Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Six US Attorneys pull 'double duty' in DC; Some serve as Gonzales aides


Even Alf knows that this is despicable...
Six US Attorneys pull "double duty" in Washington, DC, with some serving as aides to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, which "take them away from regular duties in their districts for months or even years at a time, according to officials and department records," an article in Tuesday's Washington Post reports.


"Acting Associate Attorney General William W. Mercer, for example, has been effectively absent from his job as U.S. attorney in Montana for nearly two years -- prompting the chief federal judge in Billings to demand his removal and call Mercer's office 'a mess,'" Dan Eggen writes. "Another U.S. attorney, Michael J. Sullivan of Boston, has been in Washington for the past six months as acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He is awaiting confirmation to head the agency permanently while still juggling his responsibilities in Massachusetts."

Along with Mercer and Sullivan, the paper also singles out Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, who headed up the CIA leak probe; Mary Beth Buchanan from the Western District of Pennsylvania, who also serves as the acting director of the Office of Violence Against Women; Connecticut's Kevin J. O'Connor, who has served as associate deputy attorney general since December 2006; and Chuck Rosenberg from the Eastern District of Virginia, freshly promoted to Gonzales' Chief of staff.

More on the story.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I used to watch Alf all the time when I was young along with Harry and the Henderson's and the Dinosaurs. Now there are no good prime time appropriate shows for kids like when we were young.

Anyhow, the Politicians in the Northern District of Illinois didn't mind their US Attorney was busy on Libby, and I think they are hoping for another special assignment (long term). We had Patrick Collins indicting away, and he is more of a loss to the Northern District of Illinois than our US Attoryney was when he was on the Libby trail.

SP Biloxi said...

"Now there are no good prime time appropriate shows for kids like when we were young."

That's true. It is ashame that show such as School House rock has not return to T.V. That was an educated show for kids.

"Anyhow, the Politicians in the Northern District of Illinois didn't mind their US Attorney was busy on Libby, and I think they are hoping for another special assignment (long term)."

This is a typical game of office politics. Send someone on a "special assignment" for a while and force that person to either quit or get fired. If the boss finds the person sneezed the wrong way, the boss got the person. Collins quit from all that stress that he was given in work. Yes, it is a shame that Collins left. And let's not forget Sean Berkowitz and John Housten. Great loss to the DOJ. So many good DOJ employees are leaving. The entire DOJ needs a major cleanup.

airJackie said...

Nice they noticed the hard work done by the Little Angel and others. As we now know there was no Attorney General in the position. Karl Rove and Meirs were doing the job at the time. Gonzo only had to sign his name. These guys were busy doing other crimes as no one was watch the store. Pat was good and showed he can write and chew gun at the same time and win. Maybe if Bush had appointed a real Attorney General things would have been different.