WITH this week’s release of more than 3,000 Justice Department e-mail messages about the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors, it seems clear that politics played a role in the ousters. [Snip}US attorney Iglesias was expected to file corruption cases against Democrats in New Mexico just befor the 2004 election even though there was no evidence to support corruption cases.
[N]ow that the record is out there in black and white for the rest of the country to see, the argument that we were fired for “performance related” reasons (in the words of Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty) is starting to look more than a little wobbly.
United States attorneys have a long history of being insulated from politics. Although we receive our appointments through the political process (I am a Republican who was recommended by Senator Pete Domenici), we are expected to be apolitical once we are in office. I will never forget John Ashcroft, then the attorney general, telling me during the summer of 2001 that politics should play no role during my tenure. I took that message to heart. Little did I know that I could be fired for not being political.
It wasn't that there was too little evidence to support the cases. There was simply NO evidence to support such a prosecution. I'm unaware of any law against pressuring a US attorney to file an unsupported case, though I'm sure there must be one. The most important thing about the Iglesias case, though, is that he was fired for failing to file partisan cases just prior to an election.
This is a situation in which both Sen. Pete Domenici (R - NM) and Rep. Heather Wilson were pressuring Iglesias to misuse his office for partisan advantage. At the very least, that is a violation of the ethics codes in both the House and Senate.
Then there was the Office of the Attorney General, where the Chief of Staff has now committed a "Libby." That is, he resigned to take the heat off of Attorney General Gonzales and others in the office.
Then there are the emails and documents which have been turned over (grudgingly and incompletely - as bad as the ones that were turned over have been, what are they hiding?) to the Congress show that the White House knew all about the firings, the reasons for the firings, and helped chose who was to be fired.
This is not some rogue operation by one or two individuals. This is Republican Party Policy!
This clearly shows that the national Republican Party is a criminal enterprise, in much the same way as the Mafia is. Just with less honor. The firing of the US attorneys is an illegal criminal conspiracy (assuming that there is a law against pushing a US atorney to bring indictments for purely politicla reasons) that includes Republicans at all levels and in all branches of government. Certainly the Republican Party is run in a totally unethical manner.
This isn't America. This is some tinpot bannann republic run by crazed right-wingers.
It's time for the Republicans to go.
