So, how do you know he wasn't fired for performance reasons and is covering his tracks so he can keep his cushy job at a law school?

So, how do you know he wasn't fired for performance reasons and is covering his tracks so he can keep his cushy job at a law school?

Yeah, all of a sudden, boatloads have "performance problems" after getting good evals. Whatever.

Well, Leahy just compared this to the Saturday Night Massacre. Good on him. It does appear that BushCo's first instinct is to lie...

Sheesh. I thought this administration was at least fairly competent at the lying and deceit. After all, practice makes perfect. But lo and behold, they can't even do that well anymore.

So, how do you know he wasn't fired for performance reasons and is covering his tracks so he can keep his cushy job at a law school?

John McKay's DOJ performance review, 7 months before he got shown the door: "an effective, well-regarded and capable leader of the (office) and the District's law enforcement community."

Western District of Washington's Chief Judge Lasnik: "We unanimously agreed that (John McKay) was an absolutely superb U.S. Attorney (and for DOJ) to suggest otherwise is unfair."

King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng: "He did an outstanding job and took the office to a new level."

Try again, "American" Hawk.

What's happened is actually pretty simple. The Congressional landscape is different. The Democrats can actually hold hearings on matters like this, which keeps the issue in the news cycle. Last year, there would have been a brief flutter, and then no more story.

Also, maturing web-based journalism is making a big difference. Two years ago, Josh Marshall probably wouldn't have had the resources to break this story. We're seeing something similar in FireDogLake's Libby coverage. It's not at all clear to me that the degree of Cheney's direct involvement in the Plame affair would have made its way into print without their coverage.

One of Josh Marshall's readers points out that the Bush cabal wasn't even consistent in their cover stories:

If I read Darrel Issa’s press release correctly, Carole Lam gets fired because she’s not prosecuting enough border crime, even though she’s prosecuting a major Congressional and DoD corruption case; Dave Iglesias gets fired because he’s prosecuting too much border crime, and not enough local corruption. So where’s the happy median for the Bush Administration? If Lam filed as many border crime cases as Iglesias, and Iglesias as many corruption cases? Even their cover stories have holes the size of the Pentagon in them…

"So how do we know he wasn't fired for performance reasons and is covering his tracks so he can keep his cushy job at a law school?"

Well, his performance review would seem to counter that but that is paying attention to little things like facts and we know how well you do at that ah. Still, let's put facts to the side, how do you explain the removal of the others? Kevin is right, as is always the case with this administration, they have what seems to be a genetic pre-disposition to try and get cute taking their lies a step too far. From the lies about the Clinton people removing all the W keyes from the White House keyboards to the lies about a commercial jet spotting Bush's plane for his Thanksgiving with the troops, they are incapable of telling the truth be the subject large or small. Lies upon lies upon more lies and it is all starting to collapse. From WMD in Iraq to "we do not torture" to Katrina to Iran to South Korea to Walter Reed to this. It is all connected by the thread of dishonesty and the feeling that this really is the administration that could not find the trigger, let alone shoot straight. If this were not our country going down the tubes it would be a really funny absurdist comedy.

How do yo know they didn't get fired for performance reasons.Because there not like you spending everyday, bloodshot eyes staring at the computer, waiting for kevin to post a new thread,So you can be the first post.That would be a performance issue,No Job,Addicted to the computer,More then likely looking at Porn,Just waiting for Kevins next post.Hawk you remind me of someone who would pay there Am express card with ther Visa card.

The ultimate effect of the Bush Administration will be that the American public, outside the 33% dead-enders, representatives of whom post here, will not trust the Republican Party with the levers of power for a generation.

There's yet another federal prosecuter in Maryland who's come forward and says he was forced out in 2005 by Maryland Republicans for investigating Republican crime.

Like Mr. DiBiagio, several of the newly departing prosecutors were overseeing >sensitive political corruption investigations when they left office.

I guess Republicans don't like being subject to the rule of law, they just like it when someone else is.

DiBiagio said the pressure on him was so acute that he actually reported one of the conversations to the FBI as a threat.

It's the Bush administration in a microcosm: a too-clever-by-half expansion of executive power, spin and deceit when it's discovered, followed by a storm of backtracking and protestations of innocence that no one believes.

There's one thing missing in this observation: the insistence on that any variation from the party line calls for character assasination. Anyone who diagrees with this administration must be destroyed.

By the way, where did the term too-clever-by-half come from?

I do think "every option should be on the table" here.

That, of course, includes impeachment, conviction & removal from office. Maybe even some real prison time.

Say good bye Dick !

"Eventually, the truth will emerge. And when it does, this house of cards, built of deceit, will fall." - Robert C. Byrd

People, at least most of them, either want to be thought well of or at least have the appearance of looking good. Along with secrecy and spin, this administration seems to have an obsession with appearing (and I stress the word appearing) like they are above the fray, that they don't do things for crass political reasons, that they are mature and professional. All the things they accuse the Clinton administration of not being.

