[DJ MacWoW]

Attorneys have rarely been "fired" in the middle of a term,

Clinton, Carter and Nixon have done it. The rarirty is 8 at once.

NPR

How unusual is it for a U.S. attorney to be fired?

It's very unusual. Richard Nixon fired one when he was in office. [Jimmy] Carter fired a U.S. attorney who was making an investigation of a Democratic House member that he wanted to keep in office. Bill Clinton fired one. But it's really very rare for this to happen.

In this case it was eight attorneys.

That is close to unprecedented. … I did a book on the Justice Department, and I just have never seen something like this.

Now, that being said, when a president comes into office, historically, all the U.S. attorneys leave. And he appoints a new set of thesse individuals — there are about 90 of them.

[Brilliant]

Bush's mistake was in not doing what Clinton did and simply firing them all on his first day of office. The result was that he's spent the last 6 years dodging bullets fired in his direction by Clinton holdovers. Then he fires a few near the end of his administration, and the obvious question is why he would do that now, given that he was willing to live with these guys for 6 years.

[Brilliant]

As an aside, Giuliani will have no problem dealing with this kind of thing. Having been there and done that himself, he'd hand the Dems their heads if they pulled this on him.

[conservative in nyc]

Clinton, Carter and Nixon have done it. The rarirty is 8 at once.

...and Reagan, too.

The real rarity is that this has blown up to the extent it has. I'd be willing to bet that more U.S. Attorneys have been quietly forced out for political reasons - or no real reason at all - in the past than have been reported on by the media. Clinton in 8 years had about as much turnover in his USA ranks as President Bush has so far.