Raising The Blinds

Tim Griffin: "...focusing on my job..."

Upon examining a recent document dump, TalkingPointsMemo.com points to an email that was sent to Karl Rove along with other White House staff by Tim Griffin.  Griffin forwarded a copy of an article from an Arkansan newspaper, the Democrat-Gazette, discussing the reasons why Griffin announced he would no longer seek the role of U.S. Attorney for Eastern District of Arkansas on a permanent basis. 

At the end of his comments, Griffin says,

"...I am going to go back to focusing on my job until I am told otherwise."

What does this mean?  Does this imply that he was doing another "job" besides the role of U.S. Attorney, or vice versa?  And if he sent this to White House employees Karl Rove, Sara Taylor, Jane Cherry, Christopher Oprison, does this mean he was taking orders from any one of them in the White House and not from the AG at any time?

Does the email also imply that the handling of Griffin's placement and response to both public and Congressional inquiries has been managed as collaborative effort by these same persons?

120 Day Mark Passes--and Griffin Remains

Tim Griffin's status as USA for Eastern Arkansas remains ambiguous. He was originally appointed under the USA Patriot provision permitting the Attorney General to appoint an indefinite replacement for a USA. Yet after that appointment, the Administration assured Congress that it planned to have a Senate-approved USA in each district.

In mid-February, Griffin announced he would not seek Senate approval. That announcement did not reveal, however, whether Griffin anticipated being replaced (it left the decision in White House hands).

Tim Griffin, whose December appointment as U. S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas sparked a national outcry about surreptitious changes made to a law affecting federal prosecutors, says he no longer wants the job permanently.  

“I have made the decision not to let my name go forward to the Senate,” Griffin said Thursday evening. 

He was referring to the U. S. Department of Justice’s stated intention, amid heavy criticism, to subject Griffin and others recently appointed to interim federal-prosecutor posts to the standard process of being nominated by the president, scrutinized by the U. S. Senate Judiciary Committee and then voted on by the Senate.

Griffin, 38, a former military prosecutor, was appointed Dec. 20 by U. S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales under a little-noticed provision tacked onto the 2006 reauthorization of the USAPATRIOT Act that allows the attorney general to fill prosecutorial vacancies on an interim basis without Senate approval.

Testing, testing, 1,2,3...

This is only a test; this post will be deleted once the rest of this blog and subordinate content have been configured.

Watch this space for future developments.