Another Apology: Gonzales: 'Mistakes were made' in U.S. attorneys' firings

[on-ramp]

another "mistake", another apology... I love it! time to dance.




Gonzales: 'Mistakes were made' in U.S. attorneys' firings

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/03/13/fired.attorneys/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday that "mistakes were made" regarding the firing of eight U.S. attorneys and he accepts responsibility for the ordeal.

"My pledge to the American people is to find out what went wrong here," he said. "As we can all imagine, in an organization of 110,000 people, I am not aware of every bit of information that passes through the halls of justice, nor am I aware of all decisions."

However, despite calls for his resignation, Gonzales said he was not stepping down.

Democrats are examining e-mails they say prove the White House was far more involved in the firings of U.S. attorneys than it has acknowledged.

The e-mails between the Department of Justice and White House were handed on Tuesday to congressional committees investigating the firing of eight U.S. attorneys and whether there was political motivation behind the dismissals.

White House spokesman Tony Snow confirmed that it was former White House counsel Harriet Miers who came up with an idea to remove all the federal prosecutors and bring in "fresh blood" at the beginning of President Bush's second term. (Watch a congressman explain how e-mails suggest White House involvement in firings )

Meanwhile, the chief of staff to Gonzales has resigned, the Justice Department said Tuesday, as criticism grows over the firing of eight federal prosecutors last year.

D. Kyle Sampson, who also was a top lawyer under Gonzales' predecessor, John Ashcroft, has been at the center of the storm. His resignation was effective Monday.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, has said Gonzales should follow suit and tender his resignation.

"Just when we thought our faith could not be shaken any further, it has been," Schumer said. "At the very beginning, it was clear that something didn't smell right. But I had no idea how high it went."

He added: "The latest revelations proved beyond any reasonable doubt that there has been an unprecedented breach of trust, abuse of power and misuse of the Justice Department. And that is very serious and very important."

Schumer also warned the White House against making Sampson "the next fall guy."

"Today's staff resignation does not take heat off the attorney general. In fact, it raises the temperature. Kyle Sampson will not become the next Scooter Libby," the senator added, referring to Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff who was convicted of obstruction of justice and perjury last week over the outing of a CIA agent. (Watch Schumer call for Gonzales to step down )

Gonzales spoke highly of Sampson in a news release.

"Kyle Sampson has served as a key member of my team beginning at the White House and continuing here at the Department of Justice -- first as my deputy chief of staff and then as my chief of staff," Gonzales said in a statement.

"I am very appreciative for his service, counsel and friendship during the last six years, and I thank him for his service to the department."

The Bush administration has said the firings -- seven in December and one months earlier -- were routine personnel matters that were the result of poor performances.

However, Democrats accuse the administration of trying to dictate to the prosecutors, who are supposed to be nonpartisan.

Allegations of pressure
Snow told reporters traveling with the president in Mexico that made the proposal to fire all 93 U.S. attorneys at the beginning of Bush's second term.

Several of the prosecutors who were fired have said they were being pressured to move more quickly on investigations into voter fraud.

Miers resigned in January. President Bush had nominated her as a Supreme Court justice in October 2005 but she withdrew after conservatives and others questioned her credentials.

"We continue to believe that the decision to remove and replace U.S. attorneys who serve at the pleasure of the president was perfectly appropriate and within our discretion," said White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino.

"And we stand by the Department of Justice's assertion that they identified the seven U.S. attorneys who were removed [in December] for performance and managerial reasons."

Snow said Miers' proposal was a suggestion, not a recommendation, to fire all the federal prosecutors. Bush made "no recommendations on specific individuals," he said.

"We don't have anything to indicate the president made any calls on specific U.S. attorneys."

[legion]

He's just sorry he didn't get to fire all of the lawyers.

I'm sorry too.

[rhjames]

And we should be surprised, why?

Harriet Meyers tried to fire the entire bunch of AG's, not just the nine or so they got away with...

Terrorist attack on 9/11/01, (failed) war in Afghanistan, civil war in Iraq (another failure), corruption of elected officials (Congress), illegals by the millions coming into the US unchecked, a vice-president that runs policy (instead of the president), the Patriot Act abuses coming to light, etc., etc., etc.......

And the White House is trying to get rid of outstanding AG's nationwide.......

What a bunch of idiots.

OH *****!!!!!!----THEY'RE AT THE FRONT DOOR!!!!!



regards---rhjames

[legion]

No.

They are all part of a vast left wing conspiracy hell bent on ruining a sitting president.

[jyl]

The president is doing a good job of that all by himself.

[red-beard]

Didn't Clinton fire all of the Prosecutors in 1993, some of which were investigating Whitewater and Dan Rostenkowski?

[Jim Richards]

He replaced all at the start of his administration, as most pres' are apt to do. SOP.

[red-beard]

Not SOP. Only Clinton has done this.

