Posted on 01/17/2007 4:36:29 AM PST by radar101
Senate Democrats want to take away Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' power to replace U.S. attorneys who fall out of favor and return that authority to federal district judges.
Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Mark Pryor of Arkansas complained Tuesday that the White House is using an obscure provision in the newly reauthorized USA Patriot Act to reward Republican political allies with jobs as federal prosecutors.
"The Bush administration is pushing out U.S. attorneys from across the country under the cloak of secrecy and then appointing indefinite replacements," Feinstein said.
"It appears that the administration has chosen to use this provision, which was intended to help protect our nation, to circumvent the transparent constitutional Senate confirmation process to reward political allies," Pryor said in the joint Democratic statement.
Not true, Gonzales told The Associated Press.
"We are fully committed to ensuring that with respect to every position we have a Senate-confirmed, presidentially appointed U.S. attorney," Gonzales told editors and reporters during an interview Tuesday.
"We in no way politicize these decisions," he added.
U.S. District Court judges, Gonzales said, tend to appoint friends and others not properly qualified to be prosecutors.
Better that judges do the hiring than the White House, say Democrats, who have introduced legislation to return the appointment process to the courts.
The subject is headed for a public airing Thursday when Gonzales appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for its first oversight hearing of his department since the Democrats took control of Congress.
At issue is whether the administration is using an obscure provision in the terrorism-fighting USA Patriot Act to oust federal prosecutors and replace them for the duration of the Bush administration with White House allies.
The intent of the law was to ensure continuity of law enforcement when federal prosecutors are lost in terrorist attacks or other crises. Under it, the attorney general would be permitted to appoint replacements, indefinitely, without Senate confirmation.
In the year since the reauthorization took effect, 11 federal prosecutors have resigned or announced their resignations -- some at the urging of the Bush administration, Gonzales said. He described a range of reasons for ousting sitting U.S. attorneys, from their job performance to their standing in their communities, and noted that federal prosecutors serve at the pleasure of the president.
Gonzales repeatedly cited the Patriot Act when discussing the replacements, but twice refused to say when asked whether any of the personnel changes at issue pertained to national security.
But he stressed that anyone named to replace the departing prosecutors have their jobs only temporarily, pending Senate confirmation. His comments encouraged some Democrats.
"That's good news, if that's the case," Pryor said in a telephone interview later Tuesday. But he stood by his assertion that in his state, the Justice Department improperly ousted U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins and replaced him with Tim Griffin, a protege of Bush adviser Karl Rove.
Feinstein, meanwhile, complained on the Senate floor Tuesday that U.S. Attorneys Carol Lam of San Diego and Kevin Ryan of San Francisco were ousted from their positions for political reasons. Lam prosecuted and obtained the conviction of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif.
Long before 9-11 and the Patriot Act,
Didn't Bubba ClinToon replace every US Atty in the country in one swoop ???
Jimmy Carter used the rule..
You can't trust these Democrats. They try to rig the political game every step of the way, while claiming they're on the side of the angels.
Toon fired all but one, IIRC.
For Democrats, the World began yesterday.
Dissecting Reno's Justice Department Geoff Metcalf interviews best-selling author David Limbaugh
Q: This abuse of power under the color of authority really started with the firing of those 93 U.S. attorneys. Now was that a big deal or was that something that sorta, kinda happens anyway?
A: When I first read it, I sort of wondered that too. The way Ted Olson – who I quote in the introduction, our new Solicitor General – explained it to me was that always the new presidents eventually get around to replacing the U.S. Attorneys.
Q: They serve at the pleasure of the president anyway.
A: Yeah but, in this case, Clinton fired them all, and gave them ten days notice, and got rid of them before anybody had been nominated – much less confirmed to take over – and he lost all that work in progress. Previous administrations had never done it like that. There had been a lot more transitional time and you didn't lose the work in progress. You see the contrast with the Bush administration. They didn't even fire Mary Jo Wright, who is handling one of the most controversial investigations that remain and that's Pardongate.
Another reason why Hillie needs to be prez....?
Can someone explain why it would be a good idea to have judges pick the prosecutors for their own courts?
Thanks for the link.
Asidem, Ping.
I seem to recall the same thing
Mark
FYI Ping
Thats my question too. Didnt Clinton fire every Republican in that ofice?
Now they want to take away that power.
They forgot to add the part where DiFi admitted a couple times that it was a RUMOR she heard
Pretty sad when the Dems have to resort to RUMORS as facts for their case
If they are liberal judges .. who believes in pushing the liberal agenda through the courts .. would you hire an attorney that could out smart you ... especially one that believed in the Constitution and the laws of our land???
There's a reason why DiFi is in a tizzy about this one
Looks like their hundred hours are turning into a hundred missteps and missed opportunities!
Now they've got Webb doing the response to the SOTU.
He'll make it a personal attack on the President and further damage the dems.
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