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Banned
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Originally Posted by Necrosis
This appears to be "an inconvenient truth." Clinton fired at least SEVENTY (I have read up to 93, but I do not care to research it)who had been appointed by Bush the elder, including one who was in the middle of investigating Dan Rostenkowski. Here is what the New York Times had to say on March 26, 1993:
Bush fired EIGHT prosecutors HE appointed. The investigation and prosecution of Randy Cunningham was completed. It thus appears, as it has so many times before, that Clinton raised the bar for unethical behavior to unprecedented levels.
It is dishonest to protest now, if you did not protest then.
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You neglected to share that your "NY Times" quote, speaking so favorably of Jay Stephens, was an editorial, not a news article:
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http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstra...AA0894DB494D81
<b>Backsliding at the White House; Justice Disrupted</b>
March 26, 1993, Friday
(NYT); Editorial Desk
Late Edition - Final, Section A, Page 28, Column 1, 359 words
DISPLAYING ABSTRACT - Any hope that the Clinton Administration would operate a Justice Department free of political taint -- or even the appearance of political taint -- grew dim yesterday when the White House confirmed that it would dismiss the U.S. Attorney investigating one of its chief Congressional allies. When Attorney General ...
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Here is how it is "different" this time:
Both Gonzales and his #2 have misled or told outright lies to congressional committees when they were asked why the 8 US Attorneys were being dismissed.
.....and there is this.....
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Justice Dept. clarified its policy on asking prosecutors to quit
Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, Calif.: Mar 25, 1993. pg. A15
The Justice Department on Mar 24, 1993 clarified which US attorneys are being asked to submit resignations, saying that the order applies to 77 prosecutors who are political appointees of George Bush but not to 16 others who are mostly civil servants filling vacancies on an interim basis.
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....and there is evidence that both Jay Stephens and his predecessor as US Attorney in DC, Joe DiGenova, were both extremely partisan @holes, totally lacking in the prosecutorial ethics dept. Contrast their highly visible grandstanding with the silence and respectfulness of Libby prosecutor and US Atty for the So. Illinois district, Patrick Fitzgerald....no comment until he obtains a verdict, and no TV appearances or interviews except one time press conferences...when he announced the Libby indictment, and after "the Libby is guilty on 4 felony counts" jury verdict.
I would have fired Jay Stephens in a heartbeat, after Jan. 20, 1993. The Clinton DOJ was much less partisan than the Bush DOJ has been. FBI director Mueller, a republican, <a href="http://archives.cnn.com/2001/LAW/07/05/fbi.director/index.html">was a Clinton DOJ appointee....</a>
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http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...9317-1,00.html
Highly Public Prosecutors
Monday, Feb. 05, 1990 By MARGARET CARLSON
There was a time when federal prosecutors were hardly seen or heard outside a courtroom. But now theatrical press conferences, talk shows and press secretaries are challenging the old-fashioned notion that a prosecutor should stand loftily above politics and never discuss a pending case.
When U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jay Stephens finally bagged Mayor Marion Barry, he did not sink back into a gray-flannel cocoon of "no comment." Once an anonymous deputy counsel in the Reagan White House whose only attempt at flash was his vanity license plate WH LAW, Stephens is now a rising Republican star. After numerous press interviews about Barry's arrest, he took to the Sunday TV circuit to explain why his sting operation was a triumph.....
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Quote:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...uple022798.htm
The Power Couple at Scandal's Vortex
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 27, 1998; Page D1
.....A decade after he was the city's top federal prosecutor in a high-stakes pursuit of D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, diGenova has become a white-hot media presence, politically connected lawyer and all-around agent provocateur. He and Toensing, also a battle-tested former prosecutor, keep popping up wherever there is trouble -- as commentators, as investigators, as unnamed sources for reporters.
A classic Washington power couple, diGenova, 53, and Toensing, 56, occupy a strange, symbiotic nexus between the media and the law that boosts their stock in both worlds. They are clearly players, which gives them access to juicy information, which gets them on television, which generates legal business.
"Dozens of Washington lawyers are trying to get on these shows," diGenova says. "I think it's very healthy. We can destroy myths and shoot down misunderstandings." Toensing sees televised debate as a good way of sharpening the old legal skills. "It's something that gets the body juices going," she says.
The two law partners not only talk about the Monica Lewinsky investigation -- they've been quoted or on the tube more than 300 times in the month since the story broke -- but have been drawn into the vortex. Toensing was approached by an intermediary for a Secret Service agent who had supposedly seen something untoward involving President Clinton and the former intern. DiGenova was at the heart of a quickly retracted Dallas Morning News account of that matter. What's more, diGenova took to the airwaves Sunday to charge -- based on nothing more than one reporter's inquiry -- that private investigators "with links to the White House" were digging up "dirt" on him and his wife.
Never exactly press-shy when he was U.S. attorney, diGenova is a trifle sensitive to the notion that he is a partisan publicity hound.......
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This article makes it quite clear that there was almost no difference in the immediacy of the replacement of Bush '41 appointed US attorneys, by the Clinton admin, in 1993, vs. the timing of the replacements by the incoming Bush admin.
There had been 12 years of republican managed DOJ appointments....again....if Stephens, DiGenova, and his wife,
Toensing, were indicative of the ethics and partisanship of Reagan/Bush political appointees to DOJ, then it was imperative to remove them from DOJ ASAP in 1993. Read the entire WaPo article that I lnked about DiGenova and Toensing.....she was an asst. Atty Gen. in the pre-Clinton DOJ. She is all over conservative broadcast media with regard to the republican "message" that "no crime was committed" in the CIA Plame investigation. Have you ever heard her volunteer that she is a close personal friend of columnist Bob Novak....the WaPo article reports that she is......
