Troubles in the Land of Enchantment

By Scott Horton

This May, New Mexico Senator Pete V. Domenici will turn 75. He's been the leading figure in New Mexico's Republican Party for two decades, and for some time now speculation has focused on whom he will tap to succeed himself—potentially as early as next year, when his seat is up once more. The odds-on choice had been Representative Heather Wilson, who holds New Mexico's Albuquerque-based first district. But now, this succession, and even the GOP's ability to hold these two Congressional seats has been cast in doubt as Domenici and Wilson are embroiled in a major scandal surrounding the dismissal of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias. Both Domenici and Wilson placed highly compromising phone calls to Iglesias trying to push the prosecution of a prominent Democrat before the 2006 election, which Wilson won amidst great controversy by a paper-thin margin.

The Washington Post of March 31 offers an intriguing examination of the Domenici-Wilson relationship and the toll the developments surrounding the Iglesias case is taking on them. The Post also recaps the chain of developments leading to Iglesias' dismissal, making it clear that this was politically motivated, and connected to Domenici's concerns about Wilson's difficult re-election battle and Iglesias' failure to use his prosecutorial powers to help out.

In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, Sampson said that, sometime between Oct. 17 and Nov. 7, Iglesias was added to the firing list.

He said he could not remember who added Iglesias to the list and what the reasons were. In that same time frame, Gonzales relayed to Sampson a complaint from Rove about the voter-fraud cases in New Mexico, Sampson said. The White House has acknowledged that President Bush himself had also delivered complaints to Gonzales about the voter-fraud cases in the state.

When top Justice Department officials met to consider the fate of Iglesias and a few other prosecutors, McNulty spoke up in favor of firing Iglesias. “All I remember is the deputy attorney general saying, ‘Senator Domenici won't mind if he stays on the list,’” Sampson said.

On Election Day, Nov. 7—less than two weeks after Domenici's call to Iglesias, and as Wilson was barely surviving in her election campaign—Sampson sent out a new draft of the U.S. attorney dismissal chart. Iglesias was on that list for the first time.

A month later, Iglesias was fired and Sampson reported to other Justice Department officials that Bell was “happy as a clam” upon learning the news.

This article by Paul Kane, is an example of good, nuanced political reporting that stands in stark contrast to an earlier effort by the New York Times. On March 18, the Times took a ground-level look at the situation in New Mexico and reported that the Department of Justice had, indeed, been moved by concern about voter fraud which had been reported by local GOP officials in Albuquerque, who were concerned about Iglesias' lack of action. The Times report by Christopher Drew and Eric Lipton comes off as naïve, if not foolish, in view of the later documents and testimony, which directly corroborate the story of political influence. But it is also unforgivably ignorant about the internal political dynamics between Wilson and Domenici. All this suggests that it's still very easy to spin the Gray Lady, particularly when her editorial management is bending over backwards for “balance.”