WP: Justice Department Fires 8th U.S. Attorney

[DeepModem Mom]

Justice Department Fires 8th U.S. Attorney
Dispute Over Death Penalty Cited
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 24, 2007; Page A02

An eighth U.S. attorney announced her resignation yesterday, the latest in a wave of forced departures of federal prosecutors who have clashed with the Justice Department over the death penalty and other issues.

Margaret Chiara, the 63-year-old U.S. attorney in Grand Rapids, Mich., told her staff that she was leaving her post after more than five years, officials said. Sources familiar with the case confirmed that she was among a larger group of prosecutors who were first asked to resign Dec. 7.

Chiara is the second female U.S. attorney to be dismissed. The other is Carol Lam of San Diego. Before the firings, 15 of 93 U.S. attorneys were women, department records show.

The firings have been criticized by lawmakers in both parties and have prompted proposals in Congress to restrict the ability of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to appoint interim prosecutors indefinitely....

U.S. District Judge Robert Holmes Bell, the chief judge in Michigan's Western District, said in an interview yesterday that Chiara has an excellent reputation in Grand Rapids....

***

Justice officials have been evasive about the number of fired prosecutors. (Deputy Attorney General) McNulty told the Senate Judiciary Committee that fewer than 10 had been dismissed, but he declined to elaborate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/23/AR2007022301675.html

[Hissyspit]

1. Purge. n/t

[napi21]

2. I want to knowwhy ANY attorney would feel comfortable taking a job

under Gonzo! Unless they are totally partisan andare willing to give up their oath to ulhold the laws of the US, how could they ever trust Gonzo? The firing of all these US attorneys is insane, and akin to Nixon firing his AG!

[Erika]

5. W cares nothing about the GOP or the country n/t

[anotherdrew]

3. impeach and imprison now n/t

[Canuckistanian]

7. Oh? And who's going to imprison them?

That's the point of these firings.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. That's the worst thing -- that our chief law enforcer is completely lawless himself. nt

[Erika]

4. Gonzales shames the idea of Justice n/t

[Doondoo]

6. K&R

[Devon77]

8. promote the bad boys and purge the rest

[lovuian]

10. Congress needs to fire his but Gonzales is placing his

people in crucial spots

The FBI must be a scary place to work right now

[cal04]

11. Democrat says she may be latest resignation forced

Updated: 2 hours, 25 minutes ago
Democrat says she may be latest resignation forced by Bush administration
(snip)
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Chiara’s resignation “could well be one of them. Now that this shoe has dropped, we’ll be continuing to seek better explanations than those we’ve been given.”

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse declined to comment on whether Chiara was forced from her post.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9924813/

[donkeyotay]

12. Gonzales is a disgrace.

:nuke:

[Morgana LaFey]

13. SOmebody needs to stop this shit

And quick.

[Ian David]

14. Michigan's Female U.S. Attorney Resigns (Another Bush Purge)

(02-24) 05:56 PST Grand Rapids, Mich. (AP) --

Michigan's first female U.S. attorney says she is stepping down, prompting speculation that she is the latest in a wave of resignations forced by the Bush administration.

Margaret M. Chiara, 63, said Friday she would resign her position effective March 16, but did not say why. She said in a statement issued by her office that she intends to remain in public service.

<snip>

Seven other U.S. attorneys have been forced to resign in recent months. Democrats have accused the Bush administration of forcing the resignations to make way for political allies.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Chiara's resignation "could well be one of them. Now that this shoe has dropped, we'll be continuing to seek better explanations than those we've been given."

<snip>

Chiara was nominated by President Bush for the position in 2001. During her tenure as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan, the jurisdiction has seen a 15 percent increase in felony prosecutions and convictions. She developed an attorney training and mentoring program that now serves as a national model, her office said.

More:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/02/24/national/a055615S04.DTL


See also:

Saturday Night Massacre
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Massacre

[napi21]

15. "Seek better explainations?" BS Chuck! Stop Gonzo!!!

I can understand one or two being asked to step down "for cause", butthis is becoming an epidemic! I want the Judiciaary Committee to find out REALLY what's going on!

[marmar]

16. This is ridiculous....

What BushCo ally did she go after? ..... Anyone who still believes that we live in a democracy is naive beyond reason. This is some Stalinist bullshit.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

18. Think:

More like protection for Romney.

[terip64]

17. kick and recommend

[Mind_your_head]

19. They're gutting the third (and final) branch - the Judiciary

It's UNBELIEVABLE how quickly these thugs have turned more than 230 years of the American Republic on "it's head".

[Mind_your_head]

20. Please remember to 'recommend'

This post has 5 responses, I hope that we all felt this was important enough to recommend as it was it respond?!

[durtee librul]

21. Well ok hate me for saying this....

but why should she resign 'under pressure' if that is what she did? What did the bushbots do - threaten to take her first born son?

