Tim Griffin Resigns
President Bush appointed Griffin, 34, as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas after the Administration had language inserted in the Patriot Act Reauthorization Bill that eliminated Senatorial confirmation of replacement US Attorneys. Griffin had served as Karl Rove's "director of opposition research," and news reports suggest Rove and then White House Counsel Harriet Miers wanted Griffin in Arkansas.
In other news at the beleaguered Department of Justice, the Washington Post reports that the investigation into US Attorneys firings has expanded to include "hiring practices at the sprawling department, including the troubled Civil Rights Division and programs for beginning lawyers."
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has insisted that he is "fully committed to ensuring that with respect to every position we have a Senate-confirmed, presidentially appointed U.S. attorney."
However, as I pointed out last week, Griffin was appointed five months ago. Under "normal" rules of appointment, his term would have expired mid-April. Griffin publicly said he would resign rather than go through Senate confirmation.
The Arkansas Times had called for Griffin to resign.
See How Congress Changed The Rules on US Attorney Appointments.
Comments
I’m amazed that this article, like many others fails to point out that one of the reasons why Griffin is resigning is because Monica Goodling testified under oath that Griffin was repsonsible for election fraud, e.g. “caging”. A practice where the Republican party intimidated voters and unlawfully contested Democratic voters.
Hi, Tim — thanks for that point. I’ll admit that I dashed this off pretty quickly — and that I’m overdue writing an analyis of Goodling’s testimony. If you know others who have done a good job analyzing her testimony — add in a comment or pls send me an email (uspolitics.guide@about.com)
Thx!
I can’t believe that people aren’t asking the obvious question. If these caging lists were illeagly compiled by the president, why isn’t Bush, Rove, and Griffen in prison? Isn’t it illegal to deny people the right to vote based on race. America stand up!
Next US AG Pat Meehan SE PA needs to
go along with Rove and Gozales.
Meehan is tied into the Gangster
via US Sen Specter his ally. This
AG was in charge of Dept. of Justice
and FBI to investigate RICO. This
thug should be in jail right next to
Gotti!!
In addition to Tim H’s point, you also should update your post with the point that Griffen was also involved in caging in the 2004 election in Florida. AND, his job in the “private” sector could turn out to be a position on Sen. Fred Thompson’s campaign. He’s admitted that he’s been in “talks” with the Senator’s people.
Greg Palast has 500 of the “missing” RNC emails, many of which have “re:caging” as subject lines. They were sent to RNC.com, not RNC.org. RNC.com is a site owned by a friend of Palast. Those emails shed light on Griffin and the caging lists.
You can get much more info at http://gregpalast.com/index.php.
Rep. John Conyers met with Palast a day or so ago and took possession of copies of those emails. It is interesting [not surprising] that there is very little about this in the mainstream press. Airamerica is the only place I have heard any coverage at all.
Thanks everyone — I’ve mentioned this in today’s post on Fred Thompson.
As the following article states, Tim Griffin resigned after Congressman John Conyers requested the caging lists obtained by BBC reporter Greg Palast. This story has been top of the news worldwide, but not picked up by the mainstream US media. This isn’t too surprising considering they were complicent with the Bush Administration in the run up to the Iraq war.
http://www.gregpalast.com/rove-pick-for-us-attorney-resigns-following-conyers%e2%80%99-request-for-bbc-documents/
To view the 3-part Democracy Now interviews with Greg Palast on this subject, you can find all three of them here:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4551
Good point SC. It is sad to constantly see these issues reported and the MSM NEVER reports the underlining story about vote caging, phony voter fraud cases and the planning to steal the 2008 election. That is what is behind the attorney scandal.