George W. Bush's tenure as the 43rd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20,2001,and ended on January 20,2009. Bush,a Republican from Texas,took office following his narrow electoral college victory over Democratic incumbent vice president Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election,in which he lost the popular vote to Gore by 543,895 votes. Four years later,in the 2004 presidential election,he narrowly defeated Democrat nominee John Kerry,to win re-election and winning both the popular and the electoral college vote. Bush served two terms and was succeeded by Democrat Barack Obama,who won the 2008 presidential election. He is the eldest son of the 41st president,George H. W. Bush.
Mark Lunsford Pryor is an American attorney,politician and lobbyist who served as a United States Senator from Arkansas from 2003 to 2015. He previously served as Attorney General of Arkansas from 1999 to 2003 and in the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1991 to 1995. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
John Nichols Boozman is an American politician and former optometrist serving as the senior United States senator from Arkansas,a seat he has held since 2011. A member of the Republican Party,he was the U.S. representative for Arkansas's 3rd congressional district from 2001 to 2011. He is the dean of Arkansas's congressional delegation.
Edward Walter Gillespie is an American politician,strategist,and lobbyist who served as the 61st Chair of the Republican National Committee from 2003 to 2005 and was counselor to the President from 2007 to 2009 during the Presidency of George W. Bush. In 2012 Gillespie was a senior member of the Mitt Romney presidential campaign.
Voter caging is a colloquial term used in the United States referring to a campaign activity used to remove,or attempt to remove,targeted voters from official lists of registered voters. It occurs when a non-governmental organization,such as a political party or a campaign,sends first-class mail to registered voters,in order to compile a so-called "challenge list" of the names of those whose letters are returned undelivered. The fact that the mail was returned as undeliverable may be seen as either proof,or strong evidence of,the person no longer residing at the address on their voter registration. The challenge list is presented to election officials with the suggestion that the officials should purge these names from the voter registration rolls or to challenge voters' eligibility to vote on the grounds that the voters no longer reside at their registered addresses.
Alberto R. Gonzales is an American lawyer who served as the 80th United States Attorney General from 2005 to 2007 and is the highest-ranking Hispanic American in executive government to date. He previously served as Secretary of State of Texas,as a Texas Supreme Court Justice,and as White House Counsel,becoming the first Hispanic to hold that office.
William Asa Hutchinson II is an American attorney,businessman,and politician who served as the 46th governor of Arkansas from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party,he previously served as a U.S. attorney,U.S. representative,and in two roles in the George W. Bush administration. He was a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Paul Joseph McNulty is an American attorney and university administrator who is currently the ninth president of Grove City College. He served as the Deputy Attorney General of the United States from March 17,2006,to July 26,2007. Prior to that,he was the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
On December 7,2006,the George W. Bush administration's Department of Justice ordered the midterm dismissal of seven United States attorneys. Congressional investigations focused on whether the Department of Justice and the White House were using the U.S. attorney positions for political advantage. The allegations were that some of the attorneys were targeted for dismissal to impede investigations of Republican politicians or that some were targeted for their failure to initiate investigations that would damage Democratic politicians or hamper Democratic-leaning voters. The U.S. attorneys were replaced with interim appointees under provisions in the 2005 USA PATRIOT Act reauthorization.
Harry Earnest Cummins,III,known as Bud Cummins,is an American attorney,businessman and politician. He served as United States Attorney with five years of service from 2001 to 2006 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
Brett L. Tolman is an American lawyer. He served as a United States attorney for the District of Utah from July 2006 to December 2009. Before becoming U.S. attorney,Tolman worked as counsel in the Senate Judiciary Committee for committee chairs Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and then Arlen Specter (R-PA) during the 109th United States Congress. Tolman's most noteworthy work in the Senate is his role in the passage of the 2005 Patriot Act reauthorization. He was instrumental in the revisions to the appointment process of interim U.S. attorneys and is a major figure in the dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy.
Scott Jennings is an American political strategist and writer. He worked in the George W. Bush administration and has been described as an adviser to Senator Mitch McConnell. He is an opinion contributor for CNN,USA Today,and the Los Angeles Times.
Monica Marie Goodling is a former United States government lawyer and Republican political appointee in the George W. Bush administration who is best known for her role in the Dismissal of U.S. Attorneys Controversy in 2006. She was the principal deputy director of public affairs for the United States Department of Justice,serving under Attorneys General John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales. A Department of Justice investigation concluded that she had violated the law,but she was not prosecuted because she had been granted immunity in exchange for her testimony. The Virginia State Bar publicly reprimanded Goodling in May 2011 for having "improperly utilized political affiliation and other political considerations when making hiring decisions for career positions."
During the 2007 Congressional investigation of the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys,it was discovered that administration officials had been using a private Internet domain,called gwb43.com,owned by and hosted on an email server run by the Republican National Committee,for various official communications. The domain name is an abbreviation for "George W. Bush,43rd" President of the United States. The use of this email domain became public when it was discovered that Scott Jennings,the White House's deputy director of political affairs,was using a gwb43.com email address to discuss the firing of the U.S. attorney for Arkansas. Communications by federal employees were also found on georgewbush.com and rnchq.org. Congressional requests for administration documents while investigating the dismissals of the U.S. attorneys required the Bush administration to reveal that not all internal White House emails were available. Conducting governmental business in this manner is a possible violation of the Presidential Records Act of 1978. Over 5 million emails may have been lost. Greg Palast claims to have come up with 500 of the Karl Rove emails,leading to damaging allegations. In 2009,it was announced that as many as 22 million emails may have been lost.
This article about dismissed U.S. attorneys summarizes the circumstances surrounding a number of U.S. attorneys dismissed from office in the United States Department of Justice in 2006. Eight were dismissed In December 2006,and others may have been forced out of office under similar circumstances in 2005 and 2006. The manner of the firings,the congressional response to them,and the explanations offered by Bush administration officials are aspects of a political controversy starting in the first quarter of 2007. As of May 2007 a clear explanation of why the attorneys were dismissed had not been put forward by the Bush administration or the Department of Justice leadership. There are in total 93 U.S. attorneys that serve 94 Federal district courts.
A detailed chronology of events in the dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy.
The United States House Committee on the Judiciary and the Senate Committee on the Judiciary,have oversight authority over Department of Justice (DOJ). In 2007 it conducted public and closed-door oversight and investigative hearings on the DOJ's interactions with the White House and staff members of the Executive Office of the President. A routine oversight hearing on January 18,2007 by the Senate committee was the first public congressional occasion that Attorney General Gonzales responded to questions about dismissed United States Attorneys (USAs). Both committees invited or subpoenaed past and present Department of Justice officers and staff to appear and testify during 2007,and both committees requested or subpoenaed documents,and made the documents that were produced publicly available.
Karl Christian Rove is an American Republican political consultant,policy advisor,and lobbyist. He was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff during the George W. Bush administration until his resignation on August 31,2007. He has also headed the Office of Political Affairs,the Office of Public Liaison,and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives. Rove was one of the architects of the Iraq War.
The 2014 United States House of Representatives elections in Arkansas was held on Tuesday,November 4,2014,to elect the four U.S. representatives from the state of Arkansas,one from each of the state's four congressional districts. The elections coincided with the elections of other federal and state offices,including the governor of Arkansas and a United States senator.
Leslie Carol Rutledge is an American attorney and politician who has served as the 21st lieutenant governor of Arkansas since 2023. A member of the Republican Party,she was previously the 56th attorney general of Arkansas from 2015 to 2023.
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