From Talking Points Memo:
More bombshells: Rep. Doc Hastings’ (R-WA) then chief of staff called Seattle U.S. Attorney John McKay to inquire about whether the feds were investigating allegations of voter fraud in the 2004 Washington governor’s race, McKay testified. McKay said he stopped the chief of staff before he went too far with his questions, but was troubled enough by the call to discuss it with his top assistant.
Ongoing coverage on the hearings from TPM Muckraker.
UPDATE:
TPM Muckraker has streaming video of McKay’s testimony, describing how he was “pressed” by Hastings’ chief of staff Ed Cassidy on investigating WA’s 2004 gubernatorial election. As Jimmy (from McCranium) points out in my comment thread:
Ed Cassidy was the same guy Hastings tried to install as the Ethics Chief legal council which of course led to the complete shutdown of the committee itself because it violated committee rules. Looks like Doc doesn’t like to follow the rules and neither does his chief of staff.
BREAKING NEWS – BUSH REGIME’S TRAITOR GUILTY AS CHARGED!
Scooter is gonna SCOOT his way to prison.
Man can the Bush regime manage to rack up any more SUCK than it already has?
Oh the SHAME!
All the world knows the Publicans are cowards and traitors.
There is no ethical scandal here, just politics. This simply reflects a change in the balance of power among state Republicans. The McKay family (Mike and John) is close allies with Jennifer Dunn, who is a moderate Republican. This enabled John McKay to get the U.S. Attorney job in the first place. Now Dunn is out of office and Slade Gorton (another close McKay ally) is over six years out of office. And Gorton’s close ally Mike McGavick got his tail kicked for the U.S. Senate. Doc Hastings is now the most senior and most powerful Republican politician in the state of Washington. And Hastings is a conservative. It is not surprising that John McKay got the boot. This all has to do with political realities — after all, the U.S. Attorney is a political appointee who serves at the pleasure of the President. It has nothing to do with any sort of ethical scandal. As I said before, John Kerry would have fired John McKay, so there is no scandal with George W. Bush deciding to do so instead.
It’s NOT “just politics”, Poop!
It’s a barefaced, baldfaced attempt to derail investigations against political allies.
McKay’s case may be slightly different…but the reverberations of the US Attorney scandal will rock this administration lto the core.
Jennifer Dunn moderate? Murray 8th most liberal Senator? Do words mean anything anymore?
As I said before, John McKay’s older brother Mike McKay was a political supporter of Democrat Christine Gregoire when she was Attorney General. Mike McKay gave money to Gregoire’s 2000 re-election campaign (while he was serving as co-chair of Bush’s campaign in Washington to boot). Mike McKay has endorsed a number of liberal judicial candidates in state elections. In May 2000, two days after McKay gave money to Gregoire’s re-election campaign, Gregoire gave McKay’s law firm a $50,000 contract to investigate why Gregoire’s office had missed the appeal deadline in a $17 million DSHS judgment verdict against the state. McKay’s firm came up with a report that whitewashed Gregoire. The state later paid over $300,000 in a lawsuit settlement to an attorney wrong blamed by Gregoire and forced to resign as a result of the McKay whitewash report. Mike McKay even donated money in 2004 to Democrat state Attorney General candidate Mike Sidran. I could go on and on … and have done so before.
I don’t know much about why the other six U.S. Attorneys were fired. But the John McKay firing is simply the result of the balance of power changing in Washington state GOP politics. Doc Hastings is now the senior Republican in this state, and you can expect him to recommend people to President Bush (and the next President, should the GOP win in 2008) for U.S. Attorney, federal judges, and other local area federal political appointments.
Mr. Pope
Somehow, you keep missing the main point.
If Mr. McKay had been the only one fired, very few folks would have noticed. A few posters here, perhaps, but it would have been a short discussion.
Several U.S. Attorneys that had followed the law, rather than party politics were fired all at once. Here, the U.S. Attorney that realized that there was no fraud in the Governor’s election is gone. The U.S. Attorney that prosecuted Duke Cunningham is gone. The U.S Attorney for Alaska that was looking into Senator Stevens’ son is gone. There are others, but you get the point.
This only happened after those two little paragraphs were entered into that 277 page bill, apparently without the knowledge of most of the Congress.
Were this a lone case, where the President’s new appointment would have to go throught the “advise and consent” process, we would have little to complain about.
