Mr. Gonzales believed that the prosecutor, H. E. Cummins III, the United States attorney for Arkansas, was dismissed for performance reasons, the e-mail suggested. But his deputy, Paul J. McNulty, testified that Mr. Cummins had been replaced to create a vacancy for J. Timothy Griffin, a political ally of the White House political adviser Karl Rove.

Now why would Karl Rove care about having one of his cronies in place as the US Attorney in Arkansas? Oh, that's right, that's where one of the likely opponents in the next election lived through the 80's. Let's put our boy down there so we can stir up more on her come election time so we can get someone in the White House who won't look too close at what we were doing and send us all to jail.

New E-Mail Gives Details on Attorney Dismissals - New York Times