Probe heats up over fired U.S. attorneys (WH backs off earlier comments)

[sabra]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17643624/

Probe heats up over fired U.S. attorneys
White House backs off earlier assertion that idea originated with Miers

WASHINGTON - The White House on Friday backed off its earlier contention that then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers first raised the idea of firing U.S. attorneys — an act that led to a firestorm of criticism of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

“It has been described as her idea but ... I don’t want to try to vouch for origination,” said White House press secretary Tony Snow, who previously had asserted Miers was the person who came up with the idea. “At this juncture, people have hazy memories.”

...

Snow said it was not immediately clear who first floated the idea of firing prosecutors shortly after President Bush was re-elected to a second term.

“This is as far as we can go: we know that Karl recollects Harriet having raised it and his recollection is that he dismissed it as not a good idea,” Snow told reporters. “That’s what we know. We don’t know motivations. ... I don’t think it’s safe to go any further than that.”

...

“I want you to be clear here: don’t be dropping it at the president’s door,” Snow said.

[maddezmom]

1. and that's as far as we can go????

not safe? Hmmm, guess they realize this might be another criminal matter.

[jelly]

19. Congess gets to decide how far "we can go," thankyouverymuch.

Can't wait for the hearings on this one.

[bullimiami]

2. really, do we look stupid? it was rove or cheney or bush that started it.

my bet is on rover.

[LiberalFighter]

22. Doesn't matter who started it... ALL GUILTY - complicitly

[louis-t]

3. "Somebody must have mis-spoke"

ain't gonna cut it anymore. "We retract our previous lie" is more like it.

[bearfan454]

4. I want you to be clear here: Bush is who approved this.

without a doubt.

[acmavm]

5. Of course we wouldn't 'drop it at the pResident's door'. We know

that lame bastard doesn't make these decisions. He's just the front man, but even that has gone to hell in a handcart.

[MGKrebs]

6. Well, if their memories are hazy...

maybe they shouldn't be making definitive statements about what happened, especially under oath!

[yellowcanine]

7. The WH,,,,,"backed off its earlier contention"..... How does that work, exactly?

And what do we tell little Johnny when we catch him in a lie and he says that he "doesn't want to vouch for the origination?" What reporter has the balls to ask that of the snowman?

[Barrett808]

20. Just like it did in 1974: "That statement is no longer operative." n/t

[Roland99]

8. The Rubber Stamp protectors of the Unitary Executive are GONE, DADDY, GONE!

[damntexdem]

9. Oh, the poor White House!

No matter what they say, it doesn't work, it gets outed as a lie, so they have to back off of it.

The only thing they wouldn't have to back off of is THE one thing they cannot afford to say: the truth.

[modrepub]

10. Hey,

Who ordered the federal probe of Sen. Menendez (NJ-D) right before the election??? It's just as important to interview current AGs (who followed orders) as it is to interview the fired ones. Didn't Rove have his own numbers saying that the Pubs would would hold on to congress? Maybe he factored in these investigations of democrats into the mix? Hmmm, they wouldn't do that would they??!

BTY this Nor'easter sucks!

[brooklynite]

11. White House backs off on Miers scenario

WASHINGTON - The White House on Friday backed off its earlier contention that then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers first raised the idea of firing U.S. attorneys — an act that led to a firestorm of criticism of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

"It has been described as her idea but ... I don't want to try to vouch for origination," said White House press secretary Tony Snow, who previously had asserted Miers was the person who came up with the idea. "At this juncture, people have hazy memories."

Snow's comments came as e-mails surfaced Thursday night pulling the White House further into the intensifying probe over the firings of eight federal prosecutors. The e-mails raised new questions about top political adviser Karl Rove's role in the dismissals, and came amid eroding GOP support for Gonzales that put his job at risk.

Snow said it was not immediately clear who first floated the more dramatic idea of firing all 93 U.S. attorneys shortly after President Bush was re-elected to a second term.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070316/ap_on_go_co/congress_prosecutors_7

[louis-t]

12. "Please pay no attention to our previous lie." WH

Sheeesh!

[MLFerrell]

13. Atta boy, *.

Keep lying. It'll be that much easier to catch you in one under oath.

[Magleetis]

14. More lies

Will it ever end?

[skypilot]

15. "...not immediately clear...

...who first floated the more dramatic idea..."

