Uncomfortable on the hotseat, Michael Elston has resigned from his position at the Justice Department. Elston was chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, who resigned last month.

Mr. Elston is the fifth Justice Department official who played a role in the dismissals to resign in recent months. In addition to Mr. McNulty, others are D. Kyle Sampson, former chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, and Monica M. Goodling, a senior aide to Mr. Gonzales.

The transcript of the disbarment ruling for Durham D.A. Mike Nifong is now available here. The Sunday papers will be filled with editorials about Nifong's disgraceful conduct. But, the money quotes are these:

The prosecutor, as any defense lawyer will tell you, is imbued with an aura that if he says its so it must be so. And even with all the constitutional rights that are afforded criminal defendants, the prosecutor merely by asserting a charge against defendants already has a leg up. And when that power is abused, as it was here, it puts constitutional rights in jeopardy. We have a justice system but the justice system only works if the people who participate in it are people of good faith and respect those rights.

....It is very difficult to find any good in this situation that brings us here. I can only think of a couple things. One is that there are very few deterrents upon prosecutorial misconduct. For very good policy reasons, prosecutors are virtually immune from civil liability. About the worst that can happen to them for the conduct of a case is that the case can be overturned. The only significant deterrent upon a prosecutor is the possibility of disciplinary sanction. And here the most severe sanction is warranted.

While many, and perhaps most prosecutors don't cheat and lie, Nifong is not the only one. This happens to many defendants all over the country who don't have the resources for top-flight lawyers who will fight for them to the end.

According to the Innocence Project,

Bump and Update: (live blogging court ruling now)

The panel has deliberated. Disbarment is the only appropriate recommendation. The root of this case is self-deception arising out of self-interest. We had a prosecutor in a case where his self-interest collided with race, sex and class. If part of a John Grisham novel, it would be too contrived. He was facing a primary and he was politically naive. We can draw no other conclusion but the initial statements he made [to the media] were to further his political ambition.

Then, he refused to change his mind and accept the facts as they developed even in the face of a declaration of actual innocence by the Attorney General. (Even yesterday, on the witness stand, he clung to the mistaken belief that something happened.)

Aggravating factors found: selfish motive, a pattern of misconduct, multiple offenses, refusal to acknowledge misconduct, substantial experience in practice of law.

Mitigating factors: lack of prior record and character.

Finding: Aggravating factors outweigh mitigating factors.

This matter appears to be an aberration in both Nifong's career and the way justice is handled in North Carolina. But we have to recommend the most severe penalty, disbarment.

More...

The White House has been straight out lying about the US Attorney Purge. As Steve Benen points out, just yesterday, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow lied about the lying:

Q: Okay, but at the beginning of this story, the President, you, Dan Bartlett, others said on camera that politics was not involved, this was performance-based. MR. SNOW: That is something -- we have never said that.

Of course, Tony Snow himself said exactly that:

"[W]hat the President has -- the Department of Justice has made recommendations, they've been approved. And it's pretty clear that these things are based on performance and not on sort of attempts to do political retaliation, if you will."

Was the Media always so ho hum about being lied to by the White House? Why no. Of course when President Clinton's White House did not give the Beltway Gasbags the answers they wanted, it was a Constitutional Crisis:

The Beltway Pundits think they are moderate by virtue of being Beltway Pundits. Joe Klein is one example. Tim Russert is another:

Hannity: I think the Democrats have gone further left than anybody would have anticipated. I think these bloggers have really gotten to them. I think they’re really positioning themselves that they’re gonna have a very difficult time moving center. Do you see that?”

Russert: Absolutely…

The view expressed by Russert is extreme. I could argue that just by virtue of agreeing with Hannity Russert's is an extreme view but instead I'll cite a poll:

Were Democrats asleep at the switch Friday, or what?

The Homeland Security funding bill (H.R. 2638) came up for a vote in the House. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) tacked on an amendment preventing what he calls "sanctuary cities" from receiving federal funding. What's a "sanctuary city?" It's not defined, but Tancredo uses it to describe cities in which local police don't assist the feds in busting the undocumented. He lists Denver and Boulder as examples.

Tancredo has tried to get this amendment passed seven times before and failed each time. Today, in a surprise move, he succeeded. The vote was 234 to 189, with 50 Democrats voting in favor. (More on the votes here.)

THOMAS describes the Amendment:

More...

