fired, hell. they should be disbarred.

Oh, Al, where are you? Please report for duty and tell us, once again, how they serve at the pleasure of the President.

Sounds like to me that Buchanan and Martin need what could be called a prayer meeting. They get down on their knees with their new boss and they "pray" together over their future.

In the light of what could be prosecutable offenses, they might well be led by the spirit to resign and lawyer up.

Someone, explain to me again why Bush adminstration crimes should not be investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

I say, let them stay-on and give them a windowless office in the corner of the building and absolutely nothing to do. No computer, no access to the network and no clearance to accesses it. Then politely ask them to run for coffee every-so-often. Tell them they are welcomed to stay as long as they wish.

Then begin investigations on their malfeasance. What fun.

Be prepared for your head to explode as these two and the rightwing noise machine make the following argument after they are canned.

Obama's decision to ask for the resignation of Buchanan and Martin and thereby disrupt their partisan witch hunt is evidence of Obama's politicization of the DOJ.

You say, "Mary Beth Buchanan has been accused, repeatedly, of being one of the more blatantly partisan prosecutors in the country"

Steve, you recently ridiculed Dana Perino for making a similar argument:

WHEN THE QUESTION PROVIDES THE ANSWER... When asked if she perceived a bias in the media against the president, [Dana Perino] said, "I don't think I would always be asked about my feelings about liberal bias in the media, if there wasn't any liberal bias in the media."

[Steve Benen:] Got it. As Perino sees it, there must be something to the premise of the question if the question is asked all the time. If there was no bias, the argument goes, the question wouldn't come up.

But, Mary Beth did keep us safe from the likes of Tommy Chong.

Check out Mary Beth's refusal to go after Rick Santorum, but, crusaded against minor Democratic officials for trivialities. A zealot of the worst kind, who loves to pick on underfunded defendants, so she can obtain plea bargins and pad her, less than stellar, prosecutorial record.

How dare they have the temerity to pursue corrupt Democraps (redundant).. Obama (blessed be his name) will soon correct this!

There's no question that Alice Martin in Alabama is a partisan hack who has made some dubious prosecutions since she was made US attorney (especially the Siegelman case), but don't lump all those prosecutions of Democrats together as simply partisan attacks. Larry Langford, the mayor of Birmingham, along with Blount and LaPierre are just plain crooks who should be prosecuted no matter who's the US Attorney.

I would add the names Patrick Fitzgerald and Greg Fouratt (NM - the Bill Richardson/CDR investigation) to the list. There are plenty of career staffers that can continue the investigations, and if appropriate, get something done. The US Attorneys are merely office managers. And replacements don't have to be loyal partisans. The problem with people like fred t is that he can't imagine a world with three choices.

Buchanan and Martin "appear girded to make a last stand like Japanese soldiers who never got word that the war was over."

Tell them to go---and when they don't, have them each arrested for impersonating a federal law enforcement official. That's a felony---and a felony conviction is automatic grounds for disbarment.

Now, as to the greater issue of burrowed Bushies---they're clearly incompetent, and their appointments in unison seem an organized effort to impede the lawful functions of the duly-elected government of the United States.

"Organized"---can you say "RICOH," boys and girls?

Good. I knew you could.

Another good way to get rid of burrowed partisan hacks is to document that the individuals-in-question are not qualified to perform their jobs, and that they are taking wages for jobs that they are not performing to specification. It's called "theft of wages," and is automatic grounds for dismissals---even from "protected" CS positions....

The politically smart thing to do would be for Obama to kick them to the curb and appoint two non-corrupt Patrick Fitzgerald-style Republican prosecutors who's willing to enforce the law in a nonpartisan way.

anonymous first you haven't got the balls to use a decent fake moniker. Second try and make some kind of sense when posting a comment. The position of village idiot is already taken here by Al.

I'd let them stay on and file criminal charges against them. Then inform them that the charges could be dropped if they resign quietly. As long as they understand that the price for staying on is disbarment, they shouldn't cause too much trouble.

Could they be transferred within DoJ? They could be assigned as legal attaches to some malaria-infested, revolution-torn 4th world country. Probably can't transfer them, though.

Here's an idea. Assign them as special prosecutors. Have them investigate and prosecute each other. Whoever wins, keeps her job.

it's a coldly calculated bluff. They expect to be fired, so now they can make the claim that they were thisclose to bringing down the whole damned Democratic party so Obama silenced them. Martyrs for the cause! What conservative law firm WOULDN'T want to hire lawyers that dogges in such a partisan pursuit?

But it's also a softball pitch aimed right at Obama's claim of bipartisanship. If he's really looking to have the most qualified people in government regardless of ideology, he'll keep them on (even if they're wholly unqualified when compared to qualified people).

