Fired U.S. Attorney: Bush Administration Turned DOJ into ‘Laughingstock’

[sabra]

http://www.mainjustice.com/2010/09/21/fired-u-s-attorney-bush-administration-turned-doj-into-laughingstock/

A handful of the U.S. Attorneys fired in 2006 said a Justice Department swayed by politics was to blame for their controversial dismissals, The Associated Press reported Monday.

Five of the nine U.S. Attorneys ousted by the Justice Department under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said at a forum in Little Rock, Ark., that their dismissals were the result of their former boss’s political devotion to President George W. Bush. Gonzales resigned in 2007.

“There were a number of people who made terrible decisions,” said fired U.S. Attorney John McKay of the Western District of Washington, according to the AP. “They turned the Justice Department into the laughingstock of the country.”

...

McKay was joined at the forum by fired U.S. Attorneys Bud Cummins of the Eastern District of Arkansas, Paul Charlton of Arizona, Carol Lam of California and David Iglesias of New Mexico. U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden of Utah and former U.S. Attorneys Todd Graves of the Western District of Missouri, Margaret Chiara of the Western District of Michigan and Kevin V. Ryan of the Northern District of California were also dismissed in 2006.

Cummins appeared to indicate that the dismissals would not have happened under John Ashcroft, who was Bush’s first Attorney General.

“Once (Ashcroft's team) left, they just sent people over from the White House to fill these jobs… There was no grown-up there to say, ‘Whoa, this doesn’t work,’ ” Cummins said.

[mmonk]

1. Link?

And the DOJ is still a joke.

[sabra]

3. oops, I have now added the link

:hi:

[mmonk]

10. Thanks

:hi:

[indepat]

2. Hopefully AG Holder has cleaned up the alleged laughingstock if in fact the laughingstock moniker

was apropos. ;)

[notesdev]

9. Nope, he's gone in the other direction

Funny, with two stories referencing the DoJ on this site today, you'd think the most newsworthy item of the day concerning that department would get at least a nod.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42676.html

[aquart]

4. Really? WHAT'S CHANGED?

[librechik]

6. Obama didn't demand resignations from the Bush USAs, as he should have

and they have mostly chosen to stay on. No wonder our justice system is still comproised and wrongheaded.

[indepat]

11. Don't wish to sound dismayed over this seeming egregious misfeasance (imo)

not wanting to be verbally trashed, but is not this failure to excise a festering cancer on the Republic not but a post-junior microcosm of the whole? :shrug:

[Solly Mack]

5. Actually, the Bush admin. turned it into a criminal enterprise

[CanonRay]

7. It;'s not much better now

IMHO

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. 10 Bush hold overs remain now. But many other slots unfilled as of yet.

Here is a chart of who is held over, which jobs are still to be filled.
You can click on the names of the people to find out their current status.
Interesting to click and find the updates of the more infamous Bush bots.

Tim Griffith, one of Rove's mini-me's is the Republican nominee for the second congressional district.

http://www.mainjustice.com/us-attorney-update/#5

The remaining one here in Alabama is the woman who put Seigleman in jail. Her husband in the President of Ala. business Council, which has absolute control over who runs for office in the state.
It screams volumes that she is still in charge of that office.

[CanonRay]

12. I was more thinking of what they haven't done

Like prosecute the US Attorney scandal, look at violations of torture statutes, prosecute that idiot Senator from Nevada (no, the other idiot, not Harry Reid). Etc.Etc.Etc.

[depakid]

13. Yep- still a disgrace

No appreciable difference from Bush in terms of the cases that they pursue or prosecute vs. those they choose to let go (some of which have been egregious).

Peanut Corp. for example- their executives and managers willfully distributed contaminated food resulting in the deaths of 9 people. There's mountains of evidence- much of it in their own writings, yet like thousands of banksters, fraudsters and assorted corporate criminals, they walk.

On the other hand, the Gilligan's Island note guy is charged with an offense that could land him 20 years in prison.

And there are just two of countless examples.

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. Sadly true.