More On The 'Fired' US Attorneys Kerfuffle

As more information has been revealed about the 'firing' of 8 US attorneys, I've come to realize that much of the brouhaha is much ado about nothing. As I mentioned in this post, US Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President. More than eight have been 'let go' in the past with little fanfare. During President Clinton's term, he canned all 93 US Attorneys at the same time, but little was said in the media or Congress.

Now it turns out that these 'fired' US Attorneys had reached the end of their appointment terms (4 years) and, as is usually the custom, they were retained until their replacements were appointed. (Much different than during Clinton's cleaning house, when the sitting US Attorneys were given ten days to clean out their offices and finish up their paperwork.)

One of the eight I mentioned in my earlier post, John McKay, was let go for a very good reason: he failed to fulfill his duties by investigating blatant episodes of voter fraud in Washington state. I guess some folks don't realize that voter fraud is a serious issue that must be addressed by the authorities, otherwise our representative democracy will be put into peril by ever decreasing confidence and increasing cynicism in our electoral system. It seems that McKay couldn't be bothered as he had more important things to do.

Another of the eight, Carol Lam, apparently had some real performance issues, with the number of cases she was prosecuting declining and the number of prosecutions she won declining even faster. Allegations were made in the L.A. Times that she had been targeted for firing in retribution for her involvement with the Randy “Duke” Cunningham case. But as Patterico has proven, she had been listed for termination well before any of that had taken place due to her poor performance.

I can't speak to the other six members of the “Group of Eight”, but if they had reached the end of their appointment terms and the President decided they weren't going to be reappointed, then that's entirely up to him/her. It isn't up to Congress. It isn't up to the L.A. Times or New York Times. It's up to the President of the United States, period.

This is nothing new in our history. If Congress wants to get all bent out of shape about these eight, then perhaps they should also look back into Clinton's simultaneous firing of all 93 US Attorneys during his administration.

But we know they won't.