It's not only Alberto Gonzales who's in trouble, Karl Rove has some explaining to do as well. As Shakespeare wrote,

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

Dan Froomkin, writing in Friday's Washington Post, The Politics of Distraction, warns us not to miss the forest for the trees. Whether Alberto Gonzales stays or goes, there's more to the story of the U.S. Attorney firings, and Karl Rove is in the midst of the soup.

More....

When Kyle Sampson, Alberto Gonzales' Chief of Staff, resigned Monday in PurgeGate, Gonzales and others said it was because he didn't share the extent of his discussions about firing U.S. Attorneys with the DOJ officials who were tasked with providing information about the firings to Congress.

Now, Sampson has lawyered up and is changing his tune. His lawyer has issued a press statement.

"The fact that the White House and Justice Department had been discussing the subject for several years was well-known to a number of other senior officials at the department, including others who were involved in preparing the department's testimony to Congress," according to the statement by Sampson's lawyer, Bradford A. Berenson.

But, he's also playing both ends against the middle. His statement also says he resigned because he failed his boss.

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow today backtracked off the Harriet Miers story. He says people's memories are now hazy.

"It has been described as her idea but ... I don't want to try to vouch for origination," said White House press secretary Tony Snow, who previously had asserted Miers was the person who came up with the idea. "At this juncture, people have hazy memories."

Sung to the tune of Jimi Hendrix.

Purple haze all in my brain
Lately things just dont seem the same
Actin funny, but I dont know why
scuse me while I kiss the sky

I'll be discussing the firings on CNN's Reliable Sources Sunday morning at 10:00 am ET.

Update: New York Times on Snow's statement.

CBS legal analyst and author of the Washington Post's Bench Conference blog makes the case today for replacing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales with Patrick Fitzgerald.

In my humble opinion, and recognizing that there may be a few other worthy candidates, there is only one person who perfectly currently fits the bill. He is a Republican and a Bush-appointee, but not a partisan or a crony or a hack like so many other current appointees. He has a sterling record of integrity and doggedness. He is obviously his own man and has shown a remarkable tendency during his career as a prosecutor for rankling partisans on both sides of the aisle. He is beholden to no one. His nomination to head the Justice Department by President Bush, and his ratification by the Congress, would send a clear message to the country that our government is willing to turn the page on the sordid recent history of the Office of Attorney General. His name? Patrick J. Fitzgerald.

Who better, Cohen asks, to restore integrity and non partisanship to the Justice Department?

To impeach or not to impeach? The question may soon be academic.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., predicted Wednesday that Gonzales would soon be out.

"I think he is gone. I don't think he'll last long," Reid said in an interview with Nevada reporters. Asked how long, Reid responded: "Days."

The first Republican in Congress to make a public demand for Alberto Gonzales' dismissal: Sen. John Sununu.

I'm not surprised Republicans are not rallying to the defense of Alberto Gonzales. They care more about 2008 than they do about Bush or Gonzales at this point. As Bob Dylan sang, "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."

Sen. Charles Schumer said Tuesday on Hardball that Kyle Sampson is the fall guy, much like Scooter Libby. I think Gonzales may be the fall guy.

Bush is standing by him right now, but how much pressure can he take from those within his party's ranks. Is anyone but Karl Rove not expendable to him? Remember when he named Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court? Bush fought the opposition until it reached a peak. Then, she withdrew her nomination and he accepted it.

Smart money would say the same will happen to Gonzales. Neither Bush nor Gonzales will listen to the Democrats. But if Republicans join the call for his resignation, it may be a done deal. Stay tuned.

The Washington Post has put up the text (all in pdf) of the e-mails exchanges and memos written by Justice Department and White House staff regarding the effort to remove U.S. attorneys.

The documents were obtained by The Washington Post and detail the political considerations and calculations made by key administration personnel:

• Set 1
• Set 2
• Set 3
• Set 4

• Washington Post: The Grand Elusion
• Ruth Marcus: Time to Go, Mr. Gonzales
• N.Y. Times Editorial: Politics, Pure and Cynical
• Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen has the first in a multi-part series in the Washington Post on the case against Alberto Gonzales.

Update: The transcript of the press conference is here.

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Live-Blogging Attorney General Alberto Gonzales''s News Conference on the U.S. Attorney firings. Scroll down for updates. Also check out TRex at Firedoglake.

Shorter version: I'm responsible and accountable but I'm staying on the job and will find out what happened.

2:15 p.m. Things he believes in:

The independence of the U.S. Attorneys. The AG and all all U.S. Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president. He believes in the role of the Senate in the confirmation process He believes in accountability. He is responsible. He accepts responsibility. He acknowledges mistakes here and will find out what went wrong.

He's overcome a lot of obstacles to become AG. He's not going to give up. He's committed to doing his job and that is what he intends to do here.

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CREW has sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales demanding the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the firing of U.S. Attorneys.

Recent revelations indicate that a top-ranking Department of Justice official knew that statements made by top Department officials were not true. Clearly, the Department of Justice cannot investigate itself and prosecute the misconduct of DOJ officials. CREW also asked the Department of Justice’s Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility to investigate the situation.

Crew's position:

With all the cries of "foul" over the U.S. attorney firings, I think it might be helpful for readers to know just how U.S. attorneys are selected.

The job has always been a political plum. The U.S. Attorney is nominated by the President, based on recommendations from the Senators in the particular District. Almost without exception, the appointee is from the President’s political party. When a new President is elected, we get new U.S. Attorneys.

The Assistant U.S. Attorneys get to stay, under civil service rules. They can't be ousted because of political reasons.

The travesty of the current U.S. Attorney firing scandal is not that U.S. Attorneys are being replaced. That is expected after an election, such as the one in 2004. It's that it's happening in 2007.

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Uh-oh. Another Justice Department official is on the hotseat. This time it's Michael J. Elston, Chief of Staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty.

Fired U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins of Arkansas testified he felt threatened by a phone call from Elston. Elston says it's all a misunderstanding and he's "horrified" by it.

In testimony and in an e-mail to fellow attorneys, Cummins said there was a "threatening undercurrent" to the call. He said Elston warned that the Justice Department would retaliate if the attorneys talked to the media or volunteered to testify in Congress.

Elston said he never intended such a message and recalls only expressing regret that the attorneys issue is "playing out in public."

Sen. Charles Schumer called on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to step down today. Sen. Joe Biden hedged his bets and said it's Bush's call but it wouldn't be a bad idea.

I doubt it will happen. He's too entrenched. Then again, it wasn't that long ago that Harriet Miers, another of Bush's long-time, loyal counsel, didn't get confirmed to the Supreme Court.

I think rather than having Gonzales step down now, we should concentrate on electing a Democrat as President in 2008, so that we hopefully can get a less ideological Attorney General in 2009.

However bad Gonzales may be, he's no John Ashcroft. It was Ashcroft, not Gonzales' Justice Department that brought us the Patriot Act, pushed Patriot Act II, the Feeney Amendment, created guidelines for attorney-client monitoring of conversations, demanded the DEA raid medical marijuana clinics in states that had legalized medical use of the substance, and so on and so on.

Gonzales hasn't had that much of an effect on the day to day workings of the criminal justice system, so far as I can tell -- at least not in my cases. The main restrictions we face are those created by Ashcroft -- and Congress' continued willingness to enact mandatory minimum sentences.

There's lots of blame to go around.

Update: If you feel differently, you can join in Big Tent Democrat's series on why Gonzales should be impeached. Philosophically, I agree. As a practical matter, I'd rather invest my time in seeing a Democrat get elected.