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High Crimes and Misdemeanors
By Jeff Fecke | March 10, 2007
Watching the unfolding U.S. Attorney scandal has been almost unbelievable–and I thought that the Bush administration had already buried the needle on by disbelief-o-meter. I actually do think Karl Rove thought he was going to win last November–because there’s just no way in hell he would have thought this was a good idea with an incoming opposition congress:
Presidential advisor Karl Rove and at least one other member of the White House political team were urged by the New Mexico Republican party chairman to fire the state’s U.S. attorney because of dissatisfaction in part with his failure to indict Democrats in a voter fraud investigation in the battleground election state.
In an interview Saturday with McClatchy Newspapers, Allen Weh, the party chairman, said he complained in 2005 about then-U.S. Attorney David Iglesias to a White House liaison who worked for Rove and asked that he be removed. Weh said he followed up with Rove personally in late 2006 during a visit to the White House.
“Is anything ever going to happen to that guy?” Weh said he asked Rove at a White House holiday event that month.
“He’s gone,” Rove said, according to Weh.
“I probably said something close to ‘Hallelujah,’” said Weh.
Weh’s account calls into question the Justice Department’s stance that the recent decision to fire Iglesias and seven U.S. attorneys in other states was a personnel matter – made without White House intervention. Justice Department officials have said the White House’s involvement was limited to approving a list of the U.S. attorneys after the Justice Department made the decision to fire them.
So, just so we’re clear: the Chair of the New Mexico GOP has said, on the record, that he pressured Karl Rove, Deputy Chief of Staff to the President of the United States, to fire U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, himself a Republican, specifically because Iglesias was not prosecuting enough Democrats. In response, Karl Rove said Iglesias would be fired.
This is not in doubt; this has now been stated for the record.
I mean…my God, at what point do we start the impeachment proceedings?
The closest adviser to President Bush was actively involved in using the Justice Department to score political points against Democrats, and took steps to fire U.S. Attorneys who were insufficiently partisan.
That’s the opposite of everything that the Justice Department is supposed to stand for.
Alberto Gonzales and Karl Rove should be fired immediately. Not tomorrow, not after breakfast, immediately. If that does not happen, Congress should immediately begin hearings into whether the President’s use of the Justice Department to harass political enemies is an impeachable offense. It certainly is contrary to the spirit of the Constitution.
I’m not exaggerating; we head into extraordinarily dangerous territory when the Justice Department begins prosecuting based on political affiliation. When that happens, respect for the rule of law ends. And when that happens, governments fall.
The Bush administration has placed its own interests ahead of the fundamental building blocks of American society. It no longer is deserving of our protection. It is only deserving of our scorn.
Topics: Bush Administration, US Attorney Scandal | 1 Comment »
March 11th, 2007 at 9:43 am
Plame and Joe moved to New Mexico. Someone there was running for President. Maybe he won’t now?