The position, United States Attorney, is a Presidential appointment. It needs White House approval to go forward, so the White House can’t claim they didn’t know about it. The Attorney General can draw up a list, but the Shrubbery has to sign off on the individuals. They work for the Attorney General, but he has no power to appoint them or dismiss them under current law.
On-line Opinion Magazine featuring annoyed rumblings from the leading edge of the Baby Boom firmly tied to a reality-based world.
Established: 21 November 2004
The opinions expressed in Comments are those of the individuals making them. Truly absurd comments and opinions are subject to being cruelly mocked, but "flame wars" will take place on someone else's dime.
Your first comment, all comments with extensive links, and random comments that the software decides it doesn't like for no discernible reason will be held for moderation.
[Be aware that for unknown reasons the software rejects comments shorter than 15 characters, so if you want to leave a short comment fill the gap with periods ........]
5 comments
…and that’s really the bottom line, isn’t it? How did we get to the point that the President of the United States was allegedly so completely disengaged from the real world that he didn’t know that a small wad of US Attorneys were being fired and replaced outside of the normal cycle? The World Wonders…
But that IS the Claim of this White House: We only *approved* this List AFTER it was submitted by the AG on HIS recommendations (Not the recommendation of Nations Chief Politbureau Officer- Karl Rove)…yadda, yadda.
But these emails have them trapped in the Headlights.
Plus – if ya have noticed…they used RNC email domains and addresses for this Official WH biz. Which (and i sent an email to Fitz’s office) might not have covered all the requested Archived WH emails requested on the Plame matter – if that subpoena missed this small detail and they failed to provide this stuff to Fitz from those domains. Could be most interesting IF there is MORE out there that will come to light on that topic alone.
Gonzales takes orders, he doesn’t give them. They had to get rid of Ashcroft because he was an independent operator with his own agenda, mostly dealing with his vision of pornography, who still thought about higher political office. The White House wanted someone who would do their bidding, and Gonzales was an obvious choice.
The Shrubbery wanders around wearing costumes, but Rove is the one who needs a job after 2008. Rove is trying to rebuild his credibility after the losses 2004, and needs to show potential bosses that he can still be effective.
The use of e-mail addresses that are not required to be archived is pure Rove, another work-around to prevent leaving evidence if they really had competent people, but they are victims of their own arrogance. They don’t run a tight ship; their hubris makes them believe they don’t have to.
If they had just gotten all of the information out when they were asked the first time this would be over. They just don’t get it: it’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up.
the Shrubbery has to sign off on the individuals.
All a part of the Shrubbery’s lifestyle/management style. Hands off; delegate ALL responsibility to underlings so he can go ride his mountain bike or whatever.
I agree with his attitude about working, Andante, which is way these changes set off alarm bells – he doesn’t make changes if he doesn’t have to, no matter what. There have to be major reasons for him to show up at his desk, and those reasons are almost always going to be political.