It occurs to me that the reason Alberto Gonzales is still our Attorney General is probably because he has the president's balls firmly in his hand. They can't cut him loose and try to make him the fall guy because he's been part of dubya's inner circle for too long. This is the guy that dubya went to back in 2002 and said:

"Hey 'Berto, I need you to think up some fancy lawyer-talk way of saying them laws about torture and such don't apply to me when I'm busy making war. Okay? And use the word quaint, I like 'at word. Quaint, hee-hee."

This is a guy the preznit has to stand behind, but if this story keeps going where it looks to be headed, dubya will have to take a page from his father's book and issue a preemptive pardon on his way out of office. This administration and the policies they have implemented are looking more and more like an attempted religious coup.

Talking Points Memo has been bird-dogging the US Attorney purge story for weeks now and it's really getting good as the press begins to smell blood and look past the administration' lies. Make no mistake about it. This whole thing is about the administration trying to hide it's standard practice of bypassing Congress whenever possible to install unqualified, glassy-eyed social regressives in positions of authority in our government. I was over there catching up on the latest, and I found this post first.

It seems that back in early 2006, Rachel Paulose was appointed acting US Attorney for the District of Minnesota and in August she was formally nominated for the job. She was confirmed on the last day of the Republican-controlled 109th Congress without a hearing or vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee via some technicality (How is that even possible?) so the Attorney General didn't have to use the Patriot Act back-door method to appoint her. So, how's she been doing in her new job? Pretty much as expected:

Four of her top staff voluntarily demoted themselves Thursday, fed up with Paulose, who, after just months on the job, has earned a reputation for quoting Bible verses and dressing down underlings.

"They did it jointly because they couldn't stand her anymore," the source said, citing what been described as her "dictatorial management style and general lack of management experience."

No question, that's a loyal bushie, right there. But it looks like the politicization of the Justice Department actually began under the reign of that old sourpuss from right here in Misery, John Ashcroft. TPM also led me to this story in yesterday's Boston Globe about Regent University. That's what Pat Robertson's law school for jeebus in Virginia Beach is called now. It used to be the Christian Broadcast Network University School of Law. My what a name change can do for a "tier four" school, huh? The Bush administration is apparently chock-full of their graduates:

Graduates of the law school have been among the most influential of the more than 150 Regent University alumni hired to federal government positions since President Bush took office in 2001, according to a university website.

One hundred fifty? That sure seems like a lot. I wonder how that could have happened? Well, there's this:

Not long ago, it was rare for Regent graduates to join the federal government. But in 2001, the Bush administration picked the dean of Regent's government school, Kay Coles James, to be the director of the Office of Personnel Management -- essentially the head of human resources for the executive branch. The doors of opportunity for government jobs were thrown open to Regent alumni.

Yep. No conflict of interest there. And then there's this:

Their path to employment was further eased in late 2002, when John Ashcroft , then attorney general, changed longstanding rules for hiring lawyers to fill vacancies in the career ranks. Previously, veteran civil servants screened applicants and recommended whom to hire, usually picking top students from elite schools.

We don't need no fancy elite school education around here. This is a kick ass and take names Justice Department. But I'm sure all those positions are entry-level and relatively insignificant, right? Everybody knows Regent University's stated purpose for existence is to eliminate the separation of church and state, right? This is not a very prestigious law school. Nobody's going to give them any really important jobs, right? Right?!? Maybe not so much:

One of those graduates is Monica Goodling , the former top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who is at the center of the storm over the firing of US attorneys.

Documents show that Goodling, who has asserted her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to avoid testifying before Congress, was one of a handful of officials overseeing the firings. She helped install Timothy Griffin , the Karl Rove aide and her former boss at the Republican National Committee, as a replacement US attorney in Arkansas.

True believers always get their rewards, right? Which brings me back to John Ashcroft? What do you think he's doing these days? Go on, guess:

Adding to Regent's prominence, its course on "Human Rights, Civil Liberties, and National Security" is co taught by one of its newest professors: Ashcroft.

Oh yeah. You know he's practically a god among those crazies. This all ties in with my theory that pretty much the only people left who still support dubya are the same ones who believe jeebus is coming back just any minute now, and boy are some people going to be sorry. The thought that the same people are running substantial parts of my government is very disturbing for me.