1115.org

They tarred and feathered David Iglesias for being an absentee landlord, and put that forward as a prime reason for him to be fired. And that was for needing to vanish for 40 to 45 days every year to fulfill his Navy Reserve service obligation.

Justice Department officials have said they added Iglesias to the list of prosecutors to be dismissed because his supervisors deemed him an “absentee landlord,” who delegated too much authority to his second-in-command.

Iglesias acknowledges traveling out of New Mexico on U.S. attorney business and that he has spent some 40 to 45 days a year in his service in the Navy Reserve.

Meet the real absentee landlords, the ones whose offices are a real mess, because they are away so much. Not a whole lot going on there in terms of replacing them, though. Because these are the good guys. The loyal Bushies. The ones firmly in the camp of Gonzales and Bush. It’s good to have someone watching your ass, innit? (Nullus).

A half-dozen sitting U.S. attorneys also serve as aides to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales or are assigned other Washington postings, performing tasks that take them away from regular duties in their districts for months or even years at a time, according to officials and department records.

Acting Associate Attorney General William W. Mercer, for example, has been effectively absent from his job as U.S. attorney in Montana for nearly two years — prompting the chief federal judge in Billings to demand his removal and call Mercer’s office “a mess.”

Another U.S. attorney, Michael J. Sullivan of Boston, has been in Washington for the past six months as acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He is awaiting confirmation to head the agency permanently while still juggling his responsibilities in Massachusetts.
[...]
Justice spokesman Brian Roehrkasse characterized the fact that U.S. attorneys were filling other Washington-based Justice jobs as both unremarkable and beneficial.

(The WaPo story goes on to talk of the other four absentee landlord U.S.A.s, including Patrick Fitzgerald.)

Beneficial, huh? Bet you never saw that outstanding piece of podium spin coming! (Seems to be my theme-of-the-day today.)

Perhaps everyone has totally misunderstood the Iglesias “absentee landlord” emails? Perhaps they are really saying “We have to fire him, despite the beneficial effect of him being an absentee landlord”? Perhaps the real problem was that he was absent only 45 days a year, and not a whole lot more? Firing him, of course, was the most immediate way to reap the benefits accruing from his being permanently absent from his job.

Just as an aside, you may enjoy this prime example of Gonzo-speak from what we may as well call the Mercer case. After U.S. District Chief Judge Donald W. Molloy wrote to Gonzales complaining about the problems arising from Mercer’s absences, and demanding that he be replaced as U.S. Attorney for Montana, Gonzales wrote back that Mercer’s absence would be short-lived. That was in October 2005, all of eighteen months ago. Maybe Cheney got his “last throes” definition from Gonzales?