TomPaine: The Justice Department Massacre

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The Justice Department Massacre
Linda Andros
February 27, 2007


Linda Andros is a legislative counsel for Public Citizen's Congress Watch .

Once again, President Bush is showing how little respect he has for constitutional checks and balances—and at the same time, how much the country still needs them.

Last December, the Department of Justice forced eight U.S. attorneys to resign without cause, firing six on a single December day. It used to be that a president could only make interim appointments for 120 days, and if a candidate was not presented for confirmation by the Senate in that time frame, a local district court appointment temporarily filled the position until a candidate was confirmed.

Not anymore. A little-noticed provision in the USA PATRIOT Act revisions passed last year eliminated these checks and balances and gave the U.S. attorney general the authority to fill interim positions indefinitely. Now a president can appoint under-qualified partisans to serve out the remainder of the administration's term. Even more troubling, President Bush can now shield wrongdoers within the administration from independent-minded prosecutors, including those who were overseeing significant public corruption investigations at the time they were forced to resign.

A prime example is the purging of San Diego U.S. Attorney Carol Lam, a former judge and political independent best known for spearheading the successful bribery prosecution of Republican Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Her dismissal came in the midst of a large-scale investigation that so far has uncovered a scandal-tainted trail from the Central Intelligence Agency to the Pentagon and Congress, and possibly to the White House. .....(more)

The complete article is at: http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/02/27/the_justice_department_massacre.php