This is ugly:

Newly released files from the lynching of two black couples more than 60 years ago contain a disturbing revelation: The FBI investigated suspicions that a three-term governor of Georgia [Eugene Talmadge] sanctioned the murders to sway rural white voters during a tough election campaign. ...

"I'm not surprised ... historians over the years have concluded the violently racist tone of his 1946 campaign may have been indirectly responsible for the violence that came at Moore's Ford," said Robert Pratt, a University of Georgia history professor who has studied the case. "It's fair to say he's one of the most virulently racist governors the state has ever had." ...

Today, Talmage is remembered with a statue on the grounds of the Capitol. His name is also on the steel bridge spanning Savannah's harbor.

Bump and Update: Embattled D.A. Mike Nifong, while testifying in his ethics trial today, announced on the stand he is going to resign.

Facing the loss of his law license, a tearful Mike Nifong said Friday he will resign as district attorney, more than a year after he obtained rape indictments against three Duke University lacrosse players who were later declared innocent by state prosecutors. "My community has suffered enough," Nifong said from the witness stand at his ethics trial on allegations that he violated rules of professional conduct in his handling of the case.

You can watch the video of his announcement here.

Why make the announcement now? Perhaps because the trial has gone really badly for him, a decision is expected tomorrow and he's hoping for suspension rather than disbarment. If he admits his mistakes and resigns, perhaps he will avoid disbarment and be able to practice law again one day.

Closing arguments and deliberations are Saturday beginning at 9:00 a.m.

Original Post Below:

You may not care about Paris Hilton and her 23 day jail sentence, but I care about hypocrisy in the criminal justice system.

The L.A. Times reports:

[Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky] Delgadillo had argued that the hotel heiress should spend more time in jail for driving with a suspended license and violating her probation on alcohol-related reckless driving charges. Later that day, Delgadillo acknowledged in response to inquiries from reporters that his wife had been ticketed for failing to obey a right-turn-only sign while driving her personal car with a suspended license in 2005.

Paris was sentenced for a probation violation for driving under suspension while on probation. Mrs. Delgadillo also drove under suspension and committed a traffic offense while doing so. She was not charged with driving under suspension, only the traffic offense, and was fined $186.00.

Mrs. Delgadillo was under suspension for causing a traffic accident and not having insurance. According to California law, the penalty for driving under suspension is a fine between $5,000 and $25,000.00. She also failed to file an accident report.

There's more....

Glenn Greenwald and a recommended dkos diary by Tom Rinaldo again sound the alarm bells about the attempted gin up for a war with Iran. I must raise my previous objections to this line of thinking again -- any war with Iran will use the pretext of Iranian involvement in the Iraq Debacle. Glenn quotes Joe Lieberman's column I noted earlier:

Facts on the ground also compel us to recognize that Iran is doing everything in its power to drive us out of Iraq, including providing substantive support, training and sophisticated explosive devices to insurgents who are murdering American soldiers. Iran has initiated a deadly military confrontation with us, from bases in Iran, which we ignore at our peril, and at the peril of our allies throughout the Middle East.

Lieberman desperately wants a war with Iran but realizes the only way he can have one is by arguing that Iran is attacking our soldiers in Iraq. This central fact must be the lede in every discussion of potential war with Iran.

Joe Lieberman filed his yearly WSJ glowing report on Iraq:

I recently returned from Iraq and four other countries in the Middle East, my first trip to the region since December. In the intervening five months, almost everything about the American war effort in Baghdad has changed, with a new coalition military commander, Gen. David Petraeus; a new U.S. ambassador, Ryan Crocker; the introduction, at last, of new troops; and most important of all, a bold, new counterinsurgency strategy. The question of course is--is it working? Here in Washington, advocates of retreat insist with absolute certainty that it is not, seizing upon every suicide bombing and American casualty as proof positive that the U.S. has failed in Iraq, and that it is time to get out.

Joe does not agree of course.

Taylor Marsh and a host of people say:

There is no doubt that Reid said what he said [that Pace is incompetent]. The question now is, why in the world did Reid let this hang out there all day without confirming it? Since he did the honorable thing and told Pace to his face what he thought of him, why not also confirm to someone, anyone? Also, since Reid believes it why not take the opportunity to also come out and stand by your story strongly at least in a statement? And why sidestep the question at a press conference? Again, the strongest thing to do when you've leveled a charge like this is stand up and stand behind it. Reid's silence all day while the rest of us tried to get to the bottom of this was ridiculous. It makes no sense.

With due respect, I disagree with almost every particular of this analysis. I will explain on the flip.