Quotes Archive: Gonzogate
"If Bush needs another lawyer who knows how to keep troublesome information hidden, then [Ted] Olson is a superb choice. So what if he was selected for criminal investigation by the same law enforcement department that he would now run? That places him squarely in the Bush tradition of public service."
Joe Conason, on the consideration of Ted Olson as attorney general.
"He is in a position to block any criminal inquiry into his own misdeeds and those of other Administration officials, and that is exactly what he is doing. Under his watch, the Department of Justice has become what the Fire Department is in Rad Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 --- as you will recall, it existed not to put out fires, but to start them; and in a similar manner, the Bush Justice Department seems to exist not to prosecute crimes, but to commit them."
Human rights lawyer Scott Horton, making the case to impeach Alberto Gonzales.
"If we countenance a process where our subpoenas can be readily ignored, where a witness under a duly authorized subpoena doesn't even have to bother to show up, where privilege can be asserted on the thinnest basis and in the broadest possible manner, then we have already lost. We won't be able to get anybody in front of this committee, or any other."
John Conyers, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, in reply to Republican arguments that the charge of contempt of Congress against Josh Bolten and Harriet Miers will fail.
"Suddenly, it becomes very clear why Alberto Gonzales remains on as attorney general and why the administration has dug itself in to fight to the death about its right to wield the prosecutorial power for partisan advantage. The fact that Gonzales is personally compromised and faces potential prosecution is an asset in their mind; it provides him with proper incentive to continue shamelessly to obstruct."
Scott Horton of Harper's on why Gonzales won't resign, and the Bush administration's obstruction of investigations growing from Gonzogate.
"When I first got involved in this matter on the Republican side of the fence, I was shocked and sickened to learn of the U.S. Department of Justice's selective prosecution of Democrats, including former Governor Don Siegelman."
Dana Jill Simpson, who worked on the campaign on Gov. Bob Riley, R-AL, who said in an affidavit she heard a GOP operative say that his wife and a family friend, both US attorneys in Alabama, colluded with Karl Rove to trump up charges against former governor Don Siegelman.
"This is all made up of whole cloth. I didn't cage votes."
Former USA and caught cager Tim Griffin, hoping no one actually looks at his many e-mails and attached spreadsheets which wound up in the hands of Greg Palast, who isn't buying the denial.
"People were disgusted as much as livid. It was just the dishonesty of it."
Anonymous DOJ official on the lies the White House told to DOJ staff to pretend they didn't know James Comey was acting AG when Gonzales and Card intruded into Ashcroft's hospital room.
"After what I just witnessed, I will not meet with you without a witness."
James B. Comey, former deputy attorney general, telling White House chief of staff Andrew Card he won't meet with him alone after seeing Card and Gonzales try to pressure a seriously ill John Ashcroft into signing off on the NSA domestic spying program.
"I don't know how you would put that genie back in the bottle, if people started to believe we were hiring our A.U.S.A.s (Assistant United States Attorneys) for political reasons. I don't know that there's any window you can go to to get the department's reputation back if that kind of stuff is going on."
James B. Comey, former deputy attorney general, being optimistic when he says "starting", because many people already believe the DOJ hired according to party, just like it protected or prosecuted according to party.
"Schlozman didn't know anything about voting law. . . . All he knew is he wanted to be sure that the Republicans were going to win."
Joe Rich, career DOJ employee, and head of the voting rights section of the civil rights division until 2005, on how Bradley Schlozman made Republican loyalty the criteria for hiring career staff, and the effect on Republicans was the criteria for deciding when ID an redistricting was legal.
"There was an attempt to inject the virus of partisan politics into the prosecutorial process. That's been stopped because of Congressional oversight and because of media scrutiny."
Fired USA David Iglesias, interviewed with fired USA John McKay on Gonzogate, on the core of the scandal and the need to root out the corruption.
"I don't care if they appoint bozo the clown, we need to get rid of Fred Black."
