new york times op. ed. on u.s. attorneys, reloaded. . .

or, getting a clearer view, by
"standing on the shoulders of giants. . ."

in this case, "the shoulders" belong
to the folks at talkingpointsmemo, and
tpmmuckraker. . . what the gray lady's
opinion page has to say today is worthy,
and wise, but it clearly was derived from
at least two weeks of prior coverage -- on-the-ground
or pixel-and-pointer, shoe-leather or search-engine,
in-your-face, and ever-skeptical -- coverage,
by the blogosphere's leading source on all
things "blind-justice-subverted-by-politically-
motivated-attorney-purges" -- the
talkingpointsmemo.com.

follow. that. link. i'll wait. enough said.

now, let's catch the concluding
paragraphs of the new york times
opinion piece on the suject:

". . .The Senate Judiciary Committee has asked
to question Mr. Schlozman, and it should also
question Mr. Graves. But Karl Rove and the
former White House counsel Harriet Miers,
who appear to have been deeply involved in
the United States attorney firings, are
likely to know the most about what happened,
and should be made to testify as well. . .

A single Senate campaign may not seem
that important. But Missouri’s race was
among the nation’s closest, and if Mr.
Talent had won, the Republicans would
have kept their Senate majority. The
American people have a right to know
whether Mr. Schlozman was sent on his
brief assignment in Missouri to pursue
justice, or to affect the outcome of
an election. . ."

this -- and an image i'll run in a post,
here, to appear, in a moment -- deftly
sum-up why the purge-scandal matters.
harriet miers and karl rove were trying
to change the outcome of "swing" elections
by bringing largely baseless criminal lawsuits
against opponents, or by back-burnering/moth-
balling legitimate criminal investigations of
"friendlies" in tight races, all. . .

a l l e g e d l y.

almost time to tune-in to c-span 3
for the hearings, but as rep. chuck schumer
said yesterday -- it doesn't much matter
whether mr. gonzales stays or goes, as out-
side of the white house, almost no one
will work with him -- no one has confidence
in him. so, the reality is that someone
else will be running the department
of justice -- not gonzales, de jure, or de facto. . .

so, step aside mr. attorney general.
for the good of the nation.