Paul McNulty: It’s All His Fault
That’s the gist of this lengthy, extremely interesting, thoroughly researched special report. It’s by one of our favorite reporters, Jan Crawford Greenburg — who’s on the verge of replacing Linda Greenhouse as undisputed queen bee of the SCOTUS press corps hive.
After reading the JCG piece, a devastating indictment of McNulty’s involvement in this debacle, one possible outcome presents itself as increasingly likely:
Alberto Gonzales stays on as Attorney General — but Paul McNulty’s head rolls.
A scandal this big needs to claim some victims before it dies down. Some high-ranking DOJ or White House officials must be sacrificed to the vengeful Senate Democrats. And, with all due respect, Kyle Sampson isn’t a sufficiently big fish. Nor is Monica Goodling, for that matter.
But the Deputy Attorney General of the United States? Now that’s another story…
Update: The question then becomes whether McNulty goes quietly. There’s a good case to be made that the answer is no.
DOJ Official Ignored White House Guidance [ABC News]
Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty biography [U.S. Department of Justice]
Paul J. McNulty bio [Wikipedia]
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If you read the ABC piece (which is great), a few things are likely to pop up: (1) the selective leaking of an internal WH email which will lead to questions as to whether any claim of executive privilege has been waived and (2) McNulty doesn't come across as someone who will be anyone's fall guy (or "Libby" as the vernacular seems to be these days). If the junta squeezes, I say he drops a dime on the AG and senior folks in the WH. The bigger question, which those in the MSM are belatedly coming around to asking, is whether these firings were retribution and/or an effort to obsctruct (or derail) ongoing investigations.
McNulty comes across as very arrogant in the article. If he goes down, it sounds like he deserves it.
Sounds like McNulty is going to need his own counsel, stat. I hope Gallion & Spielvogel aren't conflicted out of this ultra-prestigious assignment. Only a firm of such eminent pedigree could hope to handle this matter.
This is interesting behind-the-scenes stuff, and it explains why the story became big (USAs defending their performance), but it's not clear to me why McNulty should be a fall guy.
"In [testifying], McNulty went well beyond the scope of what the White House cleared him to say when it approved his written testimony the week before the hearing, according to administration sources closely involved in the matter."
The White House doesn't want to admit that it sought to fire USAs based on their loyalty to Bush, so McNulty was instructed to give vague answers. Instead, he stated that these were performance-related decisions, which is not true under a basic reading of "performance-related."
But the point is, the firings were over loyalty to Bush (or lack thereof), and nobody in DOJ or the White House wanted to admit it. This guy erred in distorting when his superiors wanted a coverup, but aren't both equally bad? If this guy is the sacrificial lamb, it seems a little weak to me.
I call bullshit. JCG is revealing herself to be quite the conservative shill.
" JCG is revealing herself to be quite the conservative shill."
I guess you didn't read her book? I thought it was pretty clear by p2.
Take it easy on a girl from the South who went to U of C.; what were you expecting?
Nothing will happen re: firings until Friday late afternoon. That's when the bad news gets out.
"performance related" meant the USAs were not "performing" how the Administration wanted them to, and had hired them to. The USAs were not carrying out the priorities and policies of the Administration to its satisfaction. Why is this such a difficult concept to understand? Plus, serve at the pleasure of the President means its a temporary gig. Be a grown-up already.
9:57: The issue is not whether the President can fire USAs for lack of loyalty, but why the Administration sought to cover up (Miers) or distort (McNulty) its actual reasons for wanting to fire the USAs. Get a clue.