Monday, September 22, 2008
The Brownsville Herald reported that former U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico David Iglesias will speak at 7:00 pm this Wednesday at the UTB-TSC Science, Engineering and Technology building about the U.S. attorney scandal.
His book In Justice is a pretty good read. Although U.S. attorneys are political appointees, they have traditionally received nonpartisan treatment in order to protect the integrity of the Department of Justice. Iglesias and others dismissed without explanation claim they were targeted for investigating certain Republican politicians and failing to investigate Democrats.
As usual, there's much more to this story than the mainstream press generally covers. Check it out if things like fairness and justice interest you.
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2 Comments:
Becky,
I know your politics, and this is not aimed at you.
But, I am just curious.
3 Months after Bill Clinton took office for his first term, he fired 93 out of 93 United States Attorneys.
Not a peep.
K
Kurgan,
Thanks for your comment. I'm not in any way an expert on this, but this is my understanding after reading Iglesias' book and other things.
U.S. attorneys are traditionally replaced at the start of each new White House administration. Reagan, Clinton, and Bush all did it. Usually all or the great majority resign when the new administration is of the opposite party.
In Iglesias' and the others' cases, a few were handpicked (allegedly based on their decisions to pursue some politicians and not others) for dismissal in the middle of their terms instead of at the beginning of a new administration.
Part of the 2005 Patriot Act reauthorization allowed the interim attorneys who would replace those picked for dismissal to serve unlimited terms instead of the previous 120 day term for interim appointees. That gave the Attorney General greater appointment powers than the President, because the President's appointees must be confirmed by the Senate. The law was recently changed back to 120 days.
So, it looked like instead of a new administration just cleaning house of every U.S. attorney of the opposing political party as is the custom, a few were handpicked for dismissal based on their decisions on individual cases, not their politics in general. The argument was that this would compromise the independence of U.S. attorneys and the integrity of DOJ. Apparently, Attorney General Gonzalez couldn't explain it too well either, leading to his resignation.
I haven't made up my mind yet completely on it, but it looks fishy to me. That's why I'm going to the talk tomorrow night.
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