[Basquiat]

It IS sop whenever a new President comes into office or when a President starts a new term. All U.S. Attorney's serve at the pleasure of the POTUS. It is not generally sop when a sitting POTUS is re-elected, though it is irrelavent. They still serve at the pleasure...yada..yada...
The reality of this is that firing U.S. Attorney's often gets in the way of investigations and contributes to the federal backlog of cases awaiting trial or prosecution. As Clinton revamped the positions in 1993, that falls pretty much in the range of SOP. This group of firings is unusual, though totally legal.
That said it is somewhat disturbing that these eight may have been terminated for putting potentially more important cases ahead of voter fraud cases. Let's face it, even if these eight convicted someone for voter fraud, the only real outcome would be the same ole political BS that we get from Washington. In the mean time real, potentially violent, criminals would continue to break the law and endanger real people.
At the end of the day there is nothing to see here...move along....

[widebody911]

SOP my ass.

What everyone seems to be missing is the neat little provision in the "Patriot Act" which removed congressional oversight of AG appointments. The president can now appoint replacements without having them confirmed by the senate. Under the old rules, the new guy could go 120 days without confirmation; now it's open-ended.

[legion]

Yes, Thom, and I seem to recall the Democrats (when they were still in the minority) effectively fillibustering most of the president's AG appointments.

[widebody911]

Originally posted by legion
Yes, Thom, and I seem to recall the Democrats (when they were still in the minority) effectively fillibustering most of the president's AG appointments.

As you're willingly giving your president all these wonderful new powers, have you thought about the fact that Hillary will be inheriting these powers 1/20/09?

[legion]

I'm just saying that it was done to avoid political games the Dems were playing.

"Senate approval" once meant that a candidate was judged on whether they would do a job ethically and their confimation was brought to a vote on that basis. For the last eight years, the Dems changed the standard to one that meant the candidate had to embrace their (minority) politics and fillibustered anyone who did not. Up until that point, the fillibuster had only been used for bills and never for confirmations.

[Basquiat]

Good God fellas. BOTH parties have been doing this for damn near 20 years. Clinton had more than 300 various bench appointees that were never allowed to come to a vote by the then Republican Majority in the Senate. Bush has had the same damned trouble. Both parties are to blame for that.
The result is a justice system, at the Fed. level, that is literally years behind and back logged. You can thank BOTH of your parties and yourselves for allowing the debate in this country to become this sophomoric.

[widebody911]

Originally posted by Basquiat
Clinton had more than 300 various bench appointees that were never allowed to come to a vote

Please cite, specifically the part where Clinton changed the law to end-run the confirmation process.

[Basquiat]

He didn't, nor did this President. The Congress did, and it still hasn't fixed it. This Pres. also had numerous appointees that were never allowed to come to a vote. You are both full of selective memory disorder. Continue with your business as usual. I'm done with this.

[fintstone]

They all serve the executive branch at the pleasure of the President...apparently he wasn't getting much pleasure. Nuff said.

[red-beard]

Originally posted by Basquiat
It IS sop whenever a new President comes into office or when a President starts a new term. All U.S. Attorney's serve at the pleasure of the POTUS. It is not generally sop when a sitting POTUS is re-elected, though it is irrelavent. They still serve at the pleasure...yada..yada...
The reality of this is that firing U.S. Attorney's often gets in the way of investigations and contributes to the federal backlog of cases awaiting trial or prosecution. As Clinton revamped the positions in 1993, that falls pretty much in the range of SOP. This group of firings is unusual, though totally legal.
That said it is somewhat disturbing that these eight may have been terminated for putting potentially more important cases ahead of voter fraud cases. Let's face it, even if these eight convicted someone for voter fraud, the only real outcome would be the same ole political BS that we get from Washington. In the mean time real, potentially violent, criminals would continue to break the law and endanger real people.
At the end of the day there is nothing to see here...move along....

I agree with your last statement!!! But until Clinton, the appointees usually served to the end of thier terms, then were replaced. With Clinton, he swept all of them out in the beginning of his term. This was the first time that happened.

[KFC911]

Originally posted by legion
Yes, Thom, and I seem to recall the Democrats (when they were still in the minority) effectively fillibustering most of the president's AG appointments.

I watched the senior Senator from my state (Jesse Helms) disrupt the political process for most of my adult life with his fillibusters... they must've learned something along the way . I can't even begin to count the times Jesse was the sole person holding up appointments, etc. for pure political purposes.

ps: He earned the nickname "Senator No" for this very reason.

[rhjames]

As usual, the Repubs blame everything on Clinton.

They never take the blame for something that they did on their own.

2000 plus days and no Bin Laden.

1800 plus days since "Mission Accomplished" declared.

The typical number of scandals of any administration--maybe more by next week.

An AG who doesn't even know what his chief of staff is doing.

A VP's chief of staff now convicted of lying.

A Joint Chief's chair dissing the Gay population stirring up another hornet's nest.

The VP continually going on a tirade about "Terrorists/Iraq/Iran/North Korea" and still hasn't even been able to squash the feeble Taliban in Afghanistan.

Patriot Act been abused? REALLY? NO *****???

Vast Left wing Conspiracy? Heck, they didn't need the Left's help......


Same old *****, just another day.

W hasn't made it any better, just more incompetent.


OH CRAP!!!!! THEY'RE KNOCKING AT THE DOOR!!!!!



regards---rhjames