Fiasco at Justice

AS a firestorm raged over the Justice Department’s sacking of eight U.S. attorneys, attorney general Alberto Gonzales acknowledged, “We could have rolled out the decisions more smoothly.” No kidding. The department’s inept handling of the “mass firing” of a handful of the country’s 93 U.S. attorneys has armed partisan critics, prompted demands for Gonzales’s resignation, forced a costly reversal on the executive branch’s authority, and jeopardized a GOP Senate seat. Damage to the reputations of the fired prosecutors has been unfair. Damage to the reputations of the senior Justice Department officials responsible for this fiasco, on the other hand, is eminently fair.

On December 7 of last year (an unfortunate coincidence that has led Gonzales’s critics to claim the day will “live in infamy”), the Justice Department asked seven U.S. attorneys, including those in San Diego, Seattle, Albuquerque, and Las Vegas, to resign. (An eighth U.S. attorney had been asked to resign earlier in the year.) They had been confirmed to four-year terms as presidential appointees, and could be dismissed for good reason or no reason, but not for a bad reason, such as a desire on the administration’s part to exert political influence on prosecutorial decisions. No reason was given, and the prosecutors unhappily complied.

AS a firestorm raged over the Justice Department’s sacking of eight U.S. attorneys, attorney general Alberto Gonzales acknowledged, “We could have rolled out the decisions more smoothly.” No kidding. The department’s inept handling of the “mass firing” of a handful of the country’s 93 U.S. attorneys has armed partisan critics, prompted demands for Gonzales’s resignation, forced a costly reversal on the executive branch’s authority, and jeopardized a GOP Senate seat. Damage to the reputations of the fired prosecutors has been unfair. Damage to the reputations of the senior Justice Department officials responsible for this fiasco, on the other hand, is eminently fair.

On December 7 of last year (an unfortunate coincidence that has led Gonzales’s critics to claim the day will “live in infamy”), the Justice Department asked seven U.S. attorneys, including those in San Diego, Seattle, Albuquerque, and Las Vegas, to resign. (An eighth U.S. attorney had been asked to resign earlier in the year.) They had been confirmed to four-year terms as presidential appointees, and could be dismissed for good reason or no reason, but not for a bad reason, such as a desire on the administration’s part to exert political influence on prosecutorial decisions. No reason was given, and the prosecutors unhappily complied.