"Nothing Improper"

So said Gonzo Gonzales.

[N]ew documents surfaced Wednesday showing that at least four of the eight targeted U.S. attorneys reported being told to stay quiet about their dismissals by Mike Elston, the top aide to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty.

[...]

[Daniel Bogden, the former U.S. attorney for Nevada] said [Associate Attorney General William Mercer] told him on Dec. 7, 2006, that the firings were being carried out "so the Republican Party would have more future candidates for the federal bench and future political positions."

  Yahoo News article

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Purge

Sampson couldn't say who had put Bogden on the list (even though he was the "keeper of the list") or why. He'd never looked at Bogden's performance, and neither did Alberto Gonzales. The only thing he can remember is that there was "a general feeling among senior staffers at the Justice Department that a 'stronger leader' could be put in Nevada." So [Bogden] was fired. And then the Justice Department told Congress that he'd been fired for "performance" reasons.

All that remained, apparently, was to find out what those were.

The story at TPM Muckraker says Gonzo's assistant McNulty balked at firing Bogden because, "he was concerned about Bogden, 50, getting a job outside government after 16 years at Justice and being able to care for his family." When someone in the meeting (including Sampson and Goodling) pointed out that Bogden wasn't married, McNulty withdrew his objection, and Bogden went down. Nothing improper here.

....and hey, do what you want....you will anyway.