Roundup: Writings on U. S. Attorney purge scandal

Following are some of the best analyses I've read over the past several days regarding the firing of the U. S. attorneys by the Bush Administration. These are only a tiny sampling of the many great explanations floating around. I selected them because they helped me understand what was really going on, and if I can understand it, anyone can. :-)

Josh Marshall and the Talking Points Memo team was one of the first to see the firings as just a tad unusual, as opposed to "standard procedure" when a new President takes office, then sunk their collective teeth in and didn't let go. Josh explains why the scandal really isn't hard to understand and wonders why the traditional media still can't - or won't - get it:

Like Atrios, I'm a bit mystified by Michael Kinsley's apparently determined obtuseness about the US Attorney Purge

The Carpetbagger Report reluctantly revisits the worn-out, predictable, and utterly full of shit "Clinton did it too" defense that the right wing never fails to trot out when they're busted. For a bunch of people who claim to loathe the Big Dog, they sure don't hesitate to copy every evil thing he (n)ever did and multiply it tenfold:

Again with the 'Clinton Did It' defense? (be sure to click the Media Matters link for the whole article)

Digby addresses both of the above topics with his/her unique perspective, dousing it with an entirely justified rant regarding the "creeping authoritarianism" exhibited by the Republican Party over the last few decades:

All scandals are not created equal

Former White House counsel John Dean explains the unitary executive theory and its relation to executive privilege, why BushCo is - to put it mildly - hesitant to submit to Democratic demands for Karl Rove and Harriet Miers to testify under oath, and doesn't envy new White House Counsel Fred Fielding's job:

New Developments in the U.S. Attorney Controversy

The always spot-on Washington Post columnist, E. J. Dionne Jr., doesn't disappoint with his report on executive privilege. Dionne's operative statement, "So many principles that Republicans held dear when they were trying to take Clinton down are no longer operative," hits it:

Inserting politics into Justice (free registration may be required)

Two of the Attorneys at the center of the scandal tell their stories:

David Iglesias: Why I was fired

Cummins fears corruption investigation led to his firing

Numerous DailyKos diaries address the sneaky non-governmental email address run off the Republican National Committee's server, gwb43.com, used by Rove and others to circumvent the Presidential Records Act, and oh, which just might present a teensy bit of a national security problem, among other things:

DailyKos diaries on "gwb43"

You know, no matter how disgusted we are by the activities of the Bush Administration, it's hard not to have a grudging admiration for the depths they will plumb in order to satisfy their powerlust and demonize anyone who looks at them the wrong way, and seem damn proud of it no less. It's sort of like how one can "admire" the way Ted Bundy managed to spend several years getting away with kidnapping, raping, and murdering dozens of girls and revisiting their decomposing corpses to engage in necrophilia, without making any real attempt to hide his crimes, and then remaining arrogant and defiant throughout his many trials and appeals.

Um, yeah. That's pretty much exactly what BushCo reminds me of. And if I wasn't opposed to the death penalty, I'd wish they'd end up just like Ted.