The fringe is in full effect on this Chinese fringe flower. How totally 80’s.

As part of the scandal over the politics behind the dismissal of several U.S. Attorneys, pages of e-mails have been released from the Justice Department. They reveal a plan to fire prosecutors who weren’t displaying appropriate loyalty to the Republican party. Based on the testimony of the axed attorneys, some refused to bring indictments against Democratic officials, despite pressure from Republican lawmakers who felt they could use the justice system as part of their election strategy.

All of the e-mails seem pretty damning. The part that struck a nerve with me was an e-mail from Alberto Gonzales’ chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, regarding replacing one attorney with a friend of Karl Rove. From the Post:

When Arkansas senators balked at installing Karl Rove protégé Tim Griffin in the U.S. attorney’s job there, Sampson recommended that the department “gum this to death.” If the senators ultimately balk, he said, “then we can tell them we’ll look for other candidates . . . and otherwise run out the clock. All of this should be done in ‘good faith’ of course.” Of course.

The emphasis is mine.

The fact that the chief of staff for the U.S. Attorney General would ironically indicate, in writing, that he in fact has no intention of acting in good faith when it comes to appointing someone to serve the people of Arkansas is quite disturbing. Fortunately, Sampson stepped down on Tuesday.

So will Gonzales follow? You can place your bets at Intrade. Click “Current Events” on the left, then “White House.”

From the summary of House Resolution 1255

Under the Presidential Records Act, presidential records are supposed to be released to historians and the public 12 years after the end of a presidential administration. In November 2001, President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13233 which overturned an executive order issued by President Reagan and gave current and former presidents and vice presidents broad authority to withhold presidential records or delay their release indefinitely. The Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007 would nullify the Bush executive order and establish procedures to ensure the timely release of presidential records.

The House voted 333 to 93 yesterday to overturn President Bush’s executive order that would have allowed former presidents (and even their estates, after their death) to withhold their presidential records from the public indefinitely. Bush’s order also created executive priviledge claims for vice presidential records. In essence, this would give former presidents and vice presidents the ability to decide what the people may know, or not know, about what their government has done. Hopefully the Senate will join with the House to overturn this odd executive order.

Since transparency of government is vital in a democracy, and since releasing his records in 2021 certainly would not harm the President’s oft-cited need to get frank advice from people who might not want that advice made public, it makes me wonder just why he felt the need to issue this order in the first place.

The records from his father’s administration should have been released in 2005. Is he trying to protect his fater, or someone from his father’s administration from information about Iran-Contra?

Or is it a little more direct? The fact that he created an unprecedented executive privilege for vice presidents makes me wonder if this doesn’t have something to do with Vice President Cheney working “sort of the dark side.“

A Method by TV on the Radio

It’s a very exciting time for us gardeners. Plants are beginning to awake from their winter slumber.

This is the Forest Pansy outside our bedroom window. Its bare branches sprouted flowers over the weekend, which the carpenter bees love. The flowers will soon be replaced by burgundy heart-shaped leaves which will turn green in the summer.