Things are really heating up in the US Attorney firing scandal. While David Iglesias is not saying specifically who pressured him to speed up an indictment of a Democratic candidate so as to give New Mexico Republican Representative Heather Wilson an advantage in a razor-close election, two anonymous sources have come forward to confirm that it was Wilson herself, and Senator Pete Domenici. As we understand it currently, first Wilson called Iglesias and asked him for details of the case and, at least indirectly, pressured him to speed up the indictment. Wilson became “curt:” when Iglesias did not respond to her requests. About a week and a half later, Domenici called Iglesias and was more direct. When Iglesias told him that the indictment would come in December, Domenici hung up on him.

Two months later, Iglesias was fired. Wilson and Domenici are currently taking the Fifth; former state governor Dave Cargo recently stated, “If I was Heather Wilson, I’d be thinking about taking a long trip to Baghdad, where the conditions are a little more subdued. … This has the potential to really cripple the (state) Republican Party,” he said. “And the way Heather and Pete are handling it, by essentially taking the Fifth, isn’t helping them.” What is perhaps most surprising is that Wilson and Domenici both personally contacted Iglesias, instead of having a flunky giving them deniability.

The initial White House excuse for the firings was poor performance reviews, but when those reviews were released, they all turned out to be positive. So yesterday, the White House took the rather unusual move of admitting that they had indeed fired the prosecutors for political reasons–something Alberto Gonzales swore to Congress he would never do. However, the reasons stated were that the prosecutors “were not doing enough to carry out President Bush’s policies on immigration, firearms and other issues.” In essence, an admission to a shady political move, but at least not a legally incriminating political move–copping to a lesser plea. What will be interesting is to review the records: is it true that these seven or eight attorneys did not push administration policies strongly enough? Did the administration ever tell them to directly, or give them prior indication that they were not doing what they were supposed to? And more telling, of all the US Attorneys who were not fired, did any of them do the same or less than the fired attorneys? Although perhaps these questions are moot–as long as the White House can cop to the lesser plea, they can admit to screwing up on any of those counts, and still not be criminally liable (I think). So the announcement may simply be a general stay-out-of-jail thing, and not an iron-cast alibi.

However, that announcement may be too little, too late, and has a ring of desperation to it–last-minute cover-your-ass before Iglesias and the other (former) US Attorneys testify before Congress (where I believe they will be able to speak more freely, being protected from slander or libel charges).

This could get very interesting.