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Well, duh. There’s that old democracy thing rearing its ugly head again.

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In 18 months of searching, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine and Office of Professional Responsibility chief H. Marshall Jarrett have uncovered new e-mail messages hinting at heightened involvement of White House lawyers and political aides in the firings of nine federal prosecutors two years ago.

Well, duh. These prosecutors serve at the pleasure of the President. If he wants to fire them for wearing the wrong tie, he is perfectly entitled to do so. This is like saying “Warren Buffet implicated in the firing of one of his vice-presidents”.

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If you’re looking for racism in American politics, look no further.

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In a political year unlike any in Alaska’s short history, Stevens’s extraordinary resilience might prove as reliable as his indictment was upsetting. The man who first went to Washington in 1956 to lobby for statehood has, as the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, shipped home the highest number of federal dollars per capita in the nation, nurturing along the way a paternalism that earned him the nickname “Uncle Ted.”

And that, in a nutshell, illustrates why our current political system is structurally dysfunctional. The way to succeed in Washington is to get re-elected. The way to get re-elected is to bring home enough pork that the constituency thus established is sufficient to do so. That’s all it is. So long as legislators can buy votes with taxpayers’ money, the system will continue to reward that sort of corrupt dealing. The best way to win a game is to cheat, and our political system rewards, rather than punishing, cheating.