And It Ends Not With a Bang, But a Whimper

The investigation into the 2006 Bush administration Justice Department firing of nine federal prosecutors—about which, as longtime Shakers will recall, I blogged my fingers to bloody stumps—has quietly come to a close:

The Bush administration's Justice Department's actions were inappropriately political, but not criminal, when it fired a U.S. attorney in 2006, prosecutors said Wednesday in closing a two-year investigation without filing charges.

…Investigators looked into whether the Bush administration improperly dismissed nine U.S. attorneys, and in particular New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, as a way to influence criminal cases. The scandal added to mounting criticism that the administration had politicized the Justice Department, a charge that contributed to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

In 2008, the Justice Department assigned Nora Dannehy, a career prosecutor from Connecticut with a history of rooting out government wrongdoing, to investigate the firings.

"Evidence did not demonstrate that any prosecutable criminal offense was committed with regard to the removal of David Iglesias," the Justice Department said in a letter to lawmakers Wednesday. "The investigative team also determined that the evidence did not warrant expanding the scope of the investigation beyond the removal of Iglesias."

They got through those 22 million emails pretty quick. Lemme guess: Howie Schmidt assured them, cross his heart and hope to die, that there was nothing naughty to be found.

Oh well. No one remembers or cares about this shit, anyway. Like every other bit of mischief in which the Bush administration engaged, the investigation outlived our collective attention span.

Sob.