Imposing Partisanship - Bush Doctrine

From the Progress Report...

ADMINISTRATION -- POLITICS PUSHING OUT U.S. ATTORNEYS: As many as eight U.S. Attorneys are leaving or being pushed out of their positions by the Bush administration. Several of these prosecutors are working on high-profile cases, such as Kevin V. Ryan, "whose San Francisco office is overseeing the investigation of backdating of stock options," and Carol Lam, who successfully investigated the corruption of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA). Yesterday, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) confirmed that "a high-ranking administration official" in the Bush administration asked Lam to resign. While Lam's critics have pointed to her "failure to more aggressively prosecute illegal-immigrant smugglers" and her "lax prosecutorial standard" as reasons for her departure, others point to the right-wing politics of the Bush administration. In an editorial today, the San Diego Union-Tribune noted, "Lam had justifiably earned the respect of the law enforcement community and the gratitude of all of San Diego. Her resignation yesterday cannot paper over the disquieting truth that she was the victim of strong-arm political pressure from Washington, where officials apparently wanted to hand her job to a partisan operative." U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins was pushed out by the Bush administration in December, and replaced with a "37-year-old protege of White House political adviser Karl Rove." Yesterday on the Senate floor, Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) pointed out that U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may be creating these vacancies to appoint interim replacements and "potentially avoid Senate confirmation." A little-noticed provision in the Patriot Act allows Gonzales to appoint a replacement for an indefinite period of time.