Posted on 03/06/2007 9:31:34 AM PST by NormsRevenge
The Rodents sure have a short memory. Does anyone remember that Bill Clinton fired all U.S. Attorneys when he took office?
U.S. Attorneys are presidential appointees. Every U.S. president fires the prior president's appointees and puts in his own. Bush fired every single Clinton-appointed US Attorney and appointed his own people. (What was unique about Clinton was that he fired every sitting US Attorney en masse; most presidents let the former administration's US Attorneys continue to serve until the new appointee is nominated and confirmed. Clinton did this because he wanted the Arkansas US Attorney, who was investigating Whitewater, out right away, and he fired all of the US Attorneys at once to try to hide what he was doing.)
It is well within the President's power to fire his own US Attorneys at any time, but historically, this has very, very rarely been done. Bush has now fired 8 of his own appointees in a row, which is legal, but unprecedented, and therefore has attracted notice.
The other reason this has attracted notice is that Bush proposed (and Congress passed) a change to the law last year (it was a little-noticed provision of the Patriot Act renewal): it used to be that, if a US Attorney died, resigned or was fired, the judges in that district's federal court would elect the temporary successor, who would serve until the president nominated a successor and the Senate confirmed him. Under the new law, Bush can fire a US Attorney and appoint a successor who can serve indefinitely without Senate confirmation. Bush's firing of 8 US Attorneys and appointment of successors without having to get them confirmed by the Senate is another thing that has attracted controversy.
"The Rodents sure have a short memory. Does anyone remember that Bill Clinton fired all U.S. Attorneys when he took office?"
Come on, folks, this is absolutely normal. They might do it in different ways, but the result is the same. Bush did it.
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