
Paul Charlton, one of the ousted U.S. attorneys who spoke at the UALR Bowen School of Law this afternoon, had more to say about 2nd Congressional District candidate Tim Griffin’s role in the scandal than did Bud Cummins, a lot more. (Though Cummins refusal to say who’ll vote for in the 2nd District election spoke eloquently enough.)
If you’ll recall and Ernest Dumas wrote in detail about it here The White House engineered Bud Cummins’ ouster as U.S. attorney to make way for Griffin, who was a White House political operative. Charlton said Griffin’s role in the firing of Bud Cummins was a character issue and that Griffin had somehow managed to escape scrutiny.
“Character matters,” Charlton said. “And I don’t think people change over a short period of time. Most people can change their ways over a long period of time and a good bit of reflection, but I think Mr. Griffin is the same person today as he was when he sought the position of U.S. attorney. The true Griffin is the individual we saw reflected in emails he was sending to Karl Rove, for example, saying he would name his first child after Rove if it was a boy, or slandering Bud or crying at the Clinton Library in a talk about Public Service. Those are examples of the individual that now wants to represent Arkansas in Congress.”
Read the full telephone Q&A with Charlton on the jump.