In the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Columnist Nick Coleman has written articles about the resignation of one U.S Attorney Thomas Heffelfinger and his replacement by hand picked “Bushie” Rachel Paulose.
The columns were written after the simultaneous resignations of the top four managing prosecutors in the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office. All the resigning prosecutors cited Paulose’s unprofessional conduct, incompetence and that familiar arrogance of ignorance that infects Bush and the lackeys and cronies he appoints to important federal offices.
Paulose was picked by Gonzales to replace former U.S. Attorney Thomas Heffelfinger, a mainstream Republican who resigned unexpectedly, possibly just evading the ax (circumstances suggest that his name was on the original “hit list” of attorneys targeted for replacement, as I explained last week). At the time she was picked, Paulose was an aide to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, who has admitted giving false testimony to Congress about “Purge-gate,” the scandal over the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.
Paulose worked with those involved in “Purge-gate” at the time the plans were hatched. KSTP reported that Monica Goodling, who resigned Friday as the White House liaison for the Department of Justice, was supposed to have been a part of Paulose’s semi-regal investiture ceremony at the University of St. Thomas law school. But Goodling stayed away. Later, she invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to appear before a Senate committee.
This is the heart of the matter. Coleman connects Paulose’s appointment to the firing of eight U.S. Attorney’s and their replacement by Gonzales under the bullshit provision of the Patriot Act that avoided the constitutional requirement of obtaining Senate approval. Her appointment
* Was part of an effort to transform the ranks of prosecutors by appointing partisan loyalists with close ties to Gonzales and the White House;
* May be connected to a political strategy by President George W. Bush’s adviser Karl Rove, who has targeted alleged Democratic voter fraud for prosecution. In a talk to the Republican National Lawyers Association, Rove said 11 states (including Minnesota) will be crucial in the 2008 election. Nine, including Minnesota, have had new attorneys appointed.
I take issue with Coleman giving anyone in this corrupt, fascist adminstration the benefit of the doubt by using the word “may” when referring to Rove’s complete undermining of the offices of U.S. Attorneys.
Especially since he goes on to say:
that Paulose is a member of the conservative Federalist Society, a tight-knit group of Republican and Libertarian lawyers driven by an ideological determination to remake the court system in their image. Paulose has not responded to media queries about her membership in the society. A spokesperson said last week that she didn’t think Paulose belonged, but would ask; no answer was forthcoming. Paulose’s own résumé, however, states that she has been a member since 2001.
Thank God this corrupt, fascist administration is also incompetent. As Coleman says,
A U.S. attorney who is too inexperienced to lead a major prosecutor’s office and whose managerial incompetence has provoked a meltdown was appointed by the highest powers in the land for naked political reasons. Her appointment may not survive the scrutiny it deserves and now will get.
As good as Coleman’s column is, he doesn’t go far enough. This is just another piece in the corrupt, fascist attempt by the Bush Administation and the Republican Party to completely undermine American society as we know it and to turn it into a dominionist wet dream. Rove has identified 11 crucial states for the 2008 election. He has replaced the U.S. Attorneys in nine of those eleven states (including Paulose). Rove will add trumped up Democratic voter fraud charges brought by his puppet U.S. Attorneys to his time tested voter dis-enfranchisement and voter suppression efforts put to such successful use in 2000 and 2004.
This is beyond the worst corruption of the Nixon Adminstration. This is stuff of impeachment, and then the stuff of federal prosecution. Will there be any U.S. Attorneys left still bound by their oath of office?
Here’s Coleman’s columns.
http://www.startribune.com/357/story/1105905.html
http://www.startribune.com/357/story/1092041.html