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Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3921
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 - 12:13 pm: | 
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Will he be able to play the "Only Latino in the Administration" Card?
I think if the firing of the US Attorneys is all they got, he'll probably skate. But if it is like they usually do stuff, and they got a whole lot more on him and just want to use this on him (remember how and why they got Al Capone for taxes instead of all those murders) then he's probably gone. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 7913
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 - 12:52 pm: |
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George Bush has a stubborn habit of sticking by his henchmen, a stubborness that is rivalled only by his obstinant refusal to admit that sending more troops to Iraq is a mistake. His bull-headedness is symptomatic of his obtuse intellect. |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4097
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 - 01:22 pm: |
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I can't stand that man and I predict his butt is out the door. What's up with that permanent smirk on his face anyway? Hopefully he'll do us all a favor and resign in the next few days, that way we'll have another scandal to keep our minds off of all the bullshit. I'm so sick of all these people and I'll be so happy when this administration packs it up and moves it out.
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Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3922
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 - 01:41 pm: |
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Every time I look at the little creep I think of that guy Pedro in "Napoleon Dynamite" |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4103
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 - 03:15 pm: |
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It's starting:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8O019200&show_article=1 |
Tonya
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 4932
Registered: 07-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 - 04:00 pm: |
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March 20, 2007
Senate Votes to Revoke Power to Replace Prosecutors
By DAVID STOUT
WASHINGTON, March 20 — The Senate voted overwhelmingly today to revoke the authority it granted the Bush administration last year to name federal prosecutors without Senate confirmation.
By a vote of 94 to 2, the Senate voted to restore the previous system for naming federal prosecutors. Under that system, when a vacancy occurred, the attorney general was allowed to name an interim United States attorney to serve for up to 120 days while the administration submitted a nominee for permanent appointment to the Senate. If a nominee is not confirmed within that period, the federal district court could then name a replacement.
The measure the Senate approved today, if it is enacted into law, would undo language in the USA Patriot Act that had allowed the White House to bypass the Senate in naming prosecutors. It must still be approved by the House, but passage seems assured in that chamber, since it has a stronger Democratic majority than the Senate does.
The president can veto the measure, but the lopsided margin in the Senate suggests that a veto could be overridden. And the Justice Department has indicated that it will not oppose the change.
The overwhelming bipartisan vote today reflected the senators’ desire to reassert their cherished advice-and-consent role amid the controversy over Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and the dismissal of eight United States attorneys in what critics have called a political purge. The only senators voting “no” were Christopher Bond of Missouri and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, both Republicans.
Before the vote, Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee, urged his colleagues in both parties to “send a very strong signal” to the administration.
President Bush reaffirmed his support for Mr. Gonzales before the Senate vote today. “The president spoke to the attorney general around 7:15 a.m. from the Oval Office,” said Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman. “They had a good conversation about the status of the United States attorney issue. The president also reaffirmed his strong backing and support for the attorney general.”
Mr. Bush’s call to Mr. Gonzales, an old friend from Texas, could dampen speculation that the attorney general’s job is at stake, at least in the immediate future.
The White House spokesman, Tony Snow, said today that the president’s phone call was “a very strong vote of confidence,” and that Mr. Bush does indeed want Mr. Gonzales to stay on. “Does he hope he’ll serve through the next two years?” Mr. Snow said on Air Force One as Mr. Bush was flying to the Midwest. “Of course.”
President Bush has said he has confidence in Mr. Gonzales, but as recently as Monday the White House seemed to offer only tepid support for him.
“Nobody is prophetic enough to know what the next 21 months hold,” Mr. Snow said when asked if Mr. Gonzales would remain until the end of Mr. Bush’s term. Mr. Bush has said Mr. Gonzales needs to repair his relations with Capitol Hill; asked if the attorney general had done so, Mr. Snow said, “I don’t know.”
At the Justice Department, neither Mr. Gonzales nor his staff have engaged in a major effort to reverse the erosion of his support among Republicans in Congress, associates said. Mr. Gonzales read budget briefing books over the weekend and on Monday he phoned one or two lawmakers, said one aide, who declined to identify them.
