As you know, the Bush administration has been firing U.S. Attorneys and replacing them with compliant hacks. The most interesting victim of the purge may have been Carole Lam of San Diego. She was "axed" to leave in spite of (or because of) the fact that she had brought down Duke Cunningham and considered him merely the first course.
Next Hurrah's emptywheel and Kos poster Kagro X note an aspect of this matter that deserves wider attention: As soon as the Dems took control of Congress on January 7, they received a subpoena from the San Diego U.S. Attorney's office asking for thousands of documents which might reveal defense contractor bribes of other lawmakers.
The deadline on the subpeona: January 11.
And when did we learn of the firing of Carole Lam? January 12.
Did she have advance warning of her firing? Was she trying to get as much as she could while she could?
The Dems, for their part, announced that they could not possibly comply with so large a request in so short a space of time. Some Democrats loudly wondered if a Bush-friendly prosecutor was trying to keep them mired in a morass of paperwork. Besides, they argued, Cunning-scam was "a Republican problem."
Those of you conversant with the cinema of Ken Russell and Sergio Leone may recall the parable of the little bird, which ends thus: "It's not always your enemies who throw you into the shit, and it's not always your friends who pull you out. But once you're in it, keep your mouth shut."
1 comment:
man, the gauntlets are being thrown down right and left.
so to speak.
the dems are gonna have to pick up the pace a bit. what they really need is to start thinking like criminals so they can occasionally head these slimeballs off at the pass.
otherwise, we're all sitting ducks.
Post a Comment