i suspect that's partly the case--and the reverse seems also to be the case--gonzales is leaving before the confrontation over the administrations--uh--"expansive" interpretations of executive privilege. in a game where appearance is everything, losing such a conflict would be politically fatal for this lame duck administration.
reading through comments here and there from the right is a surreal exercise. of course there is cowboy george whining about unfair treatment--but my favorites have been the accusations of racism from some conservatives, who blame some nameless faceless "liberal conspiracy" and accuse that fiction of being "enraged by persons of color who are conservative." i found these to be funny. you can find some of them in the comments left on this michael tomasky blog thing, which is linked via the guardian website:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/...eaves_rat.html
this remains a curious bit of theater.
like others above, i dont feel much of anything about it---it should have happened long ago but it didnt. the bush regime's legal philosophy is dangerous. i am not sure that i see it changing with a change in its water-bearer. but we'll see.