WP: Fitzgerald Ranked During CIA Case (Purgegate)

[usregimechange]

Source: WP

U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald was ranked among prosecutors who had "not distinguished themselves" on a Justice Department chart sent to the White House in March 2005, when he was in the midst of leading a CIA leak investigation that resulted in the perjury conviction of a vice presidential aide, administration officials said yesterday.

The ranking placed Fitzgerald below "strong U.S. Attorneys . . . who exhibited loyalty" to the administration but above "weak U.S. Attorneys who . . . chafed against Administration initiatives, etc.," according to Justice documents.

The chart was the first step in an effort to identify U.S. attorneys who should be removed. Two prosecutors who received the same ranking as Fitzgerald were later fired, documents show.

The chart was drawn up by D. Kyle Sampson, then an aide to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, and was sent to then-White House counsel Harriet Miers. The reference to Fitzgerald is in a portion of the memo that Justice has refused to turn over to Congress, officials told The Washington Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the Fitzgerald ranking has not been made public.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/19/AR2007031902036.html

---

[Fresh_Start]

1. they should have put him in the group that chafed

under administration heavy hand tactics.

[IChing]

2. Maybe he should be the new attorney General then

love your Nazi reference.

[EVDebs]

3. Fascism comes to America wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross nt

[moc]

4. Did they pull the article? The link isn't working.

[Moochy]

8. Here's the working link.. I hope

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/19/AR2007031902036.html

in case it breaks, you can remove the spaces yourself.

http : // www.washingtonpost.com /wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/19/AR2007031902036 . html

[usregimechange]

11. Should be working now, not sure what happened.

[merh]

5. I can't get the article, does it have the full chart.

Can we see how other USA's ranked?

Aren't you curious about how your state USA ranks?

[Cirque du So-What]

6. Better link

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/19/AR2007031902036.html

[usregimechange]

9. Thanks, fixed it.

[Cirque du So-What]

13. Treasonous, scum-sucking bottom-feeders

every mother's one of them! They were preparing to sack perhaps the top prosecutor in the nation - one who was building criminal cases against this nation's enemies (both foreign & domestic) - all for political gain! This revelation is a metaphorical neutron bomb dropped into Gonzo's lap, and the longer WhistleAss clings onto him, the worse it appears in the public eye.

[Patsy Stone]

7. Didn't exhibit loyalty!

:toast:

Here's to a true patriot! FITZ!

There is no surprise here other than the fact that he still had a job to return to in Chicago.

[madrchsod]

12. his office is bringing down another

right wing scumbag-conrad black ----- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Black

[madrchsod]

10. i wonder if all the du`rs who said fitz was a republican stooge

can shut the fuck up about that now?

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

45. Thanks...

... I have been trying to emphasize that exact point for years. :smoke:

[mopinko]

50. a reminder about fitz-

just want to chime in right here to remind people what an extraordinary individual fitz is- one of the last sane republicans in the senate- peter fitzgerald, an independent that financed his own election, was pretty much forced out after one term, mostly for appointing, and sticking by, fitz.
his prosecution of scum bags that sold commercial drivers licenses to unqualified drivers, resulted in 60+ convictions, working his was up the chain of command to the governor of illinois, the recipient of said boodle. i am only sad that he did not prosecute anyone for the deaths of the 6 children of the willis family, whose van went up in flames, thanks to one of those drivers.

[Diane R]

14. We absolutely HAVE to investigate what the U.S. Atty's did to get a high ranking.

[usregimechange]

15. Damn good point.

[merh]

22. You may want to read this article

-snip-

In the last few days we’ve also learned that Republican members of Congress called prosecutors to pressure them on politically charged cases, even though doing so seems unethical and possibly illegal. The bigger scandal, however, almost surely involves prosecutors still in office. The Gonzales Eight were fired because they wouldn’t go along with the Bush administration’s politicization of justice. But statistical evidence suggests that many other prosecutors decided to protect their jobs or further their careers by doing what the administration wanted them to do: harass Democrats while turning a blind eye to Republican malfeasance.

Donald Shields and John Cragan, two professors of communication, have compiled a database of investigations and/or indictments of candidates and elected officials by U.S. attorneys since the Bush administration came to power. Of the 375 cases they identified, 10 involved independents, 67 involved Republicans, and 298 involved Democrats. The main source of this partisan tilt was a huge disparity in investigations of local politicians, in which Democrats were seven times as likely as Republicans to face Justice Department scrutiny.

How can this have been happening without a national uproar? The authors explain: “We believe that this tremendous disparity is politically motivated and it occurs because the local (non-statewide and non-Congressional) investigations occur under the radar of a diligent national press. Each instance is treated by a local beat reporter as an isolated case that is only of local interest.”

And let’s not forget that Karl Rove’s candidates have a history of benefiting from conveniently timed federal investigations. Last year Molly Ivins reminded her readers of a curious pattern during Mr. Rove’s time in Texas: “In election years, there always seemed to be an F.B.I. investigation of some sitting Democrat either announced or leaked to the press. After the election was over, the allegations often vanished.”

-snip-

scroll down to Krugman's March 9, 2007 entry at this link http://mgpaquin.blogspot.com/search/label/Krugman

The Donald C. Shields and John F. Cragan preview of their study, complete with the statistical data/charts can be found at this link http://www.epluribusmedia.org/columns/2007/20070212_political_profiling.html
(look at the end of the article for the charts)

[WatchWhatISay]

24. Henry Cisneros and Dan Morales come to mind.

Though Morales is just as sleazy as they are and probably deserved it.

[Pab Sungenis]

34. That's the way it's been in New Jersey.

Chris Christie, who only ever seems to investigate Democrats, rolls out shitloads and shitloads of accusations and allegations about every prominent Democrat, all of which come to nothing. He's doing it to Corzine again. These people have to be stopped.

The Democrats in New Jersey have been saying that Christie's been nothing but a partisan hack, but the usual line from the Republicans was "U.S. Attorneys swear to be neutral." Well, now we have evidence to the contrary.

It's time for every USA to be fired, and their replacements confirmed by the Senate.

[karynnj]

37. Christie was clearly political in making it look like Menendez had a problem

when it seems that is no (and never was) an investigation. Christie had investigated Republicans as well including one who was the leading Republican candidate for Senator or Governor about 4 or 5 years ago - he was an Essec county official. So, I think Christie was a hot shot DA, who wanted to make a name for himself going against corruption (think Guiliani) - but he clearly seemed to go after a Democrat a week last fall.

[Donnachaidh]

35. that shields/cragan link is INCREDIBLE

thank you for posting it!

[LiberalFighter]

38. The numbers: Almost 80% against Dems - barely 18% against Repugs - 2.6% for others

Did they consider the political liklihood of districts?

What is the ratio of Democrats and Republicans in each state/district?

[LiberalFighter]

40. Distribution of party affiliation of the sample

The distribution of party affiliation of the sample is compared to the available normative data (50% Dem, 41% GOP, and 9% Ind.).

Data* indicate that the offices of the U.S. Attorneys across the nation investigate seven (7) times as many Democratic officials as they investigate Republican officials, a number that exceeds even the racial profiling of African Americans in traffic stops.

The current Bush Republican Administration appears to be the first to have engaged in political profiling.

[druidity33]

56. that's good stuff! n/t

[kath]

26. Yes, this is key. The Democrats (or any people of conscience) need to start hammering this,

and keep hitting it hard.

[BluePatriot]

55. I agree.

Blogosphere and Google brigade unite! The stuff regarding "non-loyal" USA's investigations found here on DU by a few posters has been quite good.

[glitch]

16. Ranked highly by Bushie = many mad monkeys on their backs.

Can we say "heck of a job" to all the high wankers? :evilgrin:

[notadmblnd]

17. love this part.

