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Cannon: Hindsight is 20/20
Here's Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) doing his best to dredge up a good reason for U.S. Attorney for New Mexico David Iglesias' firing, even if it's after the fact.
Iglesias received two calls just weeks before Election Day from two members of Congress asking him about his office's corruption investigation of a state Democrat. Iglesias has described them as pressure calls, but Iglesias did not report the calls to his superiors, as required by Justice Department policy.
Cannon quotes a Justice Department official David Margolis as saying that "giving everything I know today, he would have been number one on my list" -- meaning that Margolis thinks Iglesias' failure to report the calls is a firing offense in Margolis' eyes. But of course no one in the Justice Department knew about this when Iglesias was fired. Nevertheless, Cannon concluded, "So we did have problems with some of these guys, they weren't exactly paradigms (sic) of competence, were they?" [Note: I think Cannon means "paragons," not "paradigms."]
Comments (25)
conniptionfit wrote on May 10, 2007 1:55 PM:WHEN can we get rid of this guy??? Gonzales is destroying our justie system, which rests on integrity and transparency.
Punchy wrote on May 10, 2007 2:02 PM:My failure to report your rape of me is itself just like a rape. So, therefore, no rape really happened, and everyone should just stop bitching.
Wow.
Anonymous wrote on May 10, 2007 2:07 PM:why I left Utah!
buckethead wrote on May 10, 2007 2:10 PM:No, he means paradigms. On the planet he hails from, that is the cromulent usage.
Bearpaw wrote on May 10, 2007 2:12 PM:Hmmm. What about the Minority Report? Will the Committee call John Anderton to testify?
PMS wrote on May 10, 2007 2:16 PM:"No, he means paradigms. On the planet he hails from, that is the cromulent usage."
He's a Mormon. It's not the planet he COMES FROM that matters as much as the planet that HE GETS TO RULE OVER AS A GOD in his afterlife.
John wrote on May 10, 2007 2:18 PM:"paradigms (sic) of competence"
I think he was correct except it was:
"pair of dimes of competence". About 20 cents seems right for the amount of competence in the DoJ these days.
global yokel wrote on May 10, 2007 2:19 PM:Well, if Cannon believes that Iglesias is guilty of failing to report the pressure phone calls, perhaps Mr. Cannon would like to see all employees of the Department of Justice report every ethical and legal transgression that they know about?
Let the games begin....
ebmck wrote on May 10, 2007 2:24 PM:We the people of the United States of America, in order to form a more perfect Union ESATBLISH JUSTICE.....
If that was the FIRST priority listed in the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, it seems to me that the work being done at DoJ should be held in pretty high regard. If I was on the House Judiciary Committee, sworn to defend that Constitution, I'd consider it an affront --an assault -- on that document that the Attorney General is obstructing justice.
I consider his inability or unwillingness to give a straight yes or no -- not ONCE has he done it --an obstruction of justice. I can't believe that he knows so little. The Attorney General of the United States is obstructing Justice and all that many of the neo-conservative toadies on the Committee can do with their question time is to run down the clock on this hearing by confirming his three priorities. It's not even a creative strategy.
Even if I believe that he's against child pornography, gang violence, or voter fraud, DO I CARE if the methods he uses to further his agenda undermines our justice system with which he's been entrusted? No. The ends DO NOT justify the means.
This hearing is a sham. When do we get results?
Security Code: "waste" as in waste of time, energy, money, etc.
High Ping Bastard wrote on May 10, 2007 2:26 PM:Websters Dictionary
brianm0122 wrote on May 10, 2007 2:37 PM:INANE:1)lacking significance, meaning, or point
2)Silly
3)Chris Cannon (R-UT)
wow, he must have to squeeze real hard to get that out!
code word= warm, as in - heaping pile
Oxford English Dictionary wrote on May 10, 2007 2:43 PM:From the OED:
Paradigm
I. Simple uses
1. A pattern or model, an exemplar; (also) a typical instance of something, an example.
Jim wrote on May 10, 2007 3:12 PM:By trying to cover and support Gonzales and the DOJ conspiracy to politicize the DOJ, CANNON is himself CORRUPT. Anyone with an IQ higher than their age knows what the DOJ was up to, why the attourneys were fired, why there are 150 4th grade Regent University lawyers at the DOJ, why the recruiting and hiring is done by Pat Robertson's "faith-based" zombies and why it will take 10 years, if ever, to restore the integrity of the DOJ.
Mike Valentine wrote on May 10, 2007 3:19 PM:Okay, who does the code words? My code word is snake. What?
Yes snake, like this Congressman Cannon is a real low down, on the ground, belly dragging snake.
Too rich.
POed Lib wrote on May 10, 2007 3:37 PM:Chris Cannon is a fucking moron.
VirginiaDem wrote on May 10, 2007 3:38 PM:This should end well. Regent University is now offering degrees in animation, cinema-television, JOURNALISM, and theatre.
http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=124384&ran=3521
Security word: News, as in, make sure you spin like Pat wants it.
sailor wrote on May 10, 2007 3:44 PM:Iglesias was probably aware that if he had reported the phone calls, the information would simply have been discarded or ignored. Does anyone believe the D.O.J. would have taken action against two republicans for breaking the rules?
cv wrote on May 10, 2007 4:17 PM:If he hadn't been fired, he never would have committed the offense for which he was fired.
So we needed to fire him to reveal the kind of person he is.
Tlazolteotl wrote on May 10, 2007 4:17 PM:I think Margolis doth protesteth too much.
Iglesias reporting the improper calls to this DOJ would be like calling the Astronomical Union to report the sun rising this morning. Yeah, it happened, but do you think it will of any import at all to the recipient of the info?
Nina wrote on May 10, 2007 4:40 PM:C'mon. It's perfectly reasonable for a congressman to state, before a national audience, at a hearing regarding the scandalous purge of U.S. Attorneys, that THE CART INDEED COMES BEFORE THE HORSE and David Iglesias SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIRED because he failed to report AN IGNOMINIOUS PRESSURE CALL FROM A SITTING SENATOR urging him to politicize his office. That's why the attorney was put on a purge list BEFORE THE CALL CAME TO LIGHT. Got that? Thank you, Rep. Cannon.
Mooser wrote on May 10, 2007 5:15 PM:There actully is a point to be made.
kevo wrote on May 10, 2007 5:45 PM:Don't make heroes out of the fired prosecuters. They were fired because they wouldn't pervert the DOJ enough, not because they wouldn't pervert it at all.
Their main interest, and it may be enough, is to cover their own asses. They will never tell us what went on in the DOJ, we'll have to find out for ourselves.
They were fired, not because they were honest, but because they were not sufficiently dishonest for the Bush Administration.
So let me get this straight: Rep. Cannon says that Iglesias should be fired for not reporting the inappropriate phone call that led to him getting fired?
These Republicans are unbelievable. First they claimed that the phone call to Iglesias never took place, then they claimed that the phone call was perfectly appropriate, now they're saying that Iglesias should be fired for not reporting the inappropriate phone call.
cevrero wrote on May 10, 2007 6:10 PM:So by that token, the congressman that called Iglesias should be fired, too....right Mr. Cannon?
feckless wrote on May 10, 2007 6:41 PM:The GOP paradigms of incompetence.
Karl Seemann wrote on May 10, 2007 9:53 PM:Spell it anyway you want, these people are d-u-m-b.
A friend told me about this blog and it is terrific!