Attorney general defends firing of prosecutors

During testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, U. S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the firing of several prosecutors who were involved in high-profile investigations of wrongdoing by Republican officials was not political.
Among those prosecutors were the one who investigated the Duke Cunningham case, which resulted in Cunningham's conviction, and H. E. Cummins III of Arkansas, who investigated possible corruption in the way in which Missouri Governor Matt Blunt awarded lucrative license fee offices to campaign contributors, with many then being managed by a company set up by Lathrop & Gage, a law firm with ties to the governor.

The investigation ended with no prosecution, but as the Democratic blog Fired Up Missouri points out, most of the investigation took place after Cummins was asked to resign:

Clearly the Blunt investigation was a matter of concern within the Bush administration and his Justice Department. The idea that they "didn't realize" Cummins was investigating a GOP Governor at the time he was asked to resign is simply not plausible.