Purged U.S. Attorneys Slam Gonzales Testimony
Purged U.S. Attorneys Slam Gonzales Testimony
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified yesterday that the firings of eight U.S. Attorneys was “justified and should stand.” Now those attorneys are reacting.
Former Washington U.S. Attorney John McKay:
Gonzales cited McKay’s authorship of a letter criticizing delays in implementing a law enforcement information-sharing program, as well as comments he made to the Seattle P-I last fall about the staffing levels in his office.
“Generally I recollect there being serious concerns about his judgment,” Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee. [...]
“I think it’s a sad day for the Department of Justice,” said McKay, who previously represented the Western District of Washington. “The attorney general missed an opportunity to testify with honor.”
Asked to elaborate, McKay declined, saying, “The senators savaged him enough. I certainly don’t want to talk about his absurd allegations. He’s obviously so disconnected he has no idea what my performance was like and what my judgment was like, and I’ll just leave it at that.”
Former New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias:
Iglesias watched the hearings from a naval base at Newport, R.I. He’s finishing a naval reserve deployment and called the hearings “painful to watch.”
“I can only liken Mr. Gonzales’ testimony to a bloodied swimmer in a shark tank. He’s really getting beat up,” Iglesias said. [...]
“Now we’re hearing from the A.G. that he apologized on how this was handled. That doesn’t quite get us to where we need to go which was that they shouldn’t have done it. Kyle Sampson stated that under oath a couple of weeks ago, that the Department of Justice should have never gone down this path and if he had it to do over he would have never put me on that list,” Iglesias said.
We’ll update this post with more reactions from the fired attorneys as we find them.
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Abu G forgot he doesn’t actually live in a vacuum.
April 20th, 2007 at 11:13 amwhoosh!BANG!(to paraphrase from DailyKOS)
right in da kisser….
April 20th, 2007 at 11:13 amBoo-yah! That’s good stuff. These 7 attorneys could end up being quite the thorn in Bush’s side ultimately. Except for the one on the west coast who accepted the big cushy job as hush money.
April 20th, 2007 at 11:15 amGonzales, stop making an ass of yourself and holding up the American justice system to ridicule and just resign.
April 20th, 2007 at 11:15 amConsequences and repercussions
Two words being reintroduced into the body politic
April 20th, 2007 at 11:16 amHonestly I hope Gonzales stays right where he is, and Bush keeps supporting him. He is a constant reminder to the rest of the country, of who the republican party is and what they stand for.
April 20th, 2007 at 11:18 amLOL slam the entire Bush Regime membership!
April 20th, 2007 at 11:19 amWhat’s not to slam?
April 20th, 2007 at 11:22 amGonzo doesn’t have a clue.
Or does he?
Gonzales is going to bleed out his president longer than Generalissimo Francisco Franco did.
April 20th, 2007 at 11:23 amMr. Gonzales’ downfall can be blamed on him not being as smooth and and as easy a liar as Bush & Cheney, et. al.
April 20th, 2007 at 11:27 am#
Mr. Gonzales’ downfall can be blamed on him not being as smooth and and as easy a liar as Bush & Cheney, et. al.
Comment by Singh Lowd — April 20, 2007 @ 11:27 am
#
Which is pretty bad since Bush and Cheney both absolutely suck at lying.
April 20th, 2007 at 11:30 amI’m interested to hear what Carol Lam and Bud Cummings have to say, as well as Senator Pryor….
April 20th, 2007 at 11:32 amLeahy: Your performance today is disgraceful. I’m demanding your resignation.
Gonzalez: I will not resign, but if I’m voted off I will leave.
Leahy: Voted off?
Gonzales: This is “American Idol”, isn’t it?
April 20th, 2007 at 11:38 amHey whitey,
Happy 4/20.
Heh.
April 20th, 2007 at 11:38 am“Gone”zales should go the Way of The Rummy
April 20th, 2007 at 11:39 am#
“Goneâ€zales should go the Way of The Rummy
Comment by Kay — April 20, 2007 @ 11:39 am
#
Relocated to a nice position in the pentagon? No, I want him out of our government altogether.
April 20th, 2007 at 11:48 amAs the now deceased Warren Zevon so brilliantly wrote:
Send lawyers, guns & money; just get me outta here!
April 20th, 2007 at 11:55 amZooey!!I thought my Princess of Progress had gone away….
April 20th, 2007 at 11:58 amYeah 4/20…
*cough cough**
exellent pain medication for my dentist visit.
They need to fire this guy and put in place the US Attorneies that was their in the first place. Carol Lam can continue her investigation of that Lewis guy. A Republican.
April 20th, 2007 at 12:05 pmAlso they need to charge Gonzales for lying. and sent him to prison.
April 20th, 2007 at 12:07 pmDoes anyone remember that Gonzales was being considered for appointment to the Surpreme Court? Guess that’s one thing Bush did right…or rather, failed to do wrong.
April 20th, 2007 at 12:09 pmThe problem Gonzo has in defending himself is that he is under orders to defend Karl Rove and Dubya and Cheney at all costs. You can see in his testimony that he is covering up something big.
April 20th, 2007 at 12:13 pmexellent pain medication for my dentist visit.
Comment by whiteyfresh
Told ya. :-)
Remember, no Captain Crunch, unless you let it sit in the bowl for an hour before you drink it. :P
April 20th, 2007 at 12:17 pmThere is only way that Alberto is going: if he is charged with a crime, such as perjury or lying to Congress. And as fun as yesterday was to watch, there was still way too much speech-a-fying from Dems and not nearly enough cross examination. I mean, guys like Herb Kohl get up there, ask a couple of semi-tough questions, then conclude with a long, stupid, completely pointless speech about Gonzo being a disgrace to his office. Lame.
