Obviously, the financial stuff is ruling the media cycle today. Which is too bad, because the Justice Department today released a 356-page report of an internal investigation (internal, as in “these are our own people”) into what drove the firings of several U.S. Attorneys by the Bush Justice Department under ex-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The answer will shock you!
An internal Justice Department investigation concluded Monday that political pressure drove the firings of several federal prosecutors in a 2006 purge, but said that the refusal of major players at the White House and the department to cooperate in the year-long inquiry produced significant “gaps” in its understanding of the events.
And it’s not over.
At the urging of the investigators, who said they did not have enough evidence to justify recommending criminal charges in the case, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey appointed the Acting United States Attorney in Connecticut, Nora Dannehy, to continue the inquiry and determine whether anyone should be prosecuted.
The report appears to have taken special delight in eviscerating Gonzales. And remember — this is an internal investigation.
The investigation, which uncovered White House e-mail messages not previously made public, offered a blistering critique of Mr. Gonzales’s management of the department. It called Mr. Gonzales “remarkably unengaged” in overseeing an unprecedented personnel review, and said that he “abdicated” his administrative responsibilities, leaving those duties to his chief of staff. It said that the process for deciding which prosecutors were fired was “fundamentally flawed.”
More troubling, the investigation concluded that, despite the denials of the administration at the time of the controversy, political considerations played a part in the firings of at least four of the nine prosecutors.
Another part of the Bush legacy. Is there any serious doubt at this point about his winning the WPE award?
Considering he took office with the country at peace and a huge surplus, and left it after having suffered the worst attack on civilians in its history, mired in two wars neither of which are going well, and suffering from a financial collapse caused in part by lack of leadership … I’d say he is a contender.
… earlier comment:
To our everlasting shame the truth is that most of what is described above was well known before his reelection in 2004.
What Eliot knew.
James Buchanan dithered into a civil war that cost 3% of the population their lives.
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p>Give it a “modern times” qualifier and I’ll give it to you.
as our US Atty was one of those canned by Gonzales McBush. This reminder of what “GOP” means these days can only have a chilling effect on republican voters in what has been expected to be a very tight race here for Obama, Gregoire & Burner.
from the special counsel to come in after election day. The perps will all have pardons in hand by that date…
they haven’t been convicted of anything yet, so how can they get pardons?
But he got a pre-emptive pardon. It can happen.
It’s been said that Iran/Contra was the bastard child of Watergate in that we never went through with an impeachment, so the impression was left that you could ‘get away with it’.
Remember Cap Weinberger?