White House Press Corps.org: Press Briefing by Tony Snow 3/16/07 (Topic: US Attorneys)

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Press Briefing by Tony Snow 3/16/07 (Topic: US Attorneys)
— Friday, March 16, 2007 —

Q Let me just follow, one question, because we've had a number of documents I've seen now which talk about the performances of McKay, of Cummins, of Carol Lam, and used terms that are all positive, if not glowing. So there seems to be a paper trail that indicates that at least some of these eight were doing a fine job.

MR. SNOW: Well, no, look, you can -- the world is full of places where you can have positive performance reviews, and there are still places where you think you can improve. But you know what? Again, I want to go back to the key point here, which is, people serve at the pleasure of the President. And that is the important principle that really is involved here. I'm not going to be the fact witness on what goes on at Justice. I'd refer you back to there on that.

Q But the issue isn't whether or not they serve at the pleasure of the President, it's when they're removed you either say we want to bring somebody in who is more in line with the administration's goals and policies -- that's different than saying we want to move someone out for bad performance, when the paper trail indicates they were doing a good job.

MR. SNOW: Again, I think -- first, there's no inconsistency with saying, look, people are doing a good job, but, on the other hand, there are other priorities that one may need to follow. I'm just not going to get into trying to argue about grading and peer performance reviews. Again, getting back to the principle here, the people serve at the pleasure of the President and if there's a decision to replace them, it's important that they're to be replaced.

Q But, Tony, you have said that politics and loyalty didn't play a part in this.

MR. SNOW: Yes. And let me -- there's been a lot of conversation about loyalty, so let me -- I don't want to -- I'll just begin with a caveat: I do not know precisely what Kyle Sampson had in mind when he used the term. But let me tell you how the term applies in this White House, which is that, certainly, we all serve at the pleasure of the President; we're loyal to the President in that sense. But the President has charged each one of us to do our jobs -- to do our jobs, to perform the public trust. That also means to follow the principles and the priorities of the administration.

When it comes to the administration of justice, the President lays down broad guidelines; when it comes to U.S. attorneys, broad prosecutorial guidelines. Those guidelines may shift from district to district; there are 93 around the country that have different priorities. But if somebody has difficulty or if somebody decides for reasons of conscience or whatever that they disagree with a key priority -- whether it be something like the death penalty or pornography statutes or whatever -- that's certainly a suitable basis for review.

But, again, the most important principle here is people do serve at the pleasure of the President.

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