The Seven Fired U.S. Attorneys

At least one House committee is trying to make hay out of the fact that the Bush Administration recently fired seven U.S. attorneys. All seven have been subpoenaed to appear before the House committee, and various Dems are alleging all sorts of evil political machinations behind the firings, including trying to cover up GOP crimes. This Washington Post article gives a little more background on the firings:

The White House approved the firings of seven U.S. attorneys late last year after senior Justice Department officials identified the prosecutors they believed were not doing enough to carry out President Bush's policies on immigration, firearms and other issues, White House and Justice Department officials said yesterday.

The list of prosecutors was assembled last fall, based largely on complaints from members of Congress, law enforcement officials and career Justice Department lawyers, administration officials said.

One of the complaints came from Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), who specifically raised concerns with the Justice Department last fall about the performance of then-U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias of New Mexico, according to administration officials and Domenici's office.

Iglesias has alleged that two unnamed New Mexico lawmakers pressured him in October to speed up the indictments of Democrats before the elections. Domenici has declined to comment on that allegation.

Since the mass firings were carried out three months ago, Justice Department officials have consistently portrayed them as personnel decisions based on the prosecutors' "performance-related" problems. But, yesterday, officials acknowledged that the ousters were based primarily on the administration's unhappiness with the prosecutors' policy decisions and revealed the White House's role in the matter.

"At the end of the day, this was a decision to pick the prosecutors we felt would most effectively carry out the department's policies and priorities in the last two years," said Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.

The Dems can put on their little kabuki theater if they like, but the reality is all U.S. Attorneys are political appointeess who serve at the pleasure of the president and can be replaced at any time. What is often lost in the reports of these firings is the fact that when Bill Clinton took office he fired ALL of the U.S. Attorneys and replaced them with his own people. Presidents have the right to do that, and it wasn't any more wrong for Clinton to act as it was for Bush. Frankly, the reasons don't matter.

However, if it gives the Dems something to do while they're trying to figure out their Iraq policy, let them have their fun.