Quote Of The Day

Caption: Mary delivers another opinion on the performance of DoJ.

Image credit: Screenshot of The Outlaw Josey Wales by Cujo359 (See NOTE)



Today's quote of the day is from Mary, whom I and others have publicly begged to do blogging somewhere. She's writing, at least occasionally, at FireDogLake's Emptywheel blog. She wrote this today about the decision by Attorney General Eric Holder, which basically said that it was OK for one of the USA Eight, David Iglesias, to have been fired for political reasons:

4. This, they say, is fine. Seriously. They say there’s nothing DOJ can do about it. It’s no problem for politicians to get DOJ lawyers fired for not being political lapdogs. But to be fair, they then finish up by saying both, “In closing, it is important to emphasize that Attorney General Holder is committed to ensuring that partisan political considerations play no role in the law enforcement decisions of the Department” and (bc that wasn’t really the closing after all) “The Attorney General remains deeply dismayed by the OIG/OPR findings related to politicization of the Department’s actions, and has taken steps to ensure those mistakes will not be repeated.”

HUH? They’ve just said it is perfectly legal for politicians to get USAs who won’t do their political bidding fired by covert contacts with the WH, but Holder is “committed” to ensuring partisan political considerations play no role at DOJ? WTH? I guess if you put those two concepts together and held them in your mind for long, you’d end up committed too.

Final Jeopardy Answer: Something That Doesn’t Obstruct or Impede Justice

Providing yet another talking point on the differences between the Obama Administration and its predecessor, Mary adds:

And now Dannehy and Holder have made that chapter and verse – nothing wrong with firing some prosecutors if they aren’t playing politics. Poor Karl Rove – so much trouble could have been avoided if he had just known that a Democratic administration’s DOJ would take the position that it would be perfectly ok for him to get Bush to fire Fitzgerald (something that apparently made even Buscho lawyers Gonzales and Miers flinch) – no obstruction, no impeding – as long as Rove never tried to “influence” the prosecutor first.

Final Jeopardy Answer: Something That Doesn’t Obstruct or Impede Justice

You haven't experienced a verbal smackdown until you've appeared as the wrong color of blip on Mary's radar.

Hopefully, we'll be seeing more in the future.

NOTE: The Outlaw Josey Wales is a copyrighted work of Warner Bros., The Malpaso Company, and others too numerous to mention. None of these people approved, contributed to, or endorsed this article.