"After all, you're entitled to do this when you win elections and get to run the Justice Department, right?"

I haven't really posted much on the US Attorney purge, mostly because other sites have been spot on in their coverage. Especially, Josh Marshall, who sums this up, nicely.

It is a rather revealing sign of what some Republicans mean by corruption. Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) says that Democrats haven't been able to show that any corruption was involved in the US Attorney Purge. But we know that US Attorney David Iglesias was fired because he wouldn't submit to pressure from Republican activists and members of Congress to issue an election-timed indictment to save New Mexico's Republican Rep. Heather Wilson. That, and in general not pursuing bogus 'election fraud' prosecutions against Democrats, as Republican activists wanted. In the old rule of law days, this would be seen as the definition of corrupt use of the justice system to interfere with the integrity of elections and advance narrowly partisan aims. But to Rep. Cannon (R-UT), that's how things are supposed to work. After all, you're entitled to do this when you win elections and get to run the Justice Department, right? That's the Chris Cannon world.

-- Josh Marshall

UPDATE: This post by Glenn Greenwald also sums up quite succinctly what is really important about unraveling the US Attorney purge.

And the fact that Alberto Gonzales and top DOJ officials simply got caught lying the minute that minimal amounts of oversight were exercised -- the minute that their statements were investigated for accuracy rather than blindly assumed to be true-- demonstrates just how pervasive this corruption and deceit has been at the highest levels of the Bush administration. And this has occurred principally as a result of a Republican-led Congress that did not just fail to investigate, but deliberately sought to help the administration conceal wrongdoing so as to politically prop up and protect the President.

In light of how quickly and powerfully evidence of wrongdoing and deceit is spewing forth with minimal amounts of prodding, it is just inconceivable that our Beltway stars -- including alleged journalists -- would be more worried about the unpleasantness and disruption that comes from uncovering corruption and illegality than they are about the corruption and illegality itself. But that is exactly the message they are conveying.

And none of that should be surprising, even though it is so destructive. After all, our government would not have been able to spend the last six years blocking all forms of accountability and checks if not for the support of our national media. So it should hardly come as a surprise that so many of them do not believe in that which lies at the core of our political system since its founding -- namely, a belief that all political leaders must constantly be subjected to rigorous scurtiny and compelled disclosure of their conduct.

-- Glenn Greenwald