I believe the below article first appeared in the Washington post:
#---------------------------------------------
U.S. Attorneys Saga Exposes Weakened Justice Department Independence
WASHINGTON - The investigations into the Bush administration's decision
to fire nine U.S. attorneys have exposed how the administration has
eroded the firewall between partisan politics and the Justice Department
and compromised the independence of the nation's top law enforcement
agency.
As early as 2002, administration policymakers, Republican legislators
and GOP party officials began injecting politics into criminal
investigations and civil and voting rights enforcement and applying
political litmus tests to judges and career lawyers at the Justice
Department.
A McClatchy Newspapers analysis of thousands of Justice Department
documents, congressional testimony and interviews with current and
former Justice Department officials reveals that the administration:
-Issued a series of directives to dismantle the traditional boundaries
between White House political operatives and the Justice Department,
permitting a larger circle of aides to discuss pending criminal and
civil investigations.
-Ignored the advice of top Justice Department lawyers and crafted
national security policies that pushed or breached the limits of the
law. In one case involving secret spying, at least 10 top department
officials - including then-Attorney General John Ashcroft and the head
of the FBI - were prepared to resign in protest.
-Allowed political adviser Karl Rove and the White House Office of
Political Affairs to become conduits for complaints about politically
sensitive prosecutions. Elected officials and even lobbyists took their
frustrations about individual cases or prosecutors to Rove, or to the
attorney general and his aides.
-Replaced some independent-minded U.S. attorneys and career Justice
Department lawyers with young lawyers who had little trial experience
but belonged to the conservative Federalist Society or the Republican
National Lawyers Association.
These changes began years before Alberto Gonzales became attorney
general in February 2005, in the ask-no-questions atmosphere that
followed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. They occurred with the
cooperation of a Republican-led Congress and reverberated from the
distant Pacific territory of Guam to the Deep South to Western states
that could be battlegrounds in next year's presidential election.
White House officials deny that the administration has allowed partisan
politics to taint the Justice Department. They've also defended last
year's firings by emphasizing a president's right to change his
appointees and blaming the prosecutors for failing to carry out
President Bush's policies.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said the congressional investigation
proves only that the firings could have been "handled better" and that
"it's clear that the attorney general did nothing wrong."
The administration maintains that it's a coincidence that most of the
fired U.S. attorneys served in battleground election states, were
investigating Republicans or had irritated local Republicans with their
refusals to prosecute Democrats.
Administration officials note that the Justice Department has prosecuted
high-profile Republicans, including lobbyist Jack Abramoff and ex-Rep.
Randy "Duke" Cunningham on corruption charges, and I. Lewis "Scooter"
Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, for lying and
obstructing an investigation.
Yet many of the nation's legal experts, including Republicans with long
government service, see a troubling change in the administration of justice.
"We have a Justice Department that has substantially been turned into a
political arm of the White House," said Bruce Fein, a constitutional
lawyer and a Justice Department official in the Reagan administration,
who's become one of the conservative movement's fiercest critics of the
president.
Lelandj - Click on the link below for all four pages of this article:
http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/newsbyid.asp?id=68202
or
http://tinyurl.com/3bqz5b
#----------------------------------------------
Regards,
LelandJ
Graham Dobson wrote:
> It has been called the largest legal office in the world but what it is
> supposed to do is enforce federal law and provide legal advice
> to the president and the heads of the executive departments of government.
> It has traditionally been organized around anti-trust
> law enforcement, civil suits involving the federal government, federal
> criminal cases, internal security, tax related law suits ,
> and suits on civil rights. It's expanding power lately owes not a little to
> the Patriot Act. It has in the past been influenced by
> populist agendas and in the modern instance of "the war on terror" there is
> a case to be made against a lowering of standards of proof
> and a general erosion of civil liberties. The same thing has been happening
> in Britain and the public in poll after poll do not care
> and overwhelmingly support "tougher measures". The terrorists could be seen
> to be winning in this arena. You are right to decry
> violations of the US constitution. But to work for the Attorney General is
> to work for the executive branch of government. The
> entire issue of these firings is politically charged, but the important
> thing is, the US continues to be an open and free system,
> which this debate perfectly illustrates. George Bush is not the
> anti-democratic demon you suggest. He is, in my opinion, on the right
> side of issues such as free-trade, immigration, education, supreme court
> appointments, and belatedly, energy policy.
> He is trying to do a good job and is an honorable individual. Alberto
> Gonzales on the other hand is completely incompetent and a
> total liability. As was the overly arrogant Mr. Rumsfeld. Graham.
>
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> Behalf Of Leland F. Jackson, CPA
>> Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2007 1:32 PM
>> To: ProFox Email List
>> Subject: Re: [OT] Political Hiring in Justice Division Probed
>>
>>
>> The Bush Administration politicized the Justice Department, which is
>> suppose to be an independent branch of the Government. It is important
>> that the Justice Department be independent, so that justice is
>> administered in a blind fashion, without regards to race, religion,
>> gender, ethnicity, or political party affiliation, etc.
>>
>> The way the Bush Administration structure the Justice Department,
>> department heads and staff were instructed to use the Justice Department
>> to attack political opponents of the GOP, and their supporters, while
>> ignoring illegal acts committed by the GOP faithful. This is a very
>> serious abuse of power by an Administration that used the Justice
>> Department discriminately to attack perceived enemies. The Justice
>> Department is suppose to enforce the constitution and laws of the land
>> indiscriminately, (eg equally), regardless of race, religion, national
>> origin, ethniticity, gender, sexual orientation, or political party
>> affiliation. This was a direct abuse of the Justice Department and the
>> Bush Administration's power gained through subverting it.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> LelandJ
>>
>> Graham Dobson wrote:
>>
>>> The president appoints and fires US attorneys who represent the federal
>>> government in district courts. Reagan and Clinton replaced all 93
>>> attorneys each on taking office. Stuart Taylor a legal affairs
>>>
>> writer for
>>
>>> the National Journal states that It is reasonable for a
>>>
>> president to dismiss
>>
>>> prosecutors over policy. As with almost everything else under
>>>
>> the attorney
>>
>>> general Alberto Gonzalez things have not been handled well or in a
>>> straightforward manner. There is a lot of legal gray area regarding what
>>> constitutes the "loyalty" of a government lawyer and to whom
>>>
>> that loyalty is
>>
>>> owed. Many of the emails emails surrounding these firings are
>>>
>> dubious and
>>
>>> ill conceived; but the complaints against the sacked attorneys were
>>> described as substantial by the Economist on March 17 2007.
>>>
>> Some of these
>>
>>> attorney's refused to toe the line on illegal immigration, the
>>>
>> death penalty
>>
>>> and voting-fraud cases. What we seem to be witnessing is that
>>>
>> the democrats
>>
>>> won the mid term elections and they are flexing their new
>>>
>> powers. Just like
>>
>>> the republicans did in 1994. Graham.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> It's shameful what the Bush Administration has done to our system of
>>>> government, including the American Constitution. What has happen
>>>> boarders on a coup d'etat, but rather than a sudden overthrow of the
>>>> American government by force, the coup d'etat was in the form of a
>>>> gradual subversion of our government using non-violent attacks on the
>>>> system from within, especially through seizing control of the legal
>>>> system to make the legal system an arm of the exective branch.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
[excessive quoting removed by server]
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