Rove tried to shut out Hopi woman as US Attorney

Another House committee dump...

REDACTED

From: Karl Rove
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 7:28AM
To: Scott Jennings
Subject: Re: Assorted personnel items

Replace Blanquita.

I am happy to call Bell about Bibb.

On 2/16/07 10:22 AM, "Scott Jennings" wrote:

I need to bring a few personnel Items to your attention :

Page 1 of 2

1. AZ US ATTY. The Counsel's office Is asking you to call Senator McCain to get more names for the vacant US ATTY slot In AZ. Mccain submitted one name only: Diane Humetewa. I have attached her resume.and a list of problems causing DOJ and Counsel to balk at nominating her.

Humetewa is a former McCain staffer, and so far his office has been unwilling to submit any other names. They are asking you to . personally engage to move this process along; Humetewa is simply, unacceptable.

Sen. Kyl joined McCain in making this recommendation; DOJ doesn't think Kyl will give more names at this point as he is following McCain's lead.

Senior Bush administration officials balked at nominating Diane Humetewa as U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona two years ago, even though she had the support of both home state senators, according to emails released by the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday.

Scott Jennings, then the special assistant to President Bush, was unsparing in a Feb. 16, 2007 e-mail to Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, calling Humetewa “simply unacceptable.”

The e-mail, which was also sent to Rove’s executive assistant Taylor Hughes, said, “DOJ believes (and we concur) that Humetewa is not a viable candidate to be the U.S. Attorney for the following reasons.” (Oooh! What? Damn. The next page of the email giving the explanation is blacked out, we presume because it was a gratuitous trashing of Humetewa.)

Rove’s response?

“Replace Blanquita.” (Apparently intended as a racial epithet for the Hispanic-looking Humetewa.)

But Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), for whom Humetewa once worked on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, and who had been unable to mask his contempt for Bush after losing to him in the 2000 Republican presidential primary, refused to submit other names for the post, according to the e-mail. Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl (R) joined his home state colleague in his recommendation.

Jennings wrote in an email that the White House counsel’s office and the Justice Department were asking Rove to “personally engage to move this process along.” Rove failed, apparently.

Humetewa, the first female Native American U.S. Attorney, was sworn in Dec. 17, 2007. She replaced Paul Charlton, who was among the U.S. attorneys fired by the Bush administration in 2006. Daniel Knauss served as interim U.S. Attorney for one year between Charlton and Humetewa.

Read on.