Khalid Sheik Mohammad maybe?

[TwilightGardener]

16. Oh, those "Hazy Memories" again! Should such brain-addled people

even be allowed to occupy such high-level positions?

[BigDDem]

17. Dear BushCoInc -

Pick a lie and stick with it.

[gratuitous]

18. Now be fair

In those heady, flush days right after George W. was totally vindicated in everything he'd done during his first term, it's totally understandable to me that there were so many nefarious schemes to subvert the constitution and the lawful governing structures of the nation that they really can't remember who came up with every hare-brained, addle-pated, cockamamie idea.

Sheesh, do you remember every last utterance you made when you were falling down drunk? Have a heart, you Bush-haters!

[truthisfreedom]

21. They're going to wish this was all a "hazy memory" because it's going to bring the whole bunch of

them down to a new low.

[brooklynite]

23. Hazy memories...hazy memories...why does that sound familiar?

I'd swear that someone else used that excuse...but I can't remember who.

[RamboLiberal]

24. NYT: White House Now Unsure if Firings Were Miers’s Idea

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/16/washington/15cnd-attorneys.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

The White House backed away today from its earlier assertions that the former White House counsel, Harriet E. Miers, was alone in hatching the idea to fire United States attorneys early in 2005.

Instead, President Bush’s chief spokesman said today that, Karl Rove, the chief political adviser to Mr. Bush, had early conversations with Ms. Miers. “I think the thing that we can say with assurance is that Karl remembers her raising it to him and his saying he didn’t think it was a good idea,” said Tony Snow, the president’s spokesman.

“It has been described as her idea but ... I don’t want to try to vouch for origination,” Mr. Snow said, according to The Associated Press. “At this juncture, people have hazy memories.”

The shift in stance articulated by Mr. Snow came a day after it was revealed in e-mail messages that Mr. Rove inquired about firing United States attorneys in January 2005. The request prompted a Justice Department aide to respond that Alberto R. Gonzales, soon to be confirmed as attorney general, favored replacing a group of “underperforming” prosecutors.

The e-mail messages, part of a larger collection that the Justice Department is preparing to turn over to Congressional investigators, indicate that Mr. Rove and Mr. Gonzales, then the White House counsel, had considered replacing prosecutors earlier than either has previously acknowledged, and Mr. Snow’s replies to reporters’ questions today reinforced that impression.

[jpak]

25. A couple of subpoenas and testimony under oath would clarify this...

:evilgrin:

[madame defarge]

27. One would hope, but...

you really think they wouldn't lie under oath?

[MADem]

26. Harriet picked up the phone and snarled like Cheney

"Lissen up, Monkeyboy....you think Ah'm takin' the fall for you, you gotchersef anotha THINK a-comin!!!! You round up the boys and tell them to stop shopping this horseshit about me hatching that bullshit plan of Rove's, or ah'll sing like Beverly Sills settin' on a big, cold block of Ahhhhhs!!!!"

[Demeter]

28. Now THAT I'll Believe!

You gotta wonder what kind of hold she has over these crooks, aside from the "singing".

In fact, this whole week has been a game of Musical Chairs--or is it Hot Potato?

[bluerum]

29. "At this point people have hazy memories". What is this? The republic

party line? The republic party rallying cry?

How is this - "Forget the Alamo!". Or - "I regret that I only have one memory to give for my country." Or maybe "Ask not what your memory can do for you, ask what your memory can do for your country."



There must be a signing requirement for joining the republic party - you can't join unless you demonstrate that you can purge your memory at a moments notice. Or - you need to demonstrate that you have the IQ of a potato.

Give me a god damn 'effin break. Lyin, boot lickin, thieve'in republic scum.

[kestrel91316]

30. No one has/had any idea who outed Plame in the first place. No one

has any idea now who decided certain US attorneys had to be fired.

Sounds to me like nobody knows who's in charge at the White House.

Maybe Osama bin Laden is.

[spindrifter]

31. Hazy memories--cover for lying!

Yes, I have a hazy memory of what really happened. That's why I gave you the account I did last week. What? You have contradictory information? Oh, I'm sorry, my memory was hazy. Yes, you are right, that's what happened. (Wink, wink)

[rocktivity]

32. Sounds familiar

weren't they also "unsure" about whether Miers was responsible for showing Bush a certain presidental daily briefing back in August of 2001?

:eyes:
rocknation