Online Ugliness

The Journal piece, by Evan Perez and Scot Paltrow, said the U.S. attorneys were "leaving or being pushed out"; that there was "concern that some high-level prosecutions may suffer"; and that "Democrats claim the administration is using a little-noticed clause in the Patriot Act to circumvent Senate confirmation" for some replacements.

Perez says the Justice strategy "obviously didn't work very well. I don't think they stopped us from saying anything we wanted to say."

Roehrkasse says in an interview: "Clearly we were operating without the full set of facts in making tactical decisions without knowing the larger context to the whole situation. In retrospect, this additional information would have been extremely beneficial in helping us make decisions about what to communicate from day one."

On Feb. 7, Roehrkasse wrote to other officials that Kyle Sampson, Gonzales's chief of staff, who has since resigned, suggested "a clearly worded op-ed and reaching out to ed boards who will write in the coming days. I think from a straight news perspective we just want the stories to die."

That didn't quite happen. On Feb. 16, Justice official Monica Goodling wrote colleagues, referring to Margaret Chiara, the U.S. attorney in Grand Rapids, Mich.: "Looks like someone is trying to out Chiara and it may break soon." Goodling added that Washington Post reporter Dan Eggen had called and "said he was following up on a tip that a female U.S. attorney in the midwest was asked by Main Justice to step down from her post on December 7."

Justice told Eggen -- who was focusing on the wrong prosecutor -- that he was off base, without disclosing that Chiara had been fired. Eggen reported her dismissal eight days later.

And speaking of the Gonzales furor, three Republicans--Arlen Specter, Chuck Hagel and Lindsey Graham--did not exactly rush to his defense on yesterday's talk shows.

Says Jonah Goldberg: "This is such a stupid, unnecessary scandal. Not since some carny deliberately climbed into a cannon and shot himself at a brick wall has there been a better example of self-inflicted stupidity. Doesn't Gonzales need to spend more time with his family?"

What impact will Elizabeth Edwards's illness have on her husband's campaign? Dick Polman has this assessment:

"Here's the thumbs-up scenario: His determination to soldier on as a candidate, while coping gracefully with family tragedy, adds gravitas to his image. Those who routinely dismiss him as a nice-looking lightweight, or as merely a rich trial lawyer, might be compelled to reassess him. Indeed, Edwards is encouraging this line of thinking; at his press conference, he depicted Elizabeth's illness as precisely the kind of test that our national leaders are typically forced to confront -- his own personal 9/11, as it were.

"He said: 'The maturity and the judgment that's required of the president, especially in these historic times, requires the president to be able to function and focus under very difficult circumstances' . . .

"Some observers buy this scenario; talking to the Associated Press, Democratic operative Chris Lehane (Al Gore's press spokesman in the 2000 campaign) said: 'These are situations where voters extrapolate an awful lot about a person's character. Those who have questioned whether Edwards had the toughness to be president could well draw a lesson from how he handles this situation.'