By BONNIE ERBE
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
What do George W. Bush and Muhammadu Buhari have in common? More and more as time goes on, it seems. Twenty-two years ago Buhari enjoyed brief tenure as Nigeria's dictator by rising to power amidst a failing economy, widespread political corruption, and violent civil unrest, which caused the collapse of that country's so-called Second Republic. Buhari staged a military coup and imposed draconian measures on his nation, punishing those associated with the just-destroyed civilian government, curtailing press freedoms and subordinating the judiciary to the military.
President Bush has not yet subordinated our judiciary to the military, but the more we learn about U.S. attorneys fired for failing to succumb to Justice Department and congressional political pressure, the more the Bush administration looks like the tawdry, third world, small-time dictatorship its opponents accuse it of being.
Try as the administration might to explain away the firing of eight United States attorneys, there is only one explanation for their being dispensed with: they didn't succumb to political pressure to do the king's bidding.
One or two U.S. attorneys at a time replaced for legitimate reasons? Sure. But eight? That's almost one in 10 of the 93-member U.S. attorney workforce.
The more evidence that falls into the public domain about what was done to these loyal GOP partisans simply trying to do their jobs without undue influence, the more horrific the administration's behavior becomes. The first of the eight to be sacked is H.E. "Bud" Cummins III, the former U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Ark. He told various media that senior Justice Department official Michael Battle called him last year and asked him to resign.
The Buffalo News picks up the story from there, "Cummins told Battle he was surprised and had thought he would serve for the rest of the Bush administration.
'I asked if I had done anything wrong, and he said no,' Cummins said. 'He said it was entirely about a desire to give somebody else the opportunity.'
'Somebody else' turned out to be Tim Griffin, ex-aide to Karl Rove, President Bush's top political strategist." Crony fires former crony to make way for uber-crony's friend.
Then there's the revelation surrounding the firing of former Albuquerque, New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias. Earlier this week the Justice Department admitted Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., called Attorney General Alberto Gonzales or his deputy four times last year to complain about Iglesias, saying he wasn't moving quickly enough to indict Democrats in a corruption probe.
Seems Sen. Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., wanted Iglesias to put politics ahead of law enforcement and indict unnamed Democrats prior to last November's elections to boost GOP chances. As it was, Wilson barely squeaked by to retain her seat. Both personally telephoned Iglesias (Sen. Domenici did so after hours at Iglesias' home and apparently hung up on Iglesias when he didn't get the answer he wanted) to put pressure on him to indict, although both deny the claim.
Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty last week told Congress six of the eight firings changes were for "performance-related" issues, but that "story" was revealed as fatuous after reports surfaced many of those same prosecutors received strong performance reviews. That didn't stop McNulty's assistant from "leaning on" the prosecutors again to stop talking to the media about their plights.
This emerging scandal should signify to American voters the depth, breadth and permeation of corruption in the Bush administration. When a U.S. senator feels free to call a prosecutor at home and hang up on him for resisting pressure, the line between politics and law enforcement has been so thoroughly violated it no longer exists. Sen. Domenici would not have made that call had either a Democrat or a law-abiding Republican been in the White House. He would not have had the temerity to throw his weight around to such an extent. What's going on in Washington is not sufficiently removed from what was going on in Nigeria under Buhari to give any American comfort.
(Bonnie Erbe is a TV host and writes this column for Scripps Howard News Service. E-mail bonnieerbe(at)CompuServe.com.)
Fatuosity and horrificality
With only a passing notice that Ms. Erbe doesn''t seem to understand that Senator Domenici is not part of THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION , let's cut to the chase. She's obviously auditioning for a chance at a UN speech, no doubt having been inspired by the great Hugo Chavez's "Bush is the Devil!" performance recently. Devil, Dictator,America, Nigeria, whatever. It's all the same, right, Bonnie?
Such wit! Such originality! Such be-your-own-thinkerism! Would it be perhaps too much to name the "opponents" who accuse the Bush Administration of being a "tawdry, third world, small-time dictatorship"? Wouldn't be Michael Moore and Bonnie Erbe, would it?
".....in the course of human events....."
Ms. Erbe and non truths.
Ms. Erbe.
I don't know if you are old enough to remember that when Mr. BJ Clinton became president one of the first things he did was fire all the U. S. Attorneys in office at that time. He then proceded to install his hand picked liberal democrat cronies to those posts.
The same thing that most all new presidents do.
However, Mr. Bush did not do this but should have as they came back to bite him in the rear.
Where did you get your civics education? Sear's!
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