good bye goodling, and dissatisfaction in minnesota

Washington's current scandal-ensnared Monica, Justice's Monica Goodling, has quit. All the better to prepare her defense I guess.

But the more interesting part of this report was news that three senior employees at the US Attorney's office in Minnesota demoted themselves rather than work directly for former Alberto Gonzales aid Rachel K. Paulose, recently appointed without benefit of Senate confirmation thanks to the quiet amendment of the Patriot Act. You may recall Paulose -- she was the Gonzales aide with delusions of grandeur one who had a ceremony for her new job more befitting the coronation of the King of the Belgians than the appointment of an assistant attorney in what is still, for the moment, a republic. I must say, based on that alone I don't blame them for not wanting to work directly under her.

But remember, boys and girls, as Alberto Gonzales' inept reign at the Department of Justice continues to unravel -- this isn't a scandal about misleading Congress over the dismissal of eight US attorneys. This is a scandal about the removal of US attorneys for either being too zealous in prosecuting Republican crooks like Randy "Duke" Cunningham, or for failure to politicize the office by indicting Democrats in New Mexico right before an election. And it is about the GOP effort to use the courts to suppress voters in predominantly Democratic areas.