Senator Feinstein is Shocked
While complaints about the White House purging US attorneys investigating Republican corruption and appointing attoprney’s more to the administration’s liking in an end run around the Judiciary Committee is no laughing matter, it’s kind of funny to see Diana Feinstein taking to the floor of the Senate and making a stink about it.
Recently, it came to my attention that the Department of Justice has asked several U.S. Attorneys from around the country to resign their positions — some by the end of this month — prior to the end of their terms not based on any allegation of misconduct. In other words, they are forced resignations.
I have also heard that the Attorney General plans to appoint interim replacements and potentially avoid Senate confirmation by leaving an interim U.S. Attorney in place for the remainder of the Bush administration.
How does this happen? The Department sought and essentially was given new authority under a little known provision in the PATRIOT Act Reauthorization to appoint interim appointments who are not subject to Senate confirmation and who could remain in place for the remainder of the Bush administration.
Well said, Senator Feinstein, well said. Now, if you could answer a couple of related questions.
Did you vote for the PATRIOT Act to begin with? Why, yes, yes you did.
Did you vote to renew the act? Yes, you did! You also voted to make many of the provisions of the act permanent too (although those don’t pertain to US attorneys).
You’ve served in the Senate for the duration of the Bush Presidency: surely after the past six years, you’re under no illusions about this administration’s persistent efforts to seize power for itself. Surely you are familiar with Bush/ Cheney’s “unitary executive” philosophy, in which Congress is pretty much irrelevant.
Given your history, given your past support for the PATRIOT Act (and the intimate knowledge you MUST have of the bill, given your involvement in the March 2005 compromise), why are you only now getting a case of the vapors over the effects that the legislation the you helped to write, and supported twice?
It’s a little disingenuous, don’t you think? I get the same feeling when I listen to people like Joe Biden, Hilary Clinton, Sam Brownback, Sue Collins, and all the rest whining that the administration “deceived them” on Iraq’s WMD. Please: if a ding-a-ling like me could tell the Adminstration was playing fast and loose with the facts and sending Colin Powell out to tell blatant lies about Iraq’s weapons capability, then why couldn’t you? Answer: political calculations. Calculations that didn’t exactly pan out too well for anyone on either side of the aisle.
So while I am glad that someone is making a stink about the purge of US attorneys, there’s the distinct whiff of Captain renault following Senator Feinstein around.
I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling a purge is going on in here!
