Sunday, April 01, 2007

Another Example of Bush & Rove Politicizing the Justice Department

There is another article today, 4.1.2007, in the Washington Post about how the Bush administration has put more insiders into U.S. Attorney positions than prior administrations. In Minnesota, for example, a 32 year old "Bushie" replaced a 58 year old who had extensive experience in both state and federal prosecutions.

This quote is from the article: The people chosen as chief federal prosecutors on a temporary or permanent basis since early 2005 include 10 senior aides to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, according to an analysis of government records. Several came from the White House or other government agencies. Some lacked experience as prosecutors or had no connection to the districts in which they were sent to work, the records and biographical information show.

Few 32 year old attorneys have the maturity or professional skill to exercise the discretion called for in being a U.S. Attorney. The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, Greg White, had been the Lorain County Prosecutor for 20 years before becoming U.S. Attorney. He had both legal and administrative experience. When you compare White's experience with the experience of some of the people mentioned in the Post article, you realize that there is no comparison.

One of the things that King Karl and Bubble-Boy like to do is operate behind the scenes. They were planning to put these political appointees in key states who could then threaten voting rights groups during the 2008 election cycle with criminal prosecutions. One of the benefits of the current focus on the fired U.S. Attorneys is that it has brought this operation to light. Once it has been exposed, it will be much harder for KK and BB to pull it off.

That's one reason why it is necessary for Democrats to keep flogging this scandal. We need to make sure that the media stays alerted to what is happening so that political prosecutions aren't brought against progressive organizations in 2008.

1 comment:

ohdave said...

Nicely done. Way to take a national story and connect it locally. Thanks for the post.