USA Timing
/in emptywheel /by emptywheelI’d like to ask some questions about USA timing. Why did DOJ fire the USAs it did when it did? TPM’s newest member, Laura McGann, reports that Todd Graves was fired "11 months before" the other USAs were fired in December, putting his firing sometime in January 2006. Tom Heffelfinger was ousted (but not, according to him, fired) in February 2006. DOJ had ready replacements for both of them, Brad Schlozman and Rachel Paulose, respectively, and those replacements took over almost immediately.
In place in plenty of time for the mid-term elections.
But why pull the trigger on MO and (possibly) on MN, out of the wide collection of swing states? The short answer is that both had a close Senate race last year–or it looked to be close in January, when the USAs were ousted (though arguably, MO didn’t look like it was in play for the Democrats until much later). But that still raises the question, why not oust Margaret Chiara in January, too, to increase the chances of beating Debbie Stabenow, who was always on the list of most vulnerable Senators? Of those listed on Sampson’s January 9 list, Chiara and Cummins are the two other USAs from swing states. In AR, there was no Senate race, and besides they had to wait to fire Cummins until Griffin finished his deployment to Iraq. But for MI, Rachel Brand was presumably available in January.
Did Troy Eid Also Bypass the Vetting Process?
/in emptywheel /by emptywheelMy first thought, after reading Carol Leonnig’s article on how DOJ is letting select candidates bypass normal screening processes, was of Troy Eid, Colorado’s USA. After all, Troy Eid wrote a letter trying to persuade Gale Norton to make judgments in favor of an Abramoff client, the Mashpee tribe, yet he didn’t register as a lobbyist for the tribe. And as for the one Greenberg Traurig client he did register for as a lobbyist, just about every other team member from GT was found to have been involved in improper dealings. Here’s a guy just one step removed from the stench of Jack Abramoff, winning nomination to serve as the US Attorney for Colorado. Did he go through the proper vetting process?
And in fact, there were inklings during his nomination process that there was a problem uncovered in his vetting process. Back in 2005, the first time his nomination was considered, there were rumors his nomination had hit a snag during the vetting process–specifically on the issue of improper lobbying.
But now the mandatory background check on Eid has hit a fewsnags, with the FBI asking around about some questionable lobbyingdecisions he may have been a part of. Eid left his Read more →