The firings were illegal if they were done to interfere with prosecutions (like in the case of California Attorney Carol Lam who let go after prosecuting Duke Cunningham and apparently had other prosecutions against Republicans in the works, or like David Iglesias because they refused to prosecute Democrats when their congress critter called them up and asked them to). The justice department is supposed to be just that, a justice department not a political wing of the republican party that can be called upon when their dirty tricks campaign needs to disenfranchise minority voters who tend to vote Democrat. Iglasias is a lifelong Republican and he now believes people in the Whitehouse (mostly Rove and Gonzolas) should (and probably will) be going to jail for subverting the justice department. Republicans keep arguing that while the firings weren't illegal they just weren't handled properly (David Iglasias they claimed was fired because he missed to many days. The days he missed where because of his mandatory 40-day per year service as part of the Reserve) but if the attorneys where fired because they we conducting investigations into Republican congressmen, or because they refused to perform show trials against Democrats or harass minority voters to the point they are so scared to vote then it definitely is illegal. Why do you think that Monica Goodling took the fifth amendment? Why do you think that Gonzolas can't remember anything? Why did Karl Rove spend several days prepping justice officials before they came to congress? Why did they delete all the emails? If it was just politically embarrassing they would swallow their pride, get it over with and the story would die. No, this is part of the plan to re-elect the president (even if it isn't Bush) and has all the same smell of Watergate, although instead of a minor little B&E the whole system of justice has been gutted and turned into a Republican party office.