James Carville: US Attorney for Washington DC?

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Nightprowlktty has an excellent diary on dailykos explicating the Moyers/Marshall interview.

Npk highlights this passage from the transcript that gets to the heart of the US Attorney scandal, and the essence of the politicization of the Federal Government under Bush:

BILL MOYERS: Marshall's case in point: Timothy Griffin. Attorney General Gonzales picked him last year to replace the fired prosecutor in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Griffin's reputation was as a highly partisan operative ... first doing opposition research for The Republican National Committee and then As Karl Rove's deputy in the White House.

According to an internal Justice Department e-mail ... "Getting [Griffin] appointed [as U.S. Attorney] ... Was important to ... Karl."

JOSH MARSHALL: This, I think, is an example of, a lot of people say, 'Well, they're political appointees.' There's a difference, though, between being a political appointee and putting a political operative in charge of a U.S. attorney's office. I mean an example is: I think James Carville is an attorney. But-- no-- it wouldn't pass a laugh test to make James Carville a U.S. attorney in Washington DC. He wouldn't have credibility. He's too political.

BILL MOYERS: And is Tim Griffin in that category of a political operative?

JOSH MARSHALL: Oh, absolutely.

Read the whole thing here, it's called "Josh Marshall breaks through the Bull."

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