The Real Danger

Kyle Sampson said today that Alberto R. Gonzales was lying when he said he was not involved in the dismissal of US Attorneys. This is not news. If they are members of the Bush administration and their lips are moving they are probably lying. It was what else Mr Sampson said that should have us very concerned and it's not just about the Attorney firings but the entire Republican idea of "governance".

In his opening remarks, Mr. Sampson, who appeared before the committee voluntarily, insisted that while the firings of eight United States attorneys had brought “confusion, misunderstanding and embarrassment” to the Justice Department, none of the eight had been dismissed for any improper reason.

Politics were involved but that's OK because they are political appointments.

He argued that the list of United States attorneys to be fired had been compiled with the involvement of “a number of senior Justice Department officials”; that the process, while not “scientific,” was also not “random or arbitrary”; and that the United States attorneys had been appropriately judged by management skills, relationships with other officials and “their support for the priorities of the president and the attorney general.”

“The distinction between political and performance-related reasons for removing a U.S. attorney is, in my view, largely artificial,” Mr. Sampson said.

So in a nutshell it's OK for those in power to use the US Judicial System for political ends - to impact elections. Sounds a bit like a banana republic to me. This is simply one more example of the contempt that what passes for the Republican Party holds the law and the constitution.