Donni Anderson

In the summer of 2006, a U.S. attorney was fired without warning. In December of that year, seven more were let go. Recently, there has been much commotion in Washington as to the motives behind the firings.

We know that incompetence was not an issue, as the White House has not rewarded them Presidential Medals of Freedom. A recently leaked e-mail showed Gonzales’ chief of staff recommending the elimination of 15 to 20 percent of the U.S. attorney corps deemed not to be “loyal Bushies.”

Furthermore, some of the loyal Republicans just happened to be let go because they did not cave to administration or party pressure to prosecute Democrats.

One of the axed attorneys, David Iglesias, was a former Navy lawyer and the basis for Tom Cruise’s character in “A Few Good Men.” He testified that he failed to cave to political pressure to indict Democrats in a local corruption case before the November election because he didn’t yet have a case. Apparently, Karl Rove could not handle that truth. Iglesias was fired the next month.

To be sure, the justice department is not immune to blatant partisanship. Attorneys do serve “at the pleasure of the president,” and Clinton let go of Republicans in the Department of Justice upon taking office. But this goes much further.

The current administration has tried to sculpt a justice department loyal not to the Constitution or U.S. law, not even loyal to the ideals of liberalism or conservativism, but loyal only to advancing a narrow agenda of personal advancement and interpreting the standards of justice for temporary convenience.

#1.883409:1154436987.jpg:anderson, donni.jpg:Donni Anderson, From the Left: