Molly Ivins used to say that Alberto Gonzales was a "lightweight" lap dog for the President. It's tough to see it playing out in front of our eyes. To think the the Department of Justice for the United States of America has been turned into the Department of Justice for the Republican Party is depressing beyond belief.
Today, we'll hear Kyle Sampson's testimony that it's simply a normal part of the political process to hire and fire prosecutors on their loyalty based performance. Of course good loyal partisans should be rewarded with prize jobs! But watch it! Even Republicans who are in good standing in the party can be sacked if they don't follow the party line. Just business as usual folks.
"Sampson's testimony includes a broad defense of the two-year process that led to the firings. He concedes that the "process was not scientific, nor was it extensively documented," but he argues that that is the nature of presidential political appointments.
And from Laurie Kellman at the AP:
However, he denied that the firings were improper, and he spoke dismissively of Democrats' condemnation of what they call political pressure in the firings.
"The distinction between 'political' and 'performance-related' reasons for removing a United States attorney is, in my view, largely artificial," he said. "A U.S. attorney who is unsuccessful from a political perspective ... is unsuccessful."
Sampson maintained that adherence to the priorities of the president and attorney general was a legitimate standard.
Other thoughts:
President Bush spent a lot of time looking and sounding "tough" yesterday. The "Bulldog" was in the pulpit of personal politics yesterday spitting and clawing at the dastardly congress for jeopardizing the troops by not funding the war effort...
In other news, it's been all over the news that the Army has sent artificially boosted troop numbers to the top Brass to show our readiness for being sent back into combat. Oops... It turns out that a pretty good number of those troops were injured, some seriously. Some of the soldiers on crutches got sent to Iraq anyway. I guess crutches a one way to "support our troops."
The President told us that the Congress shouldn't limit the flexibility of the commanders in the field by mandating a troop pullout. General Petraeus is now leading the "surge." How many generals were fired before one was found that would be "flexible" enough?
The President wants a "clean" bill for new war funding. All of a sudden it seems that pork is bad. Bush almost gleefully pointed to the additional spending and laughed out loud! Democrats are doing it to! Slimeballs! How dare they ask for an incredible 20 billion for pork. I need 102 billion RIGHT NOW for the war. Don't bother me with this trivial stuff!
The trivial stuff that the President so gleefully mocked with supreme arrogance: (DNR 3/29/07)
6.4 million for a "highly classified upgrade of the Capitol security that has been underway since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."
3.5 million for "visitors to tour the Capitol and see for themselves how Congress works."
100 million to pay for security at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions in 2008.
These were punch lines that drew laughter with a final comment from Bush,
"I'm not kidding you."
Score: 20 billion for the Homeland, 102 billion for War.
lol
Update
I love these guys! Pelosi and Reid just told President Bush to quit whining and playing political games. Guess what Mr. Bush, the Congress is Democratic now and you have to work with them! Kudu's! In a joint letter, they warned him against following
"a political strategy that would needlessly delay funding for our troops."
and
""Calm down with the threats. There is a new Congress in town, We respect your constitutional role. We want you to respect ours."
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