The correct move

Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2008 | 2:06 a.m.

There is new hope that the reason the U.S. attorney for Nevada was fired in December 2006 may yet come to light.

Daniel Bogden, confirmed for the job by the U.S. Senate in 2001, was among nine U.S. attorneys fired in quick succession by the Justice Department while it was headed by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

In September 2007, enmeshed in controversy over the firings and other issues, Gonzales resigned.

On Monday, his successor, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, appointed a prosecutor to review Justice Department reports on the firings and dig deeper into the scandal.

The prosecutor, Nora Dannehy, gained a reputation in Connecticut as a tough corruption fighter. She will pursue possible criminal charges against Republicans in the Bush administration who may have been behind the scandal.

This is the right move by Mukasey. Three Justice Department reports on the firings to date have all cast suspicion on Gonzales, his top staff and White House operatives. Many of the firings are suspected to have been motivated by politics.

A report released Monday labeled the firings “unsystematic and arbitrary” and said there are “serious allegations” that have not yet been fully investigated.

Reporting from Washington, Las Vegas Sun reporter Lisa Mascaro said the report leaves Bogden’s firing unresolved. There still is no clear explanation of who put him on the list of attorneys to be fired and why, she reported.

U.S. attorneys are the lead prosecutors in federal criminal and civil cases within their districts. As such, they should be immune from political retribution or White House gamesmanship.

For the sake of the fired attorneys’ reputations, and for the sake of justice in this country, a detailed and definitive investigation of the whole scandal, from start to finish, needs to be undertaken.

Mukasey’s appointment of Dannehy, whose credits include successfully prosecuting a former Connecticut governor on corruption charges, gives us hope that this will be accomplished.