USAToday editorializes about Pentagon Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles Stimson and his attacks on the rule of law. Why hasn’t this guy been fired yet? Has anybody asked Secretary Gates about Stimson’s efforts to shut down trials for Guantanamo detainees? How about Tony Snow? Anyone in the White House press corps thought to pose this question yet?

Roll Call: Sen. Webb (D-VA) to give Dems’ official response to Bush State of the Union.

Dinesh D’Souza: The radical Islamists hate us because of our tolerance and liberalism. And they’re right to hate us. So do I.

I thought the ‘wingers had already got their half dozen uses out of this guy and tossed him in the trash. But I guess he’s back. Turns out they’ve still got him on the payroll as “Rishwain Research Scholar at the Hoover Institution.” It’ll be fascinating to hear more about D’Souza’s new book in which he makes a strategic alliance with Islamist terrorists against fellow Americans.

It’s an amazing thing. When D’Souza sees the violent proponents of extremist Islam, he sees allies and ideological kindred spirits. And the American right embraces him.

TPM Reader BC …

Thanks for linking to the Haaretz article on the Syria-Israel peace talks. It sounds like Syria initiated this, and even kept it going through last summer’s Lebanon war, then gave up because Israel was reluctant to move out of the realm of the theoretical.

Syria’s motivations are clear: Bashar Assad doesn’t like being an Iranian satellite, and doesn’t like being president of a small, poor backwards country wedged between a hostile Israel, a hostile Turkey, a Lebanon on the brink of a nasty civil war, and an Iraq well past the brink of a genocidal civil war.

The reasons for Israel’s reluctance are also clear: already politically weak, Olmert did not want to take a huge diplomatic risk without being certain it would be part of a wider push for regional stability backed by the US.

The outlines of a peace agreeement between Israel and Syria are clear. And the benefits for the US and the rest of the region would be substantial. Israel would have the confidence to negotiate peace with the Palestinians. The confrontationist positions (and arms-smuggling routes) of Hamas and Hezbollah would be undermined, and peace-minded Palestinians like Abbas would be strengthened. Syria would be brought into the American orbit, and would start doing its part to quell the Sunni insurgency.

All it would take for this to happen would be some intelligent, patient, engaged, creative diplomacy by the US.

Sigh. Never mind.

Greg Djerejian had a similar thought.

After this interview with Dinesh D’Souza was pointed out to me, I went over to the official TPM book shelf and noticed that we’d received a review copy of The Enemy at Home. So I leafed through the introduction. And D’Souza really does see bin Laden and his sundry cohorts as freedom fighters against abortion, homosexuals and free love in general.

You’ve probably already seen some of the news about the Bush White House engaging in a seemingly unprecedented spree of firings of US Attorneys across the coutry. Conveniently, they’re being replaced without senate approval under a provision of the Patriot Act. We’re digging into now and we’re finding a bunch. More soon.

Video of Barack Obama discussing his decision to form a presidential exploratory committee.

Okay, so we already know that the White House has now taken the unprecedented step of firing at least four and likely seven US Attorneys in the middle of their terms of office — at least some of whom are in the midst of corruption investigations of Bush administration officials and key Republican lawmakers. We also know that they’re taking advantage of a handy provision of the USA Patriot Act that allows the White House to replace these fired USAs with appointees who don’t need to be approved by the senate.

Given that these new USAs are being plopped into offices currently investigating Republicans and other administration officials and others into states with 2008 presidential candidates, there’s certainly ample opportunity for mischief.

So we’re looking into just who the White House is appointing.

Well, let’s start with the estimable J. Timothy Griffin, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas since December 20th.

If you hadn’t heard about Griffin’s appointment, don’t feel bad, the guy he replaced hadn’t either. Griffin’s appointment was annouced on December 15th before the then-US Attorney Bud Cummins had even been given a chance to resign. Cummins got the call on his cell phone the same day while he was out hiking with his son. Cummins, who subsequently said he got forced out for political reasons, resigned on the 20th, the same day Griffin was sworn in.

So who’s Griffin and what experience does he bring to the job?

Well, top of the list seems to be his stint at the White House where he worked for Karl Rove doing opposition research on Democrats. That was until late last year. According to this Arkansas Times report, for the last ten years — with the exception of two one year stint — he has always worked as a Republican party opposition researcher digging up dirt on Democrats. Deputy Research Director for the RNC from 1999-2000. Research Director for the RNC from 2002-2005. Oppo Research Director for Karl Rove 2005-2006. Prior to 1999? Well, he was associate independent counsel investigating Henry Cisneros from 1995-96. After that he went to work for Dan Burton on the Hill to investigate Asian money contributions to the DNC.

Back in 2000, when he was in charge of digging up dirt on Al Gore, he apparently had a poster hanging on the wall behind his desk which read: “On my command – unleash hell on Al.”

So clearly, Griffin’s a pretty apolitical guy.

Now, why would Karl Rove want his top oppo researcher being the US Attorney in Arkansas for the next two years?

And is Ed Gillespie suiting up to take over the Duke Cunningham investigation in San Diego?

For those of you who might be interested, Josh has graciously agreed to host my blog, The Horse’s Mouth, here at TPM.

You can find the new Horse’s Mouth homepage right here.

The blog is mainly (though not exclusively) about political coverage, so if you spot any particularly egregious (or just amusing) media follies, please don’t hesitate to send ’em in to talk@talkingpointsmemo.com.

So what other US Attorneys have been fired by the Bush White House so far? Here’s the list of seven we’ve found so far.

As far as we can tell, a running massacre like this is unprecedented.