Apparently, being political is now officially a crime in Washington.

“Two years ago, Robin C. Ashton, a seasoned criminal prosecutor at the Department of Justice, learned from her boss that a promised promotion was no longer hers.

“You have a Monica problem,” Ms. Ashton was told, according to several Justice Department officials. Referring to Monica M. Goodling, a 31-year-old, relatively inexperienced lawyer who had only recently arrived in the office, the boss added, “She believes you’re a Democrat and doesn’t feel you can be trusted.”

Ms. Ashton’s ouster — she left the Executive Office for United States Attorneys for another Justice Department post two weeks later — was a critical early step in a plan that would later culminate in the ouster of nine United States attorneys last year.

Ms. Goodling would soon be quizzing applicants for civil service jobs at Justice Department headquarters with questions that several United States attorneys said were inappropriate, like who was their favorite president and Supreme Court justice. One department official said an applicant was even asked, “Have you ever cheated on your wife?”

Ms. Goodling also moved to block the hiring of prosecutors with r?©sum?©s that suggested they might be Democrats, even though they were seeking posts that were supposed to be nonpartisan, two department officials said.

And she helped maintain lists of all the United States attorneys that graded their loyalty to the Bush administration, including work on past political campaigns, and noted if they were members of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group.”

In case you’ve been one of the many Americans that has a life and have missed this circus, Demcorats have been accusing Gonzales and the DOJ of firing US Attorney’s for “political purposes”, as opposed to the obviously ‘non-political purposes’ of the Clinton purge of all 93 US Attorneys. Believe that and I’ve got some land in Arkansas for you to buy.

Again, for the dumb and ignorant – speaking to Demorcats here – there is nothing illegal or unethical about hiring or firing US Attorneys for political purposes. Having much experience in this area I’m telling you that it is the way it has been done since the beginning.

One need only look at the list of AG’s from the Great Purge of ’93 to see this as an undeniable fact. In fact, John Podesta was the Monica Goodling of his era.

Now for the real story behind the story. Just who is keeping this story on the front burner and that is Senator Chuck Schumer. He’s been at the helm of the Bad Ship Witch Hunt from the beginning. The primary reason has to do with fulfilling a promise he made to his friend and partner in ‘crime’ James Comey. Schumer’s sights on Gonzales predate this story and as you’ll remember it was through Comey that Schumer got the Plame Game off the ground.

Back in March, Clarice Feldman wrote:

“Lost in the kerfuffle about the Gonzales firings of 8 US Attorneys is the fact that Chuck Schumer has a hidden agenda: acting not only as the Senator from New York but as well as the Attorney General of the U.S. He pushed for the appointment of a Special Counsel, wrote at least 2 letters to the Attorney General resquesting updates on the investigation and demanding action on the CIA referral letter respecting the public identification of Plame,. He obtained from Deputy AG Comey the promise to appoint a special counsel and looked the other way when one was appointed outside the statutory and constitutional framework for such appointments. Both Comey and Fitzgerald were well-known to him at the time having worked in the Southern District of New York .

If he succeeds in forcing Gonzales to resign , Gonzales’ Deputy will undoubtedly take over. That deputy, McNulty, like Comey and Fitzgerald, also comes from the office of the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York and is close to Schumer and his former colleage”

At the time McNulty looked like the most likey to succeed Gonzales, but around the water cooler those in the office know that Comey has been for some time calling in markers. Since Comey has been working at Lockheed/Martin since 2005, only to resurface (conveniently) this year during the witch trials, it’s not surprising his fingerprints are all over this. Comey has had it out for Gonzales since he essentially went over his head to Ashcroft about the NSA wiretaps. In fact it kind of puts a lot of things together – leaks, etc, when you consider Comey.

Now that Monica has been “forced” to testify the lefties are foaming at the jaw bone over what tales she will tell, but the simple fact is that there is still nothing to see here. In fact attorneys working in behest of agency officials have gone on to other tasks as they have been told it’s essentially over.

More important I think is a possible probe into Senator Chuck Schumer and why his vendeta against Gonzales was all incompassing. Especially in light of the fact that even after it was shown to him and the nation that he had a clear conflict of interest in the matter he continued in his quest. You wonder just would motivate someone to act with such vengance?

Questions to ponder as the circus continues.