I pointed out several weeks ago that Vern Ehlers’ (R-Margaret Chiara’s former district) call for Alberto Gonzales to resign probably had more to do with protecting his cronies in Grand Rapids than it had with any outrage over Gonzales’ actions. Get rid of Gonzales and prevent the good citizens of MI from learning what Republican scandal she had discovered, you know. But at least Ehlers had the good grace to make the call well before revelations came out about his associates’ presumed involvement in the crimes Chiara was investigating.

McCain, on the other hand, seems to have lost not only his mojo, but his sense of timing.

How else to explain McCain’s call for Gonzales to resign yesterday, the day after it was revealed that Rick Renzi’s top aide had called USA Charlton’s spokesperson to inquire about the probe targetting the Congressman, and the same day that the WSJ had an even more detailed report on the delays in the investigation of Renzi.

And while we’re discussing McCain, can anyone explain something to me? In all of Kyle Sampson’s plans for firing USAs, in all the lists where he details who will call which Republican Senators to alert them that their USA was about to be fired, he doesn’t mention McCain once. Not once. In NM, the one Republican Senator was informed; ditto NV. In WA, CA, and MI, there are no Republican Senators to contend with. But in AZ, the only state with two Republican Senators that lost its USA, the WH felt obliged to officially inform only one.

If I were really gullible, I’d simply believe that the WH called Kyl–and blew off the senior Senator from AZ–because Kyl sits on the judiciary. I’d be willing to believe that the WH figured they didn’t owe McCain the courtesy of a warning, at all, that they were firing his state’s USA. If I were really gullible, I’d believe that. But I’m not.

Don’t you think all the Presidential campaign reporters ought to be getting a really clear sense from McCain of when and how he was informed that the WH was going to figure his USA?

I’m posting from less than ideal WiFi, so this will be short and sloppy (and I may not be posting tomorrow at all). But I did want to share my first impression when I read Waxman’s latest:

Executive Order 12958 gives an arm of the National Archives, the Information Security Oversight Office, govemment-wide authority to conduct on-site inspections of all executive branch offices and agencies to ensure that security programs are effective. Yet according to the security officers, this Archives office was also denied access to the West Wing.

The security officers said that the Information Security Oversight Office informed the White House Security Office in 2005 that it would be conducting an inspection of offices within the White House. The security officers reported that after an initial meeting, a senior White House official intervened and instructed the White House Security Office to block any inspection of the West Wing.

I couldn’t help but think of this article Looseheadprop once linked to, describing another time Dick Cheney told ISOO to "Cheney" off.