McNulty: a Sacrificial Lamb for Gonzales
The resignation yesterday of Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, the No. 2 man at the Justice Department, was as inevitable as it was ironic. It was inevitable because the rules of physics and politics say that dominoes must fall and scapegoats must go. And it was ironic because McNulty is a former congressional staff member who is seasoned in the ways of both the Justice Department and Congress.
So perhaps no one was more surprised than McNulty when he became the sacrificial lamb in an increasingly bloody confrontation between Democrats in Congress and the White House and Justice Department over the controversial firings of eight U.S. attorneys.
McNulty becomes the highest-ranking casualty of the AG conflict, and his resignation is sure to revive battle-fatigued Democrats who just last week were reconciled to an impasse brought on by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's refusal to quit over the prosecutor firings and President Bush's stubborn refusal to make his old friend resign. Until now, Democrats could pick only the low-hanging fruit--including Gonzales's chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, who quit under fire earlier this year.
In some respects, McNulty's resignation comes as a surprise, given Gonzales's seemingly defiant, almost gleeful, performance at a House hearing last week. It was a display in marked contrast to his Senate appearance several weeks ago, where he was assailed by Democrats for what they perceived as his lack of command over facts and lack of candor.
Indeed, McNulty's announcement, made at a closed-door meeting of U.S. attorneys in San Antonio, took senior Justice officials by surprise. But many Justice watchers had for months predicted McNulty would not survive because Gonzales and his loyalists, as well as other ardent defenders of executive privilege, blamed McNulty for taking a problem and turning it into a disaster.
At issue was McNulty's testimony on February 6 before the Senate Judiciary Committee in which he acknowledged that the U.S. Attorney from Arkansas, Bud Cummins, had been fired because the administration wanted to replace him with Timothy Griffin, a former aide to presidential adviser Karl Rove who had worked for the Republican National Committee. But McNulty said that the firings of the other prosecutors were related to their poor performance.
The day after McNulty testified, Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse, traveling abroad with Gonzales, sent an E-mail to Sampson and to spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos conveying Gonzales's displeasure. Roehrkasse said the attorney general disagreed with McNulty's characterization of Cummins's firing because he believed that it was at least in part performance related.
The E-mail was the first public sign of an internal rift between top leadership over the reasons for the firings and how to portray them. From that point on inside the department, the long knives for McNulty were out.
And indeed, former Justice and White House officials said that McNulty had fallen into the trap of thinking like the congressional staff member he used to be: He gave away too much information trying to explain what really could not be explained, especially given the Democrats' quest for blood and the department's shifting explanations for the firings. With that testimony, McNulty's fate was sealed. Had he not resigned now, it was likely that McNulty would have quit soon anyway. Typically, deputy attorneys general, who have vast and complex jobs, last around 18 months, which is how long he was in office.
Replacing McNulty will be a critical task for Gonzales for a number of reasons, Justice insiders say. His replacement must be someone viewed as a professional and not a politico, someone easily confirmed by the Senate, and someone with immense credibility and a proven track record. Being a Justice insider would be the kiss of death. Just by this one selection, say Justice insiders, Gonzales could send a clear message that he has learned his lesson and is determined to protect the integrity of the department.
To some Justice watchers, it is poetic justice that McNulty came to grief over the U.S. attorney scandal. Even though he served as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and oversaw the high-profile trial of accused terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, he has never served as a line prosecutor himself.
McNulty is expected to stay on the job until late summer.
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