Quite a few of you have been writing in asking: Why the sudden explosion of movement on the Abramoff and other GOP corruption investigations? Is it tied in some way to the Purge story? It’s always hard to infer just what the delays and speed-ups in these investigations mean. Most of the big developments we don’t know about until long after the investigation is completed. Sometimes we never know. And that leaves us like the proverbial blind men and the elephant, each speculating based on our little patch of facts with little understanding of the big picture.

That said, there’s been such an avalanche of developments in recent days and weeks, that I think it’s now quite reasonable to conclude that the turnaround is related to the fact that Gonzales and his crew are flat on their backs and aren’t able to block them any more. This is the sort of question or charge people only make sheepishly and with some embarrassment. I’ve been reluctant to come to this conclusion as well. But now I think there are solid reasons to believe this is true.

It may seem like a leap. But there’s more circumstantial evidence for it than you might think.

We already know, for instance, that Main Justice made Carol Lam wait months for permission to issue indictments against the crooks and bribers in the Cunningham investigation. Today we learned that DOJ sources are coming forward to say that Main Justice was playing a very similar game in Arizona with the Renzi investigation. And remember, that US Attorney, Paul Charlton, got canned just like Lam.

We now have some good evidence of a pattern of ‘soft’ obstruction of Republican corruption investigations by officials at Main Justice — in the Cunningham-Lewis-Wilkes-Foggo investigation and the Renzi probe. If that’s their MO, it shouldn’t surprise us to learn they’ve done the same in the Abramoff probe. Nor should it surprise us that Gonzales’s slow-motion fall — along with the resignations of Sampson, Goodling and others — is opening up the flood gates.

While we collect your submissions for today’s little contest, it’s worth remembering that this isn’t the first Administration to question the patriotism of its critics. This morning at TPMCafe Todd Gitlin unintentionally anticipated Perino, pulling a quote from the late great David Halberstam writing in 2004 of the sad resonance between today’s patriotism debate and the attacks he experienced as a result of his skeptical reporting on Vietnam. Check it out.

Is David Broder’s column tomorrow really going to make the case that Harry Reid is as “inept” as Alberto Gonzales?

Mark Schmitt makes The Case for Bureaucracy.

After meeting with AG Gonzales, Sen. Pryor (D-AR) still thinks Gonzales is a liar and should resign.

The Times weighs in on the Renzi/Charlton chapter of the US Attorney Purge story.

TPM Reader DH on Rudy and the Dems …

All of the Democratic responses to Giuliani’s “white flag” fear appeal were inept — unfortunately and somewhat surprisingly, Dean’s “should be ashamed of himself” was the worst. The opposite reaction would have been best. No advice on how Rudy should feel, instead simply pointing out that this is the real Giuliani, a Bush clone employing the same failed rhetoric to prop up the same disastrous ideas. Who wants another 4 years of that?

Americans believe Giuliani is different, a leader, a maverick, brave. But Rudy’s constant pandering to the Bush hard line on Iraq and defense issues presents a fantastic opportunity for Democrats to pin the Bush label on him, a scarlet letter that has already brought down one GOP front-runner and could well work its magic again, if the Democrats simply point out the obvious connection.

I really don’t know whether I find it more painful or amusing to watch David Broder’s quickening decline. But I’m going to go with amusing. Because clearly there’s some deep streak of evil within me that gets a kick out of watching one man struggle so desperately for relevance and even coherence.

In Thursday’s column Broder writes …

Here’s a Washington political riddle where you fill in the blanks: As Alberto Gonzales is to the Republicans, Blank Blank is to the Democrats — a continuing embarrassment thanks to his amateurish performance.

If you answered ” Harry Reid,” give yourself an A. And join the long list of senators of both parties who are ready for these two springtime exhibitions of ineptitude to end.

So, Gonzales, almost universally judged a liar and an incompetent who has dragged the administration into one of its most politically perilous scandals yet.

Reid, frequently makes off-the-cuff remarks that are anathema to Broderite Beltway insiders.

Sounds about even, I guess. But I think I’ll take Reid.

People think of Broder as the ‘Dean’ of the Washington press corps because of things he did in the 60s and 70s. But the man he is today is much more a product of the long conservative ascendancy of the last three decades — an ascendancy still very much alive in the town’s journalistic and editorial elite. You can hear the animus more and more sharply in this columns as his inability to grasp the political moment becomes more and more clear.

It’s hard to get too surprised about this stuff anymore. But according to the Post, Karl Rove deputies gave GOP campaign briefings to top officials in at least 15 government agencies last year.

Who’s vulnerable, who’s not and how you can use your agency’s resources for the team effort — that seems to have been the basic idea. Pretty much every department got a briefing. And oddly enough NASA too. That must have been an interesting one.

Then there’s this fun graf on DHS …

At the Department of Homeland Security, spokesman Russ Knocke at first said “there is no indication that any meeting on election targets, congressional districts or candidate support or assistance took place at the department.” He then called back to alter that remark, saying he had no indication that such a meeting was held at department “offices.” A department official said employees were briefed on “morale” but did not elaborate.

In short, there’s simply no end to how deep the corruption goes.

Today’s Must Read: The entire scheme has been laid out before us. The question now is whether Karl Rove will get away with it.