If these people REALLY wanted to serve the public, NO amount of 'pressure' should force them to resign. If they had any spine, they'd stick it out and tell them to shove it up their royal red arses.

Sorry, say what you want. An official should stay put. Period. Especially when we are in the trying times we are in.

[Mind_your_head]

23. Horse head harassment

http://archive.recordonline.com/archive/2006/07/26/news-omhorsehead-07-26.html

One example perhaps? Who knows what "pressure" was applied. These judges are not at all 'spineless'. They ARE human, though and that's what the thugs take full advantage of.

Don't be naive.

That's why I (and others) use the word "thug".

[durtee librul]

24. Sorry to disappoint you, but I hardly

think I am 'naive' and I wish you wouldn't even take the time to insinuate that I am especially since you know nothing about me.

Second, the horse head story - nice touch. While I can commiserate with the lady in the story (BTW, I have 2 horses), I fail to see what the connection is with the lady in Michigan.

As far as pressure, then there are ways to deal with it other than resignation. And yes dear, I have been threatened with my life and also of my children's lives on one occasion and while it is scary, just like your story, once the 'fear' subsides and cooler heads prevail - loathing and common sense take over to make things 'right' again in the universe.

Media coverage does a lot, even here in Michigan where I do live btw. Common sense and a sense of community goes even further especially when you know in your heart things aren't right and are illegal as hell.

So again, please don't refer to me as naive. I may not be the brightest bulb in the package and I readily admit I can always learn something, but I also know when to be true to my ideals and to stop the madness in any way I am able....or at least slow it down a bit.

[Pastiche423]

25. If their family is threatened

should they stay put?

After what El Mono and his cabal has done to this country and others, how can you make such a naive statement?

[durtee librul]

26. My family was on the recieving end of some death

threats and some very nasty 'jokes' at one time.

I will say this...threatened or not, a sense of right and wrong has to (and does and I DO know this as it happened to us) take over. It's easy for someone who has never had their family threatened to sit and pass judgment on those of us who have had the unfortunate circumstances to have gone thru the ordeal. But to call us naive when you have NO clue what it is to have home and family threatened by some nut case? Get real.

Me naive? Don't think so. Take your name calling somewhere else and don't be so quick to pass judgement or assume that she has had her family threatened. You are just guessing at that. No where in the post (or even by googling her) does one get the notion she or her family have been threatened....(ok tin foil people - 'she can't say, or they'll take her to *'s basement and make her eat Fright white momma's cooking for a month')

People in public offices....well, guess what? It's part of the job whether they like it or not. They better get thick skins for the crap that comes their way. If every person in public office resigned when someone told them to go to hell or to 'be careful, be verrrry careful' we wouldn't have many people in offices.

Had a friend in WI once who ran for County Clerk's office - on the day before election, she was sent a bouquet of dead roses and also found a dead critter (headless) in her car.....her last name was Rose. Intimidation? It's all part of being in the public. There are always going to be people who hate people for being there and not 'voting' right or doing things against the grain...

Now, that being said, is it right? Not a chance. Does it happen? Yep. Does it make it right? Nope. Should a person cut and run? I personally don't think so...it would just serve to make me angrier and stick to my guns. (unless they could factually show me where I was wrong)

So please all of you out there in where ever, don't call me naive. Name calling serves nothing.

[Pastiche423]

27. O-kay then

How about willfully ignorant? Is that better?

If you have been paying attention to all that has gone on in this country since January 20, 2001, you would know something is not right wrt to these recent forced resignations.

But you, who said take name-calling elsewhere, did the very thing by calling some "tin foil people".

I think there is a word for that. It's hypocrite.

[durtee librul]

28. Not even going to bother to reply to you

and btw, I am proud to be a tin foiler. I can rise above the pettiness.

[Pastiche423]

30. lol!

"Not even going to bother to reply to you".

But yet you did.

And some people wonder why Americans won't wake up. Thank you for serving as an example.

[Mind_your_head]

29. Okay.....

Don't believe in the "big picture".

You'll be 'run over' 'later', rather than 'sooner', but no matter how much money you have....how much 'influence' you have....you'll never have enough to overpower the corporations....and some day ~ soon (look what's been done in just 30 or 6 years, depending on how you look at it!)....you're just gonna be like the rest of us 'losers'. Really, that's the future!

Humanity MEANS nothing. Everything you ever KNEW will mean NOTHING.

POWER. CONTROL. SURVELLIENCE.....soul-less, bodiless 'entities' who WE gave the 'power of personhood' will rule it all (and destroy all of the G-d-given 'human fun' and life-blood)

[Ian David]

31. You're more likely to be killed for being gay than for being a judge. n/t

[LiberalFighter]

22. How many will accept a position in this administration or any GOP admin

knowing that they may be forced out for doing their job?

[superconnected]

32. the state of america gets scarier and scarier everyday

..."purge the good judges". That sounds like a fucking take over. And I bet it is.