Pelosi: `I believe we need a new attorney general'

Chicago Tribune ^ | 20 MARCH 2007 | Jill Zuckman

[rdb3]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-0703200146mar20,1,7833118.story?coll=chi-politics-stories2

Pelosi: `I believe we need a new attorney general'

`Era of no oversight' for Republicans is over, speaker says

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By Jill Zuckman
Tribune national correspondent

March 20, 2007

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi added her voice to the growing chorus of discontent over the Justice Department's firing of eight federal prosecutors, saying Monday, "I believe we need a new attorney general."

In a meeting with the Tribune editorial board and in an interview with WGN-TV, Pelosi (D-Calif.) said there was a reason Republicans feared a Democratic victory last November.

"They knew that the era of no oversight was over and that they would have to be held accountable," she said, citing the scandal at Walter Reed Army Medical Center over the treatment of wounded soldiers, as well as questions about whether politics played a role in the dismissal of the U.S. attorneys.

Pelosi spoke as the war in Iraq was entering its fifth year, detailing her party's efforts to bring the troops home. She called the war "a grotesque mistake" that has weakened the armed forces and made it harder for the military to respond to threats elsewhere.

"This is a war without end and it is a commitment that is unlimited, and we have to have a better alternative," she said. "It's a tragedy."

[rdb3]

A%#$@*&%%$#!

What else can I say?

[sport]

And she recommends Janet Reno.

[Tabi Katz]

"I believe we need a new attorney general."

No dear, we need the old Congress.

[reg45]

I believe that we need a new Speaker of the House.

[mtbopfuyn]

I believe Larry the Cable Guy is better lookin' than Nancy.

[mo]

Let Nancy spend the next 18 months trying to sc%$w the Whitehouse...better them than us!!!

[Long Island Pete]

I believe if you cant say anything nice, you must be talking about Hillary Clinton.

[iranvictory]

I agree to the max

[livius]

I am very puzzled by this. Gonzales has not, to my knowledge, been a very active or effective AG, and he certainly hasn't been very politically helpful to Bush. That is, he has been conspicuous by his absence and silence in many of the current assaults-via-legal-proceedings on the Administration. He didn't go after Berger and has never followed up on various other miscarriages of justice. In other words, he's not much of a threat, unlike various other Bush officials the Dems have managed to destroy.

But the Dems really seem to want him out. It puzzles me greatly. Maybe there's something I don't know about him, or something he's working on that they're afraid of? Or perhaps it's just a symbolic victory, so the Dems can say they brought down another person close to Bush.

[cripplecreek]

I think it is symbolic. There are a lot of us here who want him out too but we want him out for real reasons, not manufactured ones.

[CharlesWayneCT]

I'm not agreeing with Pelosi.

But, I agree with her. We should have been conducting oversight hearings the last six years, publicly and often. The Congress has legitimate oversight duties, and the perception that we were not doing so helped fuel the push for democrats in 2006.

And now, any little thing they find validates them. Which is why I felt Gonazales should go. He didn't serve the President or the Administration well in this, or in the FBI NSL case (which is beginning to look like another "scandal" where there is a lot less "there" then was suggested.

Clinton had a knack for making everything sound less bad than it was. The Bush administration has a knack for making things look worse than they are.

[Doogle]

...6 things passed the house in first 50 hours....into law
0, seems speaker bela can't get anything done. Of course
being irrevlelent means nothing to her, since she's so used to it.


Doogle

[iopscusa]

I too think Gonzales needs to go, but not pushed out by this witch hunt...hope it blows up on the Rats. But if he they get him, then it's good riddance

[Comus]

"And she recommends Janet Reno."

This slacker Gonzales has been in office two years and hasn't burned any women and children alive yet, get him out of there.

[BulletBobCo]

I believe we need a new Speaker of the House.

[Teacher317]

Look for W to cave in to this idea soon.

[maggief]

I believe Nancy Pelosi needs a new plastic surgeon.

[livius]

I don't think Gonzales has been very effective at anything; he's a go along to get along type of guy without any real program and no political will. But the problem is that if Bush dumps him now, he's given the Dems another propaganda victory and made himself look even weaker. And with the Dems, it's all about appearances, which of course the media will pick up and magnify 100-fold.

[roaddog727]

I believe that we need a new house majority leader, Nancy. What do you think about that?

[Rummyfan]

But the Dems really seem to want him out. It puzzles me greatly.

They want to see him out as (1) they sense weakness on the part of the Admin, especially after the Libby verdict and (2)taking him out further weakens the Admin and gives them another scalp to hang on their totem, regardless of any logic or sanity.