From: Rich Gauszka 

Nope. It's a twisting of the law. FWIW I would hope this portion of the
Patriot Act is changed no matter who is elected president. It's just a too
great a temptation to abuse one's power

Gary Britt wrote:
> Its not a perversion at all.  Its the law.  Congress passed it.  You
> can't bypass congress if the law says you don't need congress.  Its no
> different than a long recess appointment.  Move along.  There's nothing
> to see here.
>
> Yawn.
>
> Gary
>
> Rich Gauszka wrote:
>> You conveniently forgot about the bypassing of Senate approval due to
>> Bush's perversion of the Patriot Act for political purposes
>>
>>
>> Gary Britt wrote:
>>> Prosecutors are part of the executive branch not the judicial branch
>>> and all serve at the pleasure of the President.  When Bill Clinton
>>> came into office in 1993 he fired all 84 US Attorneys.  Bush didn't
>>> do this kind of mass firing.  Clinton also did many mass firings in
>>> other areas of government as well.  Also not followed by Bush.
>>>
>>> Bush should have followed the Clinton model, but he was trying to
>>> play nice, foolishly thinking that he could achieve with washinton
>>> democraps what he had achieved with Texas democrats.  Washington
>>> democraps ain't the same kind of critter.
>>>
>>> Gary
>>>
>>> Rich Gauszka wrote:
>>>> Yet another  debasement of the Patroit Act - The Bushies firing
>>>> Federal prosecutors  to get their cronies in without Senate
>>>> confirmation.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/politics/4606122.html
>>>>
>>>> WASHINGTON - A fired federal prosecutor told a Senate committee
>>>> Tuesday that he felt "leaned on" and sickened as
Republican Sen.
>>>> Pete Domenici hung up on him in disgust last fall when told that
>>>> indictments in a corruption case against Democrats would not be
>>>> issued before the fall elections.
>>>>
>>>> "He said, 'Are these going to be filed before
November?'" former
>>>> federal prosecutor David Iglesias, one of eight U.S. attorneys
>>>> summarily fired in recent months, told the panel. "I
said I didn't
>>>> think so. And to which he replied, 'I'm very sorry to hear that.'
>>>> And then the line went dead."
>>>>
>>>> The Bush administration also applied a heavy hand after the firings
>>>> of eight prosecutors became public and some of the dismissed U.S.
>>>> attorneys had been quoted in media, according to one of those
>>>> ousted, Bud Cummins of Arkansas.
>>>>
>>>> Cummins said in an e-mail released by the Senate Judiciary Committee
>>>> that Mike Elston, chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul
>>>> McNulty, had called and expressed his displeasure that the fired
>>>> prosecutors talked to reporters about their dismissals.
>>>>
>>>> "If they (DOJ) feel like any of us intend to continue to offer
>>>> quotes to the press, or organize behind the scenes congressional
>>>> pressure, then they feel forced to somehow pull their gloves off and
>>>> offer public criticisms to defend their actions more
fully," Cummins
>>>> said in the e-mail to five other fired prosecutors.
>>>>
>>>> Iglesias said he received the call at home on Oct. 26 or 27th and
>>>> that it lasted two minutes, "tops."
>>>>
>>>> "I felt leaned on. I felt pressured to get these
matters moving,"
>>>> Iglesias testified.
>>>>
>>>> Asked by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., whether such a call was unusual
>>>> in Iglesias' experience, the former prosecutor answered,
>>>> "Unprecedented."
>>>>
>>>> Six of eight prosecutors fired by the Department of Justice in
>>>> recent months were expected to appear before House and Senate panels
>>>> - all six under subpoena before the House, four voluntarily in the
>>>> Senate. Justice officials have said most of the eight were dismissed
>>>> for performance-related issues, an allegation those testifying
>>>> staunchly denied.
>>>>
>>>>
http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2007/03/06/editorial/editorial/daily938
.txt
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The New Mexico controversy suggests a possible attempt to use the
>>>> courts to sway an election. In San Diego, reasonable people might
>>>> detect a whiff of payback as well as a possible fear of where an
>>>> unfinished investigation might lead next. And when a former Karl
>>>> Rove aide ends up as a federal prosecutor in Arkansas, it's hard to
>>>> avoid the notion that someone's planning to revive the Whitewater
>>>> scandal against Sen. Hillary Clinton.
>>>>
>>>> Apparently, a little-noticed provision of the Patriot Act allows
>>>> U.S. attorneys to be replaced without Senate confirmation. A lack of
>>>> confirmation hearings no doubt caused some fine political minds to
>>>> believe they could put people more sympathetic to their plans in
>>>> those jobs, as long as they kept things quiet.
>>>>
>>>>

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