It's raining subpoenas

By now, it has circulated like a wildfire throughout the progressive blogosphere that House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers is planning to issue a boat-load of subpoenas -- all of which pertain to the sudden firing of eight federal prosecutors.  We know for sure that at least six of those eight prosecutors had positive performance ratings.  A loophole in the Patriot Act allows Attorney General Gonzales to hand-nominate new federal prosecutors and have them confirmed without Senate approval.

John Conyers defended his decision to issue subpoenas:

"This is the most egregious allegation so far that the Administrationhas allowed partisan politics to corrupt the selection and retention ofU.S. Attorneys. Worse, it appears to be part of a pattern of ofpartisan activity in this area and should be unacceptable to anyoneconcerned about a fair and efficient criminal justice system. TheJudiciary Committee is committed to getting to the bottom of this andbringing checks and balances back to the federal justice system."

Four U.S. Attorneys that were part of the massive wave of firings were among those subpoenaed.  They will appear before the House Judiciary Committee on March 6th, which is next week.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is a bit behind, as usual.  However, they are also expected to start issuing subpoenas.