Yet Another Purged U.S. Attorney?

[Vyan]

Via Thinkprogress

A former West Virginia federal prosecutor said Friday the White House fired him in 2005 in the middle of a corruption and vote-buying investigation but never told him why.

Karl K. "Kasey" Warner said he has "concerns" and sees parallels between himself and eight other ousted U.S. attorneys. Congress and an internal Justice Department agency are investigating whether those firings were politically motivated.

Oh no, here we go again!

After the original eight firings, last week during the Gonzales hearings we were informed of a possible ninth and tenth!

House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers via Bradblog.

"After hours of testimony, the first and most basic question remains: who created the list of US Attorneys to be fired and why? As I said in the hearing, the bread crumbs are steadily leading toward 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

"We learned from the media today that Todd Graves was the ninth fired US Attorney, and Thomas Heffelfenger of Minnesota may have been the 10th. That begs the question that my colleague, Rep. Sánchez asked earlier, are there any others?

Today we seem to have the answer to that question. Number 11 has arrived.

Warner would not elaborate on what concerned him about his August 2005 firing but rejected the idea that he was fired over his performance.

"The facts speak for themselves. Look into how I ran my office. See how I managed the office," Warner said. "If they want to look at the cases I had and the corruption cases we have now, people can come to their own conclusions about why I was let go."

Warner said he refused to resign when asked by the Justice Department, responding that he took his direction from President Bush.

"Next thing I know, I get a letter from the president's counsel, Harriet Miers, saying I'd been fired, no reason given," Warner recounted in a telephone interview.

Now is it possible this firing had nothing what-so-ever to do with politics? Sure, it's possible. But with this administration, one that politicized the selection of personnel for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq... (as documented by Washpo's Rajiv Chandrasekaran - via Marc Cooper)... just about everything is about politics with Bushgov.

Instead of seasoned experts putting together the New Iraq, the Bushies employed snot-nosed Young Republicans whose top skills -- beyong organizing keg parties-- were dumbly herding into a polling booth and voting GOP or having a Republican-connected Mommy or Daddy. This stuff should make anyone's blood boil. The job selection was done, by the way, by another mediocre party hack, Jim O'Beirne, hubby of the grotesque right-wing pundit and Republican cheerleader Kate O'Beirne:

Let me reiterate, because they we're willing to put crass partisan politics above picking up the pieces in Iraq when they had a chance, their ineptitude led to a loss in confidence between the U.S., the U.S. installed Iraq Government and the people of Iraq - these partisan punk-asses essentially lit the fuse for the time-bomb that exploded into the insurgency once Abu Ghraib was revealed.

Just how bad was it? This bad.

Many of those chosen by O'Beirne's office to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq's government from April 2003 to June 2004, lacked vital skills and experience. A 24-year-old who had never worked in finance -- but had applied for a White House job -- was sent to reopen Baghdad's stock exchange. The daughter of a prominent neoconservative commentator and a recent graduate from an evangelical university for home-schooled children were tapped to manage Iraq's $13 billion budget, even though they didn't have a background in accounting...

... Many of those selected because of their political fidelity spent their time trying to impose a conservative agenda on the postwar occupation, which sidetracked more important reconstruction efforts and squandered goodwill among the Iraqi people, according to many people who participated in the reconstruction effort..

A University for Home-schooled evangelicals? Why that seems familiar - oh yeah, I know who this reminds me of. Monica Goodling.

"You have a Monica problem," Ms. Ashton was told, according to several Justice Department officials. Referring to Monica M. Goodling, a 31-year-old, relatively inexperienced lawyer who had only recently arrived in the office, the boss added, "She believes you’re a Democrat and doesn’t feel you can be trusted." <...>

Me thinks I detect a wee bit of a pattern here.

And guess what, that pattern doesn't seem to end with Warner. Here comes Number 12!

Warner's statements echo those by former Maryland U.S. Attorney Thomas M. DiBiagio, who in March said he believed he was fired for investigating corruption in a Republican governor's administration.

The Justice Department said DiBiagio was fired for writing e-mails calling for "front-page" corruption indictments before Election Day.

That's right, investigate a legitimate curruption case by a Republican and risk getting fired, but trump up a bogus case against Democrats just in time to derail an election and you - Mr. Loyal Bushie - are home free.

BushGov in a nutshell: Partisanship First, Competance Never.

Vyan

Update: It should be pointed out that it's quite premature to state exactly why these firings occured, it's quite possible (as has been noted by emptywheel on Dkos) that some of these firings actually were legitimate, but the problem as I see it is that there is clearly so much corruption and partisan hackery taking place within the Bush Administration, those guilty of actual malfeasance are perfectly able to hide themselves among the innocent.

It's going to months before all the dust finally settles.

[Skink]

1. Isn't this just part of the K street project?