Democrats are getting downright giddy with the growing speculation that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may soon be out of a job.

The Homestead Book blog sums up the feeling best:

Hee hee.

Liberals here are looking at the deepening controversy as the thread to unravel the conservative machine in Washington state. It's a bit ergo propter hoc for my taste, but follow along on the morning's thinking.

In an earlier post at the Homstead blog, it was suggested that Stefan Sharkansky and his focus on the 2004 governor's election should get the credit/blame if Gonzales resigns.

It is now clear that Sharkansky's obsession led to a call to the office of Congressman Doc Hastings, who had one of his lackeys phone the U.S. Attorney John McKay to ask when he was going to start investigating the election. This eventually led to the firing of McKay and now will lead directly to the resignation of Alberto Gonzales.

At washblog, Emmett O'Connell says the thread doesn't end there.

Now with the latest Bush scandal being connected directly to the 2004 gubernatorial election, can Rossi shake the McKay firing, or is he way too close?

...

Rossi may not have been personally involved in getting McKay fired, but the situation is starting to surround him to the point that he at least has some explaining to do.

But it's also from a liberal blog where I read the first question from any source about a Democrat's role in McKay's application for a federal judgeship. Much has been made in the press about the role of the three Republicans on the six-member bi-partisan panel that did not include McKay on its list of finalists for the judgeship.

J. Vander Stoep, an advisor to Rossi in the 2004 campaign and subsequent election controversy, was the Republican co-chair of the judicial review panel. He has said that McKay's reluctance to investigate election fraud had nothing to do with why he was left off the list of finalists for the job. Instead, Vander Stoep said, it was McKay's lack of trial experience and the fact that he did not reflect Bush's judicial philosophy.

A writer at Evergreen Politics, shoephone, is concerned about Vander Stoep's role, but also wonders about Democratic co-chair, Jenny Durkan.

Vander Stoep's participation on the commission, after his deep involvement with the Rossi campaign, raises a blazing red flag. It's common knowledge by now that the entire state GOP hierarchy was on the warpath for McKay because of Rossi's election loss. On the other hand, I have to wonder why Durkan was chosen too, considering her deep involvement with the court case over the vote counts. Plus, she's a childhood friend of McKay's. I think there's at least the appearance of conflict of interest for both, due to the fact that McKay, as U.S. attorney for Seattle, was an obvious choice for the judgeship short list.