Marble Composition

US Attorney Scandal

The one-stop shop for information on this affair is undoubtedly Josh Marshall's TPM blog and its affiliates. They have everything you could ever want to know about what happened, why, and where this case is going. This case is extremely important because it shows the current administration has no problem trashing traditional legal norms within our system of government, and demonstrates why they prefer to operate outside of our Constitutional framework, not as an exception, but as a rule.

As a sharp-eyed commenter over at TPM Muckraker points out today, this wasn't about using the US Attorneys for political gain in the '06 midterms. These latest shenanigans are about the fight for '08, both on the presidential and congressional levels. By the time they got around to really getting this operation into gear, they must have seen the same poll numbers everyone else was looking at for '06, despite Karl's public statements that he was the only one who had the "real numbers". The result was a catastrophic blow to Rove's reputation: out of 468 congressional elections around the country, the number of contested Democratic losses was...(timpany please)...zero (0).

So, looking forward to '08, I'd like to focus on the situation in Arkansas. There, US Attorney Bud Cummins, a loyal Republican with an excellent record, was told by the administration he would have to resign because they wanted to replace him with one of Karl Rove's former assistants. That man, Tim Griffin, had no distinguished career as a lawyer/prosecutor, he was a an opposition researcher for the RNC in Florida during the 2004 campaign for Team Bush.

Let's get to the heart of it, and it's really pretty clear if you take into account all of Rove's past crusades: he planted a toady, a man who's job it is to dig up dirt on Democrats, into a position with prosecutorial powers in Arkansas while Hillary Clinton campaigns for the nomination for president.

The Justice Department has already admitted they were forcing Cummins out for political reasons. Why? Why was Griffin the man to take his place? How closely tied was/is Griffin to the RNC? Why replace a well rated, highly competent, loyal Republican prosecutor with a low-level campaign cretin who's job is to smear the opposition? To ask the question is to answer it.

Like I said, go over to Josh's joint to get the full tilt. Hell, I pitched in $50.- in the first place to get the thing off the ground, so I feel vested (o.k., call me cheap, it's all I had at the time!).

posted by FuzzFinger @ 3/26/2007 09:30:00 PM