As it is, this looks suspiciously like the Bush administration ridding itself of people that put loyalty to the law and the country ahead of loyalty to the Republican party.
Time to put Patrick Fitzgerald on the case!
Problem with John McKay was that he was too closely tied with party politics — OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY! After all, his brother Mike McKay was a financial donor and supporter of Democrat Christine Gregoire for re-election as state Attorney General in 2000, Democrat Ron Sims for re-election as King County Executive in 2001, Democrat Greg Nickels for election as Seattle Mayor in 2001, and Democrat Mark Sidran for election as state Attorney General in 2004.
Too bad it took George Bush six years to face up to this reality. But McKay family allies Slade Gorton and Jennifer Dunn no longer have so much influence in Washington state GOP politics, or in the national scene, while Doc Hastings has finally achieved senior GOP politician status in this state and in national politics.
Maybe there is something suspicious about some of the other six U.S. Attorneys being fired. But the John McKay firing was a legitimate political decision, one which was long overdue, and something which remedied an appointment that wasn’t politically wise in the first place.
Ed Cassidy was the same guy Hastings tried to install as the Ethics Chief legal council which of course led to the complete shutdown of the committee itself because it violated committee rules. Looks like Doc doesn’t like to follow the rules and neither does his chief of staff.
Pope @ 8
You really don’t get it. John McKay was doing his job. While being named US Attorney involves political considerations, performing the duties of that job should not. The perception that a prosecutor is a political hack reduces respect for the rule of law. I suppose that does not bother you. It should bother you as an officer of the court. One of the many problems with contemporary Republicans is that everything in the public sphere reduces itself to partisan considerations, even law enforcement. That is simply wrong. The federal judges in the Western District of Washington, who by and large are a laudable group, have issued a statement of support for John McKay. That says something. By the way, Doc Hastings is a complete idiot. If he is now the senior Republican in this state in terms of power, then your party is truly pitiful.
There goes Richard Poop again smoking his narcissistic crack pipe. Wake up Richard or just stay home and shut your mouth because you’re an idiot.
These U.S. Attorney’s were improperly fired because Alberto decided to be an arrogant Texan and throw more of his buddies into the courts. So, you think this is okay?
Keep smoking Richard maybe you’ll lose all of your brain cells and we won’t have to listen to any more of your garbage.
@2 Richard Pope would have us believe the Bush regime firing John McKay for refusing to conduct a witch hunt against non-existence “Democrat vote fraud” is ethically on the same plane as President Kerry replacing McKay with a Democrat.
No wonder you can’t get elected to anything, Richard.
@5 So, if a GOP pol’s BROTHER donates to the opposition, they get even by trashing the pol’s career? Nice. I’m sure this policy makes every aspiring GOP pol in the country feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It seems the key to career success as a Republican is to be an only child.
@5 Makes the GOPers look like the Nazis who retaliated for guerrilla attacks by randomly picking a village and slaughtering its inhabitants, doesn’t it?
It appears Richard thinks being a shameless political hack might be a good career move. Since he can’t get elected to anything, he’s now hoping for an appointment.
Well, hey, I’m a shameless party hack; and if you suddenly see Gregoire appointing a rabbit to a superior court vacancy, there might be hope for Richard too — if Rossi makes a comeback.
Roger Rabbit @ 15
At least current federal law doesn’t require Senate confirmation :)
Roger Rabbit @ 16
Nor do the Governor’s judicial appointments require Senate confirmation. But I thought you were already a retired judge of some sort.
If a prosecutor’s primary mission is to serve the partisan interests of the party in power, maybe in this state only Republicans should be prosecuted for state crimes. That sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?
Poop @8:
It’s the DemocratIC Party, asshole!
Rujax:
It’s a small thing. The Republicans have enough “IC” to go around.
Mr. Pope:
From your comment to Roger, it appears that you actually do understand the situation, you’re just trying to obfuscate.
Would Mr. Bush have fired competent, conservative attorneys if he knew that the replacements would have to face Senate confirmation? Doubtful, in my opinion, but we will never know.
It is also possible that the timing involved was done to prevent a Republican backlash against the President. Even Republican Senators have said that they didn’t know about the change. Even Republican Senators tended to be rather zealous when protecting Senatorial prerogatives. Now that the new Congress is in place, the President and his advisers can advance the claim that this is all just partisan posturing from the new Congress.
His loyal followers can continue to compare this turnover with the normal turnover in these positions whenever a new President is elected.
