Why did Dem's demonize Alberto Gonzalez for firing 8 people?

Question

When Janet Reno fired over 80 people, barely investigated crimes Clinton committed, like the selling of secrets to the Chinese, Waco, accused Richard Jewel of terrorism and so many other things?

I'm not knocking Reno, she's a hometown girl for me. I liked her, would have voted for her in the Governors elections if she had made it past the primaries. But, seriously, she had more problems as Attorney General then Gonzalez ever did, yet she wasn't hounded like Gonzalez was. We look and say she was a good Attorney General, and I think she was, she just had a lot of stuff fall on her shoulders. Gonzales fires 8 people and suddenly he's the most evil man on the planet. Why is that?

Answer 1

Actually Janet Reno fired all 93, in March of 1993

Above me 'g' states that all presidents do this but

Congressional Democrats are in full cry over the news this week that the Administration's decision to fire eight U.S. Attorneys originated from--gasp--the White House. Senator Hillary Clinton joined the fun yesterday, blaming President Bush for "the politicization of our prosecutorial system." Oh, my.

As it happens, Mrs. Clinton is just the Senator to walk point on this issue of dismissing U.S. attorneys because she has direct personal experience. In any Congressional probe of the matter, we'd suggest she call herself as the first witness--and bring along Webster Hubbell as her chief counsel.

As everyone once knew but has tried to forget, Mr. Hubbell was a former partner of Mrs. Clinton at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock who later went to jail for mail fraud and tax evasion. He was also Bill and Hillary Clinton's choice as Associate Attorney General in the Justice Department when Janet Reno, his nominal superior, simultaneously fired all 93 U.S. Attorneys in March 1993. Ms. Reno--or Mr. Hubbell--gave them 10 days to move out of their offices.

At the time, President Clinton presented the move as something perfectly ordinary: "All those people are routinely replaced," he told reporters, "and I have not done anything differently." In fact, the dismissals were unprecedented: Previous Presidents, including Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, had both retained holdovers from the previous Administration and only replaced them gradually as their tenures expired. This allowed continuity of leadership within the U.S. Attorney offices during the transition.

Equally extraordinary were the politics at play in the firings. At the time, Jay Stephens, then U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia, was investigating then Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, and was "within 30 days" of making a decision on an indictment. Mr. Rostenkowski, who was shepherding the Clinton's economic program through Congress, eventually went to jail on mail fraud charges and was later pardoned by Mr. Clinton.

Also at the time, allegations concerning some of the Clintons' Whitewater dealings were coming to a head. By dismissing all 93 U.S. Attorneys at once, the Clintons conveniently cleared the decks to appoint "Friend of Bill" Paula Casey as the U.S. Attorney for Little Rock. Ms. Casey never did bring any big Whitewater indictments, and she rejected information from another FOB, David Hale, on the business practices of the Arkansas elite including Mr. Clinton. When it comes to "politicizing" Justice, in short, the Bush White House is full of amateurs compared to the Clintons.

The liberals are trying their damnedest to make the Bush administration look as bad as they can so that they might win the Presidency in 2008

Just how much came out of the Waco mess, not a hell of a lot, at least nothing to show that this was a witch hunt. Richard Jewell was a hero that became Janet's personal terrorist, and I'm not sure if you guys know but he passed away earlier this week.

Read the article, Clinton had reasons to replace all of the Attorney Generals and it was politically motivated.

Answer 2

Reagan, Clinton and George W Bush fired all the US attorneys within a few months of their inaugurations, this is customary. The selective firing of the 8 US attorneys for their supposedly poor performance is unprecedented. Each of these attorneys actually had good performance records, but some of them had refused to follow the administration's directives to prosecute Democrats for election fraud when the evidence would not support the cases. Others had refused to drop the prosecutions of Republican officials such as Duke Cunningham, where there was much evidence of fraud.

Bear in mind that each of these 8 fired prosecutors were good Republicans who had been active supporters of the party. However, they did not believe they should selectively prosecute people based on party affiliation. This is the essence of the real scandal.

Consider whether you think someone should be put on trial because they belong to the party which is not in power, and whether their offenses should be ignored if they are members of the party which is in power. This is not what justice should be about, and it's not the American way.

Reno turned the investigation of the Clintons over to a independent, special prosecutor, Ken Starr. The FBI leaked Jewell's name. Reno was following the advice of the agents in the field when she ordered the Waco assault. However, this was such a bad decision that she should have been fired immediately.

