After vehemently denying that eight U.S. Attorneys were canned for political reasons, Kyle Sampson, the former Chief of Staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is saying that it is perfectly fine. Obviously the 'job-performance issues' approach didn't work so well, now they are going down a different and what looks like to me a more dangerous road. Kyle Sampson will go in front of Congress to testify voluntarily to say that it was a political decisions, but, um, not what you think constitutes a political decision, or something like that.
More on the confusion from Rawstory:
"The distinction between 'political' and 'performance-related' reasons for removing a United States Attorney is, in my view, largely artificial," Sampson said in his prepared remarks, which were posted by the McClatchy-Tribune News Service and are now available at this link.
Critics have defined some of the firings as "political" since, based on many of the documents released, they appear to be based partially on objections by Republican lawmakers. But Sampson, who resigned from his post earlier this month and agreed to testify voluntarily without being subpoenaed, will argue that a U.S. Attorney not being able to "work constructively" with governmental constituencies cannot be "successful" in his or her position.
"A U.S. Attorney who is unsuccessful from a political perspective, either because he or she has alienated the leadership of the Department in Washington or cannot work constructively with law enforcement or other governmental constituencies in the district important to effective leadership of the office, is unsuccessful," Sampson will say.
He added, "If he or she...is resistant to the President's or the Attorney General's constitutional authority...then that U.S. Attorney is not performing at a high level."
So what Sampson really means is that if the U.S. Attorney does not perform his political obligations to the President and the welfare of the Republican party, then they are clearly not doing their job. Prosecuting criminals is not enough, they have to be criminals that the President approves of. So Carol Lam, Duke Cunningham was not a criminal, he was just a victim. So David Iglesias, you should have gone after that obscure Democrat down in New Mexico. Who cares if the American people want the Justice Department to work outside of partisan lenses?
The Department of Justice is part of the Adminstration and those that work there serve at the pleasure of the President. It isn't about blind justice, it is about serving the President. The question is, who exactly is the President serving? It certainly isn't the American people. It is time for Gonzales and the President, to be forced out of office, for this and so many other reasons.
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