Restore Justice to the Justice Department
Like many of you, I awoke this morning to the news that Alberto Gonzales had submitted his resignation as Attorney General.
Following in the footsteps of his close friend Karl Rove, Gonzales exits the White House under a cloud of scandal. It must be made clear, however, that their resignations in no way mark the end to investigations into the abuses of power at the Justice Department. The Democratic Congress and I will continue to demand answers concerning the dismissal of eight U.S attorneys, as well as a host of other issues at the Justice Department.
The Attorney General's resignation is the product of a pattern we have seen time and again under this administration: our trusted federal agencies have been reduced to partisan instruments for the benefit of the White House and the Republican Party. And we have repeatedly seen in the Bush administration that competence takes a backseat to ideology and qualification to partisanship.
We can not afford to see this repeated with our next Attorney General; it is essential that our nation's top law enforcement officer understand their obligation is to the rule of law and not the political concerns of the President and his party.
Prosecutors in the Justice Department need to know that they can pursue their investigations regardless of where they may lead without fear of political retribution. The American people need to know that their Justice Department is focused on upholding the law and not finding ways around it.
Although Alberto Gonzales will soon be gone, the damage done to the Department of Justice remains. It is absolutely imperative that trust and accountability be restored to the beleaguered Department. More broadly, it is my hope that today will begin the restoration of our federal agencies as the independent and objective institutions that the American people expect them to be.
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After sleep, the human brain, more than any other, requires the most time to 'wake up'.
Given the last six years, that scientific theory may now be retired as fact.
As a Catholic my fear is that Bush will appoint another radical right wing Catholic. Just look at the mess he has made of the SCOTUS. I really suspect that in the long run Bush will split the Catholic Church apart just as he and his legion of minions has split/frac
He and the Rethug party are destroyers, not builders, but they still call themselves pro-life. Sounds far more like pro-death to me, and the amazing part is the Catholic Church cannot see through this aberration and seems almost obesient/s
Ultimately The Bush crime family and the Rethugs will destroy my religion, our judicial system and our democracy.
The Bush family tried this in 1932 and did not succeed because Marine Corp Gen. Smedley Butler turned them in to FDR and the government. Unfortunately for us all FDR did not prosecute them, instead choosing to let them off with a warning. Gerald Ford did the same thing with Nixon and regretted it before he died. But it is 'we the people' who really pay the price, often some kind of ultimate price like death or starvation etc.
And don't forget Scalia of the radical right wing Catholic SCOTUS who has called for an END to the ruleof law(We will become the prey and Scalia and kind will become the predators) and the END to democracy in America.
Maybe he thinks the Pope will rule America; somehow I really doubt the evangelical fundies are going to let the Catholic fundies rule America, so we can expect a religious war in America just like they have in Iraq between the Shias and Sunnis. No difference; same same.
Rep Slaughter, I agree--but this will not happen until the Bush Administration is no longer in power. Until then, these agencies will continue to be manipulated and subverted for political ends. The Bush Administration has no interest in or concern for the well being of this country or its citizens.
Make ya a bet. Dubya will throw up one or two "Harriet Miers," space things out and then, when the timing is right, wham, we'll get the one he really wants by way of interim appointment. That's largely been the scenario so far along the trail and Fredo left when the game plan was solidified.
Watch out for Joe Lieberman!! There's a rumor that he will be nominated for Attorney General by Bush et al. If this is so, then it is possible that our Democratic Congress will vote for him. He was, after all, one of their own. Actually he has become a slimy, boot licking, power happy Republican, posing as an Independent. What's left (very little) of the rule of law, will be flushed away into the sewer of politics, greed, corruption, lies, and indifference to the freedom of our Republic.
That does sound like the kind of sly, underhanded trick this outfit would pull and Lieberman would be delighted.
Yes, AG is a bad AG but Federal Procecuters still work at the pleasure of the president just as they did in '93 when your boy Billy fired 93. Now, the 2000 election has been over for a long time; C'mon Dem Dummies...
Right, big ''t,'' Clinton did the firing or most of it at the beginning of his first term, when most presidents do, not six years later when the Repug line wasn't being sufficiently boot licked. Bush is a jerk, to put it charitably; he hopes that he'll be regarded as another Truman by historians. I think historians will, as he accused the Congress of doing to Fredo, drag his name through the mud. Soon though, he will MOVE ON and it can't happen soon enough.
