The cover up is always worse than the original scandal. Looks like the Attorney General scandal may get to a new level of bad for AG Alberto Gonzales. Murray Waas, reporting for the National Journal, says that the AG’s political lackeys, Kyle Sampson (resigned) and Monica Goodling (taking the 5th) were given extraordinary power over the hirings and firings of most non-civil-service employees of the Justice Department. These two were supposedly working closely with the White House and the delegation of authority to them “was an attempt to make the department [of Justice] more responsive to the political side of the White House.”
That’s interesting in its own right. But the delegation of authority was apparently not disclosed to the House or Senate Judiciary committees investigating the matter. Senator Leahy is not amused. I know, I know. I’ll bet this delegation of authority just slipped Alberto Gonzales’s sieve-like mind. At the end of the day, hiding this delegation of authority is going to do more damage to Gonzales and the Bush administration than the original decision to politicize the Department of Justice.
Update Alberto Gonzales had quite a quote on the subject of the memo:
“I was reminded that it was shown to me yesterday. I haven’t studied it. Let me study it. And I don’t want to comment on it, but I was reminded that it was shown to me. But I didn’t study it and so before commenting on it I’d like to have the opportunity to study it and find out what happened here because again I need to look at it.”
Oh my. (H/t Monticello for the quote via WISH-TV)
From the title, I thought this post was going to be about some toast-related issue from the previous post.
I love the idea of a “toast-related post.”
But, nope. Not unless you count my suspicion that AG Gonzales is toast if this memo conveying authority to Goodling and Sampson exists but was not disclosed.
I’d prefer if some folks further up the chain were toast.
I think the cover-up is separate but equal. The original infraction was the making of the Justice Department into a branch of the Republican Party in order to selectively prosecute Democrats in order to influence the electorate. That was probably the goal going back a few years. Those prosecutions happen right before elections, influence the elections, then get thrown out on appeal at our expense. Third-world type crap. Then when the Duke Cunningham, Abramoff, Dusty Foggo, Jerry Lewis scandals all broke, the second infraction was to fire U.S. attorneys for prosecuting Republicans. The coverup just shows the administration has a tin ear politically and is generally incompetent. The coverup reduces this crew to a typically “Scooby-Doo mysteries” type of villain–heads full of nefarious schemes, but lacking the competence to get away with it now that those “meddling kids” (the Democrats actually doing their job) are on the scene.
I’d prefer we stop every “oversight” witchhunt excercise every 4 years. Ever since Watergate, both sides have engaged in absurd witch hunts causing nothing but mistrust, distrust, and a general lack of respect for ANYBODY holding elected office.
Our tax dollars, in the millions every year, pay for these morons (on both sides of the aisle) to play “gotcha” and trip each other up under oath. What a colossal waste of time, money & trust.
It’s all relative. How much money do you figure they’d manage to spend if they weren’t otherwise tied up in investigating one another? Consider that, under one party rule and no investigations to speak of, we got the Medicare prescription drug benefit and the war in Iraq. Both financial sink holes that make the investigations negligible by comparison.
And, you know, I think some things need to be investigated.
Does he have to study it because he can’t recall it? Someone should ask Gonzales what he ate for supper last night. ::(
I think term limits might filter out some political bad behavior – the imposition of term limits on the chief executive WITHOUT imposing them on the legislature and the judiciary is, I think, one of the American political tragedies of the 20th century.
I like to think I’m voting for Senators and Representatives – not elevating them to the House of Lords…
If a President cannot survive without packing the judiciary to his own way of thinking,then he’s a danger to democracy.Term limits on the judiciary would be a short-cut to despotism for this administration. FDR had trouble with the judiciary too, if I remember history right.
Lou –
I was thinking more like an 85-year old mandated retirement – not something that would readily lend itself to a court packing plan.
It’s a little embarrassing to have Supreme Court Justices falling asleep during oral argument…