US Attorneys

Frankly, I'm a little surprised they're going to let Gonzales testify on Tuesday knowing what was in yesterday's document dump.

First, there's the chart outlining the "political activism" by the US Attorneys. (What groups they belong to, what (Republican) campaigns they worked for.....)

But as bad as that is, this comment by Monica Goodling is far worse for Alberto Gonzales who claimed no knowledge of the process.

"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."

Gonzales requested a chart with the Attorney's political histories.

McClatchy reports that Wisconsin US Atoorney Biskupic appears to have been removed from the firings list after he carried out that very political prosecution.

Also, there's a report from NPR that the whole thing started on Rove's desk,

According to someone who's had conversations with White House officials, the plan to fire all 93 U.S. attorneys originated with political adviser Karl Rove. It was seen as a way to get political cover for firing the small number of U.S. attorneys the White House actually wanted to get rid of. Documents show the plan was eventually dismissed as impractical.

Now, Mr. Gonzales, we need you to go on the Hill and convince the country that these firings weren't politically motivated, and that you didn't lie in all your previous statements.

(And, big credit to the Washington Post for their sense of irony. As a substory underneath the 5 million lost White House emails and Karl Rove's "I didn't know I was deleting emails when I was deleting emails," the Washington Post sticks a story about the administration's efforts to massively expand their electronic surveillance.

I'm sure the administration would be totally understanding if a Muslim charity claimed they lost 5 million emails.)