of a bribery investigation, Jefferson won re-election. Federal sources say they are now seeking an indictment against him. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Fast Fact Jefferson has been under vestigation for allegedly accepting $100,000 from a telecommunications businessman, $90,000 of which was later recovered in a freezer in the congressman's Louisiana home. WHAT DO YOU THINK? Go To Comments (CBS) Sources tell CBS News that authorities are seeking an indictment against Congressman William Jefferson,...

George W Bush has seen off Al Gore, John Kerry and Saddam Hussein. But with the varnish fast disappearing from his administration, the president may finally be about to meet the man who could prove his undoing. Preet Bharara is a 38-year-old Indian-American lawyer, who made his name prosecuting the bosses of the Gambino and Colombo crime families in New York. Now the former district attorney has President Bush in his sights, as well as the man they call "Bush's Brain": Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser. Mr Bharara is spearheading the Democrat campaign to uncover corruption, mismanagement, incompetence...

Excerpt - LITTLE ROCK -- Tim Griffin, the federal prosecutor in Arkansas whose appointment was among those that led to calls for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, is resigning Friday, spokesmen for Arkansas congressional members said. Griffin, a former assistant to President Bush's top political adviser Karl Rove, stepped in as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas in December, replacing U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins. Cummins, a well-respected prosecutor, was one of eight U.S. attorneys who were fired over the winter, leading to accusations of White House meddling in federal law enforcement. U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor,...

If there's a smarter guy in Washington right now than Sen. Chuck Schumer, Republicans haven't noticed. The New York Democrat is doggedly working to dismantle what's left of the Bush presidency, with barely an ounce of pushback from the other side. Mr. Schumer was the instigator of the Democrats' probe into the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, although note that the question of who fired which prosecutor is already yesterday's news. The attorneys mess was just an opening, a hook that is now allowing Mr. Schumer to escalate into an assault on the wider administration, as well as presidential authority...

<p>WASHINGTON — Former Justice Department official Monica Goodling told lawmakers Wednesday she wanted to "set the record straight," blaming deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty for misleading Congress about the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.</p> <p>Goodling, speaking out in public for the first time, denied playing a major role in the dismissals in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.</p>

Excerpt - WASHINGTON (AP)--Congress cleared legislation Tuesday that would curb President George W. Bush's power to appoint prosecutors indefinitely, resolving one controversy linked to the firing of federal prosecutors. The 306-114 vote gave the House's blessing to the Senate-passed bill, readying it for Bush's expected signature. It will close a loophole that Democrats say could have permitted the White House to reward GOP loyalists with plum jobs as U.S. attorneys. The measure would restore the process for temporarily replacing U.S. attorneys to what it was before Congress reauthorized the Patriot Act last year. Under the bill, the attorney general could...

Democrats and former Deputy Attorney General James Comey put on quite a Senate show Tuesday over the National Security Agency's wiretapping program. With New York's Chuck Schumer directing, the players staged a full length docudrama to create the impression that the Bush Administration broke the law in reauthorizing the program to eavesdrop on al Qaeda. ..... News stories have suggested a pattern of White House misdeeds to accomplish an ultimately illegal end. The transcript tells a different story. First let's review the background. On March 10, 2004, then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card...

WASHINGTON - Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty said Monday he will resign, the highest-ranking Bush administration casualty in the furor over the firing of U.S. attorneys, The Associated Press has learned. McNulty, who has served 18 months as the Justice Department's second-in-command, announced his plans at a closed-door meeting of U.S. attorneys in San Antonio, according to two senior department aides. He said he will remain at the department until this fall or until the Senate approves a successor, the aides said.

Rove Saw Coaching of Prosecutor Witness WASHINGTON (AP) -- A senior Justice Department official who testified about performance shortcomings of several fired U.S. attorneys has told congressional investigators he was coached the day before at a White House meeting attended by political adviser Karl Rove. The witness, Associate Deputy Attorney General William Moschella, said he was urged during the dinner hour meeting on March 5 to publicly specify reasons for the dismissals, according to a transcript of the investigators' April 24 interview with him. Until the March 6 hearing before a House Judiciary subcommittee, Justice Department officials had said publicly...

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department's former No. 2 official testified Thursday he was unaware of plans to fire underperforming U.S. attorneys and praised all but one of the eight who were purged last year. Jim Comey, who served as deputy attorney general from 2003 to 2005, said he had one 15-minute conversation during his tenure about prosecutors who were considered weak managers. Only one of the eight who were ultimately fired -- Kevin Ryan, the former U.S. attorney in San Francisco -- fit that description, Mr. Comey said. The others were doing their jobs well, Mr. Comey told a House...

