The Daily Background
| Breaking: Cheney personally blocked promotion over Gonzales’s bedside coercion attempt
by Arlen Parsa
Whoa, major development in the US Attorney purge scandal tonight…. The AP has a story out revealing that the Vice President went out of his way to block the promotion of Patrick Philbin a legal aide to James Comey.
You’ll remember that Comey was the Acting Attorney General back in 2004 when the White House (specifically then-counsel Alberto Gonzales and then-Chief of Staff Andrew Card) tried to get John Ashcroft to sign off on their illegal domestic spying program. Comey warned Ashcroft, who refused to sign off on it, and 30 Department of Justice officials almost resigned ove the matter that was kept secret until recent testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
It was Philbin’s legal recommendation and analysis that led Comey and Ashcroft to reject the illegal program, apparently. Cheney then did his best to make sure Philbin never got a raise.
Enough background, here’s the AP, moments ago:
Philbin was one of two Justice Department officials who led a review of the classified program and provided some of the research that led Comey to refuse to endorse it, Comey said.
[…]
The White House recertified the program without the department’s endorsement. That led Comey, Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller, Philbin and other department officials to prepare their resignations. Faced with a mass walkout at the top of his Justice Department, Bush relented and changes in the eavesdropping program that Comey and Mueller said were necessary to win their approval.According to Comey, Philbin later was considered for a promotion to be principal deputy solicitor general — lieutenant to the lawyer who represents the government before the Supreme Court.
“It was my understanding that the vice president’s office blocked that appointment,” Comey said in his written remarks.
Well I’ll be. It seems that Gonzales, to whom the decision was left about whether or not to promote Philbin, decided against it after consulting with Cheney. This just reinforces the meme that Gonzales can’t say no to the White House, and has turned his office into an extention of the political wing of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
