Jeremy Fugleberg

Presidents have the right to fire their U.S. attorneys. Nobody’s contesting that.

Clinton fired all of his attorneys too, it’s true. But while that may seem like a simple change of the guard, think back a bit.

Turns out Clinton also wanted to can a few of his attorneys for not marching to the party tune. It was just easier to make it look like a full-bore changeover than a partisan assassination.

Now the good folks in Bush Administration did the same thing – except they were dumb enough to think nobody would be bothered by noise of the firing squad. Oops.

And if you notice, it’s not just the Dems or “their” media upset at this whole situation. You’ve got top-of-the-party Republicans scared silly they’ll go to bat for a Bush White House snow-job only to get dragged into a scandal they would rather avoid.

The bigger problem here is heavy-handed moves by the executive – Republican or Democrat. I suppose you could say Clinton was just better at being bad.

And don’t give me this nonsense about underperformance. Doing your job without regard for political ramifications is acting with integrity, not underperforming.

The bottom line: Just because a president has the right to fire a US attorney doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.

Bush and Gonzalez did wrong. They should hold themselves accountable.

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