(Guest blogged by Logan Murphy)
Alberto Gonzales is toast. No wonder Monica Goodling decided to cut and run.
Via Yahoo:
The Justice Department weighed political activism and membership in a conservative law group in evaluating the nation's federal prosecutors, documents released in the probe of fired U.S. attorneys show.
The political credentials were listed on a chart of 124 U.S. attorneys nominated since 2001, a document that could bolster Democrats' claims that the traditionally independent Justice Department has become more partisan during the Bush administration.
"This is the chart that the AG requested," Monica Goodling, Justice's former liaison to the White House, wrote in a Feb. 12 e-mail to two other senior department officials. "I'll show it to him on the plane tomorrow, if he's interested."
Under Iglesias' name, Goodling wrote: "Domenici says he doesn't move cases" - a reference to Sen. Pete Domenici, the six-term Republican from New Mexico accused of pressuring the prosecutor on a political corruption investigation. That allegation has been one of the factors driving Democrats' claims that the firings were politically motivated. Read more...
SilentPatriot: A lot of purge-related news came out today, with most of it flying under the Imus radar. Another massive document dump answered some outstanding questions and directly implicated Karl Rove and Kyle Sampson. NPR is reporting that the idea to fire all 93 USAs originated with Karl Rove as way to provide cover for the contorversial and unprecedented firing of the infamous 8; it turns out that Kyle Sampson lied under oath when he said he didn't have replacements in mind; the White House recommended altering part of Moschella's opening statement in an apparent attempt to distort the DoJ's role in influencing corruption cases; and new documents show that the DoJ coordinated with the White House to "muddy the coverage" of the firings. Lots to take in, I know, but it's important to put this all into context, especially with Gonzo's do or die testimony next week.
