I trust he is receiving at least, if not more than, the 1.5 million â€signing bonus†paid to the lower ranked Carol Lam in a city less illustrous than Washington DC and that has lower salaries for attorneys.

â€riddance.â€
too much live-blogging these days, eh?
you must be really tired.
cheers to you! and hope you get to refresh your own refresh button this weekend!
all the best, stagemom.

I guess the gradual removal of the characters involved in this play qualifies as gumming it to death.

bmaz, it was Debra Yang who got the $1.5 million bonus, not Lam. Yang is now working for Jerry Lewis’ defense firm in Los Angeles.

Off the top of my head Jane Cherry, Christopher G, Scholtzman, and McNaulty come to mind, as rats remaining on the last timbers of the deck. Actually, only the last two are in the DoJ. Then there are the unknown unknowns – Paul Corts, Stuart Frisch, Michael Allen, and Mari Santangelo – who are they and what do they know, besides email Goodling?

Glad Elston is gone. ’Night.

Mary Buchanan testified in closed door yesterday; complaint letters about Schlozman surface.

Which of either of these two events might have been related to Elston’s announced resignation, or was there another driver? These guys don’t do anything unless forced to by circumstances; this was a Friday news dump, too, suggesting the intent to buffer and dilute either this announcement or the driver. ??

Are there any sources or stories about who is replacing all of these people? There are a lot of them at this point. What is the DoJ like after having them run the place and hire and fire for 2+ years, and of course aggressive guys like Schlozman for instance were in Civil Rights under the â€rehabilitated†(?!–okay, no, not really) Ashcroft during the first Bush admin.?

The main replacement to watch is McNulty, who hasn’t left yet, but the replacement requires a confirmation hearing, right? And there hasn’t been even a whisper of a name yet, unless I’m mistaken. And of course we don’t know exactly what happened when McNulty went to the USAs conference and then resigned the next day.

The follies continue, and make for good entertainment, at least from one perspective. Of course, it’s a sobering disaster from the view of the rule of law, and outrageous when one after another of these people bluntly lies and throws sand at congress.

How thick is the scum on this government? How far down do you have to go to find something clean?

with another few weeks of testimony, i suspect kagro x is going to get his impeachment trial.

i don’t see any other resolution to the absolute abandonment of good government process in gonzales’ doj.

Neil – That is the problem. There is no availability of an â€Independent Counsel or Prosecutor†anymore; that law either lapsed or was repealed. Lapsed I think; either way it is gone. A Special Prosecutor has to be appointed, and at least to some extent, be under the auspices of the Department of Justice; the extent of control being the key question behind the Libby sentencing kerfuffle. This is why you keep seeing Kagro X scream for impeachment, with me chiming in every time I see it. Initiating impeachment proceedings would allow the appointment of impeachment managers and an investigative team with very broad powers. Gonzales/DOJ is the perfect vehicle for this since the Dem leadership is to timid to go after Cheney/Bush. You probably knew all this, but for those who didn’t, that is basically the deal. Trying to box and corner the Administration into appointing a Special Counsel is to time consuming and messy; we need to get on with it

I knew the special prosecutor law was (not renewed, repealed, whatever) after Ken Starr abused it for seven years and $76 million but I didn’t realize the repeal left a hole in the investigative power of the justice system. It’s frustrating watching corrupt DOJ and GSA officials lie and obstruct justice without consequence. And I believe the lack of consequence for the originl crime and the cover-up bodes poorly for the future of our Republic.

Neil – That is exactly why I with Kagro X on the impeachment bandwagon. I don’t necessarily agree with taking it â€off the table†as to Bush/Cheney, but I at least understand it. But if Gonzales can’t be impeached, then what good is having impeachment in the Constitution anyway? Rhetorical question…..

Zhiv – Interesting question on McNulty. Both he and Schumer have mentioned a friendship, relationship or whatever; maybe there is something up there that we do not see. I doubt it, but who knows. Why is McNulty lingering? Why is the Administration letting him linger? All very good questions.

I believe Schlozman is still working at the DOJ in the Exec. Office of the USA’s. Von Spakovsky has left DOJ, but is at the FEC, unless the Democratic Senate decides that it won’t renew his recess appointment as a commissioner.

