In U.S. attorneygate, Arkansas clearly was a special case. A case of Karl Rove putting one of his choir boys, Tim Griffin, into an office on which he could build a political career and Justice Department officials lying repeatedly in the course of it. The Washington Post lays it out in detail today. (Alas, they overlooked the detail about how Griffin boasted, apparently inaccurately, that he had a former girlfried on Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s staff.)
The e-mails show how D. Kyle Sampson, then the attorney general’s chief of staff, and other Justice officials prepared to use a change in federal law to bypass input from Arkansas’ two Democratic senators, who had expressed doubts about placing a former Republican National Committee operative in charge of a U.S. attorney’s office. The evidence runs contrary to assurances from Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales that no such move had been planned.
UPDATE: The Griffin case, as luck has it, helps prove conclusively the number of lies told by Justice Department in prepared talking points to combat Democratic questions about the attorney purge.
UPDATE II: Our readers note that the Brummett Blog has gotten into the girlfriend/boyfriend question. The Lincoln staffers’s statement of “absolutely untrue” remains operative today. Tim Griffin is trying to find some wiggle room.