Answer 3

It's not about the firing of 8 people. Those federal prosecutors work at the pleasure of the president and are subject to being dismissed at any time for any reason or for no reason. It's the sloppy, sometimes less than honest manner in which the whole affair and the rest of his tenure at the Justice Department was handled. For one thing, he very likely lied to Congress and was certainly less than truthful about several matters. As a result of the above and several other situations, he was perceived by many as a lapdog for the president who had no second thoughts about "bending" his interpretations of the law to suit GW Bush. This made him a dangerous and inappropriate person to serve as attorney general.

The Attorney General has to have the ability to speak truth to power, no matter what the consequences. Reno had that ability and made Clinton's White House angry at her over it. John Ashcroft (even though I did not agree with his politics) also had that ability, which Bush tried to circumvent by sending Gonzales to his hospital bedside to obtain his signature on some bogus opinions. Attorney General Gonzales didn't appear to have this ability.

He needed to go.

Answer 4

LMAO basically 8 factors eh? communicate approximately one being below liked! Ya purely won't be in a position to get any appreciate in any respect, not in spite of a suitable answer. LOL Brightest advantages, Raji the fairway Witch

Answer 5

well... first off it's the timing of it...for the attorneys

why do Republicans, that seeming know TONS about history and how things "work" (as you illustrate with your waco talk, jewel talk and so on).... know nothing about attorney general protocol when firing attorneys? even though it's been all over TV, radio and more?

the answer is simple... you chose to ignore the blatant facts of the situation...

you can fire 80 when you come into office... almost every president does it...

but it's VERY rare to do in the middle of a term... FOR NO REASON...

OH and you also forgot about Guantanamo... which is basically like a few hundred richard jewels (arrested for terrorism and not given a fair trial)... except this has gone on for years...

and domestic spying... which went to the supreme court and lost...

those are bigger issues than waco and jewel... and the chinese thing which is more smoke than fire...

and why do Republicans love to support criminals when they constantly cry about how liberals are soft on criminals? Waco was CLEARLY comitting FEDERAL crimes... NO QUESTION...

A Republican would have went in there like a week earlier and probably had the same results..

the FUNNEST thing here is... YOU cry about guys that were treated unfairly, like Jewell, "convicted without a trial"... THEN you turn around and accuse Reno and Co. of selling secrets to the Chinese with zero evidence... she was never convicted on charges... no one in the administration was...

which is it... are you for victim rights or against it? or do you just flip flop every time it's a Republican/Democrat?

Answer 6

Because his office admitted that the firings were politically motivated, and that's illegal.

Had they simply said, "We didn't feel they were right for the position," it would have been different, but some of his people testified that it was a political maneuver. And since the Justice Department is supposed to be non-partisan, it signaled wrongdoing. And now the President is trying to cover it up under the guise of Executive Privilege.

Could easily have been avoided by them allowing Congress to do its job and oversee the Executive Branch.

Answer 7

Gonzales disgraced the office of Attorney General by, among other things, politicizing it and permitting it to be used to advance Republican politics. He demonized himself.

The Justice Department is supposed to be above politics.

The firing of the attorneys was nothing more than a ham-handed attempt to increase Republican control of government and Republican chances in elections.

Gonzo also approved torture, which is downright un-American as well as illegal and did the same with spying on US citizens without cause or warrant or judicial oversight.

Gonzales is an odious little worm and the Justice Department will be better off without him, much as America will be better off when Bush The Lesser finally goes back to hell.

Answer 8

He did a good job on himself. His story didn't match his subordinates and thats all the Dems needed to nail him. If he had gone "full visibility" and just said, yes, we fired the ones the were Dems that would have been the end of it.

Answer 9

Because Gonzo was responsible for dropping investigations into Bush's warrant-less wiretapping program, and many other things Bush has done behind out backs.
Upon inauguration, the president has the ability to replace as many as he sees fit within a certain time frame. this was not the case.
This was a clear case of ultra right-wing fascists trying to undermine the system, and getting busted doing so.

Answer 10

The country has gone mad is the only thing I can come up with! Dems are holding witchhunts on any Republican that blows his nose too loud and are ruining lives! Oh they will get their just desserts on judgement day so I rejoice in knowing this! God help us all!