The House hearing on the prosecutors is still going on, and we're providing running updates here.

The latest: former United States attorneys Daniel Bogden of Utah and Paul Charlton of Arizona both gave accounts of conversations with acting Associate Attorney General William Mercer about the firings. Mercer told them plainly that they'd been fired in order to free up some plum patronage spots.

Mercer told Charlton that "this was being done so that other individuals could 'touch base' as a United States attorney before the end of the president's term."

He was more explicit in his conversation with Bogden. Bogden testified that Mercer told him "the administration has a very short, two year window of opportunity concerning United States Attorney positions" and that "this would be an opportunity to put others in those positions so they could build their resumes, get experience as a United States Attorney, so that for future opportunities, being a federal judge or another political type position, they would be better enhanced to do so."