{"id":345,"date":"2007-05-04T05:19:47","date_gmt":"2007-05-04T05:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/?p=345"},"modified":"2007-05-04T05:19:47","modified_gmt":"2007-05-04T05:19:47","slug":"ok-ill-say-it-i-wish-i-would-have-voted-for-al-gore-in-2000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/?p=345","title":{"rendered":"OK, I&#039;ll Say It &#8211; &quot;I Wish I Would Have Voted For Al Gore In 2000&quot;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"OK%2C%20I%26%23039%3Bll%20Say%20It%20-%20%26quot%3BI%20Wish%20I%20Would%20Have%20Voted%20For%20Al%20Gore%20In%202000%26quot%3B\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>There, that wasn&#8217;t so hard&#8230;..<\/p>\n<p>&#8230; sorry, had to go pray to the porcelain God.<\/p>\n<p>Here is post from Orin Kerr over at <a href=\"http:\/\/volokh.com\/archives\/archive_2007_04_29-2007_05_05.shtml#1178256313\">Volokh<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span class=\"title\">James Comey&#8217;s Testimony, and His Continuing &#8220;Errring on the Side of Neutrality and Independence&#8221;:<\/span>  \tFormer Deputy Attorney General James Comey <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/05\/03\/AR2007050301137.html\">testified before the House Judiciary Committee today<\/a>, and his recollection of the work of the 8 fired U.S. Attorneys stood in sharp contrast to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales&#8217;s official line. The gist of Comey&#8217;s testimony: Most of the fired U.S. Attorneys were outstanding, and they certainly weren&#8217;t fired for what you would traditionally think of as &#8220;performance&#8221; reasons.<\/p>\n<p>Listening to Comey&#8217;s testimony reminds me of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.law.com\/jsp\/article.jsp?id=1098217052950\">this fascinating 2004 Legal Times story<\/a> (that I blogged about <a href=\"http:\/\/volokh.com\/posts\/1136142789.shtml\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/volokh.com\/posts\/1098214427.shtml\">here<\/a>) on why the universally-respected Comey was not likely to be nominated for the Attorney General slot when Ashcroft stepped aside. From the introduction of the 2004 story, with emphasis added:<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"title\"><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>  There are a number of candidates who could be tapped to replace John Ashcroft as attorney general if President George W. Bush wins re-election. But perhaps the most obvious choice, Deputy AG James Comey, almost certainly will not be.<br \/>\nSince his confirmation as the No. 2 Justice Department official in December 2003, sources close to the department say Comey has had a <strong>strained relationship with some of the president&#8217;s top advisers, who feel that Comey has been insensitive to political concerns.<\/strong><br \/>\nAccording to several former administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, tensions were sparked when Comey appointed a special prosecutor to take over the investigation into whether a White House official leaked a Central Intelligence Agency operative&#8217;s name to the media. The special prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, has doggedly pursued the probe, and several administration officials, including presidential adviser Karl Rove, have been questioned by prosecutors.<br \/>\nDistrust of Comey deepened after some of his early staff picks were vetoed by the White House for not having strong Republican credentials, sources say.<br \/>\n<strong>&#8220;The White House always wants to make sure the administration is staffed with people who have the president&#8217;s best interests at heart. Anyone who resists that political loyalty check is regarded with some suspicion,&#8221; says one former Bush administration official. &#8220;The objective in staffing is never to assemble the best possible team. It is to assemble the best possible team that supports the president.&#8221;<\/strong><br \/>\nEarlier this year, after the disclosure of internal administration memos that seemed to condone the torture of suspected terrorists overseas, Comey pushed aggressively for the Justice Department&#8217;s memos to be released to the media and for controversial legal analyses regarding the use of torture to be rewritten.<br \/>\nIn a deeply partisan administration that places a high premium on political loyalty, sources say Comey \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a career prosecutor and a former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York \u00e2\u20ac\u201d is not viewed as a team player.<br \/>\n<strong>&#8220;[Comey] has shown insufficient political savvy,&#8221; says the former official. &#8220;The perception is that he has erred too much on the side of neutrality and independence.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>  Comey still has this &#8220;problem,&#8221; it seems.  Of course, the White House&#8217;s eventual pick, Gonzales, does not.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What a disaster this administration has been. I may have to vote for Obama to repent my sins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"OK%2C%20I%26%23039%3Bll%20Say%20It%20-%20%26quot%3BI%20Wish%20I%20Would%20Have%20Voted%20For%20Al%20Gore%20In%202000%26quot%3B\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>There, that wasn&#8217;t so hard&#8230;.. &#8230; sorry, had to go pray to the porcelain God. Here is post from Orin Kerr over at Volokh: James Comey&#8217;s Testimony, and His Continuing &#8220;Errring on the Side of Neutrality and Independence&#8221;: Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey testified before the House Judiciary Committee today, and his recollection of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonicfrog.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}