Democracy Has Prevailed.

April 27, 2007

The AP on Mary Beth Buchanan

Read it here.

With U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales under attack in Congress for firing eight U.S. attorneys, Buchanan has also come under scrutiny because of a Justice Department administrative post she held in 2005. A former top aide to Gonzales has said Buchanan was consulted in the firings, and now a House committee is seeking to interview her.

The controversy has exposed a strong undercurrent of dissatisfaction with Buchanan in the legal community in Western Pennsylvania, where critics say she has devoted too much time pursuing headline-grabbing cases of sometimes minor importance and trying to please Washington

The AP adds some interesting, though more or less irrelevant, details of her past to the story:
Buchanan, 43, married her childhood sweetheart, became a mother at 17 and then divorced - not the typical launching pad for a legal career, especially for the daughter of a steelworker from Roscoe, population 848.
This is confusing to me. This darling of the Bush White House was married and pregnant by the time she was 17? How long did her first marriage last?

Now onto the local critics:

But [former U.S. Attorney Fred] Thieman and [former assistant U.S. attorney Thomas] Farrell say Buchanan's Washington posts have distracted from her job in Pittsburgh. That includes a stint as head of the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys -- during which she was said to have been consulted on a list of fired prosecutors.

"Since 9/11 it appears that both the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys and the Attorney General's Advisory Committee have been used more to oversee U.S. attorneys than to assist them," Thieman said. "I think the current controversy speaks for itself."

And here's Buchanan's non-defense defense:
If defense attorneys aren't being critical, Buchanan responded, "then the U.S. attorney probably isn't doing their job."
Nothing about whether the charges are right or wrong - or why they'd be wrong if they were wrong.

But the most damning stuff is the non-supportive support she's getting from fellow Republicans:
Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett, a former U.S. attorney under President Bush's father, would only say for the record: "I've known Mary Beth since before she became a lawyer. She certainly has worked hard to get where she is."
Yer doin' a hekuva job, Mary.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, the article basically appears to have been generated from Mary Beth Buchanan's public relations team...I'm sorry meant press agent. Glad the people of Pittsburgh's tax dollars go to this. Instead of answering any of the accusations raised, Ms. Buchanan argues that she is a common person and a good foot soldier. I really do not care if she is a marathon runner, is from Roscoe, has kids and what not. Everyone in this world has some sort of cross they bore. Ms. Buchanan is not the first person to go through hard times and I find it insulting that she uses these fact points to attempt to quench critics. She should have answered the questions/accusations raised. I thought the fact that no one appears to come to her defense even after she forwards the reporter onto them is telling. It is similiar to forwarding on an interviewer to a recommender for a job. You telling me no one would defend her on the record. The last odd thing about the article was that Ms. Mary Beth Buchanan used statistics as a means of bolstering her position. I though Tom Farrell already pointed out the Mary Beth Buchanan was misreporting her stats to bolster her record. Why did she not address this accusation before continuing? So far, Ms. Buchanan has been accused of politicizing her office, targeting democrats with lack luster cases, misreporting statistics to promote her career, misusing her staff (tax payors pay for them) to write her political speeches, misrepresenting the law such as the patriot act, etc. and she simply has not responded to any of these accusations.

Anonymous said...

Well it appears Mary Beth Buchanan continues to misreport facts and statistics to make her career performance look better than it is. In the AP article, Mary Beth Buchanan is noted as saying that Tommy Chong sold drug cutting agents as well as bongs. Unfortunately, it appears that these statements by Ms. Buchanan were false. The AP published a correction to the report as follows:

PITTSBURGH - In stories April 26 and 27 about U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, The Associated Press reported erroneously that a company owned by comic Tommy Chong sold substances used to "cut" or dilute illegal drugs. Chong's company was one of several Buchanan's office prosecuted for selling illegal drug paraphernalia, but it did not sell drug-cutting supplies.

http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2007/05/01/ap-state-pa/d8orm6t80.txt

Anonymous said...

I found your post after reading:

Our U.S. attorney should resign:
Mary Beth Buchanan has pursued the partisan priorities of the Bush administration

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07079/770820-109.stm

I think it provides a fuller picture.

nimbis said...

Weed should be legal. Its safer than alcahol, why even debate it.ooohhh,,, it makes you happy and laugh. Its a natural plant for god sakes. I will smoke a fatty for May beth In Pennsylvania!!!!