Bush firing US Attys to put in his handpicked GOPers...

From American Progress:

ADMINISTRATION -- HANDPICKED U.S. ATTORNEYS HAVE STRONG CONSERVATIVE CREDENTIALS, LACK LOCAL CONNECTIONS:

Since last March, nine U.S. attorneys have been pushed out of their jobs and replaced by conservative loyalists handpicked by the Bush administration.

Several of these ousted prosecutors were working on high-profile cases, such as Carol Lam, who ran the investigation into the corruption of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA). The San Diego Union-Tribune noted that Lam appeared to be the "victim of strong-arm political pressure from Washington, where officials apparently wanted to hand her job to a partisan operative."

While some of the newly appointed U.S. attorneys have strong legal credentials, many have had little experience as prosecutors and "most of them have few, if any, ties to the communities they've been appointed to serve."

For example, Tim Griffin, the U.S. attorney in Arkansas, was a protege of Karl Rove and an official at the Republican National Committee.

Jeff Taylor, U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., was an aide to Sen. Orrin Hatch(R-UT) and served as counselor to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and former Attorney General John Ashcroft.

U.S. Attorney in Kansas City John Wood is married to Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Julie Myers, whose father is former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Richard B. Myers.

Jean Paul Bradshaw, former U.S. attorney under President George H.W. Bush, criticized this administration's political maneuvering: "Under Reagan and the first Bush administration, we worked very hard to push the power out to the locals."

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