Senator Domenici should be censured and investigated

It seems like every single day there is something new in the saga over the eight federal prosecutors that were suddenly fired by Alberto Gonzales' Justice Department.  Now there is a new twist.  One of the prosecutors that was canned back in December can thank Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) for recommending that idea to the Justice Department.

So what was Domenici motive?  The Senator wanted the prosecutor's investigation of a Democratic kick-back scandal to coincide with the 2006 elections, in order to make it a campaign issue.  But after it did not turn out the way Domenici wanted, Domenici recommended to the Justice Department one month later that the federal prosecutor be fired:

New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici acknowledged Sunday that he called afederal prosecutor to ask about a criminal investigation several monthsafter calling for his replacement, but insisted he never pressured northreatened his state's U.S. attorney.

The prosecutor, David Iglesias, was fired by the Justice Departmentin December. Iglesias says he believes he was dismissed for resistingpressure from two members of Congress before last year's election torush indictments in a Democratic kickback investigation.

Ethics experts said Domenici's conduct may have violated Senaterules, which generally bar communications between members of Congressand federal prosecutors about ongoing criminal investigations.

According to Monday morning's New York Times, Domenici admits that he did indeed contact the prosecutor on an ongoing criminal matter:

“I asked Mr. Iglesias if he could tell me what was going on in thatinvestigation and give me an idea of what time frame we were lookingat,” Mr. Domenici said.

Since when is the Legislative Branch supposed to tell the Justice Department who to fire?  Since when is the Legislative Branch supposed to ask specific prosecutors about ongoing criminal investigations?

At least there is this good news: the Democrats won majority in November.  They have the power to issue subpoenas, hold hearings and expose corruption.  We should hope that John Conyers and Patrick Leahy -- the Judiciary Committee chairmen in both chambers of Congress -- will have the courage to get to the bottom of this Pete Domenici scandal, as opposed to being intimidated into giving their GOP Congressional colleague a pass.