1115.org

There’s so much stuff happening in the three ring circus that the prosecutor purge avalanche has turned into, that many juicy details are dangerously close to slipping through the cracks. So, in a homage to Lewis Black’s segment on The Daily Show, we bring you a small selection of things that you may not have quite caught over the last few days:

• John McKay of Washington state, who had decided two years earlier not to bring voter fraud charges that could have undermined a Democratic victory in a closely fought gubernatorial race, said White House counsel Harriet Miers and her deputy, William Kelley, “asked me why Republicans in the state of Washington would be angry with me.”
• Tim Russert yesterday: “If the attorney general is saying that these attorney — U.S. attorneys lost his confidence because of their performance-related reasons, then he obviously reviewed the cases, reviewed their situations, reviewed their work records and came out with this reason for their dismissal. That means he was intimately involved.”
• On March 14, 2007, principal associate deputy attorney general William Moschella insisted that he pursued changes in the Patriot Act — that allowed the President to unilaterally install U.S. attorneys — “on his own, without the knowledge or coordination of his superiors at the Justice Department or anyone at the White House.” But as TPMmuckraker notes, new e-mails “suggest that he discussed the need for proposed changes with other Justice Department officials on Nov. 11, 2005, around the time when the bill was being drawn up.”
• Sen. John Ensign, the powerful Republican who recommended Daniel G. Bogden, a declared political independent, for the post of U.S.A. in Nevada has emerged as perhaps the most fierce Republican critic of Alberto Gonzales in the matter.
• A Justice aide closely involved in the dismissals, White House liaison Monica Goodling, also has taken a leave of absence, two officials said.

Wouldn’t you know it, there’s a Monica in this scandal too. Why are they hiding her?

And how’s this for a telling comment on the whole shitty mess?

The idea that a senator calls a US Attorney at home just weeks before a federal elections and tries to jawbone him into indicting someone to help a friend get reelected is shocking. Think about it for a second. It’s genuinely shocking. At a minimum one would imagine such bad acts take place with more indirection and deniability.

That just about says it all. The lack of any regard for what is right. The blatant we-are-the-rulers-of-the-universe attitude. The sheer stupidity in terms of how it was done.

Let me leave you with this question: should the remaining U.S. Attorneys now be called prostitutors rather than prosecutors?