Oversight's a bitch

I get the feeling that this is a potential scandal that outwardly would seem to be too complicated and distant for most Americans to understand or care about, but will in fact prove very damaging to the White House and Abu Gonzalez.

WASHINGTON, March 7 — The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday took the first step toward issuing subpoenas to five Justice Department officials whose names have surfaced in Congressional testimony about the dismissals of eight United States attorneys.

In a letter, Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is chairman of the Senate panel, asked Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to allow the officials to meet voluntarily with the committee, said Tracy Schmaler, a committee spokeswoman.

At the same time, the committee circulated drafts of subpoenas for the officials, including Kyle Sampson, the attorney general’s chief of staff, who was said to have been involved in identifying the United States attorneys who were told to resign, and Monica Goodling, a Justice Department liaison with the White House on political appointments.

In addition, the committee asked to interview Michael A. Battle, the outgoing director of the Executive Office of United States Attorneys, who told the prosecutors that they were being removed, and William Mercer, the acting associate attorney general who told one of the ousted prosecutors that he was being dismissed to make room for a replacement.

One other official on the possible subpoena list was Michael Elston, the chief of staff to Paul J. McNulty, the deputy attorney general, whose conversation with another dismissed United States attorney led the prosecutor to believe that department officials were threatening to retaliate against any of the ousted officials who publicly protested being fired. Mr. Elston has denied pressuring the prosecutor.

A Justice Department spokesman, Brian Roehrkasse, said the agency had already provided specific reasons the prosecutors had been asked to resign. “It is now clear that some members of Congress are no longer interested in those facts, but would rather play politics,” Mr. Roehrkasse said.

That's really lame. It was the changing "facts" that led to this bubbling to the surface. And it was when, finally, they leveled performance charges at US Attorneys who'd been commended in previous performance reviews that the fired officials were forced to publicly respond and not simply go quietly. And that's what people casually following the news are going to hear and be outraged about.

And it's always fun when a Senator lawyers up.

In another development, Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, has hired K. Lee Blalack II, a well-known defense lawyer, an aide to the senator said. The lawyer will represent Mr. Domenici in an inquiry by the Senate Ethics Committee into whether the senator tried to pressure a United States attorney about a sensitive public corruption case before the 2006 elections.

Mr. Blalack has represented former Representative Randy Cunningham in a San Diego corruption case and Bill Frist, the former Republican senator from Tennessee, after questions arose about his sale of stock from a blind trust.

Especially when he lawyers up with the guy who represented Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

Kudos to the TPM internets conglomerate for keeping this in the spotlight and keeping the heat on.