I've been following an interesting discussion on TPM Cafe on the growing U. S. Attorney scandal, What Was the U. S. Attorney Purge Meant to Achieve?, and also on FireDogLake: The Math, which correlates the firings with the electoral map.

Everyone has their own theory about why those six were fired, but here are the principal ones:

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• To make way for administration-favored lawyers to pad their resumes with the prestigious position. This is one of the reasons advanced by the administration;
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• To eliminate attorneys not willing to bring frivolous voter fraud cases against Democrats shortly before elections. The fact that most of the fired attorneys were located in highly contested states supports this thesis;
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• To kill investigations and prosecutions of Republicans for corruption and install U. S. Attorneys who would instead prosecute Democrats;
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• This is related to the previous reason: To stop Carol Lamm, U. S. Attorney in San Diego, from further investigations and prosecutions of Republican corruption. Under this theory, the remaining firings were merely a smokescreen to obscure the real objective of the administration, which feared that Lamm would follow the trail of corruption higher and higher in the administration.
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One can be sure that all of these reasons played a part in the administration's decision, but the firing of Carol Lamm is the one most directly related to an immediate threat to the Bush regime. Lamm had already put U. S. Representative Duke Cunningham (R-CA) in jail for bribery. She was investigating corruption related to the Cunningham case and in the top levels of the C.I.A. Without a Republican-dominated Congress to ignore or whitewash the Bushites' crimes, the threat posed by Lamm's investigations was simply too dangerous to allow it to continue, irrespective of the political fallout. Apparently Lamm was taking Deep Throat's advice to follow the money, and if this administration and its political party is about anything at all, it's about money. And property. Cunningham attempted to conceal his payoff through a mansion that he sold at an inflated price for considerably more that it was worth.

Corruption on a grand scale cannot be hidden without an infrastructure of corrupt law enforcement that ignores graft and abuses of power and concentrates its resources on red herrings like voter fraud or election fraud. The current federal prosecution of Paul Minor and two judges for bribery here in Jackson is a typical example of what the Bushites like. Minor, a wealthy trial lawyer, has been contributing to Democratic campaigns for many years, so a conviction on just one count would tar the image of the plaintiffs' bar and eliminate Minor's influence in future elections. Since one of the financial mainstays of the Democratic party is plaintiffs' lawyers, anything that reduces their influence or income helps the Republicans. Thus the intense lobbying for tort "reform" designed to eliminate the large judgments that have allowed the trial lawyers to be a political force on behalf of the common man. Interestingly enough, the prosecutors in the Minor trial are from the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. This is an important case for the Bushites.

For that reason, it is highly unlikely that Bush will fire his longtime crony Gonzales, no matter how much heat he takes. Gonzales is the one official that can protect Bush, Cheney, Rove and the rest of the criminal conspiracy from exposure. Gonzales is the one official that can prevent an FBI investigation or kill one that comes too close. Bush will throw all his other minions under the bus before he fires Gonzales, because a Democratic Senate will not confirm another Gonzales. This is so important that it bears repeating:

A Democratic Senate will not confirm another Gonzales.

As long as Bush can control the Justice Department, the only remedy for his crimes is impeachment, and although Bush's crimes might be heinous and proven beyond a reasonable doubt, there are not enough Republicans in the Senate with the integrity, intelligence, or courage to vote for impeachment.

Under those circumstances, Bush would have to be even stupider that I thought to fire Gonzales. I don't think he's that stupid.