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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"...resign
The resignations set up Bush pardons, which would not apply in cases of impeachment - which Gonzales surely would have been facing before year's end.
Rep. Slaughter, please sign on to impeachment of Cheney, (a necessary precondition) then Bush...
If his underlings weren't tried and prosecuted until after Bush's term had expired, wouldn't that deprive Bush of the executive power to pardon the bunch of them?
As the continued evidence of Gonzales' perjury came in, his impeachment was getting more and more likely.
Please do not say this and do nothing. We are all desperate for real leaders to step up and press charges for the criminal acts done. Just because they resigned does not mean they did not lie,cheat and steal from us all. At least cite Rove for Contempt of Congress and make him testify and charge Gonzales with Perjury.
hear, hear! empty promises is all we've gotten so far. pleas, give us something to have faith in!
The fired prosecutors should get their jobs back AND inherent contempt charges should be leveled at rove and meiers.
There's a reason you have a jail cell in the basement of Congress. USE IT.
The biggest problem with these firings is they were carried out in mid-administration, instead of the beginning. Not that they were illegal or wrong, but a matter of timing. After all, these positions serve at the pleasure of the President.
The prosecutors were fired for political reasons, for not passing the political loyalty litmus test,and that reason is both illegal and wrong.
Hey liberty9, the firings were done so that Bush could make appointments to replace the fired attorneys without the approval of the Senate, as is normally required. It came out in the hearings that Gonzales was using a little known fact that was buried in the Patriot Act, which allowed the Pres. to do this. Chertoff, the man who is likely to be the next Attorney General, actually wrote that passage in the Patriot Act. Anybody see a connection for all this intrigue???
How come none of the candidates for President - neither Republican or Democrat ever discuss the Patriot Act???????
"There's a reason you have a jail cell in the basement of congress. USE IT!"
Boy is that right! The media keeps saying there is "no appitite" for such a thing.
But inherent contempt is the only option left to us since Bush will make sure no grand jury will persue a contempt case against these weisels.
Of course with Gonzo gone maybe the new guy will do the right thing.
Restore justice to the American people.!!!
Rep. Slaughter: The first step into ensuring a responsible voice is appointed to head the justice department is for all congressional democrats to cut thier vacations short and come back to capital ASAP to make sure that a recess appointment is not a possibility.
Rep Slaughter,
Please expect that the President will attempt to provide a new Attorney General using his constitutionally protected "Reccess Appointment" This must be prepared for by getting ready to impeach the new Attorney General if President Bush uses a Reccess Appointment.
It will be either Harriet Miers or John Yoo. And you thought it couldn't get any worse.
You forgot the dreaded Chertoff, delegate to the SPP and director of the open borders dept.
If Reid is serious, he should call the Senate back into session TONIGHT.
TXfemmom..
Thank you Louise. As always I find you to be a voice of reason and support for the true values of our country. I hope that you and your fellow representatives will hold strong to these values and not let the Bush Administration continue with the subversion of our government.
Well, Representative Slaughter, you summarize the problem nicely. Of course, you must remember that Congress has rolled over for the Liar-in-Chief time and time again.
Repeal ALL the neofascist bullshit you're responsible for--PATRIOT Act, Military Commissions Act et al.
Gonzo broke laws (5.00 / 1) (#56)
by NMvoiceofreason on Sat Aug 11, 2007 at 11:06:33 AM EST
18 USC Section 601: "Deprivation of employment or other benefit for political contribution", http://cas
18 USC Section 606: "Intimidation to secure political contributions", http://cas
18 USC Section 1505: "Obstruction of proceedings before departments, agencies, and committees", http://cas
and 50 USC Section 1809: "Criminal sanctions" http://cas
at the very least.
AUSAgate, AUSAgate, GuamGate/A
Rep. Slaughter, I hope you really are serious about this (and I have no reason to believe that you aren't), but this conspiracy to use the federal government as an arm of the Republican party must be punished with the harshest available penalties. Make them testify and make them pay.
How about if the Congress start following the law by appropriating money for the border fence that was put on the books last year?
That law isn't being passed over for PARTISAN reasons is it?
Frankly, I don't care WHO they put in as Attorney General, as long as they start enforcing our current immigration laws as they stand on the books.
I really like this post. It shows what's really wrong with America today. The fact that people get hung up on these non-issues like immigration. You realize that conservatives and liberals alike bring up issues like same-sex marriage, immigration, abortion, stem cell research, to distract you from real issues. You don't care who is the attorney general? You care more about some border fence than the highest ranking member of our justice system completely politicizing the one branch of the system that is supposed to be resistant to that type of nonsense? And you don't care that he singlehand
"Frankly, I don't care WHO they put in as Attorney General, as long as they start enforcing our current immigration laws as they stand on the books."
Oh, so let me get this straight, you don't care what abuses of power, what usurpations of the rights of the people set forth in the constitution (such as habeas corpus, such as the fourth amendment)are engaged in by the next attorney general as long as your pet wall gets built??!! I'm sorry, but I find the abuse of power that has been the hallmark of this administration to be FAR more frightening than some illegal immigrants coming over the border. Are you not aware of Presidential Directive 51? (Google and read if necessary) of the executive order of July 17th of this year? of the 60 detention camps on US soil that have been built by Kellog, Brown, and Root with your tax dollars? If we continue to allow the Constitution to be flushed down the toilet, we will lose everything that this nation is supposed to be about. At that point, it won't matter at all who comes over the border. In fact, your wall might become quite useful for preventing American citizens from leaving.
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