Talking points smackdown

RIGHT-WING TALKING POINT: “Clinton replaced all 93 U.S. attorneys in 1993.” Some pundits and “news analysts” went on to say that Clinton did keep one – now Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Fox News' Chris Wallace, in a telephone interview with Don Imus yesterday, took it a little further, "This had never happened before."

FACT: What Clinton did was SOP – standard operating procedure. What they don’t say is presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush did the same thing. All three asked all U.S. Attorneys to resign at the start of their respective administrations. Clinton did not specifically fire any U.S. attorney for political reasons, as email exchanges between now Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ office and the White House proposed to do.

FACT: The author of the AG emails, Gonzales’ Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson, resigned Tuesday.

FACT: Republican Senator John Sununu of New Hampshire has called for Attorney General Gonzales’ resignation, And, Republican Senator John Ensign of Nevada wants the reinstatement of fired Nevada U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden.

Ensign further said the attorney general’s office needs “to restore my U.S. attorney’s reputation, because it has been damaged, and it was wrongfully damaged. ,,, I’m waiting for the attorney general to correct this final mistake, what I believe to be the final mistake, and that is to make this guy’s reputation whole.” (Ensign interview: “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” MSNBC, 14 March 2007)

THE BROUHAHA: The content of the released email exchanges and the involvement of former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and Karl Rove, adviser to the president. Plus, email comments about using a little-known Patriot Act provision which would allow the president to sidestep Senate confirmation of “temporary” U.S. attorney appointments. The Washington Post report on content of emails, 13 March 2007: LINK

BACKGROUND ARTICLE: Associated Press, 13 March 2007: LINK

UPDATE: “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer,” CNN, 14 March 2007, devoted most of the 5 p.m. ET broadcast to this developing controversy. Transcript: LINK BREAKING NEWS: The Senate Judiciary Committee today authorized the use of subpoenas to elicit testimony from five current and former Justice Department officials in the probe into the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys. Subpoenas were authorized for six of the attorneys as well. LINK