Purged U.S. Attorneys Slam Gonzales Testimony

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/20/attorneys-react/

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.

[speedoo]

1. Thanks, excellent post.

K&R

[gratuitous]

2. And remember, the folks that were fired were all good Republicans

That's how they got their jobs in the first place, their political connections and background. I wonder how folks like Iglesias and McKay feel about the Grand Old Party nowadays?

[BanzaiBonnie]

3. Yes, but not the right kind of Republicans

Those who believe that anything done to support the RR is the only way to go.

[spooky3]

4. If I hear "it wasn't handled well" one more time, I'll scream!

Iglesias says it well, maybe a bit too politely. The Rethug spinning about the process misses the boat entirely--the OUTCOMES are the problem. These people should not have been fired for political reasons.

[Straight Shooter]

5. Gonzales, like bush and rove, believes in the politics of personal destruction.

Smear your opponents, show no mercy, and demand absolute slavish loyalty from everyone.

[sundancekid]

6. then, say you made a mistake, and go right ahead making it over and over again

... and with impunity, at that

behold:
dimson and dimwits