Making Light:  Bush patently in denial over Gonzales ::: March 21, 2007, 02:48 PM

Sorry Lori (#68), Civil Service protections don't apply to political
appointments, which the 93 U. S. Attorneys are.  They are routinely
fired and replaced at the beginning of an administration, at least
when parties change hands.

However, they haven't been fired in the middle of a term before except
for gross misconduct.  That might lead to a conflict of interest
between keeping their job and protecting the Constitution.  The other
thing that's new is that until the P. A. T. R. I. O. T. Act, they
had to be confirmed by Congress.  The P. A. T. R. I. O. T. act gave
Gonzales the power to appoint new U. S. Attorneys for 120 days, on the
theory that tewwists might assassinate a U. S.  Attorney at a time
when there just wasn't time for Congressional approval.  Then there
was the recent change that made Attorney General appointments
permanent, which some Congresscritters claim they didn't notice before
voting on it.  Gonzales still has right to appoint U. S. Attorneys
"permanently" for about another week, but that train is heading back
into the station retroactively.  There was an interesting memo I heard
about on the radio this morning asking "What good is this power if we
don't use it."  Apparently not everyone in the administration believes
in this tewwist nonsense.