Confused about whether the firing of eight U.S. attorneys is a big scandal? I’ve created a timeline of quotes gleaned from news sources. My conclusions follow the timeline.

Early 2004
In fact, early in 2004, David Ayres, chief of staff to Gonzales's predecessor, John Ashcroft, began the process of evaluating U.S. attorneys, with the hopes of determining who were the "poorest" ones, "should we have an opportunity to make changes," according to a former Justice Department official. At the time, Ashcroft believed he would be asked to stay through Bush's second term.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070316/16ashcroft.htm

Early in 2005
Then White House counsel Harriet Miers told Gonzales's chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, that it might be good to fire all 93 U.S. attorneys and replace them with new picks. Sampson, Justice officials say, was not inclined to remove any of them unless they had served their full four-year term and also was opposed to a wholesale purge, remembering the outcry in 1993 when President Bill Clinton did exactly that, leading to enormous anger among Republicans in Congress.

But in the interest of the "betterment of the organization," Sampson agreed to begin an informal evaluation of U.S. attorneys. Indeed, over the next year, Sampson began to "consult" with senior officials in an attempt to identify the 10 worst U.S. attorneys who could conceivably be replaced.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070313/13ticktock.htm

Early 2006
Finally, a year after his initial conversation with Miers, Sampson wrote her an E-mail informing her that there were "practical obstacles to removing and replacing U.S. attorneys." Among them:

    "Significant disruption" to the work of the Justice Department;
    Raising the ire of home-state senators, who have customarily been consulted on U.S. attorney
    appointments;
    Finding good replacements and getting them through Senate confirmation.

However, he said none of the obstacles was "insuperable." He recommended removing a "limited" number of U.S. attorneys, "mitigating the shock to the system" that could result from an "across-the-board firing."

He pointed out that the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys could "work quietly with targeted U.S. attorneys to encourage them to leave government service voluntarily" as a "save face" measure.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070313/13ticktock.htm

May 10 2006
U.S. News has learned that on May 10, one day before Sampson's E-mail to the White House counsel's office, the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego alerted the Justice Department that the FBI would execute search warrants in two days for the No. 3 official at the CIA, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, in connection with the spiraling corruption probe into former Republican Rep. Randall "Duke" Cunningham of California.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070319/19gonzales.htm

May 11, 2006
On May 11, 2006, Kyle Sampson, then chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, sent a confidential E-mail to the White House counsel's office regarding the "removal and replacement" of U.S. attorneys whose four-year terms had expired, including the U.S. attorney in San Diego, Carol Lam: "The real problem we have right now with Carol Lam," Sampson wrote, "that leads me to conclude that we should have someone ready to be nominated on 11/18, the day her 4-year term expires." http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070319/19gonzales.htm

November 2006
November 27, Gonzales attended an hour-long meeting on the firings with his then-chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, the man in charge of putting together a list of those to be dismissed.

According to the documents, in late November Sampson was still struggling with the task of determining which prosecutors would lose their jobs.

The list was finalized days after his meeting with Gonzales in the attorney general's conference room, and the seven attorneys were formally notified of their dismissals on December 7. An eighth attorney was fired earlier.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070324/pl_afp/uscongresspolitics_070324165719

March 13, 2007
Comparing himself to a CEO of a big company, Gonzales said that he takes responsibility for the way the department fired the U.S. attorneys and how it explained its decisions. But while resorting to the long-favored "mistakes were made" tradition, Gonzales also distanced himself from the year-and-a-half-long process that resulted in the firings, even though his chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, who just resigned, was intimately involved.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070313/13usattorneys.

The attorney general told reporters two weeks ago that the dismissals were an "effort that was led by Mr. Sampson" and that they "never had a discussion about where things stood."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070324/pl_afp/uscongresspolitics_070324165719

March 23, 2007
Contrary to his earlier assertions, US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales took part in a confidential meeting on firing seven US attorneys now at the center of a political controversy, documents released late Friday show.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070324/pl_afp/uscongresspolitics_070324165719

Conclusions
The selection of attorneys to fire had political motivations, though the process also began with a look at performance. This is not a crime. The selection and retention of U.S. attorneys has always had political considerations. Controversy has often surrounded their dismissal.

The process to select the U.S. attorneys to fire was lengthy – not a sudden house-cleaning. It also considered whether four-year terms had expired. It doesn’t look like a witch hunt.

Gonzalez’s statement on March 13 that he “never had a discussion” on the matter was wrong – whether he intentionally misled or had a memory failure. I doubt either is a crime.

The Democrats are fishing in a puddle – dancing around like they’ve hooked a “big one.” I predict a lot of politicians will be telling “fish stories” – lying about the size of the “catch.” They can create a political stink. But if the administration continues to refuse testimony under oath, they can’t even hope for a Scooter Libby-style process crime.

Expect a lot of accusations and hyperbole to extend as close to the '08 elections as possible. All the hot air they'll generate will not help global warming...