U.S. Attorney Purge - Congressional Hearings Begin

Andrew Sullivan has this hard-hitting commentary from an observer of the Congressional hearings that began today into the dismissals of eight US Attorneys in December, 2006:

On another explosive front, a lawyer writes:

I have spent much of today watching the webcast of the Judiciary Committee hearings with the dismissed US Attorneys - from California, New Mexico and Arkansas. The testimony has been the most riveting I can remember in many years, and what's coming out is shocking.

Remember, all of these US attorneys are highly qualified, smart, professional REPUBLICANS. People who expect to have a career in elective politics, usually picked, among other things, for their long-term potential as political candidates. No problem with that after all. And that's what makes their testimony so compelling. Because they're portraying Alberto Gonzales and his deputy Paul J McNulty like figures out of a play by Bertolt Brecht.

The key is crude political direction of the prosecutorial service - go get Democrats, and do it in a way to get maximum electoral benefit; lay off the corrupt Republicans; use your prosecutorial authority for voter suppression projects targeting minorities. This is exactly the sort of conduct that the system is constructed to make impossible. For three years now I've heard a steady flow of whispers from DOJ professionals that this sort of stuff is going on, and even I (certainly no friend of the Administration) kept thinking: no, it can't be. But it is. This will call for very stringent action: the appointment of a special prosecutor, an independent investigation, and certainly the dismissal of Gonzales and McNulty.

Ultimately perhaps their prosecution.

-Garry J Wise, Toronto

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