HOUSE PASSES THE BILL TO RESTORE A LITTLE BIT MORE OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT ERODED BY THE BUSH REGIME

Did you know Congress works at night? When I got home after seeing a film I saw that the House had passed H.R. 580 (Interim Appointment of U.S. Attorneys), a bill similar to the one passed in the Senate last week. The bills repeal a provision giving the Attorney General the right to hire U.S. Attorneys without Senate approval. It was stealthily slipped into the Patriot Act by one of the Mormon Mafia, a Bush hack named Brett Tolman who was later appointed to a U.S. Attorney job in Utah with the use of the surreptitious paragraph no one knew about he snuck into the bill while he was working for Arlen Specter on the staff of the Judiciary Committee. (I don't understand why he isn't in prison.)

H.R. 580 restores the process for temporarily replacing U.S. Attorneys to what it was before the Bush Regime illegally changed it. The Attorney General would be empowered to appoint someone to serve up to 120 days. If the Senate did not confirm a permanent replacement by then, the chief judge of the federal district would be able to appoint a temporary replacement to serve until the Senate acted. The bill includes a provision to prevent the Regime from using the Vacancies Act to allow the Attorney General to make continuous interim appointments of U.S. Attorneys and it applies to the interim U.S. Attorneys who are currently serving in the place of the eight dismissed U.S. Attorneys and openings that were created when the eight U.S. Attorneys were forced to resign by Gonzales and Rove. 

Only 2 Republicans-- Hagel and Bond-- voted against the bill in the Senate and even Bush has raised the white flag on this one. But in the House tonight, where the overwhelming vote (329-78) included all Democrats and most Republicans, 78 die-hard wingnuts-- the worst of the worst-- dug in their obstructionist heels and refused to vote for this. What is wrong with these people? Do you want to guess which loons and kooks voted no? If you read DWT with any regularity you will recognize many from our Hall of Shame: like Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO), Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), the sneaky puker Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Mean Jean Schmidt (R-OH), Joe Barton (R-TX), Robin Hayes (R-NC), Mary Bono (R-CA), Blunt/Boehner (R-MO/OH), C.W. Bill Young (R-FL), Doug Lamborn (R-CO), John Doolittle (R-CA), John Kline (R-MN), Patrick McNutcase (R-NC), Denny Hastert (R-IL), Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Steve Buyer (R-IN), Eric Cantor (R-VA)... not a single patriotic American among the lot of them-- and that's not even half.

Many of the Republicans, especially the extreme ideologues like the ones named above, don't take this whole thing seriously. The American people do.

Americans overwhelmingly support a congressional investigation into White House involvement in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, and they say President Bush and his aides should answer questions about it without invoking executive privilege.

In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday-Sunday, respondents said by nearly 3-to-1 that Congress should issue subpoenas to force White House officials to testify.