In a March 16 editorial, The Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction dismissed accusations of scandal related to the Bush administration's firing of eight U.S. attorneys -- one on June 5, 2006, and the others on December 7, 2006 -- by misleadingly arguing that the action was no more “political” than “President Clinton's firing of all 93 U.S. attorneys in 1993.” However, as Media Matters for America has noted, quoting a March 14 Washington Post article, while Presidents Clinton and Bush both dismissed nearly all U.S. attorneys upon taking office following an administration of the other party, “legal experts and former prosecutors say the firing of a large number of prosecutors in the middle of a term appears to be unprecedented and threatens the independence of prosecutors.” The Daily Sentinel also ignored evidence that partisan considerations prompted some of the firings when it dubiously explained that Bush “apparently believed some of the eight fired were insufficiently agressive [sic] in prosecuting voter fraud or in pushing for the death penalty. Others were believed to be poor managers of their offices.”

According to the Daily Sentinel, “Democrats, eager for a new White House scandal in the wake of the disappointing Lewis 'Scooter' Libby brouhaha, think they have found it in the Justice Department's firing of eight U.S. attorneys”:

Subpoena's are being issued. The firing of a top Bush administration official has been demanded. And there are accusations the firings were “political.”

No doubt they were. Just as President Clinton's firing of all 93 U.S. attorneys in 1993 was political, and the firing of attorneys by other presidents.

However, as a March 13 McClatchy Newspapers article headlined “Current situation is distinct from Clinton firings of U.S. attorneys” noted, “Mass firings of U.S. attorneys are fairly common when a new president takes office, but not in a second-term administration.” The article further reported that “Justice Department officials acknowledged it would be unusual for the president to oust his own appointees.” Furthermore, a March 14 Associated Press article about the firings also noted that "[s]uch purges of the political appointees often come at the beginning of a new president's administration, not midway through."

Similarly, on the March 13 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, former GOP presidential candidate and MSNBC political analyst Pat Buchanan said that “it is not unusual for all U.S. attorneys -- or almost all except some outstanding ones, to be replaced when a new party comes into power, say, in 1993 or 2001.” In addition, in a Post online chat on March 14 -- noted by the weblog Talking Points Memo and Media Matters -- Stuart M. Gerson, assistant attorney general in the administration of President George H.W. Bush, observed, “It is customary for a President to replace U.S. attorneys at the beginning of a term.” Gerson added that “Ronald Reagan replaced every sitting U.S. attorney when he appointed his first Attorney General.”

The Daily Sentinel editorial follows a pattern identified by Media Matters in which media repeated the faulty analogy between Bush's and Clinton's U.S. attorney firings after the website of Internet gossip Matt Drudge, Drudgereport.com, highlighted articles linking the two on March 13.

A significant amount of credible evidence also belies the Daily Sentinel's suggestion that "[i]deological differences and adminstrative [sic] incompetence" were the legitimate reasons for the firings. As Media Matters has noted, Bush senior adviser Karl Rove pushed to make sure that J. Timothy Griffin, a trial counsel for the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps at the time, was appointed to replace one of the fired U.S. attorneys. Griffin is a former aide of Rove's and a former Republican National Committee research director. As the weblog TPM Muckraker noted, a March 13 Post article reported that emails turned over to Congress “show that Rove was interested in the appointment of [Griffin] as an Arkansas prosecutor.” In particular, D. Kyle Sampson, then-chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, wrote in a December 19, 2006, email that “getting [Griffin] appointed” as a U.S. attorney “was important to Harriet, Karl, etc.” By “Harriet,” Sampson apparently was referring to then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers.

Media Matters also noted that Griffin replaced H.E. “Bud” Cummins III as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty admitted in a February 6 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that performance played no role in Cummins' termination. Instead, McNulty stated, it was “more related to the opportunity to provide a fresh start with a new person in that position.”

While there is some foundation for the Daily Sentinel's claim that Bush believed “some of the eight fired were insufficiently agressive [sic] in prosecuting voter fraud,” evidence suggests that in at least two cases the administration acted out of a partisan interest in cases of alleged voter fraud purportedly favoring Democrats.

