Better get out of the way of the DOJ front door or they'll run you over

they're not leavin' cuz they wanna stay at home with the wife and kids, mow the lawn, and fire up the grill...

Mike Elston, chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, has become the fifth Justice Department official to resign after being linked to the firings of several U.S. attorneys:

Elston’s resignation is effective at the end of next week. Reached Friday afternoon, he confirmed his plans to leave but would not say why.

Elston is a key figure in several recent Justice Department scandals.

the rats that are the best swimmers left a few weeks ago, but, even tho' the bushco ship of fools is still rapidly taking on water, it's still floating, and there's a few that still seem determined to stick it out... i don't want to ruin anybody's evening, but can you picture karl rove, alone in a lifeboat with george bush, both wearing life vests, trying desperately to signal passing ships...? wait... that's not a picture that would RUIN anybody's evening... silly me...

(thanks to think progress...)

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Paul McNulty "may suddenly be feeling a little talkative"

that would be nice...

from salon...

Paul McNulty, who has announced his resignation as deputy attorney general and -- in the wake of attempts by Gonzales and Monica Goodling to implicate him in the U.S. attorney mess -- may suddenly be feeling a little talkative.

think progress confirms...

ThinkProgress has confirmed with the House Judiciary Committee that McNulty’s hearing will be Tuesday, June 19, at 1:00 PM.

drag him in front of the committee and, if he doesn't sing like a canary, bring in jack bauer, and have jack use a few "enhanced interrogation techniques" until he spills the beans...

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Jason Leopold interviews David Iglesias

watch it...



(thanks to scribefire at repository...)

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What an elected representative with INTEGRITY (and a REAL recovering alcoholic) looks like

talk about bringing the issue of voter fraud suppression down to earth... here you have not only THE definitive picture of what karl rove, scott jennings, susan ralston, alberto gonzales, monica goodling, kyle sampson, paul mcnulty, and the rest of the push-for-a-one-party-state crowd have been working so diligently to achieve, but also the clearest picture yet of what kind of a person it takes to stop it...

Against his doctor's advice, a stooped and feeble state Sen. Mario Gallegos Jr. (D) arrives at the Texas Capitol each day, just to make sure his chamber does not take up a bill that would require voters to produce identification at the polls.

[...]

Gallegos is putting his health at risk to block a measure he and others say could prevent many minorities and the elderly from taking part in elections in Texas.

[...]

The Republicans pushing the voter ID bill say illegal immigrants are voting in Texas elections and must be stopped. But Democrats say thousands of legal residents would lose the right to vote because they lack proper identification. Opponents of the measure -- including Gallegos, a Mexican American -- say minorities, the elderly and the poor are less likely than others to have driver's licenses or other documents.

Most of Gallegos's Houston-area constituents are black or Hispanic, and about a quarter of them live in poverty. About one in five speak little or no English.

Doctors say the senator, a recovering alcoholic, should be resting and should be within 100 miles of the hospital where he received the transplant. Austin is about 160 miles from the hospital in Houston.

Under what is known as the Luna Precedent, named for a lawmaker who was hospitalized in the 1990s, legislators can ask for 24 hours' notice that a bill is about to come up. Gallegos was given such notice early this month. But lawmakers can invoke the Luna Precedent only once during a session.

this is not only what a REAL recovering alcoholic looks like (as opposed to you-know-who), THIS is also what an elected representative of REAL integrity looks like, someone who will uphold the constitutional right to vote and never stop doing the job his constituents put him in office to do even if it means putting his own recovery from a liver transplant at risk... gallegos is not only a true hero but an authentic leader... we need lots more like him...

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U.S. Attorney firings - "The Immaculate Termination"

and here ya have it...

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"Nowhere were we taught that the ends justified the means"

"We call on you and the President to relent from this reckless path, and begin to restore respect for the rule of law we all learned to love many years ago."

i posted last evening on the letter to gonzo written by his harvard law school classmates and mentioned the upcoming publication of the letter as a full-page advert in today's wapo... well, here ya go...



meanwhile, over at the national press club...

During an event this morning at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Attorney General Alberto Gonzales launched an unabashed and shameless finger-pointing campaign at outgoing Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, blaming him for the U.S. attorney scandal.

Minimizing his own role, Gonzales said McNulty has “most of the operational authority and decisions” at the Department of Justice.

Despite having delegated the task of putting together the list of fired U.S. attorneys to his chief of staff Kyle Sampson, Gonzales claimed that “the one person I would care about would be the views of the Deputy Attorney General. … At end of the day, my understanding was that Mr. Sampson’s recommendations reflected the consensus view of the senior leadership of the Department — in particular the Deputy Attorney General.”

When asked why two inexperienced staffers — Sampson and Monica Goodling — were given prominent roles in the firing process, Gonzales responded, “Well again you have to remember at the end of the day, the recommendations reflected the views of the Deputy Attorney General. He signed off on the names and he would know better than anyone else.”

and mcnulty isn't even gone yet... couldn't he at least wait until his chair cools off...? is gonzo a total weenie or what...?

