Is Rick Renzi safe now ...

According to an article posted March 19th in The Nation:

In September 2006, just weeks before pivotal Congressional midterm elections, Paul Charlton, US Attorney for Arizona, opened a preliminary investigation into Republican Representative Rick Renzi of the state's First Congressional District for an alleged pattern of corruption involving influence-peddling and land deals. Almost immediately, Charlton's name was added to a blacklist of federal prosecutors the White House wanted to force from their jobs. Charlton is someone "we should now consider pushing out," D. Kyle Sampson, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez's chief of staff, wrote to then White House Counsel Harriet Miers on September 16.

It appears that the Arizona Daily Star cannot be bothered with any corrupt politicians who happen to be Republican. When Arizona District US Attorney Paul Charlton was fired the Star, under the byline of Josh Brodesky, looked only at the possibility that his replacement may be Diane Humetewa who is Hopi. Of course, if she does succeed Charlton, her own integrity will be in question.

Arizona newspapers, as far as I can find and I'm not all that good at googling, have not reported any great expression of concern from either of Arizona's two Senators about the AttorneyGate in general nor about Charlton in particular. The newspapers themselves write fluff or print articles from the Associated Press like this one of March 14 that has a line following the article stating that Arizona Daily Star reporter Josh Brodesky contributed to the report. Notice that the only reference to the resulting 'get out of jail card' for Rick Renzi in the report is the following sentence:

Democrats have suggested Charlton was targeted by the administration for his work on a corruption investigation of Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz. But the timing is unclear.

Notice it's the Democrats, not the evidence. And notice how the Associated Press, the Arizona Daily Star and Josh Brodesky seem unable or unwilling to comment the timing of the events in their reports other than to say that the 'timing is unclear.' The timing isn't unclear. Timing alone is not proof but it is certainly a reason to look further. But these parties can't even present the timing in a straight forward manner.

On March 14 the Arizona Republic reports a little 'clouding' of the reasons behind the firing of Charlton. Mike Madden of the Republic Washington Bureau states that Charlton was not on the original list of those to be fired and that Bush's aides were very involved in these firings. The article mentions Rick Renzi, almost in a 'nothing to see here, move along' kind of way.

Also on the 14 of March, the Phoenix Business Journal reports on the governor's reaction to AttorneyGate:

Governor calls federal prosecutor purge 'appalling'

Billy House of the Arizona Republic's Washington Bureau reports on March 6 that AttorneyGate results in: Inquiries leave officials in limbo. Of course, we can assume, Rick Renzi already knows the status of the inquiry into his dealings as far as his buddies in the White House are concerned.