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by Andrew Zajac Steve Schmidt, the new man in day-to-day charge of the McCain presidential campaign, stoutly defended his lobbying and PR firm's hiring of Tim Griffin, a former prosecutor who figured in the U.S. attorneys firing scandal. Griffin, a protégé of Karl Rove, went to work for Mercury Public Affairs after quitting as interim U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Ark. in June 2007 when it was disclosed that his predecessor, Bud Cummins, had been fired to create an opening for Griffin. While U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president, they typically have not been removed except for ethical or legal lapses. The removal of Cummins and the dismissal of eight other prosecutors in 2006 may have violated this unwritten rule and triggered an ongoing investigation by the Justice Department's inspector general into... [read full story]