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No confirmations without emails and, even then, look out

the longer gonzo stays on, the more folks are likely to leave, and the longer the white house stonewalls the emails, the longer the political appointment slots will stay empty...

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.) and other top Democrats have indicated that they will not confirm any senior Justice nominees until they receive e-mails they have demanded from the White House and are allowed to conduct interviews about the firings.

otoh, if the emails are turned over, there's going to be some bruising confirmation hearings... either way, bushco is between a rock and a hard place... tough shit, ain't it...?

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Another DOJ official bites the dust - this time it's #2

no way in hell this is coincidental...

Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, the number two ranking official at the Justice Department, ... who has been the Deputy Attorney General since March 17th, 2006, sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales today announcing his resignation. He plans to stay on through the summer or until the Senate approves his successor.

no matter what reasons he gives, it AIN'T coincidental...

In his resignation letter, he wrote, "The financial realities of college-age children and two decades of public service lead me to a long overdue transition in my career."

get the hell out, paul... no reason whatsoever to stick around and watch your idiot boss try to hang on to HIS job even though he's completely ineffective, abysmally incompetent, and a fool to boot... as you say, you've got better things to do with your life... keep an eye out for another invite to testify, however...

p.s. ya gotta love the line - stay "until the senate approves his successor..." now THAT'S gonna be a show...!

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Now that Elston's thrown McNulty under the bus, who's McNulty gonna throw?

murray waas does it again...

[Michael Elston, the chief of staff] to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty has told congressional investigators that phone calls he placed to four fired U.S. attorneys -- calls that three of the prosecutors say involved threats about testifying before Congress -- were made at McNulty's direction.

[...]

The U.S. attorneys have said that Elston, in effect, told them that if they kept quiet about their dismissals, the Justice Department would not suggest that they had been forced to resign because of poor performance.

[...]

On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee made public formal correspondence from three fired prosecutors who said they thought that Elston was trying to intimidate them into keeping quiet.

[...]

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., asked Cummins ... what they [he] would have done ... as [a] federal prosecutor[s] had they [he] learned that an interested party in one of their [his] investigations had tried to discourage a witness from providing information or testifying.

[...]

Whitehouse pressed Cummins: "But if that sort of approach had been made to a witness in an active proceeding that you were leading, and you were extremely proactive about it, that would lead you where?"

"Well, we'd certainly investigate it and see if a crime had occurred."

"And the crime would be?"

Cummins responded: "Obstruction of justice. I think there are several statutes that might be implicated -- but obstruction of justice."

looks like any thoughts i may have had about mcnulty being kept in the dark are now history...

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Was DOJ #2, McNulty, Comey's successor, cut out as well?

following on my earlier post...

Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, told congressional investigators last week that he, too, was kept in the dark about the White House's role in the firings.

[...]

According to a congressional aide, McNulty said he attended a White House meeting with Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, and other officials on March 5, the day before McNulty's deputy William Moschella was to testify to Congress about the firings.

White House officials told the Justice Department group that they needed to agree on clear reasons why each prosecutor was fired and explain them to Congress, McNulty said, according to the aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the transcript of McNulty's interview hasn't been made public.

McNulty said that White House officials never revealed during the meeting that they'd been discussing plans to replace some prosecutors with Gonzales aides, the congressional aide said.

McNulty recalled feeling disturbed and concerned when he found out days later that the White House had been involved, the congressional aide said. McNulty considered the extent of White House coordination to be "extremely problematic."

this raises a few questions in josh's mind, as well it should...

Why do you need to 'agree on clear reasons why each prosecutor was fired' if the reasons were actually clear when you did the firing and if the reasons can be stated publicly? Think about [it]. Why do Rove and the other heavies from the White House need to tell these guys how important it is to get their stories straight?

yeah... why...?

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Gonzo's replacement...? Why, Patrick Fitzgerald, of COURSE...!

look at this list of LOSERS...!

Republican officials operating at the behest of the White House have begun seeking a possible successor to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, whose support among GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill has collapsed, according to party sources familiar with the discussions.

Among the names floated Monday by administration officials are Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and White House anti-terrorism coordinator Frances Townsend. Former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson is a White House prospect. So is former solicitor general Theodore B. Olson, but sources were unsure if he would want the job.

Republican sources also disclosed that it is now a virtual certainty that Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, whose incomplete and inaccurate congressional testimony about the prosecutors helped precipitate the crisis, will also resign shortly. Officials were debating whether Gonzales and McNulty should depart at the same time or whether McNulty should go a day or two after Gonzales.

puh-l-e-e-e-e-eze... Chertoff...? Townsend...? we don't need more litmus-tested bush toadies...

the other day, i noted this post from jeralyn...

CBS legal analyst and author of the Washington Post's Bench Conference blog makes the case today for replacing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales with Patrick Fitzgerald.

if bush wants anyone to believe that he's serious about the integrity of the justice department, the attorney general, and the us attorneys, he couldn't do better than patrick fitzgerald... ah, well... we know he isn't serious...

(thanks to TPMmuckraker...)

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