After thousands of pages of documents and hours of testimony from Justice Department officials, it remains unknown who in the Bush administration conceived the plan to fire eight U.S. attorneys and why.

Gonzales' testimony Thursday left senators convinced he wasn't behind the plan or its execution and in fact knew far less than a department head should have about the details. Former and current members of Gonzales' staff who've been interviewed by congressional investigators also have said their roles were limited or nonexistent.

Absent another explanation, the signs point to the White House and, at least in some degree, to the president's political adviser, Karl Rove.

David Iglesias, the former New Mexico U.S. attorney and one of the eight fired last year, said investigating the White House's role is the logical next step - one that would follow existing clues about Rove's involvement.

"If I were Congress, I would say, `If the attorney general doesn't have answers, then who would?' There's enough evidence to indicate that Karl Rove was involved up to his eyeballs."

Iglesias said another clue that the White House may have been the driving force is the relative lack of Justice Department documentation for the firings in the 6,000 pages of documents turned over to Congress.

"If you want to justify getting rid of someone, you should have at least some paper trail," Iglesias said. "There's been a remarkable absence of that. I'm wondering if the paper trail is at the White House."

Even if Gonzales decides to step down - he says he won't despite widespread Republican disappointment with his performance - Democrats say they'll continue their probe into whether politics inappropriately influenced the firings.

"The arrow points more and more to the White House," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "The one thing I can assure you of: This is not over, far from it."

This one is news to me. Via this story at the Brad Blog, it turns out that fired U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas Bud Cummins has alleged in this LA Times article and this article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that his firing may have had to do with an investigation of Missouri governor Matt Blunt and the law firm of Lathrop and Gage. The Dispatch: "Cummins'' investigation had focused on Missouri's openly political system of fee offices that dispense drivers licenses and license plates. The governor awards the contracts, which often go to political allies under a long-standing patronage system. Blunt had come under fire because his administration had privatized some state branches that dispensed the licenses and had allowed Lathrop & Gage to set up a behind-the-scenes system of private management firms that run dozens of offices.

On Oct. 4, Cummins announced that the investigation had concluded and that no charges were filed against anyone." Cummins in the Los Angeles Times: "In an interview Thursday, Cummins expressed disgust that the Bush administration may have fired him and the others for political reasons. 'You have to firewall politics out of the Department of Justice. Because once it gets in, people question every decision you make. Now I keep asking myself: 'What about the Blunt deal?'""

The Brad Blog notes that a partner at the Lathrop and Gage firm is Thor Hearne, who headed American Center for Voting Rights (an organization that has mysteriously disappeared), which has been the main NGO pushing the argument that voter fraud was rampant was deserved investigation and new election administration rules, such as voter id laws.

I can't underscore enough Hearne's highly placed position as a White House operative, as the man behind the GOP's entire, systematic, and well-financed "voter fraud" scheme/initiative (which has played directly into several of the other firings), his longtime efforts on behalf of and under the direct employ of MO Gov. Matt Blunt (son of the powerful GOP minority House Whip Roy Blunt), his position as a top attorney in the Republican National Lawyers Association (singled out by Rove during an April 2006 speech to that group of Republican election attorneys), and of course, as the national general counsel for Bush/Cheney '04 Inc.

Yesterday in a statement, Carnahan said the ruling "concluded that my office not only complied with federal law but also went beyond its requirements through our many efforts to assist the county clerks and election boards with their responsibilities. The ruling also confirmed that there is no evidence of voter fraud in Missouri.

"This is the culmination of 18 months of an unnecessary, unwise and costly lawsuit by the Department of Justice," Carnahan added...

In an interview with the paper, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski admits that the Bush Administration "blindsinded" her with Cohen's interim appointment, when her own picks, selected in consultation with fellow Republican Sen. Stevens, were rejected with no explanation after "a heck of a long time."

"So it gets to the point where you’re thinking, 'Wait a minute, this has been a heck of a long time. What is happening?’ And so the response to my inquiry is, 'We still haven’t, there’s some issues,’ and ultimately what we got back was, 'The picks were not acceptable by the White House,’ and yet no explanation as to why they’re not acceptable,'" Murkowski told the paper, adding that she first learned of Cohen's appointment from a media report while the Senate was in recess last summer. "You just think, 'It can’t be, wait.’ There was no consulting, no process, no nothing. That’s where I was certainly caught blindsided."
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