I Couldn't Be More Pleased
I couldn't me more pleased that Congress is about to enter an orgy of hearings on the US Attorney firings. Not because of the issue itself, since I really don't have a clue what is going on. But nothing would make me happier than to see Congress dissipate itself on this crap for a couple of years. Maybe we could even revive interest in impeachment hearings. Anything that soaks up time from passing new boneheaded legislation and gives Congressmen a chance to demagogue without threatening my individual freedoms is OK by me.
Update: OK, I am catching up and learning bit by bit about this case. I found this in particular to be hilarious:
One of those attorneys was Paul Charlton of Arizona. Adult Video News (link NSFW) did some sleuthing, and found some interesting stuff. Charlton did
in fact bring one federal obscenity case in Arizona. But while he was
bringing that particular series of indictments, it turns out that
another chain of adult video stores based in Arizona continued to sell
and rent the same titles the other store was indicted for selling.The
kicker is that the unindicted store had recently declared bankruptcy,
and was being run by trustees from the federal government. So while the
federal government was indicting one business for breaking federal
obscenity laws, the government itself was breaking those same laws just
a few miles away, in order to recoup federal taxes owed by a rival
store.Even more interesting, it looks like Charlton may have
balked on the case after learning about the discrepancy via a brief
from attorneys for the indicted store. And that balk may have cost him
his job.
By the way, I was a bit flip up top, because I was trying to make a separate point. However, I do believe strongly that principled prosecutorial discretion is absolutely critical in this world where everything is illegal. If the Bush administration turns out to have fired these guys for exercising sensible discretion, then they deserve to be toasted for it, though I have a number of other issues I would tend to toast them for first.
PawPaw:
That's all well and good, except that US attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President. The job is purely a political patronage job. Folks taking the job understand that they can be fired at any time.
When Clinton was elected, he fired all 93 US Attorneys and replaced them with his own people.
By law, the President doesn't need a reason to fire a US Attorney.
March 23, 2007, 12:00 pm