Your moment of Zen: Mukasey, Dianne Feinstein.

Every now and again I get the breath knocked out of me.  Today it was by an editorial in the New York Times decrying how much Michael Mukasey seems like his predecessaor Alberto Gonzalez.  What happened?  Mukasey's Department of Justice has allowed the U. S. Attorney’s public corruption office in Los Angeles to be disbanded, and it's 17 attorneys will be transferred to other units.  

This, of course, stops in it's tracks the corruption investigation into Representative Jerry Lewis (Republican, of course).  

And guess who is crying foul?  Dianne Feinstein.

According to the NYT,

Senator Dianne Feinstein ... who has been a force in highlighting the suspected political purge of federal prosecutors, is demanding a detailed explanation from Attorney General Mukasey. She is rightly asking whether political figures at the White House or Justice Department are behind the decision to close the office. "I have serious concerns about the potential impact of this change," the senator wrote to Mr. Mukasey.

Of course the Republican U.S. Attorney is insisting that disbanding the corruption unit and transferring the lawyers who work in it will result in more corruption investigations, not fewer:

Thomas O’Brien, the United States attorney in Los Angeles, says the 17 lawyers in the unit will be transferred to other units without diminishing the anticorruption effort. He insists the revamping of his office will allow pursuit of more corruption cases, not fewer.

But then again less is always more. And Up is always Down in the Republican world view.  

But just as disorienting is DiFi screeching about this.  After all, she was the critical vote who allowed Mukasey's nomination out of committee.  The vote which enabled him to be confirmed.  And now she doesn't like how he's doing his job?  Come on, Dianne.  If you'd been paying attention, you'd have known this was how it was going to be... the rest of us were clued in when he wouldn't say waterboarding is torture.

Or perhaps it's even more cynical:  It's faux outrage entirely for Democratic base consumption.

Either way, the NYT's journamalistic coverage of this is impeccable:  ginning up the story, while simultaneously covering over the fact that Dianne Feinstein herself is the one who made this nightmare come true.  

A word of advice, Dianne: Perhaps you should have thought of Mukasey's shortcomings before you voted to confirm him as AG?