| Justin Rood for TPM has been noting an odd occurrence among US District attorneys, particularly in the Ninth Circuit*. Apparently, at least six of the fourteen US Attorney's in the Ninth have been pushed out or left on unclear terms over the course of the previous year give a day or two. Moreover, a seventh inside the Ninth Circuit resigned a few months before this odd year.** TPM notes one more odd departure from Little Rock, Arkansas.
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said on the floor was that the administration was pushing out between five and ten more. The administration is replacing these folks for short-term interim appointments--US Attorneys are approved by the Senate. The question is why?
The discussion in the TPM comments about why the administration would be pushing these folks out is interesting. The US Attorney basically has three jobs: head administrator, representative of the US in that district in civil cases, and chief prosecutor in criminal cases. It is unclear why any of these three jobs would be lighting up the Bush Administration's radar, but they sure seem to be.
One notable absence from this list is our own Bill Mercer, embattled US Attorney for the District of Montana. You may recall that Chief US District Judge Molloy criticized Mercer for taking a post at the Justice Department and neglecting his work here in Montana, and the Chair of the Democratic Party Dennis McDonald noted that the new job would mean a conflict of interest if the Burns-Abramoff debacle was ever tried.
My question is what is the litmus for pushing these folks out? Clearly, it is not a lack of commitment or neglect, or we would see Mercer's name at the top of that list. You have read some of my analysis of the Bush Administration's views of executive power. One of the reasons might be to solidify this Blood and Iron view as the prevalent legal view, represented by the US Attorneys in the Ninth. That would likely exempt Mr. Mercer, but what does it accomplish?
Thoughts?
Update - So, the TP Muckrakers have dug up a little more on this. Unsurprisingly, the freedom for the administration to take this action is just one more of the insanely bad provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act--more aptly called the USA Legislative Gives It To The Executive For Free Act.
It was an obscure provision in the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act, and it didn't take them very long to use it. The president signed it into law in March of last year -- by June, they were already moving to replace unwanted prosecutors.
Former Arkansas USA Bud Cummins told the Wall Street Journal that "a top Justice official asked for his resignation in June, saying the White House wanted to give another person the opportunity to serve." Cummins was finally forced out in December, replaced with Timothy Griffin, formerly the research director of the Republican National Committee.
Perfect.
Update II - McJoan over at Kos has the same story under a strikingly similar title (great minds...). I am linking this to help promote the really odd thing about this, that all but one of these forced retirements is in the Ninth Circuit. |
