Billmon: Fitzgerald's New Boss

Josh Marshall wonders what it might mean for the special prosecutor's case now that U.S. Attorney Paul McNulty has been nominated for the number-two job at the Justice Department. I suspect the short answer is: nothing good.

McNulty, U.S. Attorney for the very high-profile eastern district of Virginia, is the substitute for Tim Flanigan, the Abramoff-tainted nominee who withdrew his name earlier this month. Like Flanigan -- and unlike Fitzgerald -- McNulty is a Republican loyalist in the mold of the flatulant cable TV duo of Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing, the Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn of partisan spin.