This firing of the attorneys is a fabricated and contrived scandal http://www.thebulletin.us/site/news.cfm?newsid=18257739&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=6

Immunity Considered for Ex-Gonzales Aide Laurie Kellman April 17, 2007 WASHINGTON (AP) - 0415dv-fired-prosecutors The House Judiciary Committee is set to vote on whether to grant Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' former counsel immunity from prosecution and force her to testify about the firings of eight federal prosecutors. "I am hopeful we can approve immunity so that we can schedule her to testify as soon as possible and begin to clear up the many inconsistencies and gaps surrounding this matter," Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., said in a statement Tuesday. A two-thirds vote of the panel is required to approve the resolution,...

Who tells the boss whom he can hire and fire? Other employees? Is it that way where you work? Maybe, if you're a member of Congress, or are part of a staff that answers to one of them. See, it's an accepted principle in the rarified air of American politics that if you want to maximize your political power, you stack the bureaucracies with your own people, just as fast and deep as you can. Before Franklin D. Roosevelt infamously sought to stack the Supreme Court – which he failed at, praise be to the Almighty – this was already...

WASHINGTON - The amounts of money involved seem small, almost trivial. Some of the East St. Louis, Ill., residents were paid only $5 or $10 for their vote. But handing out this old-fashioned walking-around cash still earned Sandra Stith a fine and a year's probation in a federal case wrapped up in 2006. According to Justice Department documents, Ms. Stith admitted that she had used money received from the St. Clair County Democratic Committee to influence votes for president and various Illinois races in the general election of Nov. 2, 2004. As this case shows, voter fraud still exists. Strictly...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein yesterday challenged assertions by a former top Justice Department official that Carol Lam was fired from her job as U.S. attorney in San Diego because of a mediocre record in prosecuting immigration cases. During a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the California Democrat produced a recent letter from a top federal immigration official in San Diego praising Lam's record in combating immigrant smuggling. ... “It is a real surprise to me that you would say here that the reason for her dismissal was immigration cases,” Feinstein told Sampson during the hearing. ... In an interview, the...

In football, it's called "misdirection." Nineteenth-century soldiers used to call it a "demonstration." By any name, it's a diversion, a ruse designed to attract attention in one place to exert power somewhere else. Think the hearings about the eight fired U.S. attorneys aren't related to the surge? Think again. You have to give the Democrats credit for their dogged determination to lose the Iraq war, and for the creativity with which they have pursued that sick, disgusting objective. This week's hearings on the firings of the U.S. attorneys is largely being discussed among the conservative media as an attempt to...

Here (Time) and here (Fox). Updated RCP Averages for the Dems and the GOP, as well as all of the head-to-head numbers. A couple of other highlights: Fred Thompson pulled 9 percent in the Fox poll, putting him ahead of both Romney and Gingrich, who managed 6% each. Fox also did a Thompson-Clinton head-to-head trial heat which Clinton won handily, 51 to 34 with 15% undecided. President Bush's job approval was at or very near his all time low in both polls at 33%, though the Fox poll also measured Congressional job approval and again found it lagging Bush at...

Politics: The long-awaited "whistle-blower" in the U.S. attorneys affair gave Senate Democrats an unpleasant surprise: The whole issue of political influence in choosing prosecutors is "largely artificial," he testified. Kyle Sampson, former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and coordinator of the December removal of eight U.S. attorneys, was supposed to be the John Dean of the Attorneygate scandal. Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont, New York Sen. Charles Schumer and Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the panel's ranking Republican, all did their best impersonations of former GOP Sen. Howard Baker at the Watergate hearings, solemnly asking...

FROM THE SENATE Dismissal of U.S. Attorneys Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) chairs a Judiciary Cmte. hearing on the hiring and firing of U.S. Attorneys. D. Kyle Sampson, the former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, appears and is expected to testify that he did nothing wrong in coordinating the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys. THURS., C-SPAN3, 10AM ET - Click link to watch FIRING ATTYS. WEBPAGE

Former President Jimmy Carter “lied then” about firing a U.S. attorney in 1978 investigating Democratic officials in Philadelphia and “lies now” in condemning the Bush Administration’s firing of eight U.S. attorneys and calling for Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales to go. “All this Sunday school teaching does not seem to have the intended effect,” said the U.S. attorney removed by Carter, David Marston of Philadelphia, in a reference to the former President’s avocation as a Bible School teacher on Sundays. Six days ago, I interviewed Marston about the similarities between the current furor over the forced exits of eight U.S. Attorneys...

The Libby Precedent Why government officials prefer to take the Fifth. If Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy wants to investigate the Bush Administration's dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys, that's certainly his prerogative. But he and other Democrats determined to play up this faux scandal shouldn't be surprised if government officials decide they'd rather not step into this obvious perjury trap. The Judiciary Committee is seeking testimony from, among others, Monica Goodling, the Justice Department's liaison to the White House. Democrats want to quiz Ms. Goodling on her communications with other Justice officials such as Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, who...