As Media Matters also noted, according to the March 13 Post article, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said that Bush and Rove complained to Gonzales in October 2006 about some prosecutors' lack of zeal on a specific topic -- voter fraud. As the Post reported, since the 2000 presidential election, Republicans repeatedly have alleged that “convicted felons and other ineligible voters have been permitted to cast ballots to the benefit of Democrats.” The Post also reported that Justice Department officials said Sampson, who resigned in the wake of the most recent disclosures, in October added New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias to a list of prosecutors who might be fired, “based in part on complaints from Sen. Pete V. Domenici and other New Mexico Republicans that he was not prosecuting enough voter-fraud cases.”

But as Media Matters has noted, Iglesias has claimed he was terminated after resisting pressure from two members of Congress to accelerate his investigation into a Democratic state senator before the 2006 elections. Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) have admitted calling Iglesias but have asserted that they did not “pressure” him. As noted by Talking Points Memo, however, a March 11 McClatchy Newspapers article reported that, according to Perino, Rove “specifically recalled passing along complaints about ... Iglesias and may have mentioned the grumblings about Iglesias to ... Gonzales.” More broadly, the McClatchy article reported, “Rove relayed ... concerns among Republican Party officials in various jurisdictions” -- in particular, New Mexico and Washington state -- “that the Justice Department was not being aggressive in pursuing allegations of election fraud by Democrats.”

Likewise, Republicans in Washington state heavily criticized another of the fired U.S. attorneys, John McKay, for ending his investigation into their allegations of voter fraud in the 2004 Washington gubernatorial election, which was won by Democrat Christine Gregoire. In a March 13 article, also noted by Talking Points Memo, The Seattle Times reported, “McKay insist[ed] that top prosecutors in his office and agents from the FBI conducted a 'very active' review of allegations of fraud during the election but filed no charges and did not convene a federal grand jury because 'we never found any evidence of criminal conduct.' ” The Times article also noted that, in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, McKay stated that he had received calls in late 2004 or early 2005 from Rep. Doc Hastings' (R-WA) chief of staff, Ed Cassidy, “about the status of ongoing investigations of voter fraud.”

Evidence also suggests that the U.S. attorney in San Diego, Carol Lam, was terminated because of her investigations into a corruption scandal surrounding convicted former Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (CA). According to a timeline compiled by Talking Points Memo, The Wall Street Journal reported (subscription required) on May 6, 2006, that Lam's office was investigating Kyle “Dusty” Foggo in connection with the Cunningham case. The Journal made the disclosure in an article about the resignation of then-CIA director Porter Goss, who had chosen Foggo to be the CIA's Executive Director. TPM Muckraker.com showed that on May 11 The Los Angeles Times reported that Lam's investigation had widened to include Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), then-chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. That same day, as Talking Points Memo noted, Sampson emailed Deputy White House Counsel William Kelley, writing, “The real problem we have right now with Carol Lam that leads me to conclude that we should have someone ready to be nominated on 11/18, the day her 4-year term expires.”

Finally, regarding the Daily Sentinel's contention that some of the fired attorneys “were believed to be poor managers of their offices,” The New York Times reported on February 25 that "[i]nternal Justice Department performance reports for six of the eight United States attorneys who have been dismissed in recent months rated them 'well regarded,' 'capable' or 'very competent,' a review of the evaluations shows." The Times further noted:

The performance reviews, known as Evaluations and Review Staff Reports, show that the ousted prosecutors were routinely praised for playing a leadership role with other law enforcement agencies in their jurisdictions.

[...]

Over all, the evaluations, which were obtained from officials authorized to have them, appear to raise new questions about the rationale for the dismissals provided by senior Justice Department officials. The officials have repeatedly cited poor job performance to explain their decisions to oust the eight prosecutors, all of them Republicans appointed by President Bush in his first term.

From the editorial “You're fired!” in the March 16 edition of The Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction:

Democrats, eager for a new White House scandal in the wake of the disappointing Lewis “Scooter” Libby brouhaha, think they have found it in the Justice Department's firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

Subpoena's are being issued. The firing of a top Bush administration official has been demanded. And there are accusations the firings were “political.”

No doubt they were. Just as President Clinton's firing of all 93 U.S. attorneys in 1993 was political, and the firing of attorneys by other presidents.

All U.S. attorneys work in the executive branch and serve at the pleasure of the president. In this case, President George W. Bush apparently believed some of the eight fired were insufficiently agressive in prosecuting voter fraud or in pushing for the death penalty. Others were believed to be poor managers of their offices.

Ideological differences and adminstrative incompetence are legitimate reasons for Bush to act like Donald Trump dealing with an unworthy apprentice.