Progressive Minds

On today's Meet The Press, one of the prosecutors fired by Bush detailed the political questioning he was subjected to by White House officials, before his firing.

John McKay (from Washington State) had refused to bring any voter fraud charges in Washington State's hotely contested gubernatorial election, in which a Democrat was victorious.  And McKay said today that during a meeting with then White House Counsel Harriet Miers and her deputy, he was asked by them "why Republicans in the state of Washington would be angry with me."

From the Washington Post:

One of the eight former U.S. attorneys fired by the Bush administration said yesterday that White House officials questioned his performance in highly partisan political terms at a meeting in Washington in September, three months before his dismissal.

John McKay of Washington state, who had decided two years earlier not to bring voter fraud charges that could have undermined a Democratic victory in a closely fought gubernatorial race, said White House counsel Harriet Miers and her deputy, William Kelley, "asked me why Republicans in the state of Washington would be angry with me."

McKay said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the question -- which he took as a challenge to his 2004 decision -- surprised him because the issue had been reviewed by his office and supported by the FBI's office in Seattle. "We expected to be supported by people in Washington, D.C., when we make tough decisions like that," McKay said.

Ex-Prosecutor Says He Faced Partisan Questions Before Firing