Joe Biden | 2008 Election Watch

The firing of eight District Attorneys has caused quite an outrage on Capital Hill and throughout the United States. And for good reason. However, my prediction is that we won’t be (honestly) talking about this much at all come 2008. The reason – whereas the firing of the attorneys in the middle of a presidential term may have been politically motivated, unprecedented, and dishonestly handled, it appears that not president Bush, nor Alberto Gonzales, nor anybody else did anything illegal . The reason is due to a clause in the 2006 Reauthorization of the ironically named Patriot Act, which gives the president power to fire and appoint new attorneys without senate confirmation.

The reauthorization of the Patriot Act was supported by Hillary Clinton, Barack O’Bama, and Joe Biden (as well as John McCain and Chuck Hagel; John Edwards was no longer a Senator at this time). In fact, the only presidential candidate to oppose the reauthorization of the Patriot Act was Congressman Dennis Kucinich from Ohio. Kucinich also opposed the Patriot Act during its first enactment in 2001, whereas Clinton and Edwards both voted ‘Yea’.

By now many people from both parties, including Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and Republican Senator John Sununu, (John McCain has not), are calling on Gonzales to resign, but where were they in 2006????