Well, well. Looks like D. Kyle Sampson, the uberambitious Bushrat selected as blame buddy for the burgeoning US Attorneys scandal, is declining to demonstrate the requisite "loyalty to all Bushes" expected of all courtiers in the George II regime.
As pronounced by soon-to-be ex-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Sampson's role was to creep into exile after Abu had publicly spanked him for providing "incomplete information" to senior Justice Department officials testifying about the firings before Congress.
But Friday night, in a statement released by his attorney, Sampson signaled that he's not playing. In direct contradiction to Gonzales, Sampson said he withheld nothing, misled nobody; that he resigned solely because he failed to "organize a more effective political response" to the scandal.
Oh-oh. The rats are turning on each other.
Here is how Abu explained Sampson's exit:
Obviously I am concerned about the fact that information, incomplete information, was communicated or may have been communicated to the Congress. I believe very strongly in our obligation to ensure that when we provide information to the Congress, it is accurate and that it is complete and I am very dismayed that that may not have occurred here.
Here is Sampson's response, issued Friday night by his attorney, Bradford Berenson:
"Kyle did not resign because he had misled anyone at the Justice Department or withheld information concerning the replacement of the U.S. Attorneys. He resigned because, as Chief of Staff, he felt he had let the Attorney General down in failing to appreciate the need for and organize a more effective political response to the unfounded accusations of impropriety in the replacement process. The fact that the White House and Justice Department had been discussing this subject for several years was well-known to a number of other senior officials at the Department, including others who were involved in preparing the Department's testimony to Congress. If this background was not called to Mr. McNulty or Mr. Moschella's attention, it was not because any of these individuals deliberately withheld it from them but rather because no one focused on it or deemed it important at the time. The focus of preparation efforts was on why the U.S. Attorneys had been replaced, not how."
Over in the MSM, the Los Angeles Times alertly picked up on this ratfight, and ran this piece this morning.
The Times piece also notes that the George II regime has now ceased its bewildering, because thoroughly uncharacteristic, production of embarrassing White House documents to Congress, reneging on a promise to deliver a new batch on Friday.
At the White House, officials said they were not in a position to respond to the request for documents and witnesses until next week.
"Given the importance of the issues under consideration and the presidential principles involved, we need more time to resolve them," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, adding that officials would get back to the committee Tuesday regarding the House subpoenas.
The Times piece further reveals that everyone's memories of all relevant firing events have suddenly become "hazy."
The White House also backed away from its earlier contentions that it was Miers who first floated the idea of firing U.S. attorneys. Press Secretary Tony Snow said that "at this juncture, people have hazy memories."
"We know that Karl recollects Harriet having raised it, and his recollection is that he dismissed it as not a good idea," Snow said. "That's what we know. We don't know motivations.... I don't think it's safe to go any further than that."
Snow was asked whether Bush might have suggested the firings.
"Anything's possible," he said, "but I don't think so." He added that Bush "certainly has no recollection" of doing so.
It was a mistake for the regime to allow Sampson access to its criminal enterprises. All indications are that he was a very young punk, ravenous with ambition, a newbie who attached himself to George II only after he was selected president in 2000. Though he gained entry to the regime partially through the blessings of Orrin Hatch, upon entering George II's service Sampson soon turned on his former patron, seeking to oust the US attorney in Utah, a Hatch loyalist, in favor of a new candidate--himself.
Paul M. Warner, then the United States attorney in Utah, said Mr. Sampson brought it up at a lunch the two had in Washington.
“Washington is full of young ambitious lawyers,” said Mr. Warner, who stepped down as United States attorney in early 2006 and is now a federal magistrate judge. “Kyle was honest enough, up front enough, to come to me and say, You have the job that I want.”
White House and Justice officials backed Mr. Sampson in his bid to replace Mr. Warner, making that clear to the staff of Senator Hatch. But the senator wanted Mr. Bush to nominate Brett Tolman, a one-time Utah federal prosecutor who had spent the previous three years working on antiterrorism issues for the Judiciary Committee staff . . .
Mr. Hatch finally made a personal appeal to Mr. Gonzales to drop his bid to nominate Mr. Sampson. After a four-month delay, President Bush nominated Mr. Sampson’s rival for the job last June.
Sampson turned on Hatch: there was no reason to believe he wouldn't also turn on Abu, and, by extension, George II. Especially once Abu sought to designate Sampson as the be-all and end-all of blame in a scandal that in truth permeates the entire White House.
The Nixon regime was brought down only once the rats began turning on each other. George II has been blessed with a coterie of unusually loyal rats. Sampson, though, is a rogue rat. Let the house come tumbling down.
Update:
As was first noted in the comments by hungrycoyote and AloyshaKaramazov, Sampson's attorney has today issued a "revised" statement. In this latest wisdom, gone is the reference to "more effective political response": it is now just "more effective response." Also, instead of stating that "the White House and Justice Department had been discussing this subject for several years," said officials have now just been discussing it "since the election."
And thanks to KStreetProjector, who pointed out that Sampson was not only a protege of Senator Hatch, but also called on his college connection with Elizabeth Cheney to secure entry to the George II regime.