See where it is all coming apart?

It's why I gave up on worrying.
Let others worry.

In these difficult times with so many of President Bush's
cabinet and his illustrious administration letting him down
it is even more important than ever for us to remain united
behind him as has been the most distiguishing mark of his administration.


 

-=> ROSS SAUER wrote to ALL <=-

 RS> Another Bushie, simply a (bleep)-ing liar.

 RS> Docs: Gonzales OK'd Firings 4 Months Ago

 RS> WASHINGTON, March 23, 2007
 RS> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 RS> -
 RS> -------
 RS> (AP) Attorney General Alberto Gonzales approved plans to fire several
 RS> U.S. attorneys in a November meeting, according to documents released
 RS> Friday that contradict earlier claims that he was not closely involved
 RS> in the dismissals.

 RS> The Nov. 27 meeting, in which the attorney general and at least five
 RS> top Justice Department officials participated, focused on a five-step
 RS> plan for carrying out the firings of the prosecutors, Justice
 RS> Department officials said late Friday.

 RS> There, Gonzales signed off on the plan, which was crafted by his chief
 RS> of staff, Kyle Sampson. Sampson resigned last week amid a political
 RS> firestorm surrounding the firings.

 RS> The documents indicated that the hour-long morning discussion, held in
 RS> the attorney general's conference room, was the only time Gonzales met
 RS> with top aides who decided which prosecutors to fire and how to do it.

 RS> Justice spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos said it was not immediately clear
 RS> whether Gonzales gave his final approval to begin the firings at that
 RS> meeting. Scolinos also said Gonzales was not involved in the process of
 RS> selecting which prosecutors would be asked to resign.

 RS> On March 13, in explaining the firings, Gonzales told reporters he was
 RS> aware that some of the dismissals were being discussed but was not
 RS> involved in them.

 RS> "I knew my chief of staff was involved in the process of determining
 RS> who were the weak performers, where were the districts around the
 RS> country where we could do better for the people in that district, and
 RS> that's what I knew," Gonzales said last week. "But that
is in essence
 RS> what I knew about the process; was not involved in seeing any memos,
 RS> was not involved in any discussions about what was going on. That's
 RS> basically what I knew as the attorney general."

 RS> Later, he added: "I accept responsibility for everything that happens
 RS> here within this department. But when you have 110,000 people working
 RS> in the department, obviously there are going to be decisions that I'm
 RS> not aware of in real time. Many decisions are delegated."

 RS> Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who is leading the inquiry into the
 RS> firings, said: "If the facts bear out that Attorney General Gonzales
 RS> knew much more about the plan than he has previously admitted, then he
 RS> can no longer serve as attorney general."

 RS> The documents were released Friday night, a few hours after Sampson
 RS> agreed to testify at a Senate inquiry next week into the firings of
 RS> eight U.S. attorneys last year.

 RS> Earlier Friday, a staunch White House ally, Sen. John Cornyn, summoned
 RS> White House counsel Fred Fielding to Capitol Hill and told him he
 RS> wanted "no surprises."

 RS> "I told him, 'Everything you can release, please release. We need to
 RS> know what the facts are,"' Cornyn said.

 RS> Sampson will appear Thursday at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary
 RS> Committee, his attorney said. His appearance will mark the first
 RS> congressional testimony by a Justice Department aide since the release
 RS> of thousands of documents that show the firings were orchestrated, in
 RS> part, by the White House.

 RS> Sampson "looks forward to answering the committee's
questions," wrote
 RS> his attorney, Brad Berenson, in a two-paragraph letter to Committee
 RS> Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and the panel's top Republican, Sen.
 RS> Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

 RS> "We trust that his decision to do so will satisfy the need of the
 RS> Congress to obtain information from him concerning the requested
 RS> resignations of the United States attorneys," Berenson wrote.

 RS> E-mails between the White House and the Justice Department, dating back
 RS> to the weeks immediately after the 2004 presidential election, show
 RS> Sampson was heavily engaged in deciding how many prosecutors would be
 RS> replaced, and which ones. The Bush administration maintains the
 RS> dismissals of the eight political appointees were proper.

 RS> Democrats, however, question whether the eight were selected because
 RS> they were not seen as, in Sampson's words, "loyal Bushies."

 RS> "He was right at the center of things," Schumer said earlier of
 RS> Sampson. "He has said publicly that what others have said is not how it
 RS> happened. ... He contradicts DOJ."

 RS> Schumer said he hoped Sampson would provide more detail about who
 RS> initiated the firings and whether they were politically motivated.

 RS> - MMVII The Associated Press.

 RS> = CMPQwk 1.42 16554 =

... Remember, no matter where you go there you are.
--- MultiMail/Linux v0.47