Remember Krugman’s prediction that there was more reason to be suspicious of the US Attorneys who weren’t fired than of the ones who were? This one—who wasn’t fired at all, oh my no—IMHO stinks worse than all the rest put together. Now somebody else is starting to think so too. Fortunately the Someone Else is a US Senator, so we approach the point where attention must be paid:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Tuesday she wants answers about the departure of the former U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, who resigned last October before the JusticeDepartment’s dismissal of eight other U.S. attorneys sparked controversy.
”I have questions about Debra Yang’s departure and I can’t answer those questions right at this time,” Feinstein, D-Calif. and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters…[snip]
Debra Wong Yang went to work for a private law firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, and has said she left of her own accord.
Big deal. Ill-paid public service lawyer sells out for the big bux. Happens all the time, right? Nothing to see here, move along…move along I said dammit…pay no attention to
About five months before Yang’s departure, her office had opened an investigation into ties between Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., and a lobbyist. Gibson Dunn, the firm that hired her, is also the firm where Lewis’ legal team works.
If Hecate or one of the other lawtalkin’ folks were here they would start ranting about Chinese Firewalls and other arcane terms. And I strongly doubt that (we’ll ever prove) that Yang did anything remotely improper like discuss the case she was just departed from investigating with the people who would be defending the accused.
But doesn’t this whole scenario just stink like a buzzard’s rejected roadkill? This one is easily explainable to the public and reinforces the perception that Bush’s appointees were either pliable enforcers of Der Leader’s political hit jobs or were amenable to being persuaded to look the other way.* Or else they were fired.
Go get ’em Diane! We got lots of chairs here if that one you’re hitting her with wears out.
*A cartoon from the Raleigh NC News&Observer, which really says it all. h/t to the Invaluable Froomkin.
Front page
A possible second example
McClatchy.
Actually, I think it’s the weasel who didn’t mark in the night? Or possible reptile… But reptiles don’t really bark, do they?
Then again, that’s what we said: The reptile did not bark.
[Heaves bottle. Crash. Tinkle.]
No authoritarians were tortured in the writing of this post.
je repete:
everything and everyone that received an “acceptable” stamp from bush must go. to be a bushie is to be criminal, incompetent, unqualified, and interested in the project to destroy constitutional government for crony enrichment.
they all suck goats.
democrats are beginning to wake up to what we’ve been dealing with for years now, but i worry they won’t take it to the logical conclusion:
if bush approves, it must be removed.
Great Catch, Xan
“Fortunately the Someone Else is a US Senator, so we approach the point where attention must be paid”
I just love that “the point where attention must be paid.” We should use that formulation again and again; it speaks volumes to issue of the depredations of constitutional democratic governance and the on-going war against the middle and working classes, and forget about the poor, that’s been going on for decades.
Lambert, "Weasels who marked in the night"
that’s the one we should be pushing…remember weasality, or whatever it was. We need to see if we can breath some life into again.