Jack Abramoff, in an e-mail seeking the removal of the USA for Guam, who was investigating Abramoff and his client, the governor of Guam.
"I don't know whether the Eastern District of Wisconsin goes after every felon who accidentally votes. It is not like she voted five times. She cast one vote."
Judge Diane P. Wood, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit at a hearing in the case of Kimberly Prude, who has been imprisoned a year for voting while on probation. The US Attorney in the case is Steven Biskupic, the same one who convicted Georgia Thompson.
"If a decision is made to remove and replace a limited number of U.S. Attorneys, then the following might be considered for removal and possible replacement."
Former DOJ Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson in a January 2006 e-mail, 11 months before firing seven US attorneys, 13 months before telling Congress, "On December 7th, I did not have in mind any replacements for any of the seven who were asked to resign."
"Finally, the justice system has corrected itself and freed Wisconsin's unwitting political prisoner, Georgia Thompson. The former state procurement supervisor went to trial and to prison on the basis of evidence so flimsy it's scary. If such weak proof can put her behind bars, are any of us safe?"
Gregory Stanford, columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, on the conviction and imprisonment of Georgia Thompson, despite so little evidence an appeals court unanimously ordered her immediate release after oral argument: that doesn't happen.
"This is a decapitation of the office. I've never heard of anything like this. People work all their lives to be at these high levels in the office. This is an extraordinary event."
A source in the Minnesota US Attorney's office, commenting on the simultaneous resignation of four top administrators. Though I warn against believing anonymous government sources taking the government line, the sources for this story obviously risk being fired if identified.
"I have lost count of the public statements they have made that are simply wrong, or at least obviously deceptive. It smacks of desperation. You wonder if the bosses know the underlings are composing talking points for them with such little regard for the facts."
Fired USA for Arkansas Bud Cummins, commenting on the lies being told by the White House, DOJ, and congressional Republicans regarding the firings.
"Then we called a source close to Carol Lam in California, who expressed utter bewilderment at what old Orrin said on Meet the Press. The source confirmed for us publicly-available documents about Lam's career which indicate that she is not a law professor, she's 'been a federal prosecutor for nearly 18 years and [has] never been a fundraiser for any president'. Senator Hatch, what's going on here?"
Air America host Rachel Maddow in an open letter to Orrin Hatch, who Maddow caught in lies in his comments about fired USA Carol Lam, and who refused to return Maddow's calls.
"[I]f you're sitting out in the middle of this country and this becomes the topic du jour, like Anna Nicole Smith for the last two months, which has sickened the American public but that's what the press has run with because it makes for a nice dirty story, what are we doing to our country?"
Sen Tom Coburn, R-OK, who apparently believes Gonzogate is no more important than Smith's death. Sure, a celebrity death, the destruction of the credibility of the justice system, same thing.
"The danger then consists merely in this, the president can displace from office a man whose merits require that he should be continued in it. What will be the motives which the president can feel for such abuse of his power, and the restraints that operate to prevent it? In the first place, he will be impeachable by this house, before the senate, for such an act of mal-administration; for I contend that the wanton removal of meritorious officers would subject him to impeachment and removal from his own high trust."
James Madison, in a speech to the first Congress under the Constitution, addressing the subject of what should happen when a president fires meritorious appointees. It sounds like Madison would say that while not criminal, the removal of the eight US Attorneys for political reasons is by itself an impeachable offense.
"Unfortunately, since this administration took office, that professionalism and nonpartisan commitment to the historic mission of the division has been replaced by unprecedented political decision-making."
Joseph D. Rich, recently retired head of the DOJ Civil Rights Division's voting rights section, on the partisanship that overturned staff decisions on voting rights and redistricting.
"I think most of them will resign quietly - they don't get anything out of making it public. I don't see it as being a national story - especially if it phases in over a few months."
Tasia Scolinos, a senior public affairs specialist at the Justice Department, showing the typical judgement of Bush appointees in thinking the firing of selected US Attorneys for political purposes would be no big deal.
