Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales testified last week that the effort was limited to eight U.S. attorneys fired since June, and other administration officials have said that only a few others were suggested for removal.
If, as reported in the Chicago Tribune, the number of federal prosecutors suggested for dismissal was closer to 26 than the mere 8 that were fired, did Attorney General Gonzales lie to Congress when he testified under oath that the effort was limited to the 8 that were fired since June?
Why would the Justice Department withhold documents from the public if they were telling the truth on this matter? Does the Bush administration have so little respect for the democratic process that they simply do whatever they see fit?
I would argue that the Bush White House understands executive power as being more or less without limits, subject to little more than fiat which places the administration and all of its power outside the realm of responsibility to the governed. This is the very arrogance that inspired Thomas Jefferson (cribbing extensively from John Locke) to write–“When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
When the king acts outside the bounds of civility and against the best interests of the governed it is within the bounds of politics to sever the ties that bind one to the sovereign.
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Jefferson begins his list of grievances against George III with the following words: “He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.”
In this scandal ridden White House, George II “has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. ” His support for AG Gonzales, Karl, Rove, Paul Wolfowitz and Margaret Spellings at the DoED, each a Bush appointee and each deeply mired in scandal that are not in any meaningful way “he most wholesome and necessary for the public good,” smacks of an arrogance that is beyond all reason.
William Shakespeare puts these words in the mouth of Richard III:
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
gave no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to see my shadow in the sun
And descant on mine own deformity:
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain,
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
I think they fit in George W. Bush’s mouth as well.
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Roger maybe you can enlighten me, but why is there a scandal about the firing of some attorney that work at the pleasure of the president? A lot of people on the right are talking about how Clinton fired 93 when he got in office, and Bush only fired 8.
I’m sure you got the facts.
BTW. We need to change that Obama 08 to Fred Thompson 08! LOL
We need to change that Obama 08 to Fred Thompson 08!
OMG Not another ACTOR!!! Did Fred Thompson ever play a president? LOL
Why is there a scandal about the firing of some attorney that work at the pleasure of the president?
The scandal is not about the firing but about the lying and covering up that accompanied the firing. By the way, the prosecutors fired were all Bush appointees who apparently refused to act independently, as one would expect a prosecutor to act, even those who serve at the pleasure of the president.
The office of Federal Prosecutor is not the private attorney of the president rather they are the attorney representing the people of the United States–the PEOPLE not the PRESIDENT. It is unconscionable that:
1. The White House chose to use the office of the prosecutor as a political tool, and
2. That the White House and high officials of Justice chose to lie, cover-up the facts and otherwise dissemble to the American PEOPLE the facts of the firings.
The administration is out of control, acting as if they have no constitutional or legal responsibility to the PEOPLE. This administration has placed itself outside of the law and outside of commonly accepted ethical and moral principles (something like lying is wrong) in order to advance their own agenda. We haven’t seen hubris like this since Nixon, acting to save his own skin, covered-up the Watergate incident thereby turning a minor burglary (albeit politically motivated) into a national crisis. You ask what is wrong with letting go 8 lawyers–it is the betrayal of the trust of the people in the office which can lead only to less trust in elected officials which can only lead to the ultimate abandonment of the principles of self-government embodied in the Constitution of the United States. If that isn’t wrong, I don’t know what is.
OMG Not another ACTOR!!! Did Fred Thompson ever play a president? LOL
I’m not sure if he ever played a president, but I sure do hope that he hurries and enters the race.
I have read that he’s a believer in Federalism, and that’s what this gov’t needs today. The Federal gov’t is out of control.
The administration is out of control, acting as if they have no constitutional or legal responsibility to the PEOPLE.
You’re right. What are your thoughts on this new amnesty in disguise bill that Bush and the Senate are putting together?