
 |
|
May 13, 2013
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
March 19, 2007
/ 29 Adar, 5767
Inexcusable mistakes were made
By
Debra J. Saunders
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
By his own lights, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should resign. As Gonzales wrote in USA Today last week, he asked seven U.S. attorneys to resign in December he left out an eighth, who was invited to resign earlier and replaced by former Karl Rove aide Tim Griffin for reasons that were "performance-related" and because they "simply lost my confidence." By that standard, it is time for Gonzales to go.
It is hard to imagine how the Bushies could have bungled the situation more considering how avoidable this scandal was.
Bush has a right to fire any U.S. attorney, as all serve at the pleasure of the president. If the Bushies simply had announced that they pushed out the eight federal prosecutors after they had served their four-year terms for their own reasons, they would have been at least within their political rights although they could hardly complain if critics questioned whether the personnel changes represented a political purge.
Didn't the fair-haired boys on Team Bush learn anything from Travelgate the brouhaha that followed when the Clinton adminstration fired travel office staffers in 1993? Clintonia smeared travel staffers rather than admit the administration simply wanted to replace them with patronage hires. For no good reason, the Bushies followed the textbook case on how not to replace people.
Many Democrats argue that Team Bush fired some of the U.S. attorneys most notably New Mexico's David Iglesias and San Diego's Carol Lam for political reasons. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., had complained that Iglesias was slow in going after a corruption case involving Democrats, while Lam had successfully prosecuted GOP Rep. Duke Cunningham on bribery charges. The adminstration's lack of candor on these firings bolsters critics' suspicions. I now see why Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein was adamant in investigating the issue.
It doesn't help that top Bush aides seemed to see the U.S. Department of Justice as their toy that they didn't have to share.
Thus, then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers suggested in early 2005 that the White House consider firing all 93 U.S. attorneys. (A newly released White House memo shows that Rove entertained the idea in January 2005.) The White House has suggested that some prosecutors were failing to take up immigration and voter-fraud cases and any president has the right to direct staff to focus on his priorities. But getting rid of all the top prosecutors would have hindered all federal casework.
As former Gonzales Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson wrote to Miers, "There are practical obstacles to removing and replacing U.S. attorneys." Such as, "Wholesale removal of U.S. attorneys would cause a significant disruption to the work of the Department of Justice." And replacing them would be really, really messy.
Sampson resigned last Monday, after the Justice Department released memos that showed how he reviewed all 93 U.S. attorneys based on whether they were effective prosecutors who "exhibited loyalty" or "ineffectual managers" who "chafed against administration initiatives."
If Gonzales had been forthcoming early on, he could have sold this story: Flush with victory in 2004, some overeager Bush aides wanted to ax all U.S. attorneys. Cooler heads prevailed. After a full review, the Department of Justice office decided to make some changes. The administration rewarded Griffin and replaced some bad eggs (like San Francisco prosecutor Kevin Ryan, whose performance reviews found high office turnover and low morale).
White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said she thinks it important for the public to remember that the White House didn't act on bad political advice. "The idea to replace all 93 U.S. attorneys was not pursued. DOJ did an evaluation, based on policy and performance considerations, which was absolutely appropriate," she told me.
But it is not enough for President Bush to mumble, "Mistakes were made." Right now, U.S. troops in Iraq need Bush to sell his surge policy to the public. The president has to safeguard his credibility. He has to let Gonzales go. America wants to see a White House that puts performance before loyalty.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment JWR contributor Debra J. Saunders's column by clicking here.
Debra J. Saunders Archives
© 2007, Creators Syndicate
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|