This Is Not What America Voted For

[red states rule]

Libs as usual are allowing their thirst for power go to their heads. They are not interetwed in trying to come up with solutions to problems, but rather scoring political points

The voters will toss them out in 08 and put the adults back in charge

White House Says No, Conyers Says Yes to Subpoenas


The House Judiciary Committee could vote as early as Tuesday to subpoena Karl Rove, White House deputy chief of staff, and Harriet Miers, former White House counsel, as part of the panel's probe into their role in the recent firing of eight U.S. Attorneys. E-mails released this week show that Rove was aware of Jan. 2005 discussions within the White House to fire all 93 U.S. Attorneys, contradicting earlier White House statements about when and how much Rove was involved in the issue.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) was told by White House Counsel Fred Fielding on Friday that the White House would not turn over documents relating to the prosecutor purge, although Fielding declined to say definitely whether the White House would agree to let Rove, Miers and other officials provide testimony to the committee.

In response, Conyers now says that he will prepare to subpoena Rove, Miers, Scott Jennings, Deputy Political Director Scott Jennings, and William Kelly, the deputy counsel.

Conyers panel could vote on the matter as early as Tuesday, according to Democratic insiders, although it's unclear whether Conyers will seek approval for actual subpoenas or just the authority to subpoena Rove, Miers and the other White House officials.

"The White House Counsel's office advised us this afternoon that the White House would not be providing documents to the Committee, or providing the White House's position with respect to the Committee securing the testimony of White House officials today," Conyers said in a statement released by his office late Friday afternoon. "This is contrary to earlier expectations that the Committee would receive these answers and documents today and is, therefore, very disappointing. The Counsel's office has assured me that they will continue to work in good faith to get answers to those questions by early next week."

Conyers added: "Despite those assurances and my continued hope that the White House will resolve these questions in a cooperative fashion, the Committee must take steps to ensure that we are not being stonewalled or slow walked on this matter. I will schedule a vote to issue subpoenas next week for the documents and officials we need to talk to. Allegations that our criminal justice system has been undermined by partisan politics and that the Congress was deceived about these activities are among the most serious this Congress will consider and we expect immediate answers."

"The White House is playing a dangerous game of chicken," said Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the subcommittee on commercial and administrative law Judiciary. "
"Today, however, the White House has chosen to ignore the deadline for information on its role in firing federal prosecutors, after publicly stating a commitment to finding the truth. This commitment - like the Bush Administration's ever-changing version of what actually happened - seems to have a very short shelf-life."

The Justice Department has decided to turn over documents in its possession related to the U.S. Attorney firings to the House and Senate Judiciary committees on Monday, according to Democratic sources. Justice will also inform panel members at that time whether it will agree to interviews by committee aides with at least five current and former DOJ officials involved in the firings. The Senate Judiciary Committee has already voted to authorize subpoenas for these officials, as well as six of the ousted U.S. Attorneys, although no subpoenas have been issued at this time.

 

[William Joyce]

So what if they ignore the subpoena? Who's going to arrest them?

 

[red states rule]

So what if they ignore the subpoena? Who's going to arrest them?

The liberal media will carry the water for the Dems and smear the those who refuse

Nothing new of course for the liberal media - they are lap dogs for the Dems

 

[red states rule]

So what if they ignore the subpoena? Who's going to arrest them?

CBS Gives Full Air Time to Attorney Firing Critics
Posted by Justin McCarthy on March 18, 2007 - 10:54.
CBS continues to pound away the US attorney firings story. On the March 16th edition of "The Early Show," reporter Bill Plante lead his story stating "the hole just keeps getting deeper." Plante then played a sound bite from Democratic hyper partisan Senators Chuck Schumer at Patrick Leahy. After playing a few clips of White House staffers Karl Rove and Tony Snow, they hyped Republicans calling for their resignation, touting Senator Gordon Smith and playing a sound bite of Representative Dana Rohrabacher implying Gonzales should go.

