"Retribution and intimidation"

Former deputy attorney general Comey testifies.

The testimony by Mr. Comey, who was once the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, contrasted starkly with assertions of current Justice Department officials who have said the eight dismissed prosecutors were removed mainly because of failings in their performance.

Mr. Comey served under Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and his immediate predecessor, John Ashcroft. His departure was regarded as a turning point for the leadership of the Justice Department when more ideological aides, most lacking prosecutorial experience, gained power.

Mr. Comey praised several of the dismissed United States attorneys with whom he said he had worked closely. He called John McKay of Seattle “charming,” “passionate” and “one of my favorites.” He said Daniel G. Bogden of Nevada was “as straight as a Nevada highway and a fired-up guy.”

He said Paul Charlton of Arizona was “one of the best,” and described David Iglesias of New Mexico and Carol Lam of San Diego as highly effective prosecutors.

He said he was less familiar with two other ousted prosecutors, H. E. Cummins of Arkansas and Margaret Chiara of Michigan, but never had a reason to doubt their performance.

Kevin Ryan of San Francisco was the only one of the eight prosecutors whom Mr. Comey said should have been replaced.

Mr. Comey testified a day after Justice Department officials said the agency had opened an internal inquiry into whether Monica M. Goodling, a former senior aide to Mr. Gonzales, had sought to screen applicants for jobs as career prosecutors to determine their political loyalty to the Bush administration.

In his testimony, Mr. Comey said that the accusation, if true, would be a severe blow to the department.

“That is the most, in my view, the most serious thing I have heard come up in this entire controversy,” Mr. Comey said. “If that was going on, that strikes at the core of what the Department of Justice is. You just cannot do that. You can’t hire assistant United States attorneys based on political affiliation. It deprives the department of its lifeblood, which is the ability to stand up and have juries of all stripes believe what you say and have sheriffs and judges and jailers — the people we deal with — trust the Department of Justice.”

In a letter on Thursday to the department, Ms. Goodling’s lawyer, John M. Dowd, said she would refuse to cooperate with the internal investigation, citing her constitutional right to avoid self-incrimination. The letter was written to the department’s inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility, which are jointly conducting the inquiry.

Ms. Goodling had previously refused to appear before the House Judiciary Committee, which has voted to grant her immunity from prosecution to obtain her testimony about her role in the dismissals.

It is not clear whether the department’s inquiry would interfere with the House efforts to secure her immunized testimony, but Mr. Dowd in his letter expressed annoyance that the department had disclosed its inquiry.

“The timing,” he wrote, “smacks of retribution and intimidation.”

Yes, yes it does. In the Bush White House, they eat their young.

Meanwhile, a reader writes to Josh Marshall.

Apparently during Comey's testimony today he said that one of the reasons McKay got himself in hot water with the DOJ heavyweights was because he was pushing for additional resources to investigate the murder of Tom Wales, who was an Assistant US Attorney in Seattle. Tom Wales was shot and killed in 2001. What nobody has talked about, and what you may not be aware of, is the fact that Tom Wales was extremely active in attempting to get tighter gun control laws passed here in Washington.

Think about that for a second. A pro-gun control federal prosecutor was shot and killed. John McKay was agitating for more resources to bring his killer to justice. That pissed off DOJ, who apparently thought that McKay should spend his time going after bogus voter fraud prosecutions rather than solve the murder of a guy who was in favor of gun control. If you don't think the fact that Tom Wales' political views weren't taken into consideration by the higher ups at DOJ when they decided to punish McKay for fighting to find his killer, you haven't been paying attention to the way these guys have operated for the last 6 years. Every single thing they do is about politics, and the political views of those they help or hurt.

The bottom line of this whole McKay firing could be summed up in this way: try to catch killers, you get fired. File BS charges of voter fraud, you keep your job.

The defining scandal of the Bush/Cheney/Rove era. Politics trumps all; total disregard for the law and even established norms of behavior; destroy anyone who threatens to expose the mendacity.