Mary Jo White, who supervised Fitzgerald when she served as the U.S. attorney in Manhattan and who has criticized the firings, said ranking Fitzgerald as a middling prosecutor "lacks total credibility across the board."

"He is probably the best prosecutor in the nation, certainly one of them," said White, who worked in the Clinton and Bush administrations. "It casts total doubt on the whole process. It's kind of the icing on the cake."

Fitzgerald has been widely recognized for his pursuit of criminal cases against al-Qaeda's terrorist network before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and he drew up the official U.S. indictment against Osama bin Laden. He was named as special counsel in the CIA leak case in December 2003 by then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, who had recused himself.

[aquart]

23. Yup. Fitz is the gold standard.

If they REALLY (ho, ho, ho) want an AG above reproach, Fitz would be a perfect choice.

I do not believe he's on the short list, however.

[PegDAC]

59. I'd rather he remain as a prosecutor. n/t

[ClintonTyree]

30. But it isn't about their ability and success...

it's about how well they follow orders from the Bushistas. It's party before country, always, with the GOP. Bush has demonstrated time and again his willingness to install ass kissing toadies into important positions within government over people infinitely more qualified for the job. Our government is being run more like the mafia than a functioning entity designed to serve the people. It's the Bush, "code of loyalty". It doesn't matter how qualified you are as long as you're loyal to the mob boss.

[Black Adder]

53. Right you are and

unfortunately, you can extrapolate this modus operandi to every other Gov't dept.
That may explain Iraq, Katrina and all the other fu*ked up initiatives this Gov't has involved in.

[rumpel]

18. "portion of the memo that Justice has refused to turn over to Congress"

= obstruction of justice
=cover-up

If this not impeachable what is?

[annabanana]

29. Let us sing the praises of the "anonymous official" who

gave us this information.

Face it someone who saw everything, KNEW that this document was critical.

[Missy Vixen]

19. Okay, now it's PERSONAL

This should create a FIRESTORM.

IMHO, YMMV,
Julie
president for life of the PFEB

[halobeam]

36. agreed

FIRESTORM...

[SoCalDemGrrl]

20. Ck out this quote from Raw Story about Fitz

Mary Jo White, who supervised Fitzgerald when she served as the U.S. attorney in Manhattan and who has criticized the firings, said ranking Fitzgerald as a middling prosecutor "lacks total credibility across the board. "He is probably the best prosecutor in the nation, certainly one of them," said White, who worked in the Clinton and Bush administrations. "It casts total doubt on the whole process. It's kind of the icing on the cake."



THIS IS IT FOLKS - THEY'RE GOIN' DOWN!!!!!!

[peacetalksforall]

21. Republican REPEATERS.

Nixon - fired Atty Archibald Cox. About to be impeached for it. Resigned instead.

Reagan/Bush - operated Iran-Contra

Bush Jr - fired several Attys and wanted to fire the highest rated Atty in terms of investigation emanating in the WH.

Bush Jr - hired the same players from Iran-Contra to work from the WH and plan and conduct an invasion and the decimation of Iran.

[bleever]

25. The sunlight: it burns, it burns.

GOP uber alles. Even the USA.


And yes, you can quote me on that.

[DeepModem Mom]

27. O.M.G. nt

[annabanana]

28. "we just want the stories to die."

(from page 3 above)

"In an e-mail, Justice's deputy communications director, Brian Roehrkasse, wrote to Sampson and another aide: "The attorney general is extremely upset with the stories on US attys this morning. He also thought some of the DAG's statements were inaccurate. . . . I think from a straight news perspective we just want the stories to die."

[bklyncowgirl]

31. I imagine Fitz was pretty much untouchable

The would have loved to fire the guy but that would have created too much blowback.

