The scandal that wasn’t

You will recall that we were instructed on a daily basis during the second term of President Bush’s administration that the politicization of justice is a very bad thing. Indeed, it was a scandal of epic proportions. The occasion for the instruction was President Bush’s replacement of eight United States Attorneys in 2006.
It should have been tough to make a scandal of the replacement of United States Attorneys. They serve at the pleasure of the president. If the president is dissatisfied with their performance, he can and should sack them.
You may be relieved to know that the long investigation of the supposed scandal has now come to a conclusion. The AP has learned that the Justice Department will file no charges.
The AP recalls that the firings coupled with other allegations that Bush administration officials may have misled Congress about the reasons for the firings hobbled the Bush administration and contributed to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Gonzales is still raising money to pay the attorney’s fees he has incurred in the investigation.
One might almost think that the scandal was ginned up and publicized by opponents of President Bush for ulterior political purposes. One wonders if some introspection might not be called for on the part of those politicians who sold this bill of goods along with their media adjunct.
PAUL adds: The Washington Post, which peddled this non-scandal endlessly on its front page, buries the story about the Justice Department’s conclusion of the matter on page 5, where it runs the AP account. It’s too bad that Dan Eggen, or one of his fellow partisan liberal colleagues who breathlessly followed the story, didn’t write its obituary.

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