The pool of candidates to replace these folks must be shrinking. Legitimate recruitment efforts must have gone up in smoke like all of those RNC servers. What over-qualified lawyer traditionally drawn to the DOJ would join it a minute before Bush leaves office? What careerist with integrity is going to willingly associate with and support the Pauloses and Griffins in the field?

Restarting a quality recruitment program will take the first two years of the next administration. Even if they rehire dozens of the top staff who’ve left, it will take years after that before they get up to speed, and longer for them as a unit to regain the trust of the federal courts, FBI, federal marshalls and the defense bar. And what about the DOJ’s management of collateral agencies, like the FBI and its job as legal adviser to other govt agencies?

My concern is this cancer-like dysfunction is a welcome outcome for KKKarl. Team Bush never seemed too interested in routine bad guys – the ones most likely to affect our lives and jobs by stealing our civil rights, invading our homes or corrupting our companies and pension funds. Many of those crimes will unprosecuted, many of their perpetrators will walk or get off more lightly because even a first-year defense lawyer could credibly allege undue political interference in a criminal prosecution.

Rebuilding the foundations rotted by these â€men of honor and integrity†will take years and millions, and will divert attention from investigating the harm Team KKKarl has done that we don’t yet know about.

earl of h

well said.

behind all of this oversight is the fact that a major government institution is not functioning well,

in fact,

maybe not be functioning at all, except on small or ongoing matters.

i don’t see how any manger there could start a new program or initiative right now. or even arouse much enthusiasm among the troops for current programs.

it must be hell working in the middle levels of the doj at the moment.

the general dysfunction at doj under gonzales would be the ultimate justification for an impeachment effort.

Mimikatz — CREW has called for an Office of Public Integrity for some time now; I think this is a possible solution, except that I can’t see how it would file charges and prosecute criminal behavior it finds in any public agency if it is an arm of Congress. We need something with the clout of the Office of Independent Counsel without the abuses exemplified by Ken Starr, but something more systemic than the OIC was. Seems like OMB and GAO have some role here, but again they don’t have the clout. ??

I agree that Gonzo should be impeached if he can’t be forced to resign. I’m trying to think long term here, and I think there is a benefit in trying to pass stuff that the GOP tries to block and/or Bush vetoes. Call it the Jesse Helms strategy. He forced people to vote on things that cvould not pass, then used it against them in elections. Plus it is good to air out ideas.

I also do think the Dems should hold up the DOJ budget and confirmations until the Bush Admin is more forthcoming.

I’m remembering Comey’s testimony about the hospital visit and that the entire upper echelons of the DoJ would resign over the illegal wiretap issue. Bush was so nervous about the public perception of a mass exodus that he agreed to change procedures.

We do have a mass exodus here, except for the top mongrel… and they are all slinking out under the cloud of criminality rather than stomping away in righteous anger. The public needs to see a management chart with all those empty boxes and broken links before they’ll realize the gap. If the NYT was a real newspaper they’d print the chart above the fold, because this is something their business readers would understand at a glance. Once Abu is impeached (and he better be!!! for mismanagement and dereliction of duties if not for war crimes!!!!!), then the DoJ will be shown as a headless beast.

Since Abu delegated all hiring and firing and promotion responsibilities to Sampson’s and Goodling’s positions, he can’t fill those vacancies without running another secret Order taking the responsibility back, and he is a bit busy right now building a toilet-paper wall. Given the scope of the investigations and the orders to preserve all documents, lawyers in other departments might be cautious about approving anything involving transfer of powers.

Since there are so many vacancies anyway, this is an opportune moment to remove Abu, close down Main Justice, and clean it of vermin and illegal orders.

Congress hesitates, but they can educate the public as to the necessity. If the MSM reporters ignore the issues, why not call a press conference in advance where they can show the charts on TV and describe how the absences came to be. Whether they convince the public or not, they ought to have its attention when they impeach Abu.

â€Of course, as long as Bush is there Gonzalez will be, too.†–Cujo359

That’s what NIXON said about Meese.

Gonzales is TOAST, and so is Libby, and Bush isn’t gonna pardon anyone — he’s too busy trying to time his flight to Paraguay.

He knows if he turns around to help anyone, he’ll turn into a pillar of salt.

Maybe once he does, we can truck him to Iraq and let the widows piss him down to nothing.