[babylonsister]

32. If he was ranked so low, he could easily replace Gonzales and the wh

wouldn't miss a beat. :eyes:

[The Wizard]

33. Lawyers

especially government lawyers, should be loyal to the rule of law as the right wing assholes would repeat when hunting and harassing Bill Clinton the last duly elected President. When loyalty to a politician trumps loyalty to the Constitution we are a dictatorship. But a dictatorship is Bush's preferred form of government. He will go down is History as a failed president who seized power under unusual circumstances and was never seen as legitimate by the majority of Americans.

[Norquist Nemesis]

39. No doubt our former Governor Ryan (R-IL) would agree

as would Mayor Daley's (D-Chicago) many appointments and connections. With those two alone, if that doesn't "distinguish" him, then something is seriously amiss.

One thing that I've heard little if anything about, is that the USA in AK looks like a strategic appointment for 2008 Presidential election. Who knows what Rove's 'protege' would be uncovering from previous investigations on the Clintons.

[LiberalFighter]

41. In Indiana it was 100% against Democrats

[peacetalksforall]

42. Expectations. Job performance. Loyalty performance. We

expect performance to mean the usual in ratings - how the person performed accordng to established standards. It's obvious that the list we're talking about was rated according to loyalty to leaders and willingness to do the bidding of a blatanly arrogant criminal WH and RNC administration. Performance means something entirely different to them. We just have to see that.

The structure and relationship of this country means nothing to these people.

Congressional leaders or Senators should ask them to define their loyalty standards used to compile their list. They should especially ask them what per cent of their actions were at the bidding of the RNC and Republicans Senators and Congresspoeple. It appears to be a joint effort.

[pcboss49]

43. Evidently he wasn't doing " a heck of a job....."

[whistle]

44. Your photo of the marching Nazi storm troopers in synchronized goose steps

...fits the Bush administration and elected reThuglicans to a tee! So the memo implicates D. Kyle Sampson, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and Harriet Miers. My, my, my, such a cozy circle of administration fascists. That means they were in fact doing the bidding of the president and vice president. Clean these bastards out of Washington and send them to federal prison for life!

[Zorra]

49. Yep. The Bushzis take another page straight from the Nazi handbook:

The next day, August 20, mandatory loyalty oaths were introduced throughout the Reich...

"Article 1. The public officials and the soldiers of the armed forces must take an oath of loyalty on entering service.
Article 2
1. The oath of loyalty of public officials will be:
'I swear: I shall be loyal and obedient to Adolf Hitler, the Führer of the German Reich and people, respect the laws, and fulfill my official duties conscientiously, so help me God.'
snip--
These oaths were pledged to Hitler personally, not the German state or constitution.

http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-becomes.htm

Is it fascism yet?

[Kolesar]

46. Ironic is that the prosecutors brave enough to confront the WH were rated "weak"

and the (unethical) bush enablers who did not do the work of The People were rated "strong"

[Zambero]

47. Loyal to Administration = "Strong"?

Let's get Dennis Hopper involved here, it's time to REDEFINE!
:sarcasm:

[Quantess]

51. And "weak" prosecutors had chafed with the administration.

Disgusting. So un American.

[usregimechange]

57. It is almost like a psychological condition. Tough cowboy

not very smart but "tough" Tough as in beating up your grandma to get her to stop complaining about her chronic pain.

[AikidoSoul]

48. IMPEACH THESE F...ING BASTARDS!!!

WHEN?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[Supersedeas]

52. Al Gonzo has a problem with the prosecution of his former collegue--I suppose.

[Peace Patriot]

54. My guess as to why they didn't fire Fitz is that Gonzo was so dirty on Plamegate.

As WH counsel, he had alerted the perps and gave them 18 hours to shred docs and burn hard drives. (That's my guess about Sealed vs. Sealed--that it was Fitz vs. Gonzales--a guarantee of non-interference that Fitz was holding in his back pocket). So Fitz was not only insulated by the Comey letter (giving him broad powers that exceeded those of the AG), he had a boss who was prosecutable as a perp. And all of this means that Bush would have had to fire Fitz personally.

