Sounds like we need another Patrick Fitzgerald

Previously, WH Press Secretary McClellan said he would release details of Abramoff meetings in the WH. Now, he says it's beneath them to even keep track of such trivia.

Huh?

One is tempted to conclude from such an about-face that they must be hiding something. And why not release the photos of Abramoff and Bush together, if they are as meaningless as the president says they are?

Certainly Rove and Abramoff were pretty good friends. Are we really supposed to believe that Rove's good friend is just another face in the crowd to the president?

Salon's Joe Conanson speculates:

Perhaps the president really doesn't know Abramoff and had no idea that the lobbyist was telling clients that he could fix the Bush White House. Maybe his abrupt removal of the U.S. attorney who was investigating Abramoff three years ago was merely a curious coincidence. But if he has nothing to hide, then why are he and his press secretary concealing the facts and photos of Abramoff's repeated visits to the White House?

And now, the WH has removed one of the prosecutors by promoting him into a judgeship and off the case. NYT:

Mr. Hillman's nomination for a judgeship was among the factors cited Thursday by four Democratic lawmakers, two senators and two representatives, in calling on Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to name a special prosecutor to oversee the corruption investigation.

The timing of Mr. Hillman's nomination "jaundices this whole process," Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said in an interview. "They have to appoint a special counsel. I think there will be broad support for one."

Representative George Miller, Democrat of California, called the timing "startling" and said, "You have one of the chief prosecutors removed from a case that has tentacles throughout the Republican leadership of Congress, throughout the various agencies and into the White House."