Slappy magoo..that's my feelings exactly. Not only that, if Obama fires them, Republicans can use that to dilute the real issue of Bush's firing of U.S. Attorneys.

Reassign them to Afghanistan to help reorganize the Taliban judicial system. Kabul needs prosecutors, and Mary Beth wouldn't have to wear a burkah if she didn't feel comfortable in it.

These people have no choice in the matter. They are in no position to "refuse to leave." Bottom line is that they can choose to either resign, as requested, or be fired. That is their "choice." What enormous hubris and arrogance to think differently!

Well, now we know where the DoJ internal investigations will start.

Right with these two clowns.

I think they represent an opportunity.

They could be brought before an internal investigation, IG like, and questioned under oath about their activities and who gave them which orders. When they refuse to answer or perjure themselves, they could be fired for cause and discipline charged brought before the bar.

I suspect both of them have a lot of useful information about politicization of the DOJ and perhaps about Rove, Cheney, Fredo etc.

slappy magoo: "it's a coldly calculated bluff. They expect to be fired, so now they can make the claim that they were thisclose to bringing down the whole damned Democratic party so Obama silenced them. Martyrs for the cause! What conservative law firm WOULDN'T want to hire lawyers that dogges in such a partisan pursuit?

But it's also a softball pitch aimed right at Obama's claim of bipartisanship. If he's really looking to have the most qualified people in government regardless of ideology, he'll keep them on (even if they're wholly unqualified when compared to qualified people)."

I wouldn't be surprised if every word of that is true. But if that's what they're really up to, there are two major problems with it. First, Obama really isn't that stupid; and second, that kind of martyr complex thinking crashed and burned back in November.

The entire GOP case against Obama and for McCain was about such blatant partisanship. They hit Wright, Ayers, the alleged "Whitey" tape, and on and on and on. And they lost their collective ass. There are a fair minority of Americans who are still falling for that nonsense, but the fact that they're a minority is one of the big reasons why Obama won.

Another big reason is that Obama really is very smart. He knows how to make political operations work. That's why he was able to come from behind during the democratic primary, and how he was able to run rings around McCain. I'm really not worried about Obama being canny enough to take care of this pair of worthless jokers.

What slappy said. In addition, it's designed to delegitimize the investigation into the Bushco U.S. attorneys' firings by throwing sand into the not-paying-attention public's eyes with a false equivalency.

Steve W.: Again, it's RICO. RICOH means something else entirely.

RICOH means something else entirely.

True, but we see the same crap over and over from these people so much that both fit.

send them to gitmo cells.

Hm. Are we sure Obama won't find some third way to keep from having an awkward moment of confrontation with them? Some kind of post-partisan, non-partisan, bi-partisan resolution to the unpleasantness brought about by old politics of both sides? (Republicans attacking Dems; Dems whimpering and going along with it to show they're not partisan)

I mean, he does seem intent on playing nice with a surprising number of people who don't play nice with Democrats.

(I'd add a disclaimer, but hell, it's true. Bicker amongst yourselves about the reasons if you'd like.)

shade tail, my apologies, I wasn't as clear as I hoped. While I do believe what I wrote is their game plan, that doesn't mean I think they'll succeed. On further thought, My gut feeling is that there's already a file on each of their improprieties as long as my arm, and someone close to Obama will call each of them aside, and explain that yes, they can make the claim that they deserve to keep their jobs. Obama will keep them on. And within 2 months the file will be made public. Disbarment, if they're lucky. But chances are there's evidence of tampering with evidence & collusion that'll guarantee these 2 dinderheads prison time. Just because they're lawyers doesn't mean they're smart, like most Bush appointees, they're the types to assume their job titles & connections will daunt anyone from peering too close & proving the toys in their attic all have lead-based paint.

By the time they're dressed down in private...well, I've no idea what their relationsip statuses are, but ifthey don't have families, they'll BUY families in order to retire and honestly say they've decided to "spend more time" with 'em. My honest prediction is that by years's end, they'll either never practice
law again, just some consulting stuff or corporate law in-the-shadows stuff where their improprieties never see the light of day, OR, if they do ever set foot in a courtroom again as lawyers & not defendants, it'll decidedly be small potatoes stuff. Best case for them: on-air consuting correspondent status at you-know-where. They do like to care of their own over there. It's like Skull & Bones for idiots.

This is obviously a strategy. They will be fired and will report immediately to Fox News as a part of Manufactured Scandal inc. They should be fired for being part of the most corrupt DoJ team ever assembled. It is the Blago syndrome. They are tainted by their closeness to the crime. And the fact they are incompetent and probably criminal themselves--hiring Goodling over qualified applicants was a crime for example.