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...uple022798.htm
.....<b>Private Lives</b>
They launched their small law firm two years ago and seem to be reveling in their rapid success. One of Toensing's three children from her first marriage, Brady, is a senior associate. The couple retreat on weekends to their Fenwick Island, Del., beach house, hanging with such pals as Robert Novak and Bill Regardie. In town, diGenova likes to plant himself at his massive Wolf commercial stove, open a bottle of wine and cook veal chops in one of the cast-iron pans hanging from the ceiling......
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Quote:
Lewis Resigning Post As U.S. Attorney for D.C.; [FINAL Edition]
Bill Miller. The Washington Post. Washington, D.C.: Mar 16, 2001. pg. B.01
Wilma A. Lewis submitted her resignation as U.S. attorney for the District yesterday, saying she will end her three-year tenure at midnight April 20 to make way for a new top prosecutor who will be selected by the Bush administration.
No front-runner has emerged to replace Lewis as the head of the nation's largest U.S. attorney's office. An interim leader most likely will be chosen by the administration to provide more time for the search, officials said.
Lewis, 45, made history when President Bill Clinton chose her in 1995 as the first black woman to run the office. She replaced Eric H. Holder Jr., who resigned to become deputy attorney general. Like Holder, Lewis promoted numerous programs to bring prosecutors closer to the community, assigning many to cover specific neighborhoods. She also launched initiatives against drug and weapons offenses and targeted public corruption.
Since President Bush took office, Lewis and other U.S. attorneys have been on borrowed time. The president selects U.S. attorneys to run 94 offices throughout the country, subject to Senate confirmation. Unlike the Clinton administration, which asked all U.S. attorneys to resign in March 1993, soon after Clinton took office, the Bush administration has attempted to ease people out gradually while officials seek replacements. Lewis's decision to leave was part of that transition, she said. Justice Department officials have said they expect to move out nearly all Clinton-era holdovers by June. Click to read the rest click to show
"This has certainly been the greatest honor of my professional career," Lewis said. "I came into this position to serve the public, and I hope I did that well."
Lewis said she plans to remain in Washington and enter private practice. She said she hopes to handle a mix of civil and criminal matters and probably will join a firm.
In Maryland, Lynne A. Battaglia resigned earlier this year as U.S. attorney to take a seat on the Maryland Court of Appeals; a permanent successor has not been named. Helen F. Fahey remains U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, though the White House and Justice Department are considering a list of candidates to replace her.
According to sources involved in the selection process, the Bush administration wants an experienced and highly qualified prosecutor who can make an impact in the D.C. job. Unlike other federal prosecutors' offices, the U.S. attorney in the District oversees local as well as federal criminal cases. And, because of its location in the nation's capital, the office gets many high-profile criminal matters. It also represents the federal government in scores of cases involving challenges to decisions made by government agencies. The office has 350 attorneys and an equal number of support staff members.
Historically, D.C. residents and politicians have had little say about who runs the prosecutor's office. In the 50 states, senators or members of Congress from the party that controls the White House usually recommend candidates for U.S. attorneys and federal judgeships and the president makes the final choices. Clinton extended that privilege to Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), who recommended Holder and Lewis.
The White House counsel's office has been relying upon an informal network of advisers from the Washington legal community to provide potential candidates.
Names that have come up in discussions, according to several sources familiar with the process, include Reggie B. Walton, Lee Satterfield and William H. Jackson, all judges from D.C. Superior Court. Many former prosecutors have been contacted or considered, too, including E. Lawrence Barcella, Evan Corcoran, Darryl W. Jackson, Michael J. Madigan, Barbara Olson and DeMaurice F. Smith. But sources cautioned not all of them have expressed interest in the job and that the process is ongoing.
Lewis, a District resident, became U.S. attorney after working nearly three years as inspector general at the Interior Department. Before that, she worked in the U.S. attorney's office, specializing in civil cases as a line attorney and as a supervisor.
In a recent interview, Lewis said she attempted to strengthen her office's ties to D.C. residents through "community prosecution," a citywide effort in which lawyers were assigned to deal with crimes and issues coming from each of the seven police districts. Holder launched the program on a pilot basis, and she expanded it in 1999. "We are out in the community -- a lot more," Lewis said, expressing hope the program continues.
Lewis also aggressively pursued cases involving public corruption, winning convictions against numerous D.C. police officers and government employees. She pursued investigations of several alleged D.C. drug crews, including one in which the accused ringleader -- Tommy Edelin -- could face the death penalty if convicted. Jury selection in Edelin's case is scheduled to begin March 26 in U.S. District Court.
"I expected the job to be extremely challenging, and it is," Lewis said. "I expected it to be extremely demanding, and it is. . . . There is literally never a dull moment."
In a letter to her staff members, Lewis praised their accomplishments and said she was grateful for the chance to work with "some of the best and brightest talent, and some of the most dedicated public servants that our legal profession has to offer."
Holder, who also lost his job in the changeover after the Bush transition, said Lewis deserved credit for giving neighborhood residents a strong voice.
"I think she has an enviable record," Holder said. "I think that her expansion of the community prosecution program was a real step forward."
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Last edited by host; 03-18-2007 at 06:12 PM..
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