***seems I've been using this graphic quite alot lately....

McNulty, Justice Dept. No. 2, Resigning
Monday, May. 14, 2007 By LARA JAKES JORDAN/AP

WASHINGTON — Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty said Monday he will resign, the highest-ranking Bush administration casualty in the furor over the firing of U.S. attorneys, The Associated Press has learned.

McNulty, who has served 18 months as the Justice Department's second-in-command, announced his plans at a closed-door meeting of U.S. attorneys in San Antonio, according to two senior department aides. He said he will remain at the department until this fall or until the Senate approves a successor, the aides said.

What to think of this?

Josh Marshall

If I were Gonzales and the White House, I'd see McNulty's departure as a very unwelcome development.

Behind the scenes, supporters of McNulty and Gonzales have been increasingly at odds as the scandal has progressed -- with McNulty's supporters saying he wasn't kept in the loop and that that the Gonzales clique is made of crooks and the Gonzales supporters (read: Sampson, Goodling, Elston, et al.) saying McNulty let the cat out of the bag in his testimony earlier in the year. (So, McNulty: You guys are crooks; Gonzales: Yeah, whatever, but no one would know if you'd kept your mouth shut.)