This is a very interesting development that I am sure Bush is working on blocking:
The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to end the Bush administration’s ability to unilaterally fill U.S. attorney vacancies as a backlash to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ firing of eight federal prosecutors.
Gonzales got a morale boost with a phone call from President George W. Bush, their first conversation since a week ago, when the president said he was unhappy with how the Justice Department handled the firings.
Also, the Senate by a 94-2 vote passed a bill that would cancel the attorney general’s power to appoint U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation. Democrats say the Bush administration abused that authority when it fired the eight prosecutors and proposed replacing some with White House loyalists. The administration denied the charge.
(emphasis mine)
Of course Tom Delay is trying to spin this into some sort of “manufactured” scandal:
Former House Republican Leader Tom DeLay had said earlier Tuesday that the scandal “is just a taste of what’s going to be like for the next two years.”
“And the Bush administration sort of showed their weakness when they got rid of Don Rumsfeld,” the Texan said on NBC television’s “Today” show. “… This is a made up scandal. There is no evidence of wrongdoing whatsoever. … They ought to be fighting back.”
Right Tom. Because Congress’ time and taxpayers money is better off spent investigating serious items such as blow jobs and Christmas card lists. Interesting that a man under indictment is the person the media wants to turn to for political opinion on this issue. Why don’t they just ask Duke Cunningham about Carol Lam or Scooter Libby about Patrick Fitzgerald?