Justice and US Attorneys

MANIFESTO

Josh Marshall is all over the US Attorney story, and a sordid story it's turning out to be.

Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson of New Mexico pressured the U.S. attorney in their state to speed up indictments in a federal corruption investigation that involved at least one former Democratic state senator, according to two people familiar with the contacts ...

David Iglesias, who stepped down as U.S. attorney in New Mexico on Wednesday, told McClatchy Newspapers that he believed the Bush administration fired him Dec. 7 because he resisted the pressure to rush an indictment.

According to the two individuals, Domenici and Wilson called to press Iglesias for details of the case.

I'm sure that Democrats have also been guilty of this kind of flimflam in the past, but, as Dr. Marshall says, "I'm surprised someone who's served in the senate for 35 years or so [such as Domenici] wouldn't know to put a little distance -- an intermediary or two -- between him and the US attorney he was trying to muscle under."

In other words, the flagrant cheek of the move (cf. Tom DeLay's overt grab for power in reapportioning Texas's congressional districts) is what's astonishing. However, we've seen this arrogant megalomania evinced over and over again with this crew. Domenici and Wilson obviously believed they were still working under the 2003 rules, when whatever was thrown against the wall stuck for the Republicans and any tenets of ethics and fair play were abandoned.

This story has a lot of legs. I'll be consulting Talking Points Memo for updates.