Can of Worms Explodes

Our friends at Pittsburgh Post Gazette  have opened a delicious can of worms and the Rove Republican Racket should begin to sweat.

It appears U.S. Attorneys from around the country were racking up frequent flyer miles at the expense of Uncle Sam.

Even the Main Justice blog site has picked up the story.

The Post Gazette writes:

Mary Beth Buchanan spent more than half of her eight years as U.S. attorney in the Western District of Pennsylvania on the road, racking up at least 347 trips that cost taxpayers more than $450,000. Ms. Buchanan, a Republican who stepped down in November, a year after a Democrat won the White House, and other U.S. attorneys often were permitted to sign off on their own travel and then get rubber-stamp approval from the Executive Office of United States Attorneys. In March, however, the Department of Justice under the Obama administration changed those regulations after reviewing travel by all 93 U.S. attorneys. The department now requires approval for out-of-district travel from the director or deputy director of the executive office. "The previous policies and procedures were admittedly inconsistent," said department spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz. "Changes to the process were made to ensure full compliance with departmental travel policies and procedure and to strengthen controls and oversight of U.S. attorney travel."

The change of regulations is not the story. The real story is where, why, and when did these Rove Republicans travel? Was it political work? Were they justified in traveling so much or were they sightseeing at taxpayer expense?

It's time for the Congressional Oversight Committees to issue subpoenas and make these free-spenders pay.