Stretching Politics as Usual-U.S. Attorney Fired for Not Prosecuting Porn Store Competing with Uncle Sam's Porn Store?

If we buy it from the government, can we get Liberty & Justice for all?
“. . . we haven't heard much about US Attorney Paul Charlton of the District of Arizona but Mark Kernes at AVN, uncovers a connection to [Attorney General Alberto] Gonzales' recently declared war on porn and the administration's ongoing war on some drugs (warning adult content in ads). Charlton was not on the original ‘to be terminated’ list and it appears he was probably fired as a result of an obscenity case after an embarrassing motion to dismiss was filed by the defense. The case centers on an adult video vendor, Five Star Video, LC, that was indicted in May 06 for interstate transportation of obscene materials, namely a certain four videos. But here's where it gets interesting. Five Star was not the only vendor. A bigger retailer, Castle Megastores was also selling and renting the same videos across state lines. Ironically, Castle was, and is, ‘under the supervision of the U.S. Trustee's Office of the Department of Justice, and the United States Bankruptcy Court of the District of Arizona.’ In other words, our government is profiting from the same videos, while indicting a competitor for violating obscenity laws. Five Star's attorneys, as any competent counselors would, filed a motion to dismiss in Aug 06 on the grounds that they can't be indicted for selling the same videos the government is also vending. One imagines Atty. Charlton called his supervisors and noted the difficulty in pursuing the case under these circumstances. Three weeks later, his name appeared on the hit list and one of the emails between the White House and Charlton's superior references his unwillingness to prosecute "good obscenity cases." There's also an interesting exchange between the White House and Charlton's superior over how to break the news to Republican Senator Jon Kyl, who is noted to have been historically consulted in such matters. The only other reference to Charlton's performance notes his policy of generally not prosecuting marijuana smuggling cases in amounts under 500 pounds. Both are wise uses of prosecutorial discretion. It makes no sense to waste federal resources on penny ante pot busts and it's certainly nearly impossible to argue one company is violating community decency standards when our own government is setting the standard by vending the same titles. However, I suppose this does give some weight to the White House's contention that the firings were just politics as usual. After all, as we've seen time and time again, no incompetency goes unrewarded in this administration and no competency goes unpunished. . . .” Arizona US Attorney fired for failed porn case? in The Impolitic