Bud Cummins Wants An Apology

The Fort Smith Times Record is reporting that ousted US Attorney Bud Cummins wants an apology. Sara Taylor said in a Feb. 16 e-mail that “Bud is lazy — which is why we got rid of him in the first place.” Nobody else has ever suggested Cummins is lazy. "I feel very strongly that she misspoke. As to why she misspoke, I don’t know,” said Rep. John Boozman (R-AR), "It’s unfair to imply that Bud was in any way not doing an outstanding job in his capacity as U.S. attorney.”

Since Sara is the only one who ever said Bud was lazy in public, I don't think Bud's reputation is in jeopardy.

I, on the other hand, would like to know what lead Sara to say "Bud is lazy--which is why we got rid of him in the first place?" Lazy doing what? Using his office to attack Democrats? Failing to suppress Democratic votes?

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Integrity Counts

I spent the last several minutes thinking about what to write this morning. There are a lot of topics out there. The Simpsons 400th episode trashes Fox News. (I might save that one for later). Jimmy Carter had a lot to say about George Bush and Tony Blair, none of it good. Voter suppression mastermind Mark "Thor" Hearne, a name known here in Missouri, has been featured in Slate and not in a good way.

All those stories are pretty obvious. I mean that Fox News doesn't do news, isn't news. Anybody who cares to look realizes it is Republican infotainment intended to keep the white masses content in their self-loathing and justified in their racial bigotry. Jimmy Carter has been assailed for his comments about Blair and Bush, but darned if I can see why. He simply told the truth. Mark Hearne, Brad Schlozman, Hans von Spakovsky are simply bit players carrying out Karl Rove's version of Nixon's old Southern strategy. Stop the blacks from voting and white Republicans win.

Then I saw a story of hope. David Iglesias is building a new life. I thought about it for a minute. Do you know who the winners are in the US Attorney scandal? The winners are the fired attorneys. Their lives have all been carefully examined by the media, and they have all been certified to be professional lawyers striving to achieve the highest ethical standards. Long after the many US Attorneys who knuckled under to Karl Rove are forgotten in their suburban practices the Gonzales 8 will be held up as models of how US Attorneys should act. Long after Kyle Sampson and Monica Goodling are utterly forgotten, their careers in tatters, people like Carol Lam, Bud Cummins and John McKay will be building their futures and fully living their lives. Hell, who knows, one of those fired US Attorneys might run for senator, maybe in New Mexico.

James Comey has emerged as a hero in the Department of Justice scandal because he stood for what was right. So have all the people who stood with him. Even John Ashcroft, who doesn't even mention the episode in his book, looks better, so much better that Blue Girl had to remind us of just who we are talking about. I know who John Ashcroft is and what he has done, but darn if the image of him saying "NO" Alberto Gonzales and Andy Card hasn't forced me to give him a higher mark.

Today I choose to remember that integrity counts. People who display courage in the face of adversity are often rewarded. Good guys can finish first.

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Another Take On Todd Graves

Thomas Charles at Firedup Missouri has a different take on the Todd Graves firing. He agrees that Graves was forced out by main Justice, but only because Graves' wife was a potential target in a local fee office scandal also involving Matt Blunt. It is important to remind everybody that Graves had recused himself from working on the fee office mess and Bud Cummins was assigned to handle the inquiry. Anyway you might want to give Charles' blog a look. Beyond the name calling, Charles and Kraske are simply giving alternative takes on the same set of basic facts. Todd Graves was forced out of office by the Rovian DoJ. He was the 9th, 10th or 11th US Attorney fired for political reasons, depending on how you count them. It's pretty clear from his public statements that he is doing all he can to distance himself from Gonzales and Rove. Anyway, Graves was replaced by Brad Schlozman, a loyal Bushie of the first rank and genuine Rovian operative.

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More on the DoJ--Minnesota and Wisconsin

Is Department of Justice melting down? I just got back from the grocery store to discover more on the Rachel Paulose matter. It seems the two Minnesota senators are now refusing to discuss the leadership collapse at the Minneapolis office. Senator Schumer calls it an example of prosecutors being "deprofessionalized" under Gonzales.

The Carpetbagger Report blogs on the tragic lengths to which Wisconsin U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic went to be a "Loyal Bushie" in last years election. Apparently as part of a thankfully failed Republican effort to unseat Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, Biskupic brought a politically motivated but bogus case against a member of Doyle's administration and somehow won a 16 month conviction.

Since the official was convicted,how do we know the charge was bogus?

Well, when it reached the Court of Appeals the case was summarily thrown out on the day of the oral argument and Biskipic's target was ordered immediately released.Steven Walters and John Diedrich of the Milwaukee Sentinal Journal report

The three-judge panel in Chicago acted with unusual speed, ruling after oral arguments by Thompson’s attorney and the U.S. attorney’s office.

During 26 minutes of oral arguments, all three judges assailed the government’s case, with Judge Diane Wood saying at one point that “the evidence is beyond thin.” During a news conference later Thursday, Doyle, a former state attorney general, said the three judges did an “extraordinary thing” by entering an order finding Thompson innocent and ordering her immediate release.

Are there no depths the "Loyal Bushies" won't plumb to advance Karl Rove's political agenda?

The tragedy in this farce is that Biskupic's victim, Georgia Thompson, was subjected to a humiliating trial, spent 4 months in jail, had to pay for her defense, probably wrecking her financially, and lost her $77,000 per year state job, all to advance the political chances of some Republican politician.

“[T]he public must perceive that every substantive decision within the department is made in a neutral and non-partisan fashion. Once the public detects partisanship in one important decision, they will follow the natural inclination to question every decision made, whether there is a connection or not.” Bud Cummins.

UPDATE: At least one Milwaukee defense lawyer thinks Biskupic should be fired. His blog has a link to the audio of the oral argument. Skip to the last 15 minutes. It's a hoot. Rarely does a court ever trash a lawyer, especially a DoJ lawyer, so badly.

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Bud Cummins Wonders

Do you remember Bud Cummins. He is the US Attorney in Arkansas who was asked to give up his job so Karl Rove's protege Tim Griffin could pad his resume. Of course, given his history Tim Griffin is probably unconfirmable as a US Attorney. Padding his resume takes him no where. Most of us have assumed that Griffin was sent to Arkansas to do a hatchet job on Hillary Clinton.

Bud Cummins wonders if his work investigating the Republican Missouri Governor Matt Blunt, son of the powerful Roy Blunt (R-MO), might have had something to do with his firing. Read the LA Times article and wonder too.

The problem with turning the DoJ into a nest of partisan hacks is that lots of people start wondering about the motivations behind particular prosecutions. Soon everybody wonders if all corruption charges are politically motivated. After these firings all Deputy US Attorneys and other professionals in the Department of Justice have to wonder if they are graded down for being straight shooters and if they are graded up for being "loyal Bushies."

Every US Attorney now knows one thing is for sure, the AG doesn't have his back unless he puts being a "loyal Bushie" ahead of everything else.

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Sometimes Hearings Do Matter

A New York Times Editorial dated this morning concludes:

Congress must keep demanding answers. It must find out who decided to fire these prosecutors and why, and who may have authorized putting pressure on Mr. Cummins. And it must look into whether Senator Domenici and Representatives Wilson and Hastings violated ethics rules that forbid this sort of interference. We hope the House committee will not be deterred by the fact that Mr. Hastings is its ranking Republican. The Justice Department also needs to open its own investigation. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s claim that these prosecutors were fired for poor performance was always difficult to believe. Now it’s impossible.

Indeed it is.

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