Attorney scandal is off the war hiatus!

With Bush's first veto of any accountability in Iraq a matter of the past, the hearings into the US Attorney firings have resumed. Now, it's the House's turn to listen to these douchebags try to weasel out of their partisan hackery.

It should be obvious to all that Gonzales and the White House have been deeply involved in this scandal, as Gone-zo is getting testy that his underlings are spilling the beans to Congress. His opening statement to the House Judiciary Committee basically blamed everything on Kyle Sampson, and asked the Congress to, in essence, "leave us alone because we didn't do anything wrong." That, sir, is not for you to decide, especially when you are claiming ignorance (which, for a leader, indicates incompetence). Gonzo's "leave us alone" sentiment was echoed by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), the committee's senior GOP hack: "If there are no fish in this lake, we should reel in our lines of questions, dock our empty boat and turn to more pressing issues." The sad truth is, since Fredo seems intent on keeping to his "I don't remember" defense (and his new one, "I think I may be aware of that"), he may evade blame in all of this. We can only wait and see how damning other evidence, including the immunity testimony that Monica Goodling will provide, is before knowing the extent of his future as Attorney General.

In other related news:

- We had a post on Monday regarding Brad Schlozman, who was an early Patriot Act provision hire, replacing Todd Graves in Missouri. Interestingly enough, Graves was embroiled in a nepotism scandal that involved Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt (R) awarding a no-bid contract to Graves' wife to run a fee office. Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) called for Graves' removal based on this scandal, though rumors abound that Graves wasn't - ready? - willing to prosecute voter-fraud cases! Further scandalizing this situation is the fact that the person who prosecuted Graves, et al., in this case was... US Attorney Bud Cummins of Arkansas! Where have we heard his name before...?

- Three former US Attorneys (Iglesias, McKay, and Charlton) are speaking out regarding the firings. McKay even calls attention to two other attorneys who are presently under the political gun, and believes that a criminal case may come out of this; the charge would likely be obstruction of justice. Iglesias points out that, in his opinion, "all roads lead to Rove." Hmm...