The following editorial appeared last Wednesday in the Seattle Times.

What if there were a crisis in the U.S. Department of Justice and nobody noticed? Or at least no one who could do anything about it.

Paul Clement is in a position to notice – and appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the possible wrongdoing of his bosses. The buck at the Justice Department has gone to the agency’s top and floated a few clicks down the organization chart to Clement, the U.S. solicitor general and the only man without his hands in the mire and with some authority to do something. The consensus among just about everybody – except for President Bush, his attorney general and the administration’s other usual suspects – is that this crisis looms large. It casts a shadow over the American value of justice fairly applied.

We know now it began years ago, but the predicament came to light only when the brazen Bush administration opted to fire nine U.S. attorneys for political reasons, and a new Democratic-controlled Congress had the gumption to ask what was going on. The arrogant and apparently deceptive performances of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales before the Senate Judiciary Committee thoroughly earned the bipartisan scorn thrown his way.

Increasingly, as the story unfolds, people who should know, including a couple of fired prosecutors, suggest some in the Justice Department might be guilty of obstruction of justice for attempting to punish U.S. attorneys who didn’t toe the line for the political agenda.

But who investigates the nation’s top law-enforcement official? Both Gonzales and his outgoing deputy, Paul McNulty, are principal players in the scandal and have stepped out of the internal Justice investigation.

Fresh from last week’s meeting with Gonzales, four Democratic Senate Judiciary Committee members wrote Clement, urging he appoint a special prosecutor. An aide said Clement is considering the request.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., did not sign the letter, instead urging Gonzales to correct his testimony by Friday. If he doesn’t, Congress might investigate him – as Vice Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., suggested – for perjury. (Editor’s note: Gonzales declined to change his testimony.)

Tuesday (July 31), U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., introduced a resolution to direct the House Judiciary Committee to begin investigating whether Gonzales should be impeached, a serious but credible option.

Clement should act to restore faith in the Justice Department. If ever there were a need for a special prosecutor, it is this case.