A New York lawyer with a long memory reminds me that one of the central players in the U.S. Attorney mess has a relevant history in Upstate New York.

Before Michael Battle was U.S. Attorney up there, he was a regional office chief for Dennis Vacco, a one-term New York State Attorney General defeated in 1998 by Eliot Spitzer.

Vacco drew controversy for dumping a number of seasoned civil litigators, and replacing them with Republican allies ... and generally developed a reputation for having politicized the office.

Which sounds a bit familiar -- Battle recently resigned, reasons unclear, amid allegations that he was involved in politicizing the U.S. Attorneys' offices.