"But they could not probe much deeper because key officials declined to be interviewed and a critical timeline drafted by the White House was so heavily redacted that it was 'virtually worthless as an investigative tool,' the authorities said. . . .
"The standoff is a central reason that Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey on Monday named a veteran public-corruption prosecutor, Nora R. Dannehy, to continue the investigation, directing her to give him a preliminary report on the status of the case in 60 days.
"But lawmakers who helped expose irregularities in the ouster of the prosecutors say they are concerned about more delays.
"Yesterday, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) wrote Mukasey a letter asking whether Dannehy would have the authority to compel documents from the White House and testimony from former presidential aide Karl Rove and former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers, who rejected invitations to meet voluntarily with the inspector general."
From Whitehouse's letter: "[T]his further investigation would perhaps not be necessary if you would simply insist on cooperation from the White House, and demand full cooperation by your own Office of Legal Counsel. Other Attorneys General, faced with White House challenges of the proper discharge of the Department's duties, have not blinked. Please do not blink."
Michael Isikoff writes for Newsweek: "Karl Rove shows up most nights these days as a commentator on Fox News and offers up political insights in columns for the Wall Street Journal and Newsweek. But when Justice Department investigators tried to ask him about his role in the mass firings of U.S. attorneys, the former White House political chief would say nothing, refusing to be questioned at all. . . .
"Rove and his attorney, Robert Luskin, did not respond to repeated request for comment. Rove and Miers had previously refused to answer questions from Congress about the firings, citing White House claims of executive privilege. But as inspector general Glenn Fine noted in the report, the claim of executive privilege did not apply in this instance, since the Justice Department is part of the executive branch itself-one key reason, the report says, that the White House counsel's office 'encouraged' current and former employees to cooperate with the probe. (The White House refused, however, to turn over its own internal emails about the U.S. attorney firings as well as a full copy of a special internal memo, prepared for White House counsel Fred Fielding last year about the firings, citing what it called 'confidentiality interests of a very high order.')"
Also see my Monday column, Pointing the Finger at the White House.
Jay Bookman blogs for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "In any other administration, at almost any other time in U.S. history, the report released this week by the Justice Department's inspector general would constitute a major Page One scandal."
David Iglesias writes in a Los Angeles Times op-ed: "As one of the nine U.S. attorneys fired by the Bush administration in 2006, I have been carefully monitoring the train wreck that followed. I am not happy to see the enormous damage that has been done to the Department of Justice, a once-venerated institution. But I am pleased that the internal investigations, including the report released Monday by the department, have fully vindicated what my colleagues and I have been saying for the last two years: Improper politicization has crippled the department, and the Bush administration's culture of partisanship-loyalty above all has done a terrible disservice to this country."
The Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board writes: "A Justice Department report this week on an in-house investigation into the 2006 political purge of federal prosecutors during President Bush's second term all but confirmed an ugly truth: The cover-up continues. . . .
"According to the inspector general's report, the full story behind these firings may never be known. How so? Due to the refusal to cooperate by the White House and former administration officials.
"Three key senior officials have refused to be interviewed so far: Karl Rove, the president's former political zen master; Harriet E. Miers, the one-time White House counsel whom Bush wanted to put on the U.S. Supreme Court; and Monica M. Goodling, the former Justice Department liaison to the White House.
"So even though Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey did the right thing on Monday in appointing a federal prosecutor to continue the investigation, he may have just kicked the can down the road."
The Denver Post editorial board writes: "No one has ever accused Gonzales of being a strong leader at Justice, [and] the report suggests that orders came from on high and largely were carried out by lieutenants with little oversight from Gonzales."
The Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial board writes: "Alberto Gonzales resigned as attorney general in August of last year, but the stench of his tenure still clings to the Justice Department."
The Honolulu Star Bulletin editorial board writes: "As the Bush administration limps through its final days, continuing an inquiry into the firing of U.S. attorneys for political purposes would seem pointless - except to restore trust and confidence in the institution duty bound to enforce laws without bias or partisanship."
The New York Times editorial board writes: "Congress's inquiry into the firing of nine United States attorneys has already uncovered improper and perhaps illegal activity at the highest levels of the Justice Department. There is considerable evidence that the prosecutors were fired because they insisted on bringing cases harmful to Republicans' electoral chances, or refused to bring cases harmful to Democrats. . . .
"For Ms. Dannehy's investigation to have any credibility, she must obtain sworn testimony from Mr. Rove, Ms. Miers and other witnesses who have defied Congressional subpoenas. She also needs to get the documents that the White House has refused to hand over to Congress and the inspector general."
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