A request to Swampland’s sharp-eyed (and toothed) commenters: Where could one find a web-archived clip of fired ASUAs Iglesias and Cummins’s appearance on yesterday’s Fox News Sunday? The transcript gets at how devastating their interview was to the admin’s narrative, but one has to see how dignified yet sharp they are under Chris Wallace’s rather desperate questioning to understand how fully sunk Gonzales is on this one. A favorite moment:
WALLACE: Finally, Mr. Iglesias, in January, after you were fired, you sent this e-mail to the Justice Department, to the chief of staff, to the attorney general.
Let’s put it up on the screen. “I wondering if you could ask the judge,” meaning Attorney General Gonzales, “if I can list him as a reference.”
Mr. Iglesias, if you were so upset about the way your case was handled, why were you asking the Justice Department for a job reference?
IGLESIAS: It’s a good question. It’s a very simple test. I wanted to see if the true nature of my firing was performance based. If it was performance based, there is no way they would have agreed to have allowed me to list them as a reference.
In fact, they agreed, telling me that the true nature was political, not performance.
Smack. Also, fwiw, according to Cummins himself, his situation (being asked to leave to create room for Rove flunky Tim Griffin) was largely a patronage play, rather than an attempt to manipulate any prosecutions. He tells Wallace he has no problem with how his resignation went down, but that the DOJ owes his colleagues an apology.
UPDATE: Thanks, Chris! Video clip here.