The document dump from the Department of Justice has shown one very well-known name on the list of those to possibly be fired:

U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald was ranked among prosecutors who had “not distinguished themselves” on a Justice Department chart sent to the White House in March 2005, when he was in the midst of leading the CIA leak investigation that resulted in the perjury conviction of a vice presidential aide, administration officials said yesterday.

The ranking placed Fitzgerald below “strong U.S. Attorneys . . . who exhibited loyalty” to the administration but above “weak U.S. Attorneys who . . . chafed against Administration initiatives, etc.,” according to Justice documents.

The chart was the first step in an effort to identify U.S. attorneys who should be removed. Two prosecutors who received the same ranking as Fitzgerald were later fired, documents show.

Now isn’t it ironic that Fitzgerald was also on the short list of names to fire? No there isn’t anything political here. One prosecutor who brought down a corrupt Republican congressman, Randy Cunningham, gets fired right after her investigation leads to indictments of the former third ranking person at the CIA. Now we have the man who successfully prosecuted Scooter Libby also on the list.

I wonder how Fitzgerald didn’t “distinguish” himself? I guess this isn’t distinguishing to the administration:

Fitzgerald also won the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in 2002 under Ashcroft

Fitzgerald has been coined one of the best prosecutors in the nation. That was well before the Libby trial. He has brought down some major corruption within government. This should remove any doubt on the entire purge and prove these firings were political.

I am no lawyer, but this is really starting to sound like conspiracy and collusion to me. Perhaps it is time for the judicial and legislative branch to look more seriously into this.