Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the ongoing investigation of U.S. Attorneys being fired for political reasons. (For video clips and a nice summary of the hearing, see here). Current Justice Department official Bradley Scholzman's testimony has been widely criticized in the past 24 hours (see here, here, here, and here), and should result in perjury charges againt the man. Prior to the 2004 election, Scholzman - then a DOJ official in Washington - encouraged U.S. Attorneys across the country to prosecute more "election fraud" cases. These charges are mostly bogus, and often result in poor and minority (and Democratic-leaning) citizens being denied the right to vote.
In early 2006, well aware of the importance that elections in Missouri later that year would have in regards to which party controlled Congress, the U.S. Attorney in that state, Todd Graves (who also testified yesterday...more on that below), was asked to resign. In stepped none other that Republican hack Bradley Scholzman to take over the job.
Scholzman went on to file what were later determined to be unjustified election fraud charges against a liberal-leaning voter registration group (ACORN) mere days before the 2006 midterms, despite DOJ guidelines mandating such indictments wait until AFTER elections. Scholzman's conduct adds to the ever-growing list of instances in which the Bush-Gonzales Justice Department was manipulated for Republican political gain.
Scholzman's actions and less-than-honest testimony speak for themselves. What I found to be another troubling aspect of the hearing yesterday (an aspect that has gone unmentioned among followers of this controversy, so far as I can tell), is the apparent partisanship of former U.S. attorney Todd Graves (the man fired to pave the way for Scholzman to take over).
Despite the fact that the lifelong prosecutor was fired because he would not use his job to benefit the Republican Party, Mr. Graves said that he held "no bitterness or rancor" toward the Justice Department.
Excuse Me!!!!!
Reminiscent of the GOP fundraiser who apologized to Dick Cheney after the Vice President shot him in the face, Mr. Graves thanked (yes, THANKED) the Bush Administration for giving him the opportunity to serve. When asked if he felt that his successor filed the election fraud charges mere days before the election for political reasons, Graves said he would "need to know more about the facts of the case."
Midway through his testimony, Graves pointed out to the Committee that he remained a "loyal Republican" despite his firing. You don't say?
Mr. Graves should be scathing mad at Mr. Scholzman and the entire Bush Justice Department. Graves spent his career as by all accounts a stellar prosecutor, putting partisanship aside whenever he put on his U.S. Attorney hat. He had it all thrown away when he was fired mid-term by the Bush Administration.
Instead, Graves says he holds "no bitterness or ill-will" toward the Bush Administration. I wonder if he would say the same thing if a Democrat hack instead of a Republican hack replaced him as U.S. Attorney. At least in the case of Mr. Graves, the partisanship didn't begin until after he left the Justice Department, which is a huge step foward for this administration.
