The little part of the story involves the ex-Prosecutor Kevin Ryan and his replacement, Scott Schools. Now Ryan was one of the eight attorneys let go in the purge, although there doesn't seem to be any controversy involved in his being let go. By most reports, Ryan just wasn't very good at his job. This despite a reputation as being in line with some of the Bushies priorities (although according to Talking Points Memo, Ryan was originally not on the list of prosecutors to be let go, but was added to the list when somebody outside the White House raised a big stink about Ryan).

His replacement, at least for the interim, is some dude named Scott Schools. Schools comes to us by way of South Carolina which is slightly unusual in that most appointed prosecutors usually have some connection with the area they're appointed to. Schools does not. What Schools does have is a long trail of donations to Republican candidates (including Bush and-- iyick--Strom Thurmond), a job working for Strom Thurmond Jr. (as in son of), and a reputation for being a hard-ass on freedom of speech issues.

This isn't to say that Schools is without some major cred on his resume. He was in no way affiliated with the Pat Robertson University for Brainwashed Minds as he graduated magna cum laude at Duke. He also apparently did a very good job in Thurmond Jr's office. Still, all this bears some watching as there's hints that he might be a bit of a Bushbot. Right now, there's some concern that the case involving Ed "Guru of Ganga" Rosenthal is in someway related to all this because his case was recently thrown out but Schools is pursuing the case again. The Bush Administration has had a weird fascination with busting pot growers and this might be part of it.

So, the question now is whether this is just an anomaly or whether this is some part of a nefarious plan to spread the Rove magic out here.