Why Some Democrats Wish Bush Would Change U.S. Attorneys

John Kass reports on Patrick Fitzgerald:

Patrick Fitzgerald's bosses sent a memo to the White House saying Fitzgerald was among those prosecutors who "had not distinguished themselves"--a way of saying he's mediocre.

The Washington hive assumed the downgrading was only about Fitzgerald's successful perjury prosecution of "Scooter" Libby--the former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney--as part of the CIA leak case.

But it may have more to do with his pursuit of corruption in Illinois among powerful Combine Republicans and Democrats. And his pursuit of massive sleaze in Mayor Richard Daley's City Hall, corruption the national media ignore because it doesn't fit into the narrative they've created about modern Chicago. Once the hive establishes a narrative, the bees stick with it, stubbornly, and buzz and buzz.

After the Fitzgerald story ran, congressional Democrats oversimplified it into a club, to publicly pound virtue into the Republican White House, even as Democrats were given a media pass about their own urges to grasp the federal hammer. Then a balloon was floated:

Move Fitzgerald to Washington to replace the hapless and soon-to-resign Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales.

Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) joked about Fitzgerald as attorney general, which blew up into a story, though Durbin insisted he was kidding and wants Fitzgerald to stay put.

A good one by Kass.