Lawyers Are Fascinating

First of all, some high-priced lawyers have funny names. My favorite is Scooter. Could a guy named Scooter ever be on the Supreme Court? I don't know. But Scooter Libby won't be, though I suspect W will pardon him at some point, probably after the election. Even being a fall guy has perks.

But what I've been thinking about lately is the U.S. Attorney thing. Eight of them (all appointed by W) were fired. The Justice Department said it was for performance, though this apparently contradicted previous reviews. The U.S. Attorneys were pissed. They said they were fired for political reasons.

Well, you lie down with dogs, you get fleas, right? I have no sympathy. The Elite Eight are Republican appointees who serve at the pleasure of the president. They got their jobs because of politics, and if they're losing them because of politics, then they ought to update their (no doubt swanky) resumes, same as everybody else.

But the eight have suggested they were fired because they either were doing things the administration didn't want them to do or weren't doing things the administration wanted them to do (like fucking with political opponents).

Maybe so. But from what I can tell, the administration's biggest fuckup was giving a reason. All they (W, Gonzales, etc.) had to say was, "We appointed them, and now we're appointing someone else."

Sure they were probably doing it to appoint people without Senate approval (since the Patriot Act now allows such a move). Maybe Congress will actually read the fucking bills before approving them. (I know they're a lot of pages, but Congressmen have minions. And it's not like the Patriot Act was a non-binding resolution.)

But the real question has little to do with the eight U.S. Attorneys who were fired. The real question is this: Did the ones who didn't get fired play ball in some way that the administration dictated?

That's what I think is interesting. Why only eight? Why not 50? Because these are the only ones not corrupt enough to use their office for political retribution? Now that's interesting.