Justice Dept - Minnesota Division

While we are all aware of the troubles of the Department of Justice in Washington where Alberto Gonzalez has become everyone's favorite piñata, dangling in the air waiting for the next whack, but now the troubles have spread to my old home town, the home of squeaky clean politics and Jesse 'the Bod' Ventura. You can read about it in the WaPo here.

It seems that three top federal attorneys resigned rather than work with the new US attorney.

"The discontent in Minnesota centers on U.S. Attorney Rachel K. Paulose, 34, who
previously worked for Gonzales and his deputy, McNulty. She is part of a wave of more than a dozen Bush administration insiders appointed as federal prosecutors over the past two years, according to government records. "

This is all very embarrassing for the DOJ given that it is trying to tamp down the situation and get it off the front pages. A local law professor at Hamline University, a school I know very well, explains:

"You never really hear political rumblings out of that [Minnesota] office, so it comes as some surprise to see three people step down like this all at once," Schultz said. "It raises the question of whether attorneys are starting to become uncomfortable about the politicization that seems to be going on at Justice."

One can only hope. Makes me homesick for Saint Paul .... it will be lovely in a month or so when winter ends.