In other words, Dems didn’t focus enough on the record. They didn’t force Gonzo into enough lies. They didn’t question him like, well, lawyers. They didn’t ask tough questions designed to elicit untruthful testimony for the purpose of charging Gonzo with a crime.
So Gonzo will stay. Which is a very bad thing, since a new AG would, almost by definition, be far more independent. Gonzo’s role for the next 24 months will be to obstruct and interfere with any and all investigations of the White House. Like Rummy and George Tenet, he will be rewarded for his incompetence by the White House.
The more bullets he’s willing to take, the more valuable he is to the president. The notion that Gonzo being “damaged goods” will somehow make him ineffective completely misses the point about his current role vis a vi the White House. Gonzo’s job is not to be an “effective AG.” His role is to protect the White House and take orders directly from Karl Rove.
The more compromised he is by scandal the more beholden to the White House he becomes (if that’s even possible). Letting him stay is a huge mistake. And the Dems are going to do just that. Again, they don’t need to impeach him…I think there would be enough political pressure to force him to step down if he were charged with a crime. But I don’t think that’s gonna happen
April 20th, 2007 at 12:19 pmZooey: I have some pretty GOOOOOD medication at that….
April 20th, 2007 at 12:26 pm:)
I was really surprised by how bad Gonzales testimony was yesterday. The guy was just raked over the coals by both Democrats and Republicans. I wonder if Bush Co. will go down in history as the most corrupt and incompitent adminstration in the history of this country.
April 20th, 2007 at 12:28 pmZooey, thank you for earning more cool points every day! I appreciate the(unsolicited) blessings on this most wonderful day, and apologize for not immeadiately wishing you a happy 4/20 in return!!
April 20th, 2007 at 12:31 pmZooey: I have some pretty GOOOOOD medication at that….
:)
Comment by whiteyfresh
Enjoy!
Off to class — TGIF. Oy….
April 20th, 2007 at 12:33 pmoy??? are you posing as Yenta????
April 20th, 2007 at 12:53 pm#24
I think you make a very good point…those in congress keep saying they think he should step down, but take no steps to force such an event.
Maybe the dems are affraid that if he does step down, the Bush WH will SOMEHOW actually start to not look so bad over next two years…which in effect make the entire republican party not look so bad…
April 20th, 2007 at 1:01 pmSampson says in hindsight he never would have fired the USAs – but Gonzo sticks with it. It was the right thing to do to uproot these USAs – and mar their reputations. Yeah – anything goes to save face for Bush’s corruption and incompetence.
April 20th, 2007 at 1:03 pmJjakeAfroMan, why aren’t you stunning us with your shining wisdom on these threads about the brilliant of the AG??
April 20th, 2007 at 1:11 pmI think that Gonzales’ testimony yesterday indicates either a criminal level of incompetence or criminal obstruction of justice. But I still want to know what the consequences of this might be. So what if Gonzales looks like an ass and demonstrates his utter incompetence as both a lawyer and an administrator of some of the most critical departments of our government. If he is not removed from office, and if the puppet political appointees are left in place as US Attorneys and administrators, then the right wing strategy to stuff the justice department has worked and we have what amounts to a coup d’etat. We cannot let this go.
April 20th, 2007 at 2:03 pmThe reasons Gonzo provided for “poor judgment” in the case of two of these USAs simply didn’t make any sense to me at all (none of them did, actually) — but these two stood out like a sore thumb:
1. McKay — started an information-sharing program between law enforcement agencies in the Puget Sound area. That sounds like an excellent idea to me.
2. Don’t remember who this referred to — wanted a program for recording the interrogations of suspects/subjects by law enforcement. Likewise, this sounds like an excellent idea. Eliminates the possibility of false testimony about what happened during interrogations by both suspects/subjects and law enforcement.
Why would these indicate poor judgment on the parts of the USAs? Does anyone have any suggestions or theories?
April 20th, 2007 at 2:34 pmAbu the Weasel again smeared the reputation of the fired US Attorneys yesterday during his testimony.
He should expect some serious backlash.
April 20th, 2007 at 7:59 pmInstead of Slamming Gonzales, they should get together and prosecute the crime detailed in the following article
“Is it high treason or just a simple case of dereliction of duty?”
It was out in print in Crawford, TX, if the pres paid the 75 cents, he would probably know how he helped the criminal.
Anyway, life goes on and such a crime will not go unpunished.
April 20th, 2007 at 8:05 pmIf everyone is so up in arms against firing the attorney’s, WHY HAVEN’T THEY BEEN RE-HIRED?
After all the thunder and noise, they still get what they want. The attorney’s are still gone, all the others are cowed, and AG will stay unless he is fired by someone.
I can’t quote it off the top of my head, but there was some point in an email where they discuss the importance of sticking to their guns when there is an up roar over this, and that’s exactly what they are doing. All I can say is that they are laughing their asses off at us. The senator’s did a good job trashing him, but unless something actually reverses the decision or he is removed, they win! Exactly they way they planned it.
April 21st, 2007 at 4:49 pmThe longer Gonzales remains, and Bush and Cheney for that matter, the greater the damage (it is already horofic!) to amercan prestidge.
The rest of the western world is laughing at american’s ineptitude at cleaning out the scoundrels that have brought america down.
April 21st, 2007 at 6:40 pm