October 8, 2006, A Swift Kick
That would be Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Swift, military attorney for Salim Hamdan, who prevailed in the Supreme Court in a challenge to the military commission process dreamed up by the President to try so-called "enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay. Lt. Cmdr. Swift has been advised that he has been denied a promotion to full commander, and as such, must retire from the Navy. Coincidence, I'm sure. (You can read my interview with Swift's civilian co-counsel Neal Katyal, here.)
Since the Hamdan case... let's see. Congress passes a law intended to strip federal courts of habeas corpus jurisidiction altogether, to permit military tribunals where coerced evidence may be used and the prisoner denied access to the evidence against him, and of course, torture is now the law of the land. Oh... and Charlie Swift has been kicked out of the navy.
Do I think that the President himself personally intervened to make this happen? I have no idea. He is certainly childish, petty and vindictive enough to lash out at whoever he could for embarrassing him, to be sure; but then, this is a detail. Rumsfeld-- now he is into this level of detail. That would be my personal bet.
All just part of the package of what America, and especially our government, now is. A competent and effective man who criticizes the boss... is no longer welcome in our government service, where political hack loyalist yes-men (and yes-women) are in vogue.