Congressional Record—Senate S7419
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June 11, 2007 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S7419 the removal of eight U.S. attorneys sons for their dismissal. Here we have The reasons given for their firings have not last year. Attorney General Gonzales them. been consistent with my experience. has claimed that he had no involve- David Iglesias, New Mexico—there And that: ment in the firing of the U.S. attor- was a probe of Democrats not com- I had very positive encounters with these neys. In fact, this is his statement. He pleted quickly enough. We had promi- folks. said: nent Republicans complaining that he Comey was effusive in his praise of several of the fired prosecutors. I was not involved in seeing any memos, had not reached conclusion on a probe was not involved in any discussions about of Democrats quickly enough. Comey was the Deputy Attorney what was going on. That’s basically what I Carol Lamm, in California—she se- General, and he described Paul knew as the Attorney General. cured the conviction of a Republican Charlton of Arizona as ‘‘ one of the That is really a stunning claim. His Congressman, also had indicted the No. best.’’ He said he had a very positive own Chief of Staff, Kyle Sampson, ad- 3 official at the CIA, and was inves- view of David Iglesias of New Mexico, mitted the Attorney General misled tigating a Republican Congressman. and called Daniel Ogden of Las Vegas the country. He is not alone. Kyle Daniel Ogden, Nevada—investigated ‘‘straight as a Nevada highway and a Sampson, former Chief of Staff to the a Republican Governor and former Re- fired-up guy.’’ Attorney General, said: publican Congressman. Of John McCay of Seattle, Comey I don’t think the Attorney General’s state- Bud Cummins in Arkansas—was re- said: ment that he was not involved in any discus- placed by a Karl Rove operative. He in- I was inspired by him. sions . was accurate. I remember dis- vestigated a Republican Governor of Now, it doesn’t take long to figure cussing with him this process of asking cer- Missouri. out what has happened. The Attorney tain U.S. attorneys to resign. John McCay, in Washington State— General comes and testifies he can’t re- The Washington Post reported, on to the dismay of local GOP partisans, call, he doesn’t remember, that he Michael Battle, the former Director of did not investigate the gubernatorial wasn’t really a part of it. He is contra- the Executive Office for U.S. Attor- election won by a Democrat. dicted by his own staff. Then he says it neys, and I quote from that story: Paul Charlton, Arizona—he inves- is performance based, but the perform- The former Justice Department official tigated Republican Congressman Jim ance reviews are without exception who carried out the firings of eight U.S. at- Colby and Rick Renzi. positive for these people who have been torneys last year told Congress . that a You start to connect the dots here. fired. Their supervisor, who was Dep- memo on the firings was distributed at a No- They said the reason these people were uty Attorney General, has rave reviews vember 27 meeting attended by Attorney removed was because of poor perform- for virtually all of them. General Alberto R. Gonzales. ance. At least that is the assertion of Let’s connect the dots. These are po- NBC News reported on William Mer- the Attorney General. But if you look litically motivated firings. I don’t cer, the Acting Associate Attorney at the written reviews of these same know what other conclusion one can General: U.S. attorneys, ones who had been re- come to, and that is a very serious Justice Department official William W. moved and ones for whom you can find matter. I have been in the Senate for Mercer told congressional investigators on a clear partisan reason for their re- more than 20 years. I have never come April 11 that he attended a meeting with the moval—look at the written reviews of to the floor and raised questions about Attorney General . to discuss ‘‘fired U.S. the political motivation of an Attorney Attorney Carol Lamm’s situation.’’ their performance, which is the reason given by the Attorney General for their General—never. I do so now, and I do it It is simply not credible that the At- removal. because I believe this is a serious mat- torney General of the United States David Iglesias, New Mexico, written ter. had no role in the removal of eight U.S. review: When the administration of justice attorneys. After all, he is the head of becomes politically tainted in this the Justice Department. To his credit, Respected by the judiciary, agencies and staff . complied with department prior- country, that is an enormously serious the Attorney General did eventually ities. matter. There is no longer, in my admit that he had misspoken in de- Carol Lamm, California: mind, any question but that this Attor- scribing his lack of involvement. Given ney General has tainted his office. Effective manager and respected leader. the growing public record, I don’t That is only further demonstrated by think he had much choice. Daniel Ogden, Nevada: his late night visit to the hospital bed However, to the great disappoint- Overall evaluation was very positive. of the Attorney General of the United ment of people on both sides of the Bud Cummins of Arkansas: States, at that time John Ashcroft, to aisle, the Attorney General failed mis- Very competent and highly regarded. get him to sign documents that he re- erably in his attempt to set the record John McCay, Washington State: fused to sign about the legality of cer- straight. In his testimony before the tain actions of this administration. Senate Judiciary Committee, the At- Effective, well-regarded and capable lead- er. We have seen enough. This Attorney torney General used the words, ‘‘I don’t General needs to leave his office. He recall,’’ or a variant on those words, 64 Paul Charlton, Arizona: has tainted his office. He does not de- times. ‘‘I don’t recall,’’ ‘‘I don’t have Well respected . established goals that serve the high responsibility and enor- any recollection,’’ ‘‘I have no mem- were appropriate to meet the priorities of mous honor serving as Attorney Gen- the department. ory’’—64 times. Some counts have that eral of the United States. number at over 70. Some even approach What do we have here? The Attorney I yield the floor. 90. General says he wasn’t involved. Oth- The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- Time after time, the Attorney Gen- ers of his own staff say he was in- pore. The Senator from Missouri. volved. Then he says it was perform- eral was unable to respond to even f basic questions. He couldn’t explain or ance reasons for which these people couldn’t remember why the U.S. attor- were removed, but if you look at the MEDIA BIAS neys were fired or how he was involved. written reviews of the people who were Mr. BOND. Mr. President, recently I Again, his performance was truly stun- removed, their performance reviews returned from Iraq where I visited ning. His inability or refusal to answer were excellent. Tikrit, Baghdad, Bamadi, and Balad basic questions raises serious issues. Is But what you do have is a clear polit- with three of my congressional col- he incompetent or is he simply playing ical motivation in case after case in- leagues. We had the opportunity to the loyal soldier? Why were these U.S. volving these U.S. attorneys. When you meet with the commanding officers attorneys removed? go back to the reason the Attorney and troops on each location. On the Unfortunately, the answer that im- General is giving now, that it is per- floor of the Senate I spoke to you mediately suggests itself is that these formance based, here is what the about witnessing firsthand some of the firings were politically motivated. former supervisor of these prosecutors progress being made. Since I have seen Let’s look at some of the fired U.S. at- said: so little coverage of that progress, I torneys and the possible political rea- Comey added that: think progress bears repeating. VerDate Mar 15 2010 21:51 Mar 13, 2014 Jkt 081600 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\2007SENATE\S11JN7.REC S11JN7 mmaher on DSKCGSP4G1 with SOCIALSECURITY S7420 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE June 11, 2007 The new plan, the counterinsurgency Our correspondent wrote that he was The U.S. military has made a real plan, is showing initial signs of shocked. He checked it out every way difference in Iraqi communities. There progress. Violence in al-Qaim, Haditha, he could, but it appears to have been a are examples of good stories, such as Hit, Ramadi, and Falluja has dramati- false report. The headlines refer to the the local new precinct joint command cally decreased due to local leaders failed attack but depicted a dramati- headquarters. But somehow we are not now siding with coalition forces pur- cally different outcome. There has doing an adequate job of spreading the suing al-Qaida in Iraq. been no apparent retraction, so thou- news. Let me cite an example from to- In Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi security sands upon thousands, maybe hundreds day’s Washington Post page A11: ‘‘Trib- forces are clearing and holding some of of thousands who saw the headline as- al Coalition In Anbar Said To Be Crum- the most dangerous areas, and sec- sumed yet another tragic incident oc- bling.’’ Well, I have missed it, perhaps, tarian violence has decreased.