Anchor Harry Smith sought some expert opinion from Republican strategist Ed Rollins and Democratic strategist Mike Feldman. Fair and balanced debate? Not from what Mr. Rollins said from the start.

HARRY SMITH: Ed, let me start with you. Alberto Gonzales, two questions, should he stay or should he go?


ED ROLLINS: It certainly isn't the president's prerogative, but I would argue that he should go. Think at this point in time they're losing support among Republican Senators by the day. And the president desperately needs their support.

The transcript from the story is below.

HARRY SMITH: There are growing signs that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales could lose his job for his handling of the firing of those eight US attorneys. CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante is live at the White House with the latest. Good morning, Bill.

BILL PLANTE: Good morning, Harry. The hole just keeps getting deeper. New e-mails released last night by the Justice Department showed that while Gonzales was still the White House counsel in late '04 and early '05, he was involved in a discussion about getting rid of 15 to 20 percent of the US attorneys. And White House counselor Karl Rove was also involved in that discussion.


SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Well, it shows he certainly had the idea, firing US attorneys. It shows that the White House statements that he wasn't involved are false.

PLANTE: The e-mail quotes Rove as asking a White House lawyer in January 2005 "how we planned to proceed regarding US attorneys, whether we were going to allow all to stay, request resignations from all, or selectively replace them." Rove defended the firings and dismissed the outrage as partisanship.

KARL ROVE: This, to my mind is a lot of politics. And I understand that's what Congress has a right to play around with, and they're going to do it.


PLANTE: The Senate Judiciary Committee authorized subpoenas for five Justice Department officials, even though Attorney General Gonzales has said they will testify. But action on subpoenas for former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and for Rove has been postponed until next week as negotiations continue between the White House and Congress.

SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY (D-VT): We now have strong reason to believe that despite the earlier protestations to the contrary, Karl Rove and political operatives at the White House and for the Republican party played a role.

PLANTE: The attorney general says he will testify and the president is still publicly supportive.

TONY SNOW: The president has confidence in the attorney general. He's made that clear both privately to the attorney general. He made it clear yesterday in the press conference.


PLANTE: But a second Republican Senator, Oregon's Gordon Smith, has now urged Gonzales to step down, as did GOP House member Dana Rohrabacher.


REP DANA ROHRABACHER (R-CA): Maybe the president should have an attorney general who is less a personal friend and more professional in his approach.

PLANTE: The public may be-- I mean the president may be publicly supportive, but influential Republicans around the White House are less so. They say he's finished, he's a problem, he has to go. Harry.

http://newsbusters.org/node/11487

 

[red states rule]

White House Aides Targeted in Attorney Firings Probe
Monday, March 19, 2007


WASHINGTON — The White House will reveal Tuesday whether President Bush's advisers will appear on Capitol Hill to discuss the firing of eight federal prosecutors, but the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Sunday if White House officials don't voluntarily agree to testify, he will try to subpoena them.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said he wants White House political adviser Karl Rove and former counsel Harriet Miers to explain what they knew about the prosecutors' dismissals.

"On Thursday, I am seeking a vote for a subpoena. I intend to get (testimony) under oath. I am tired of these informal briefings where we don't get the full truth, oftentimes, we don't get the truth. That way, the American people know what's going on," Leahy said.

Republicans are also increasingly expressing concern about the firings of the eight U.S. attorneys, all of whom were removed from political appointments. Some of the fired prosecutors told senators earlier this month that they were targeted for political reasons. The Justice Department had said most were dismissed for poor performance

"Congress has the constitutional authority to set some parameters and guidelines. We don't want to interfere with the president's basic right to set policy," Sen. Arlen Specter, the ranking Republican on the judiciary panel, told "FOX News Sunday" host Chris Wallace.

"But there's a real question here if he fires for a bad reason, if he fires because a U.S. attorney would not respond to pressure to prosecute or if there was pressure on him to not prosecute. We're taking a look now, Chris, at whether Congress ought to legislate to require some showing of cause," he continued.

