Conason wakes up to the coup d'etat

even though commenter johann tipped me off to specter's subversive staff action earlier, it went in one ear and out the other - until i read this...

A columnist at Salon has described Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' sacking of United States Attorneys involved in controversial prosecutions as an act that amounts to a "coup d'etat."

Joe Conason highlights the removal from office of Carol Lam, Bud Cummings, and John McKay, U.S. Attorneys in San Diego, Little Rock, and Seattle respectively, whose prosecutions ran against the partisan interests of the Bush White House. These acts, Conason writes, suggest that "the White House and the Justice Department have been exposed in a secretive attempt to expand executive power for partisan purposes."

The ability of the White House to swap out U.S. Attorneys with partisan appointees resulted when the staff of Senator Arlen Specter inserted a measure in the renewal of the USA Patriot Act that "permitted the White House to place its own appointees in vacant U.S. attorney positions permanently and without Senate confirmation." According to Conason, Specter says he was not aware of the action by a member of his staff.

as johann quite rightly points out...

Apparently these staffers are more influential than appears on the surface and are operating without oversight and without anyone in the press or the public being aware of who they are or the Senators they work for being aware of what they are doing.

A true shadow government.

it seems to me that this needs a LOT more investigation...

and, without trying to break my arm patting myself on the back, mr. conason, i have been calling bushco's twisted government a quiet coup d'etat for over three years now...

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