Hijexx wrote:

Neoteric wrote:

By Alberto R. Gonzales
Sunday, April 15, 2007; Page B07

My decision some months ago to privately seek the resignations of a small number of U.S. attorneys has erupted into a public firestorm. First and foremost, I appreciate the public service of these fine lawyers and dedicated professionals, each of whom served his or her full four-year term as U.S. attorney. I apologize to them, their families and the thousands of dedicated professionals at the Justice Department for my role in allowing this matter to spin into an undignified Washington spectacle.

Watch for the hot legislative testimony Tuesday on C-SPAN. (Check local listings) This Attorney General Gonzales's opinion piece from the washington post.

--timball

I haven't been following this very closely, but I do have a question I haven't really heard answered: How is this different than Clinton cleaning house with 90+ attorneys when he was running things? I'm asking genuinely because I don't know the difference, not that I have a political axe to grind (before anyone pulls out flamethrowers!)

These are apples and oranges. The reappointment of basically all 93 US Attorneys at the start of a new administration is standard going back to at least Carter. Bush did it in 2001, Clinton in '93, Bush in '89 (a somewhat lesser purge since he and Reagan did agree on a couple things) Reagan in '81. It is standard practice for all 93 to be reset at the start of a new administration.

That the republicans are pushing the Clinton change as though it were anything like what we see here is pure political hackery.

What was seen here was unprecedented. These are W's appointments, fired for what look to be purely political reasons. To find something comparable, check the histories of Tammany Hall, or maybe Boston or Chicago in the bad old days. The only other similar modern circumstance that comes to mind is Archibald Cox and the Saturday Night Massacre.

And keep in mind, this isn't the end of this. There is still the case of US Attorney Black from Guam who was fired by Bush and replaced by a crony of the Governor-General Black was investigating. And the rise of Pat Robertson Law, and then there's the e-mails that have all vanished, and...

RE: Alberto R. Gonzales - Nothing Improper - washingtonpost.com