Republican Congressman Chris Cannon of Utah recently said that there is “nothing wrong” with firing a federal prosecutor solely “for the reason of politics.” I wonder how Congressman Cannon would feel if a newly elected Democratic president appointed a prosecutor for the sole purpose of investigating and digging up some dirt on Cannon and trying to prosecute him. Hey, it’s just politics!

One big difference between a president and a king is that the president can’t shout “off with his head” at anyone he doesn’t like. A president can’t use the muscle and power of the Federal Government to prosecute his enemies and protect his friends.

Right?

Maybe not. Bush has been firing federal prosecutors solely on the basis that they hadn’t demonstrated sufficient loyalty to him. For President Bush, the Justice Department is just another political tool, and he can use it to prosecute his enemies and protect his political allies from prosecution.

As I’ve said before, this is not business as usual. Every administration plays its political games and pushes its agenda. But don’t forget this important piece of information: Up until the Patriot Act revised the law (purportedly for reasons of national security), every time a president fired a US Attorney, the replacement US Attorney had to receive Senate confirmation. Thanks to the Patriot Act and the mantra of “national security,” Bush gets to replace the fired prosecutors with whomever he wants, without Senate approval.

Before the 2006 elections that threw them out of office, the Republican Congress — under the mantle of national security — handed massive amounts of new power over to the Bush Administration, and President Bush has been busy abusing that power.

There’s so much cleaning up to do.