A remarkable report from an Inspector General in Florida not only clears the state Attorney General’s office for the firings of two foreclosure fraud investigators, it accuses bloggers and advocates of dictating and controlling investigations, sometimes for nakedly personal reasons. It has all the signs of a whitewash.

I’ve written about June Clarkson and Theresa Edwards, the two foreclosure fraud investigators at the Florida Attorney General’s office fired for being too competent in their investigations. This appeared to be a US Attorney-like scandal at the state level, but I wasn’t hopeful that much would come of it.

Boy, was I wrong.

Maybe it’s because I’ve done so much reporting on the foreclosure fraud issue, but I have to admit to some surprise that the firing of two Assistant Attorney Generals down in Florida, the hotbed of the housing crisis, hasn’t gotten much attention nationally. In my mind, this is the state-based equivalent of the US Attorney scandal. You have a conservative Attorney General who has fired two investigators who were tasked by a previous Republican regime with finding violations of the law. When they proved too effective for the next regime to stomach, they were canned. And now, the new AG, Pam Bondi, is smearing their reputations.