News and Politics | December 11, 2008 | 7 comments

To Fire or not To Fire? That is the Question

source: http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/obama_fitzgerald/2008/12/10/160529.html?s=al&promo_code=742A-1

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Katanajon
Once he assumes office, President-elect Barack Obama will face a severe “trial by fire” over whether to fire U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald and other U.S. attorneys, following Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s arrest Tuesday for allegedly offering to sell Obama’s vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder.

Ordinarily, legal and political experts say, an incoming president has broad authority to change both the Cabinet and the U.S. attorneys who serve at his request. But with unanswered questions swirling over the degree of interaction Obama's team has had with Blagojevich, and the alarming level of Illinois corruption exposed by the probe, any move to fire Fitzgerald would be highly controversial as a possible conflict of interest.

“There are enough connections between the worlds of Blagojevich and Obama that the whole thing has the potential to grow beyond a colorful Chicago tale of corruption to entangle members of the presidential transition team, to test Obama’s carefully cultivated reformist image, and to distract the president-elect just as he is preparing to take office,” Time.com reported Wednesday.

Many of the concerns revolve around a statement Obama made Tuesday afternoon, which ultimately raised more questions than it answered.

"I had no contact with the governor or his office, and so we were not -- I was not aware of what was happening," Obama said, leaving open the possibility that his staff did have contact with Blagojevich. "And as I said, it's a sad day for Illinois. Beyond that, I don't think it's appropriate to comment."

I don't think he will fire him, I also think Obama knew nothing of this. He wan't a good team, this guy sounds like a good team player.
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7 comments // To Fire or not To Fire? That is the Question

  • Nancyf
  • kennymotown
    • 0
      kennymotown  

    • I believe Fitzgerald is the regional U.S attorney for the Chicago area. I believe Patrick is a good one and probably should stay in his position. He might make a fine judge also. I think it would be pretty cool to bring back some of the fired U.S attorney's that the Bush justice department got rid of for political reasons. The ones they kept on are the ones that played ball on Carl Roves political agenda, something that is as low as it gets to play politics with the justice department. I bet those U.S attorney's know were the body's are buried and would have incentive to go after the Bush crime family. They must be held accountable for their actions against democracy.

    • 3 years ago
  • Katanajon
  • Nancyf
  • Katanajon
  • jahbini
  • JohnA
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