The root of the Attorneys scandal is disenfranchising minority voters

McClatchy gets to the heart of why the US Attorney firings are significant by looking at a broader pattern within the Bush administration's DOJ, an abrogation of the basic ideals of America.

The voting rights section of the DoJ, historically the guarantor of minority voting rights, has been used by this administration to disenfranchise minority (read black) voters.

Since President Bush's first attorney general, John Ashcroft, a former Republican senator from Missouri, launched a "Ballot Access and Voter Integrity Initiative" in 2001, Justice Department political appointees have exhorted U.S. attorneys to prosecute voter fraud cases, and the department's Civil Rights Division has sought to roll back policies to protect minority voting rights.

On virtually every significant decision affecting election balloting since 2001, the division's Voting Rights Section has come down on the side of Republicans, notably in Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Washington and other states where recent elections have been decided by narrow margins.

One Man, one vote. Only if you agree with the ruling party.

The NYTimes points to the more specific case for today's hearings. Iglesias became a top level issue because he wouldn't play along.

Administration officials have confirmed that Mr. Gonzales also spoke with President Bush and Karl Rove, the president’s chief political adviser, about the perceived lack of enthusiasm in Mr. Iglesias’s office, among others, for prosecuting voting fraud cases, a top Republican Party priority. And investigators know that Mr. Iglesias’s name was among the last to be added to the ouster list.

Think about the century of struggle to guarantee minority voting rights. That's what we're talking about here.