As to the "Saturday Night Massacre" storm, that a firing of Fitz would have unleashed, I think probably Cheney wanted to. (My theory on him is that he is re-playing all those Nixon events in his mind, but this time they win.) Prior to the '06 election, what would have come of a Fitz firing--with that Bush "pod people" Congress, whose last act was rescinding the right of habeas corpus (one of the chief causes of the American Revolution). Bloody traitors, all of them. They would have done nothing! I'll bet it was discussed. It's just the sort of thing that fits right into Cheney's need to replay those old events. I think he feels contempt for Nixon's weakness--that Nixon knew the difference between right and wrong, even if he chose wrong--and contempt for the Republicans of that era and their respect for the rule of law. ("Law and order" was their motto--remember?) He wants to undo all that--govern by bludgeon--and could watch with grim satisfaction, as Diebold/ES&S's handpicked Congress yammered out the "talking points" (no crime committed, "everybody knew" (Plame's status), out-of-control prosecutor, etc., etc.), if the Bushcons in Congress would have even permitted the subject to be discussed at all.

What stopped him? Dunno. Possibly Gonzo's guilt. Possibly that the Bushcon "house of cards" was starting to crumble, as Fitz's grand jury got into action. I think it started to crumble behind the scenes during Katrina. Remember how Rove, Cheney, Rice, all of them, seemed to desert Bush in public--and there Bush stood, all alone, playing guitar and eating birthday cake? Very odd. Where were his handlers? And then Clinton and Daddy Bush came out and stood behind him, like sentinels--as if to say, 'this IS the president.' What was going on? My guess at the time--Rove seemed to be on strike. He later put out a newsbite that he had been in the hospital. Right. Was he negotiating something re the Fitz investigation? A pardon? And Cheney was AWOL during Katrina, except to order electrical workers, in the dead of night, in the midst of flooding and death, to fix the Texas to east coast oil pipeline instead of power to local hospitals, and positioning Halliburton for the first no-bid contract. Meanwhile, Bush was getting reamed in public for inaction. There seemed to be a split developing--later identified as the Bush/Rove vs. Cheney/Libby split. I sensed a big crack, but I didn't quite know what it was about--but I sensed that it was about Plamegate, not Katrina. (What do they care about dying American poor people anyway? Nothing. But covering their asses on Plamegate, that would be important to them.)

So all this trouble in BushWorld--fights about who was to be the fall guy for Plamegate, with Katrina on top of that (as the bodies piled up, and even the war profiteering corporate news monopoly reporters were appalled)--may have made a concerted, open attack on Fitz impossible. It would have taken a united front, with Rove and the WHIGs working overtime on the corporate media lapdogs. And guess what? A whole bunch of the media lapdogs were also getting hauled before the GJ. (Imagine Novak defending the firing of Fitz--when he himself was a perp. Or Judith Miller writing scathing anti-Fitz hit pieces from jail.) Their hotshot team for selling death and destruction was not in good working order. Was that it? Or maybe the Rovians--once Rove successfully fingered Libby, and got himself out of immediate hot water on Plamegate--didn't want to do Fitz in, on Cheney/Libby's behalf. It would have put Rove in jeopardy. I doubt that Comey's letter (just a piece of paper, after all--like the Constitution) could have protected Fitz, if Cheney could have orchestrated a firing. "Sealed vs. Sealed" maybe could have. Hard to know. Or maybe it was the combination of things--the Rove vs. Libby war, the disarray, the Comey letter, the failed game to "get" Iran (China and Russia balking), the disaster in Iraq. He just couldn't put it together. But I'd bet money that firing Fitz was in the Cheney pipeline at some point. The only people Cheney hates more than Democrats are honest, true-blue "law and order" Republicans.

[illinoisprogressive]

58. His investigation is probably what sparked all this