WaPo: Prosecutor Purge Politically Driven

[cal04]

The Washington Post reports on the administration's purge of federal prosecutors this morning and finds that the call for the move came, shockingly, from outside the Justice Department:

One administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in discussing personnel issues, said the spate of firings was the result of "pressure from people who make personnel decisions outside of Justice who wanted to make some things happen in these places."

In other words, the pressure to replace the prosecutors did not come from the people who would know about the U.S. Attorneys' job performance (their supervisors at the Justice Department), but rather from power players in the White House or Republican Party. That would explain why the seven federal prosecutors purged in December were not given a reason for their dismissals -- and why justifications for the firings have sounded like lame rationalizations.

(snip)
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will be holding a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the issue Tuesday called, "Preserving Prosecutorial Independence: Is the Department of Justice Politicizing the Hiring and Firing of U.S. Attorneys?" Let's see if he comes up with an answer.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002475.php

[peacebird]

1. k&r

[Straight Shooter]

2. "First let's kill all the lawyers" has now become "First let's remove the judges." n/t

[PDJane]

3. Sigh........

A magnificent grasp of the perfectly apparent.

This needs a revolution.........

[aquart]

4. Impeachable offense 9,992

Just add it to the list of crimes we haven't bothered to prosecute.

[SharonAnn]

5. Gosh, why didn't Bill Clinton do that? He could've gotten rid of some who

caused him real problems.

[salin]

6. Outside the Justice Dept. Let's guess: OVP?

(Office of the Vice President)

[lyonn]

7. When will the ordinary repub realise how their party is being

trashed? We can even throw in the repubs in Congress. If you disagree with bushco you will be tossed, party be damned. You can not bring charges against repubs according to the bush conglomerate which is what some of those U.S. Attorneys did.

Impeach now......

[Joe Chi Minh]

8. I don't think there are that many of them left.

[CoffeeCat]

9. ...and I want to see RESULTS....

I'm sick and tired of hearing the Democrats lamenting and wringing their hands.

It's positive that we're investigating the thugs, and spotlighting their crimes.

However, lets see some backbone. Let's see some action. If these judges
were let go--so BushCo can stack the deck in favor of his Fascist bs--then
let's get these judges back in their jobs.

We can't be happy with harsh words and wrist-slapping these neocon thugs.

Change must happen, or words and hearings are meaningless.