The problem is not with whom is voted in or appointed. The problem with "injustice" is a relative point if laws and the process are not secured by following clear cut proceedures in "justifing" the methodology used to accomplish the serving of justice.
Evidently the laws that regulate those proceedures and secure people from injustice are open to interpetation. Thousands of people have been unfairly tried and convicted ( and fired!) by only the whim of a manipulative judge that has become the protector of special interests and corporate funding. These facts influence the out come of many "unjustifiable" judgements.
Unless provisions are made law, clearly defining the process with safegards included to protect people from being railroaded down a path of
irreconsilable consiquences there can be no justice.
The constitution must be augmented having congressional over rides to clearly secure this nation from domestic piracy such as what Bush has done.
If the next administration does not include actions to put forth a program to do this, then the damage has been done and there is no hope for justice in these un-United States.
This country is not what we call America or the United States any longer except in name. The people must be aware of. The propaganda that we are pounded by daily, is made to keep people from free thinking and realizing this.
It's the same as insisting the "insurance" company process is the only model we can follow in order to have any national health care. This is BS.
Laying the burden on the people of dedundant fathomless execises in finding a provider is a relentless futile waste of resources. A single national health care system would eliminate the waste in all areas and actually benefit the country as a whole.
Reurning justice has to do with securing the constitutional method and the constitution than with whom is in the judicary seat.
Unlike Alberto, or Rove, or Rummy, or Wolfowitz.
I think that the Att.Gs office is not the only problem, Iowa has the highest incarceration rate N america the criminal justice system needs perspective would President Obama B advised 2 visit the newton correctional facuility Iowa
With this administration in charge, nothing is really going to change. Even if the pick is somebody like Orrin Hatch, who would probably win easy confirmation, he'll just ride it out till the end and make sure that all Bush's policies are continued. He has everything that Fredo didn't: stature and the confidence of his colleagues on both sides, I think. And, of course, he's a solid Conservative.
I have not seen that brilliant flash of light over D.C. If so, it would have been that bolt that struck Dubya and made him change.
NOT A CHANCE! He will fill the position with another toady.
LIR, On a personal note, I grew disillusioned, disgusted really, with repugs and conservatism when Reagan busted the Air Traffic Controllers Union and the repugs hailed it as something great. The last Repug I voted for the presidency was poppa bush's first term. After that I went Independent and almost entirely have stopped voting repug at all levels, right down to town council.
As a veteran of the Vietnam era who lost a lot of friends in that horror show, I could never and will never, vote for someone who used political or family connections to get out of serving during wartime while there was a draft.
Why do the Senators NOT talk to Ashcroft about Gonzo's 'midnight raid' on the Constitution @ his bedside? Duh...? I know the Senate is a 'good ole BUBBA club', but the Constitution IS OUR NATION'S ONE DEFENSE AGAINST TREASON WITHIN, TERROR WITHOUT and TREACHERY FROM BOTH! Americans should INSIST that Ashcroft answer the questions of what Gonzo was doing @ his sick bed? Senate courtesy SHOULD NOT extend to Constitutional treachery!
Can't restore the Kids FREEDOMN OF SPEECH they stripped away last year!
This speculation we're all doing-- will it be Harriet? Chertoff? Rove, for God's sake-- this is exactly what they want us to be doing-- scrambling to get to our guns while they crawl around to the back. Stay focused, when our opponent has no principles and no respect for the law, we have to be particularly attentive.
Ms. Slaughter, thanks for your allegiance to the Constitution and the Rule of Law. It is heartening to hear that the quiet restoration of Credibility and Trust is the top priority in the Department of Justice.
I would love to see the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee turn down any nominee that has had any former dealing with the Texas Thugs. Maybe they could be encouraged to nominate some universally stalwart Constitutional expert such as Bruce Fein! Now that's a man all America could get behind! I know I could.
Brick
A very good post!
However I do not hold out much hope for the Justice department to be restored to what it once was as long as George Bush, Dick cheney and the lock-step republicans are in office. Gonzales was only Bush's puppet and I feel sure that he will find another to feed his ego and tell him what he is doing in the right thing to do.
Only when the white house and the republican senators who trot behind Bush with "Yessar Master", will our country regain it's MORAL COMPASS AND RESPECT WTIH THE PEOPLE AND THE WORLD.
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