Yes, and this morning at a Senate committee hearing on the Army Walter Reed scandal appeared the elderly John McCain, with a list of puerile questions for those in charge -- questions undoubtedly prepared by his staff and which he stumbled over in reading time and again as though he were viewing them for the first time.

But, Senator McCain, those in charge include you. Where were you Senator McCain when wounded veterans and their families were desperately trying to bring the rats and mice and mold and mildew to the attention of authorities?

You, Senator McCain, were in charge.

You, Senator McCain, were a part of the Republican majority in Congress who failed to act.

You, Senator McCain, failed to act.

You, Senator McCain, slavishly supported the Republican Administration's Iraq war policies, and still do, that included billions of dollars for Halliburton in Iraq, among others, but not the few thousand dollars it would have taken to rid the Army Walter Reed outpatient facilities of mold and mildew and rats and mice.

This scandal occurred on YOUR watch, Senator McCain.

So, don't sit their and self-righteously try to shift the blame to others with a bunch of puerile staff-prepared questions.

You, Senator McCain, share in the blame -- big time.

The questions you so ineptly read out this morning you should have been asking years ago.

Where were you, Senator McCain?

Some complaints that Bush was politicizing the office, perhaps, but since the offices are political appointments in the first place that wouldn't have gone very far.

While USAs are political appointments they are supposed to be insulated from the political process in order to be free from undue influence. That is why they are traditionally appointed only at the beginning of a president's term and serve until that president leaves office.

I seem to recall in the 1990s, during Whitewater, the mainstream and right-wing press (same difference, really) being full of calls demanding that federal prosecutors and the Justice Department maintain a wall of independence between them and the White House. But, of course, the rules are different for a Republican....

Adjunct faculty is a "cushy job"? That's a good one.

Seriously, what kind of dumbass thinks, "aw, we'll just say they were all shitty lawyers. Who's gonna complain about that?"

These people are simply incompetent, at all of their tasks, at all levels from overall policy to the details of its execution.

Look at the Walter Reed mess. Wouldn't SOMEBODY, like maybe that wizard defense manager Donald Rumsfeld, realize that a war means casualties, and make some extra effort to be sure the military hospitals were ready for them? And even if they didn't do that at first, how competent do you need to be to start to try to solve a problem when it's brought to your attention?

I have to laugh when I think back to how all these guys were spun as genius businessmen. Based on this performance, they wouldn't last a month in any business I've ever worked in.

American (Chicken)Hawk--

[link] "This is a huge loss," said Gil Kerlikowske, Seattle's chief of police. "I've worked with a lot of U.S. attorneys in my time and John is absolutely at the top of the ladder, not only on issues of terrorism but on law enforcement in general. I can tell you that if they're saying John's dismissal was performance related ... I find that almost inconceivable." Kerlikowske noted that McKay had crucial perspective, having served as a White House fellow at the FBI. "He knew how tough the barriers could be between law enforcement agencies, and he really helped break down those walls with information sharing."

"He was a champion with all the federal law enforcement agencies, but especially with ATF," said Kelvin Crenshaw, a 19-year veteran of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the special agent in charge of the Seattle field office. "He's one of the best U.S. attorneys I've ever worked with."

Nice try.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I would have thought that a US Prosecutor's primary responsibility would be to uphold the laws of the US, rather than to implement the policies of the party that appointed him or her. Yet, this is exactly the administration's latest justification for the firings.

Face it, this administration has been getting away with crap like this for six years. Why should they think that was going to change, just because a few Democrats got elected in November? We're not talking about the best and the brightest, after all, who might decide to reign in the blatant use of power. And, they're getting desperate. All of a sudden, the "permanent majority" ain't. Got to scurry around and plant their rats as thoroughly as possible while they still can.

I have been actually watching the hearings. You know those fired USAs are impressive, very impressive. They were the future of the Republican party. I could see at least two of them had shots at becoming US Senators. The other two District or Appellate Court judges. So far the evidence points to a decision high in the Administration that they had to be purged because they lacked the necessary partisan zeal. Instead of advancing party above country, they put their nation ahead of the Republican party. They tried to do their job the best way they knew how. In the eyes of the Bushies that was unforgivable.

It is not very complicated. Most of the people working in the White House, almost certainly the people who call the shots, are what psychologists call “social dominators�. They agree with statements like "There really is no such thing as 'right and wrong'. It all boils down to what you can get away with." It is very likely they are “double-highs� or those who are both social dominators and authoritarians. They are amoral and self-righteous. Cheney does not sit around contemplating Leo Strauss or what John Adams thought about presidential power. The traditions of the United States (making war, enemy combatants, torture, the vice president’s powers and obligations, appointment of U.S. attorneys) are to be reinterpreted on an ad hoc basis with an eye toward preservation of power. In the minds of social dominators power replaces civic virtue, wisdom and justice. We are a very long way from George Washington and the founders.

The founders never counted on Congress eagerly giving up its power.

This is so much bigger than the Libby verdict, yet the hearings are likely to get drowned out in the news about that verdict. Maybe the news media can at least put them together as related items regarding abuse of power.

