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Just when you think the layer of Beltway smarm couldn't get any thicker?  Think again:

On Tuesday, U.S. Attorney David Iglesias is expected to name Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) and Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) as the two lawmakers who called him in mid-October to pressure him about his office's investigation of a state Democrat.

As Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) told The Washington Post and ethics expert Stanley Brand told McClatchy, Wilson's and Domenici's calls (as described by Iglesias) likely broke House and Senate ethics rules. But the question is whether the ethics committees would actually follow through with an investigation….

Given the inert tendencies of the ethics committees in both houses, however, only a large amount of public pressure is likely to push them to investigate (e.g. ex-Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL))

Well, that's nice. A publicly elected official tries to influence a US attorney into speeding up an investigation into a political opponent for political purposes…and the Ethics Committees of both houses of Congress can't be bothered to look into the matter — even when the US Attorney has been fired from his job as a consequence of refusing to push forward a politically motivated vendetta case — unless public pressure is brought to bear.

Well, I got yer public pressure right here.  If CREW or anyone else files a complaint, we are so on the fax machines and phones.  Me and every person I can drag along with me, because that sort of disgusting misuse of the public trust is an outrage.

Kudos to the folks at the TPM Muckraker who have been all over this story.  And more from The Hill on this:

A House Judiciary subcommittee approved today the first in what is expected to be an avalanche of subpoenas to Bush administration officials. They will likely explore corruption and mismanagement allegations on everything from pre-war Iraq intelligence to the mishandling of the response to Hurricane Katrina.

The first round of subpoenas concern the recent controversial firings by the Bush administration of seven U.S. attorneys, some of whom were pursuing public corruption cases against Republican members of Congress….

Democrats have come to the defense of several dismissed prosecutors, in particular Lam and Cummins of Arkansas. They have noted that Lam was leading the probe of ex-Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.), while Cummins was removed to make room for a former aide to White House senior adviser Karl Rove. Other U.S. attorneys, including those in Nevada and Arizona, were acting on corruption charges against GOP lawmakers before their resignations were requested.

Iglesias, a New Mexico U.S. attorney, asserted at a press conference yesterday that he was fired for purely political reasons. He also charged that prior to the November elections, two federal elected officials asked him to speed up the probes of local politicians.

There was a Republican response in The Hill story, but they were given anonymous cover, so I'm not reprinting it here.  I'll be trying to keep an eye on this next week, as we also return to court hoping for a verdict in the Libby case, so stay tuned.

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