Mr. Gonzales, who publicly apologized last week for his department’s handling of the dismissals of the eight United States attorneys, also acknowledged mistakes in a conference call with United States attorneys over the weekend.
Despite the attorney general’s apologies, Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House, joined a chorus of lawmakers who are calling for Mr. Gonzales to leave the administration.
“I believe we need a new attorney general,” Ms. Pelosi told the editorial board of The Chicago Tribune.
The new chief counsel to President Bush, Fred F. Fielding, spent Monday preparing a response for Democrats who are demanding testimony from Karl Rove and other top aides to Mr. Bush, including the former counsel, Harriet E. Miers.
Mr. Fielding was heading to Capitol Hill today to meet with the chairmen of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees. The Senate committee chairman, Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, has said he wants Mr. Rove and the others to testify publicly and under oath, but the White House has said that is unlikely to happen, setting up a possible clash between the two branches.
Republicans close to the White House say they expect Mr. Fielding to offer some sort of compromise rather than rule out testimony entirely.
“I think that he will extend an olive branch, but with some important caveats,” said David B. Rivkin, a lawyer for the Reagan and the first Bush administrations. “And then we shall see what the Democrats will do.”
Mr. Snow would not characterize the kind of offer Mr. Fielding might make, saying only that the counsel intended to have a “constructive conversation” with the lawmakers. But the White House is facing the prospect of subpoenas if Mr. Rove and the others do not talk voluntarily; Mr. Leahy has scheduled a vote for Thursday on whether to grant him the power to issue the subpoenas.
“I know there’s been an expectation of brinksmanship,” Mr. Snow said, adding that it was “important for both sides to behave responsibly.”
On Capitol Hill, members of both parties had expressed support for repealing the Patriot Act provision on installing United States attorneys. Lawmakers said the provision amounted to an end run around senators, who have long had influence in the appointment of home-state prosecutors. Some senators said the provision was used to clear the way for firing prosecutors and replacing them with candidates considered more in line with the administration.
“We can’t trust this administration to use that authority in a fair and constructive manner,” said Senator Mark Pryor, Democrat of Arkansas, who helped begin an inquiry into the dismissals by objecting to the administration’s choice for his state. “They have proven it to us.”
Mr. Pryor and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said that the way the Patriot Act revision, which was written by the Justice Department, was introduced last year with little or no consultation with senators suggested that the administration had intended all along to use it to avoid a showdown with the Senate over new prosecutors.
“Now it is becoming clear why they stuck that provision in there,” Mr. Reid said on the Senate floor. “This was a plan they had had for a long time.”
In a Sept. 13, 2006, e-mail message recently disclosed by the Justice Department, D. Kyle Sampson, chief of staff to Mr. Gonzales, strongly recommended that the administration use the new authority when making appointments. He said it would allow the agency to “give far less deference to home-state senators and thereby get (1) our preferred person appointed and (2) do it far faster and more efficiently, at less political cost to the White House.”
Despite that message, Brian Roehrkasse, a Justice Department spokesman, said Monday that Mr. Sampson’s plan “does not and did not represent the views or final actions of the Justice Department.”
Mr. Roehrkasse said the provision changing the appointment practices was introduced because of concerns about federal courts filling openings as well as fears that the vacancies would remain too long, given the time required for confirmation.
He said that Will Moschella, then assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, proposed the idea in 2003.
“At that time, Will Moschella did not have any knowledge of plans to remove U.S. attorneys,” Mr. Roehrkasse said in a statement.
Lawmakers in both parties had expressed dismay over being deprived of their power to confirm United States attorneys. “The president can pick anyone he wants to serve on his White House staff, and he does,” Mr. Leahy said. “But when it comes to the United States Department of Justice and our home states, U.S. senators have a say in ensuring fairness and independence to prevent the federal law enforcement function from untoward political influence.”
Carl Hulse, Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Eric Lipton contributed reporting.
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 8955
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 - 04:46 pm: |
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Finally the Senate is trying to grow a pair! |
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