I've been seeing how right-wing pundits have been reacting to this purge of U.S. Attorneys, and it's a chorus of, "There's nothing illegal here, the president can fire U.S. Attorneys whenever he wants."

And they are right, in a narrow legal sense. And going through the document dump today, I can see how people can try and confuse the real issues here. It's time to keep score of what actually is being done wrong here, and by who, covering the areas of legal, constitutional and ethical violations.

Legal
Perjury: This one is pretty cut and dried. It's pretty clear that Alberto Gonzales and some of his people lied under oath before Congress. Telling Congress that the firings were for "performance" and not political is technically perjury. Gonzales will probably claim that he was misinformed by his staff, but the emails coming out show this to be a lie, too. He might slither his way out of this, but only by blaming his staff.

Obstruction of justice: This is where it can really get interesting. If it can be proved that the firings were done to hinder investigations of Republicans allies, then that is obstruction. The headline case for this is Carol Lam, USA in San Diego. The email from Kyle Sampson talking about the "problem" they have with Lam is pretty damning. As people start talking and making deals to save their hides, who knows what will come rolling out.

Constitutional
High crimes and misdemeanors: While there is no specific law saying that a president can't hire and fire U.S. Attorneys on the premise of prosecuting enemies and helping friends, it goes against the spirit of the Constitution. For there to be a fair and impartial system of justice, you can't have prosecutors who are doing partisan dirty work. This is where the "high crimes and misdemeanors" clause in the Constitution comes into play. Could it be an impeachable office? Sure, but with 49 Republicans in the Senate, there is no chance that anyone would be removed from office. It would take something more damning that this for 15 Republicans to ditch their president.

Ethical
Certainly playing politics with the justice system crosses ethical lines. Lying to Congress does, too. Less obvious is the damage done to these Republican attorneys who were axed. Reading some of the emails, you have to feel for these people, like the USA in Michigan who was a loyal Republican, willing to go along with the ruse if she could get another job to keep her from facing a financial disaster. Bush, Gonzales and Company trashed their reputations in order to hide the political nature of the firings. While it's possible they might get away with this, it's a wake-up call for others who work in the Bush Administration to see how they treat their own. Don't be surprised when you hear other Bush officials start blowing whistles.