WILL SENATORIAL BACK-SCRATCHING LET DOMENICI SLIP AWAY FROM SEVERE ETHICS VIOLATIONS IN THE U.S. ATTORNEYS PURGE? WHAT ABOUT HEATHER WILSON?

Professional staffers for the Senate Ethics Committee have turned up enough heavy duty evidence on Pete "Sneaky Pete" Domenici (R-NM) to possibly lead to a prison sentence in the purge of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias. But the actual political hacks who serve as senators are loathe to prosecute one of their own. They'd rather just stick together, regardless of party-- or even level of criminality.

According to some senior staffers working for lawmakers who sit on the Ethics Committee, the six-month preliminary investigation into Domenici has turned up enough evidence to open a formal, public investigation into the New Mexico senator, having determined that Domenici acted inappropriately and that he may have violated Senate Ethics rules when he called Iglesias to ask whether Aragon would be indicted before the state's voters went to the polls last year.

But it's unclear if the Ethics Committee will end up launching a formal probe. A sticking point, Ethics Committee staffers say, is the long-standing "ethics truce" between Democrats and Republicans that dates back to the mid-1990s where lawmakers from both political parties agreed not to file ethics complaints against each other.

...The House Ethics Committee, meanwhile, is continuing to pursue its preliminary investigation into similar claims that Rep. Heather Wilson (R-New Mexico), by making similar phone calls to Iglesias last year inquiring about a sealed indictment against Aragon, may have violated House ethics rules. Wilson phoned Iglesias about two weeks before Domenici called the former federal prosecutor. The House Ethics Committee interviewed Iglesias in July about the substance of the phone call he received from Wilson last year.

Coincidentally, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson say's he isn't a candidate for the senile, corrupt and doddering Domenici's seat.