U.S. Attorney Firings Figures Now Running For Office

TPM:


Three figures from the Bush Justice Department scandal of 2006 are back in the limelight, running for office under the GOP banner in 2010.

Perhaps the most prominent is Tim Griffin, the former RNC operative who worked as a top White House aide to Karl Rove. In numerous emails to colleagues, Rove made clear his desire to see Griffin land a powerful government post. And in December 2006, Bud Cummins was fired as U.S. attorney in Arkansas, in order to create a vacancy for Griffin. Griffin was appointed U.S. attorney via an interim appointment, but the Democratic Senate refused to confirm him, and in June 2007 he resigned.

Now, Griffin is challenging Rep. Vic Snyder (D-AR) for his House seat this fall.

You might also remember Mary Beth Buchanan from the firings saga. She was appointed U.S. attorney for western Pennsylvania by President Bush in 2001. As the head of the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys, Buchanan she was one of the officials consulted in 2005 by Kyle Sampson, top aide to Alberto Gonzales, when Sampson was drawing up a list of U.S. attorneys to fire, according to Sampson's testimony to Congressional investigators. Buchanan has also been accused of pushing politically motivated prosecutions against local Democrats, most notoriously in the case of Cyril Wecht, a local coroner and Democratic fundraiser, who Buchanan prosecuted for misusing his office for political gain. The jury foreman in Wecht's trial publicly called the case "politically driven," and the charges were dropped last year. Wecht's lawyer told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "I think her tenure has stripped that office of its reputation."

But Buchanan clearly feels her own reputation is doing OK. She is seen as "increasingly likely" to challenge Rep. Jason Altmire (D-PA) for his House seat this fall.

And then there's Allen Weh. He was New Mexico GOP chair who led the tireless effort to get David Iglesias fired as U.S. attorney for that state, because Iglesias refused to bring bogus and politically motivated voter fraud cases that might have advantaged local Republicans. At a White House holiday party in December 2006, Weh asked Rove, referring to Igleisas: "Is anything ever going to happen to that guy?" According to Weh, Rove responded: "He's gone."

Weh's involvement in the scheme doesn't seem to have held him back though. These days, he's running for governor.