Bush puts his personal fingerprint on U.S. Attorney firing

Turns out “the Decider” IS, at least in this case, the decider, namely in the firing of David Iglesias, former U.S. District Attorney for the judicial district covering the state of New Mexico.

An April 15 story by the Albuquerque Journal shows that 30-year-plus U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, also a committee chair before the 2006 election results, personally and directly called Bush to get Iglesias fired. With Iglesias’ actual canning coming less than two weeks later, it’s easy to connect the dots.

Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias was fired after Sen. Pete Domenici, who had been unhappy with Iglesias for some time, made a personal appeal to the White House, the Journal has learned. …

In the spring of 2006, Domenici told (Attorney General Alberto) Gonzales he wanted Iglesias out.

Gonzales refused. He told Domenici he would fire Iglesias only on orders from the president.

At some point after the election last Nov. 6, Domenici called Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove, and told him he wanted Iglesias out and asked Rove to take his request directly to the president.

Domenici and Bush subsequently had a telephone conversation about the issue.

The conversation between Bush and Domenici occurred sometime after the election but before the firings of Iglesias and six other U.S. attorneys were announced on Dec. 7.

Has Bush and his press office denied this? Well, technically, but with Mack truck loopholes:

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said the president did not tell Gonzales to fire Iglesias. He also said that Gonzales did not recall discussing with Domenici whether or not to replace Iglesias.

A White House spokesman, Trey Bohn, pointed to comments made by President Bush and his adviser Dan Bartlett last month when asked about the conversation with Domenici.

Bush said that in speaking to Gonzales about U.S. attorneys, “I never brought up a specific case nor gave him specific instructions.” Bartlett said that “there was no directive given, as far as telling him to fire anybody or anything like that.”

The last graf is the loophole graf.

First, it’s technically the president’s call, no matter who the president, on the hiring or firing of any district attorney.

Second, Bush could have called Gonzales without mentioning Iglesias by name, after the Domenici call. Say that Gonzo was already looking at a “firings list.” Bush could simply have said, “He called, as Rove arranged. Let’s get cracking on that list.” No specific case mentioned.

Talking Points Memo has much more.