Tim "Interim Appointment" Griffin says chau for now

his 120 day "interim appointment" was up on april 20...

The U.S. Justice Department has notified Arkansas’s congressional delegation that Interim Eastern District U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin is resigning effective Friday, June 1.

according to raw story, griffin is going to work for the fred thompson campaign... good riddance...

"His departure from the US Attorney Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas is a positive development and the Senator is looking forward to having credible leadership restored there," said Michael Teague, spokesman for Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR), of reports that interim US Attorney Tim Griffin had been approached to join Thompson's campaign.

let's see how fred uses him to jimmy the election in his favor...

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Timeline for Iraq withdrawal stays in

i'm surprised... i didn't expect it would be defeated...

An amendment to strip a timeline for withdrawal of US forces from Iraq was succesfully defeated today by Senate Democrats. Forty-eight senators voted in favor of the amendment, and 50 against it.

one dem crossed over to vote for it, mark pryor of arkansas... one repub crossed over to vote against it, chuck hagel of nebraska... i haven't see the other votes...

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More of the "it's not the 'what', it's the 'how'" argument

i'm much more interested in the "why..."

Last April, Tim Griffin, a Rove aide and longtime GOP operative, sent the attorney general's chief of staff a flattering letter about himself written by Cummins, the prosecutor he was trying to replace, internal e-mails released this week show. Rove and Harriet Miers, then the White House counsel, were keenly interested in putting him in the position, e-mails reveal.

New documents also show that Justice and White House officials were preparing for President Bush's approval of the appointment as early as last summer, five months before Griffin took the job.

[...]

The e-mails show how D. Kyle Sampson, then the attorney general's chief of staff, and other Justice officials prepared to use a change in federal law to bypass input from Arkansas' two Democratic senators, who had expressed doubts about placing a former Republican National Committee operative in charge of a U.S. attorney's office. The evidence runs contrary to assurances from Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales that no such move had been planned.

"This was a very loyal soldier to the Republicans and the Bush administration, and they wanted to reward him," said Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.). "They had every right to do this, but it's the way they handled it, and the way they tried to cover their tracks and mislead Congress, that has turned this into a fiasco for them."

it turns out that the "why" is very likely what we've thought all along...

Justice Department officials also have not publicly said Cummins's departure was related to his performance in office, as they have with the others. They acknowledged last month that he was fired simply to make room for Griffin.

But documents show that Cummins was clearly a target of Sampson's two-year effort to fire a group of U.S. attorneys who did not qualify as what he called "loyal Bushies." He was recommended for removal as early as March 2005.

< sigh > the united states department of justice, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the republican party...

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