McClatchy's article [1] from earlier today discusses the potentially overlooked role of President Bush in the decision to fire the U.S. Attorneys:

Internal administration e-mails show that the Justice Department postponed the firings for nearly three weeks late last year while awaiting White House approval. The final consent came on Dec. 4, four days after Bush returned from an overseas trip, once several senior White House officials signed off on the plan. It is not known if Bush himself did.

Harriet Miers, then White House counsel, had warned in a Nov. 15 e-mail to the Justice Department that approval of the firings would be delayed if Bush had to OK the plan.

"Not sure whether this will be determined to require the boss's attention. If it does, he just left last night, so would not be able to accomplish for some time," Miers wrote in the e-mail, which was among a batch of e-mails and other internal documents related to the firings that were released by the Justice Department last week.

As you can see by reading that e-mail interaction here [2], Miers response prompted Kyle Sampson to ask: Who will determine if this requires the President's attention?

Interestingly, as Miers forewarned, the decision was delayed, coincidentally, for the amount of time Bush was away for Thanksgiving and a foreign trip:

The e-mail exchange came the day after Bush left Washington for a weeklong trip to Russia and Asia. He returned for a long Thanksgiving weekend at Camp David, then took off to Latvia and Jordan before returning to Washington on Nov. 30, a Thursday. Four days later, on Dec. 4, the White House signed off on the firing plan.

"We're a go for the US Atty plan," Kelley told the Justice Department. "WH leg, political and communications have signed off and acknowledged that we have to be committed to following through once the pressure comes."

"WH leg" apparently refers to the White House legislative affairs office, the president's liaison to Congress. Rove heads the political office. "Communications" is under the purview of presidential counselor Dan Bartlett.

The "We're a go" e-mail exchange can be found here [3].

Think Progress [4] and Talking Points Memo [5] both took note of the 18-day gap from Mid-November through early December during which there were almost no e-mails in the documents provided to Congress. That gap coincides with the time that Bush was away. Tony Snow said there was a "good response" for the gap. Is the "good response" that the White House and Justice Department staffers were waiting for Bush to decide what to do?