March 14, 2007
All fired up
Today George W. grudgingly admitted that the attorney firings were "mishandled", by which I can only assume he means "not done sneakily enough".
Update: And the GOP's main defense seems to be "Well, Clinton appointed all new attorneys when he was elected, so why is everyone complaining about a targeted political purge in the middle of Bush's second term? Democrats are such hypocrites!"
Posted by Francis at 03:34 PMHow can any grownup governmental official use the phrase "mistakes were made" with a straight face? Like, that's something Bart Simpson says at this point. Arrrgh.
Posted by: Rose at March 14, 2007 05:32 PMMaybe this scandal will get high-profile enough that it will distract the public from Bush's inevitable pardon of Scooter Libby.
Posted by: Todd at March 14, 2007 06:33 PM"This issue was mishandled to the point that you’re asking me about it now in Mexico," Mr. Bush said.
Given that context, I don't think you even have to assume "not done sneakily enough".
I'm also at a loss at how this can all be "mishandled", with "mistakes made"--but it's not political! Nononono. What could those words possibly refer to, other than political conniving? The pink slips weren't printed in triplicate? They accidentally let the prosecutors keep government-issued cell phones?
Oh, my head.
Posted by: Robert Hutchinson at March 14, 2007 08:20 PMWell, and Clinton didn't, technically, have the law changed to allow him to replace US Attorneys on whim without confirmation or oversight before he did his firing. I mean, if the sequence of events is what is seems to be--(1) lean on USAs to have them lean on Democrats and lay off Republicans, (2) have the law changed to make it easier to make cronies USAs, (3) lean on USAs some more, (4) fire USAs who don't cave and replace them with cronies, (5) lie to Congress about it--well, who hasn't done that?
Thanks,
-V.