Democrats accuse the Justice Department of misleading them about the reasons for the attorneys' dismissal and the extent of White House involvement. More documents from the Justice Department are headed to Congress on Monday.

E-mails already received showed that Rove, as early as Jan. 6, 2005, questioned whether the U.S. attorneys should all be replaced at the start of Bush's second term, and to some degree worked with Miers and former Gonzales chief of staff Kyle Sampson to get some prosecutors dismissed. Sampson, who resigned last week, said senior Justice officials knew the White House "had been discussing the subject since the election" of 2004.

White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore declined to comment Sunday as to whether Rove and Miers would testify. Current Counsel Fred Fielding was taking additional time to review the matter "given the importance of the issues under consideration and the presidential principles involved," she said.

The Senate committee already has approved using subpoenas, if necessary, for Justice Department officials and J. Scott Jennings, deputy to White House political director Sara Taylor, who works for Rove.

Although U.S. attorneys serve at the president's pleasure, one of the dismissed prosecutors said he wants to know exactly what happened.

"They asked me to leave. I left. And they told the truth almost consistently throughout this about my situation," said former U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins of Little Rock. Ark. "So I really don't think this is as much about me as it is the positions they've taken to try and explain the other seven. And that's where I personally am still very concerned, because I don't think they've been fair to the other seven colleagues at all."

"Performance has nothing to do with this," said fired attorney David Iglesias, who was working in Albuquerque, N.M. "This is a political hit and I just wish the Justice Department would have been honest when it testified in January that these were, in fact, not performance-related but, in fact, political."

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is facing increasing pressure to step down in the wake of the firings, though he has apologized for the way he handled the matter. President Bush said last week that the firings were mishandled, but expressed confidence in Gonzales.

Lawmakers are scheduled to quiz Gonzales on Thursday about his agency's budget request. The hearing will likely focus in part on the prosecutor scandal.

On Sunday Gonzales won support from Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a former federal judge.

"I know Al Gonzales well, and he's a good man. I think he's made some serious mistakes. I think he ought to be given a chance to correct those mistakes and I think if he does, he should continue as attorney general. But this is ultimately the choice that the president will make and General Gonzales himself," Cornyn said.

But Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer said Gonzales has got to go.

"I wouldn't be surprised if, a week from now, he's no longer attorney general. He has just miscast his role, misperceived his role. Instead of just being the president's lawyer who rubber stamps everything the White House wants, he has a role, as attorney general, as the chief law enforcement officer of the land without fear or favor. And on issue after issue -- the U.S. attorneys is obviously the most prominent and most egregious. He's bungled it," Schumer said.

Schumer said Bush could "clear the air" by appointing a new attorney general and coming clean with the facts.

But Specter scolded Schumer for using the issue in a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee letter urging New Mexico voters to oust Republican Sen. Pete Domenici. Domenici called Iglesias to find out the status of an investigation into alleged voter fraud by Democrats shortly before Iglesias was fired. Domenici's chief of staff offered the Justice Department a list of possible replacements.

"(Schumer) has taken a very political stance. Now, he's got a right to do that. He's a politician and I'm a politician. But I don't think he can do both things at the same time without having a conflict of interest, but that's up for him to decide," Specter said.

FOX News' Malini Bawa and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

[CockySOB]

So what if they ignore the subpoena? Who's going to arrest them?

You caught that bit of irony as well, eh?

I say more power to the Dumb-o-crats (they sure earn the slur for this stupidity). Talk about committing political suicide before the 2008 elections....

 

[red states rule]

You caught that bit of irony as well, eh?

I say more power to the Dumb-o-crats (they sure earn the slur for this stupidity). Talk about committing political suicide before the 2008 elections....

Give them as much rope as they want

The liberal media will continue to carry the water for the libs, but the folks will see how power hungry the Dems have become