Democracy Has Prevailed.

March 18, 2007

At the pleasure of the President

The best comment that I've heard regarding the firing by the Bush Gang of the eight US Attorneys was this by Kate O'Beirne on Hardball:
Now, they have every right, as you know, Mike, to replace eight presidential appointees. They can do so for no reason or any good reason. They can‘t do it for a bad reason, which would be, you know, politically interfering with an investigation or prosecution. [emphasis added]
Now, of course, Kate, being a conservative went on to say, "I don‘t think there‘s not much evidence of that yet, although the situation in New Mexico raises those questions. But it was handled so ineptly on this one, they can‘t even count on their typical allies on Capitol Hill defending them," so she did try to find some wiggle room for this administration but even she had to admit that it wasn't smelling too good in Gonzalesland.

I will add that you also can't lie to Congress about how and why you fired them.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

What's this prosecutor flap about, really? My conservative friends tell me that the Democrats are being unreasonable, and that the prosecutors serve "at the pleasure of the President", a favorite phrase these days (though I remember the outrage when Monica served Clinton's pleasure.)

What they forget is that the prosecutors, and all members of the Executive Branch, may serve at the pleasure of the President, but they do not serve the President himself. They serve the Nation. Not the President, not the Party. The Nation, and, in the case of District Attorneys and the Attorney General, they also serve Justice.

Not the President. Not the Vice President. Not the Congress, or the Republican or Democratic Party. Not Christ, or Allah, or Jehovah, or Mary, or Mohammed. Not their mother nor their brothers, not their friends, not their lovers. They serve the Nation, the Constitution, and Justice. We the People must accept nothing less, or we have no Justice, no Freedom, and no Nation.