Untimely removal

LAST Wednesday President Bush removed Noel L. Hillman, the chief prosecutor in the Jack Abramoff lobbying and bribery scandal, from the case. Mr. Bush's action came as the media and his critics swarmed around the problem of trying to pry publicly owned photographs of Mr. Bush with Mr. Abramoff from the White House.

The President's means of taking Mr. Hillman, head of the Department of Justice's Office of Public Integrity since 2002, out of the picture was to nominate him for a federal judgeship, in effect, kicking him upstairs.