AnnieCat: Rumsfeld's compassionate response- You return [maimed, disfigured and psychologically traumatized] from war to the f**ked up, inadequate, outpatient system you have, not the outpatient system you'd like to have.

Libby found guilty on 4 of 5 counts.

Hurray!

The only smart decision Bush has ever made was to get his impeachment insurance, "Dickless" Cheney.

"...This administration is so dedicated to spin and deceit that they just couldn't leave it alone. They figured maybe they could avoid any criticism by claiming the firings were for performance-related reasons..."

Well, that is the MBA presidency for you. For decades conservatives complained that if only the government could be run like a business all our troubles would be solved. Now we see how a failing business is run. I think there is going to be a LOT of interesting things come bubbling to the surface in the next few months. The reasonable Republicans are quickly losing their fear of this administration.

I've actually practiced against John McKay's older brother Mike here in Seattle. Mike McKay was appointed US Atty by Bush I. Mike was the state chair in WA to elect Bush I and Bush 2 in 2000. He was vice chair for Bush 2 in 2004. Firing John McKay in this circumstance was like peeing on the Administration's dinner table.

"This administration is so dedicated to spin and deceit that they just couldn't leave it alone."

Kevin's talking to you, Hawk!

I agree with Anicat, Bush Admin. is unbelievably incompetent which the arrogance and hubris mask. But they are also stupid. Just plain flat out stupid. From the fatuous boob in the White House to the paranoid perpetual republican apparachik Cheney. It may be just as simple as that, which is scary because they don't realize how stupid they are.

This administration is outwardly directed only. The leadership simply assumes that anyone below them in the chain of command knows and knew that they were loyalists first,foremost and always. Look at how Cheney reacted to Wilson's criticism and the loyal underlings in and out of his office who trotted off to do his bidding; look at who ended up agreeing to go to Iraq,etc.,etc.
I'm of the belief that Gonzalez inter alii were shocked, truly shocked, when the US attorneys pushed back. They're always astonished that someone on their team isn't willing to go away quietly when they're told to do so.

Let's just keep track of Kevin's views on this; if a Democrat winds up in the White House in 2008 and tries to treat the US Attorneys as federal employees subject to DOJ direction, rather than as independent agents free to pursue their own agendas, will Kevin complain?

Thanks for that example of GOP spin, DBL...the desperation and corruption of your foundering party is intensely gratifying.

Everybody,

I ask that people no longer address Mr. Chickenhawk as American... This North Korean Chickenhawk is the most dishonest and stupid fool I have ever read or had a conversation with and that is saying something. Please refer to him as an other name, but don't call him an American.

DBL,

It would be one thing if something similar to this had happened in the past. But there has not be a case in last 50 years of six U.S. Attorneys being fired in a year, let alone a day. The administration's abuse is so evident that it is ridiculous to argue against. This is why Cornyn was not at the hearing today. There is no one who has carried more water for the administration than Cornyn, but even he could not defend this (especially after Domenici admitted to contacting Iglesias).

Let's just keep track of Kevin's views on this; if a Democrat winds up in the White House in 2008 and tries to treat the US Attorneys as federal employees subject to DOJ direction, rather than as independent agents free to pursue their own agendas, will Kevin complain?

The complaint is that they are being put under White House and GOP political pressure, not that they're subject to appropriate DOJ direction.

But that aside, if President Obama attempted to treat the US Attorneys as political flunkies rather than independent prosecutors I myself would be the first to complain. We can rely on Democrats to obey the rules even if Republicans won't.

N.B. Barring impeachment, a Democrat will only wind up in the White House in 2009, not 2008.

I worked for the DOJ and was there for the Saturday Night Massacre.

Below the political appointees are good, dedicated lawyers.

US Attorneys, on the other hand, were one and all local politicos. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But they all left and were replaced when the administrations changed. Given that, though, they generally seemed to be OK attorneys, and the federal judges (before whom they practice) know them and their performance well.

So when the federal judges (themselves politicos) say the fired attorneys were good at their jobs, that's from the horses' mouths.

I just LUV seeing the Shrub Administration tear down the local ReThuglicans. Smells kind of like napalm in the morning.

Oh, tec19, you're right, I know. But that's the sort of thing that will appear in history books as an example of the Bush administration's incompetence and inability to do its basic job.

Reminds me of the Russian Imperial Government in World War I. They didn't have enough rifles to provide one for each combat soldier. So they sent infantrymen off to the front with about 1 rifle for every 3 soldiers. Soldiers coming up from the rear would have to pick up the rifles dropped by comrades killed in the initial attack.

This Administration is discrediting the use of expansive executive power for all future administrations.
No more Presidential Tyrranies.
I think a smart Presidential candidate in 2008 would run on returning Constitutional Government to America.

Abu Gonzalez testified under oath to congress that the firings were performance related.

Lucy, youve got some splainin to do!

Fitzales?

Wow, more diversion from the Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan issues. Bush, the VP and Co. sure know how to dodge and weave. All the while we are taking casualties at an accelerating pace, Bush and Co. are still claiming victory and Congress is still unwilling to do the hard things to stop this insanity.

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