Paulose had been in her position for a year as an interim U.S. attorney before she was sworn-in officially last month. She created controversy when her lavish swearing-in ceremony included a professional photographer, a color guard, and a choir.

What is her agenda? Why was she given the job in the first place?  She's the youngest U.S. Attorney in the country and had only three years experience as a prosecutor in the office -- after which she went on to work for Gonzales and McNulty.

The rational people on staff are doing their best to hunker down and pull their shells in tight, where they won't have to risk their conscience and careers every hour on the hour.

Goodling just resigned with the prayer that God will "continue to shower his riches" on Gonzales as part of her formal resignation statement.

Michele Bachmann (Minnesota's answer to Florida's Harris) is the congressional Representative for the 6th District in Minnesota.  She is convinced that God spoke to her regarding His decision that she be elected.

Minnesota's Senator Norm Coleman attends the Moonie church and participates in their ceremonies conflating Rev. Moon with our government.

W has no idea of what to do with himself if he has to actually leave the White House.  He's pretty sure Uncle Dick will let him stay.  Wouldn't it be nice to have President Cheney really in charge and taking care of everything?

This theocracy is not going to go away without a fight.  The Republican National Convention coming up in St. Paul is going to be a real exercise in whether or not these people can maintain their bubble of control without interference from reality.

Paulose ordered that an internal memo be prepared for high-ranking Justice Department officials who would be coming to Minneapolis from Washington to highlight the office's high-profile cases, the attorneys said.

Paulose instructed the head of the narcotics section, Andy Dunne, to state in the memo that prosecutors had won convictions that ended drug dealing by St. Paul's Latin Kings gang, they said.

Dunne was told by Paulose to say that the Latin Kings were the biggest gang in St. Paul and that the office's recent convictions would stop the so-called Latin King Nation, the attorneys said.

But Dunne told Paulose he couldn't abide by the request, one of the attorneys said, and when he refused, Dunne was forced to give up his position as chief of the narcotics section. Dunne would not comment Friday.

TPM

Bush's core principal, from Ron Suskind:

''This is why he dispenses with people who confront him with inconvenient facts,'' Bartlett went on to say. ''He truly believes he's on a mission from God. Absolute faith like that overwhelms a need for analysis. The whole thing about faith is to believe things for which there is no empirical evidence.'' Bartlett paused, then said, ''But you can't run the world on faith.'' .....

-snip-

....... ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he [a senior adviser to Bush] continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''

How do you manage to do that?  No appoligy for the snub except to rub it in by saying "...it was a public event.  It was open to everybody."  

Yes he could have come.  But he had already received the message.