Breaking: Heads rolling in advance of tomorrow’s rumble?

We’re hearing that Michael Battle the executive director of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys has resigned.

He’s the one who made the firing calls on December 7th of last year.

More soon.

Update: The AP has confirmed it. Details here.

Late Update: I realized when a reader brought it up that the way I led this post gave the impression that Battle had been fired. On the contrary, our strong impression is that he resigned.

Even Later Update: The DOJ spokesman insists Battle’s “departure is not connected to the U.S. attorney controversy whatsoever.” This story is still awash with coincidences.

Newsweek does Rudy Giuliani’s Presidential campaign a very big favor.

More details emerge concerning Michael Battle’s resignation.

Here’s the ousted prosecutors’ joint written statement, which will be read before tomorrow’s hearing in the House by former U.S. Attorney Carol Lam of San Diego.

Okay, I got no dog in this fight. But I thought this was clever. So I’ll pass it along.

(ed.note: I’ve been assured that the creators are not connected to the Obama campaign.)

House Dems planning to keep the public focused on the Walter Reed scandal by pushing the story in VA hospitals in their districts.

Okay, here’s a little TPM due diligence for you. If you’ve been following the latest chapter of the fired US attorneys scandal, you know that Sen. Domenici (R-NM) is claiming that he tried to get US attorney David Iglesias fired because of his “inability” to “move more quickly on cases.”

Unfortunately, federal judiciary statistics show just the opposite was the case.

Yet another wingnut tale about Hillary is revealed to be dishonest.

Running out of time to come clean, Rep. Heather Wilson ‘fesses up.

But Wilson’s explanation turns out to be even more comical than Sen. Domenici’s.

Wilson released a statement to the Washington Post in which she says: “I did not ask about the timing of any indictments and I did not tell Mr. Iglesias what course of action I thought he should take or pressure him in any way. The conversation was brief and professional.”

We pick up the story from the Post …

Wilson said in her statement that many of her constituents had complained about “the slow pace of federal prosecutions” in corruption cases and said she was told by one unidentified constituent that “Iglesias was intentionally delaying corruption investigations.”

Wilson also said she was trying to help Iglesias: “If the purpose of my call has somehow been misperceived, I am sorry for any confusion. I thought it was important for Mr. Iglesias to receive this information and, if necessary, have the opportunity to clear his name.”

Wilson said Iglesias’s dismissal occurred “without input from me.” Justice officials said they are not aware of any contacts by Wilson about Iglesias. But they said Sunday that Domenici complained to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales three times in 2005 and 2006 and spoke to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty in the first week of October 2006.

Now, let’s be honest. This is so risible as to almost be sad.

Consider what Wilson is asking us to believe: she says she didn’t ask Iglesias about the timing of the expected indictment. Nor did she tell him “course of action” she should take. She called because so many of her constituents had complained that this Republican US Attorney, appointed by President Bush, wasn’t moving quickly enough in his corruption investigation of a prominent New Mexico Democrat. Indeed, one unidentified constituent said Iglesias was intentionally bottling up the investigation. And Wilson called to give him the chance to “clear his name.”

Imagine Iglesias not understanding that in placing this call Wilson was just looking out for his own good?

Enough. Wilson would have done better to follow the Domenici route and just pretended she was making an informational call. After reading this transparently bogus line from Wilson this is the first moment when I think there’s a decent chance there will be a special election some time over the next twelve months in the first district of New Mexico. Anyone who reads even Wilson’s defense knows that she did precisely what Iglesias said she did: muscled a US Attorney to issue an indictment two weeks prior to election day because she believed it would help her save her seat.

Again, even going by Wilson’s account of what happened, there’s really no other reasonable explanation.

More from McClatchy …

A high-ranking Justice Department official told one of the U.S. attorneys fired by the Bush administration that if any of them continued to criticize the administration for their ousters, previously undisclosed details about the reasons they were fired might be released, two of the ousted prosecutors told McClatchy Newspapers.

While the U.S. attorney who got the call regarded the tone of the conversation as congenial, not intimidating, the prosecutor nonetheless passed the message on to five other fired U.S. attorneys. One of them interpreted the reported comments by Michael Elston, the chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, as a threat.

Justice Department officials denied that the conversation with the U.S. attorney ever took place, and Elston said he called several of the fired U.S. attorneys but never made any such comments.