The next few months are going to be very interesting. What will the President do when presented with a bill that returns Senate confirmation to this process?
22…Can you say, “veto”? I KNEW you could!
If Rep. Hastings even knew of an effor t by one of his staffers to pressure a U.S. Attorney, then Rep. Hastings is (a) off of the House Government Oversight Committee, permanently, and (b) the subject of an intense ethical inquiry himself. If he ordered his staffer to make that call, then the House can expel him. Either way, the most senior Republican Member of Washington State’s Congressional delegation just lost a lot of his power.
I wonder for how long the local GOP’s obsession with the 2004 Governor’s election will continue to pay dividends — for the Democrats?
John Barelli @ 21
“Would Mr. Bush have fired competent, conservative attorneys if he knew that the replacements would have to face Senate confirmation? Doubtful, in my opinion, but we will never know.”
John McKay is NOT a conservative.
And apparently John McKay is a Democrat — at least according to Tom McCabe, President of BIAW.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....604079.pdf
I was never actually aware of John McKay’s partisan affiliation, but it would not surprise me for Jennifer Dunn and Mike McKay to snooker President Bush into appointing a Democrat. Or for President Bush to be naive enough to do so.
Did you read the letter that BIAW sent Hastings to urge McKay’s firing (posted by the Seattle Times). What a poorly written piece of shit.
“And apparently John McKay is a Democrat — at least according to Tom McCabe, President of BIAW.”
Yeah, there’s an objective source.
Say Richard, by your reasoning then, a moderate Republican is not a conservative?
Becoming more clear it was sour grapes pressure by republicans/partisans over the recount contest. “Politics” here means retribution for exercising independent prosecutorial discretion. That sort of “politics” is improper and unethical.
“In an interview, McKay said his handling of the 2004 Washington governor’s race came back to haunt him when he was interviewed about a federal judgeship by then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers and others in her office.
McKay said he was asked in the late summer or early fall of 2006 to explain the criticism of how he’d “mishandled” the governor’s race investigation. McKay didn’t reveal who asked the question, but he said it wasn’t Miers.
McKay didn’t get the nomination”
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002696.php
President Bush is entitled to nominate Republicans for federal judgeships, just like he is entitled to appoint Republicans for U.S. Attorney positions. If Bush suddenly realized or believed that John McKay was not a Republican, then he had the right to power to fire him as U.S. Attorney and not act upon his request to be nominated as a federal judge. And it is probably even more important for Bush to verify McKay’s politics for a federal judgeship, since federal judges serve for life once they are confirmed and actually appointed, while U.S. Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President.
The political pressure affected both McKay’s removal and his application for a judgeship. Bush has the power. Bush and the DOJ abuse that power and attack the independence of the US attorney if they remove him because of political pressure over his prosecutorial discretion. The US atty must be thought independent and not beholden to political masters, such as the BIA or some local congressmen. The DOJ has an obligation to preserve the independence of it’s US attys. Plus there is no claim here that he was removed because he wasn’t a good enough republican whatever that means. The DOJ is fabricating some performance issue as the reason for the removal.
This combined with the secret elimination of Senate approval for the successors, indicate that the Bush administration wanted to escape oversight and review of its unethical actions. It was another power grab.
BTW it appears that McKay was a republican and the BIA letter was false.
“State Republicans made quite a ruckus about the lack of an investigation — one Republican, Tom McCabe of the Building Industry Association of Washington, even wrote to Hastings demanding that Hastings “please ask the White House to replace Mr. McKay.” Cc’ed on the letter (pdf) (which calls McKay a Democrat, even though he is a Republican), were John Fund of The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, Greg Van Tatenhove, a former U.S. attorney who was successfully nominated to the federal bench, and Bob Williams of the conservative Evergreen Freedom Foundation, who went so far as to file a formal complaint with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in 2005 about McKay’s handling of the voter fraud allegations.
McCabe also claims to have “urged the President to fire McKay.” How, where, and when he did that is not clear.”
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002699.php
Well hahaha. Someone actually wanted someone else to look into an obviously fraudulent and mishandled election. Queen Crissy stole it fair and sqaure and got away with it. Check out the new findings from the good ole’ incompetent KC elections office. The numbers are staggering. Paybacks are a bitch I must say, and someday Queen Christine and Co. will get whats coming to them. At least Dean “Incompetence” Logan had good enough sense to run away to California before this all came down. The Queen is far to arrogant and naive to do the same.