News All the presidents men getting U.S. attorney appointments

[edward]

Alberto Gonzales is asking current U.S. attorneys to step down. They are being replaced by Bush's inner circle. One of those removed was Carol Lamb in San Diego. She was the U.S. attorney who prosecuted
Randy "Duke" Cunningham for bribery. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty says that politics is not involved.

http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/168019.php

WASHINGTON | Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is transforming the ranks of the nation’s top federal prosecutors by firing some and appointing conservative loyalists from the Bush administration’s inner circle.

The appointments have troubled some current and former prosecutors, who worry that the Justice Department is tightening its control over local U.S. attorneys’ offices to curb the prosecutors’ independence.

If they are too close to the administration, these lawyers said, federal prosecutors might not be willing to pursue important but controversial cases that don’t fit the administration’s agenda. Similarly, they said, U.S. attorneys could be forced to pursue only Washington’s priorities rather than their own.

The newly appointed U.S. attorneys all have impressive legal credentials, but most of them have few, if any, ties to the communities they have been appointed to serve, and some have had little experience as prosecutors.

Nine recent appointees identified by McClatchy Newspapers held high-level White House or Justice Department jobs.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansa...90.htm?source=rss&channel=kansascity_politics

 

[denverdoc]

I really do believe this is a constituional crisis, or on the verge of one. President won't say no to more troops, insisting that appointees be in charge of regulatory agencies, and now this. Maybe not in that order, but all since the election. Clintons might have stolen the china, but this is like booby trapping the whole house. Am I wrong, or is this the usual lame duck behavior?

 

[edward]

I really do believe this is a constituional crisis, or on the verge of one. President won't say no to more troops, insisting that appointees be in charge of regulatory agencies, and now this. Maybe not in that order, but all since the election. Clintons might have stolen the china, but this is like booby trapping the whole house. Am I wrong, or is this the usual lame duck behavior?

The entire Bush term in office has been the most secretive in presidential history. It really makes me wonder just exactly whom it is that is running the country. It isn't Bush the guy isn't that intelligent.

This last stunt went by nearly unnoticed. There is more involved here than just a lame duck doing political favors.

from the link above.

The decision to fire the U.S. attorneys came under scrutiny late last month after Senate Democrats discovered that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales could use a little-noticed change in the Patriot Act to fill the vacancies with appointees.

I interpret this as meaning that the president doesn't even have to be involved.

 

[denverdoc]

Thats interesting if not surprising, after all he is a puppet, and whose ventriloquist is malaprop at times. Astronuc raised a thread a few days ago, how do we reform? It seems to me we need to shore up the divisions between the three branches, first, by changing the appointment system to the judiciary, second by getting rid of this sign but with reservation crap on the presidents part, getting veto at 50/50 over the prez, and making select committees more or less neutral all the time so we don't get this perpetual tug of war.