The Attorneys Showdown With subpoenas looming and Justice Department lawyer Monica Goodling taking the Fifth before Congress, the controversy over the firing of U.S. Attorneys grows closer to becoming not just a political fight, but a court battle. There seems little justification for a legal war, however, and the courts are not likely to enforce Congressional subpoenas to presidential aides. At bottom, Congress wants a public airing of private executive deliberations concerning the removal from office of several presidential appointees. The president offered a private explanation; congressional committees responded by authorizing the issuance of subpoenas to presidential aides. A potential...

Democrats unable to frog-march Rove out of the White House think the "political" firings of eight U.S. attorneys might do the trick. But what about their blocking of Bush judicial nominations for political reasons? The pattern was set in Plamegate: Investigate a noncrime, issue subpoenas, get testimony under oath, find inconsistencies and — voila! — you have perjury faster than you can say Scooter Libby. It got no further up the food chain than Libby, but that sound you hear is Bush's enemies, and Karl Rove's, reloading. Democrats are charging that the firings were based not on merit, but on...

THE WHITE HOUSE and congressional Democrats have drawn deep lines in the sand over who will testify, and how, as Congress investigates the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys. The stubbornness and overheated rhetoric on both sides threaten an unnecessary constitutional crisis that would only bog down the inquiry in a distracting fight over process. It's worth stepping back and putting the supposed scandal in perspective. President Bush is entitled to replace his U.S. attorneys; he'd be entitled to do so if he thought they weren't pursuing his prosecutorial priorities with sufficient vigor, or even if he just wanted to give...

LOS ANGELES, March 20 ? Among the cases of the eight federal prosecutors dismissed by the Department of Justice last year, none brought more accusations of egregious political retaliation than that of Carol C. Lam. Democrats in Congress and others have suggested that Ms. Lam, the former United States attorney in San Diego, was ousted largely to stymie her investigations of Republicans and Defense Department officials, after a prosecution of a Republican congressman from California. But interviews with law enforcement officials in California and an examination of e-mail released by the Justice Department demonstrate that Ms. Lam was a source...

As a nation we are facing a number of significant problems, among them how to handle the present and not insubstantial threat of global terrorism, how to de-fang rogue states arming themselves with nuclear weapons, determining how to deal with the funding shortfall of social security, resolving the difficult problem of a porous border and millions of illegal aliens making their homes here. Even with the best and noblest intentions these issues are hard to resolve, especially with so many competing ideas and interests at the table. I think most Americans, however, do want to see Congress taking on these...

Outlook 1. Just as the Democrats seemed off balance in dealing with the Iraq war, Republicans are furious that the Bush Administration is losing the initiative thanks to three big fumbles: firing the U.S. attorneys, the FBI excesses and the Walter Reed Army Hospital. "Incompetence" is the word used by Republicans in describing the administration. 2. It is impossible to find a Republican on Capitol Hill who believes either that Alberto Gonzales will survive as attorney general or that he should survive. That typifies the poor congressional relations of the Bush Administration that are rooted in arrogance. 3. The budget...

Gerson is a Washington-based lawyer with Epstein Becker & Green, incolved in defense against antitrust and other corporate litigation. He was Acting Attorney General at the start of the Clinton administration and led the Department of Justice's Civil Division from 1989 to 1993, which included leading federal litigation after the Exxon-Valdez oil spill. Lyme, Conn.: The "Democratic" response to the firing of the U.S. Attorneys is that these actions were political. The "Republican" response is that the Clinton Administration fired all but one U.S. Attorney at the beginning of the Clinton Administration -- so of course, it is all political....

"Selective amnesia on firing US Attorneys Clarice Feldman A common media trick to get editorial opinion into apparent news stories is the use of outside "scholars" to argue the writer's point for him. So, I was not astonished to read this about the Gonzales kerfuffle in the St Louis Post- Dispatch: Several former U.S. attorneys and legal scholars say the timing of the Bush administration's replacement of top federal prosecutors is not only atypical, but also a threat to the impartial exercise of justice.

I’ve been following the unfortunate career of Harry Reid since he joined the US Senate in 1986. His latest pronouncement, concerning the firing of eight US Attorneys, is one more example that he will do and say whatever he can get away with, to earn himself either political capital, or capital gains in a land deal. Is that too harsh a judgment of a man who is now the Majority Leader in the US Senate? Judge for yourself. Here’s what Harry Reid said on TV, in front of God and everybody, about the decision of the Bush Administration to terminate...