[Infowarrior] - Senate Limits Gonzales' Hiring Authority

[Richard Forno]

(rolling back a provision of the PATRIOT ACT, by the way........rf)

Senate Limits Gonzales' Hiring Authority

By PETE YOST and LARA JAKES JORDAN
The Associated Press
Tuesday, March 20, 2007; 1:05 PM


WASHINGTON -- The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to end the Bush
administration's ability to unilaterally fill U.S. attorney vacancies as a
backlash to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' firing of eight federal
prosecutors.

Amid calls from lawmakers in both parties to resign, Gonzales got a morale
boost with an early-morning call from President Bush, their first
conversation since a week ago, when the president said he was unhappy with
how the Justice Department handled the firings.

With a 94-2 vote, the Senate passed a bill that canceled a Justice
Department-authored provision in the Patriot Act that had allowed the
attorney general to appoint U.S. attorneys without Senate confirmation.
Democrats say the Bush administration abused that authority when it fired
the eight prosecutors and proposed replacing some with White House
loyalists.

< - >

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/20/AR2007032000
649_pf.html