Bud Cummins, one of the U.S. Attorneys recently dismissed in the latest Bush administration scandal, has written a piece on Salon. A large part of his concern in this whole debacle is the effect it will have on the credibility of the Justice Department.
Being credible is like being pregnant -- you either are, or you aren't. If someone says they "kind of" believe what you say, they are really calling you a liar. Once you have given the public a reason to believe some of your decisions are improperly motivated, then they are going to question every decision you have made, or will make in the future. That is a natural and predictable phenomenon.
If people can no longer trust the judicial system and constantly suspect (to an even greater degree - I think most would agree that full trust is dead, if it ever lived) political motivation in prosecution, it will further muck up an already dysfunctional system. As proven here. Sigh.
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