Most of the eight U.S. attorneys fired by the Bush administration had a history of either not doing what the GOP wanted or going after a Republican too hard.

So far, the only evidence to emerge from Justice Department e-mails is the suggestion that Nevada's Daniel Bogden didn't take a porn case seriously enough. Not only do the e-mails suggest a frantic attempt to justify his firing, they open the door for speculation that Bogden was in the cross hairs for political reasons.

Three cases Bogden's office handled in 2006 -- during the heart of the election cycle -- likely landed on Karl Rove's desk in the White House as the administration closely followed any potential swing in congressional races. And Bogden's firing wouldn't just serve as a vengeful postscript. It would also set the stage for what we have already seen to be Rove's next mission -- securing the presidency and protecting targeted Republican House members in 2008.

Nevada's Jon Porter is one of those targets. That's why he received a seat on the budget-writing Ways and Means Committee, and that's why Rove has already put him on the "priority defense" list.

In 2006, Porter had the toughest of his three successful 3rd Congressional District campaigns, narrowly defeating Democrat Tessa Hafen. In late October, just days before the general election, Nevada Democratic Party Chairman Tom Collins wrote to Bogden, asking him to open an investigation into Porter's alleged use of office phones to make campaign fundraising calls.

Bogden could have sat on it until after the election. Instead, the Bush appointee promptly forwarded the letter to the FBI to investigate the claims. Local media focused on the case as voters were already casting early ballots. It wasn't until after the election that the FBI decided not to proceed with the investigation.

Call this case strike one against Bogden.

In February 2006, Bogden's office indicted a Reno radio talk show host on charges he conspired with his son to grow and distribute thousands of pounds of marijuana and launder the sales money through his business.

The case against Walter "Eddie" Floyd had an unusual political connection. One of the cars seized in the case belonged to Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller, a Republican who was running for the state's open 2nd Congressional District seat. Heller had appeared frequently on Floyd's show, "Nevada and America Matters," and considered him a friend. It didn't help matters that Floyd was a convicted sex offender, who -- it later turned out -- had failed to register in Nevada.

When news of Floyd's indictment reached Washington, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee seized upon it as a chance for Nevada Regent Jill Derby to make up ground on Heller in the heavily Republican district.

"The company you keep says a lot about a person, and Heller's ties to a convicted sex offender and drug trafficker speaks volumes," DCCC spokesman Bill Burton said at the time.

Derby really had no business thinking she could win the 2nd District because registered Republicans outnumbered Democrats by 49,000. But she still came within spitting range -- Heller won by 5 percentage points -- and won some Republican strongholds in the process.

It should be noted that both Heller's and Porter's campaigns were run by November Inc., a firm founded by consultant Mike Slanker, who chaired Bush's 2004 re-election campaign in Nevada. Slanker also earned "Pioneer" status, raising at least $100,000 for the campaign. He is now political director of the National Republican Senate Committee, which is chaired by Nevada Sen. John Ensign.

On Friday, Floyd was sentenced to four years in prison and three years of supervised release.

Call the Floyd case strike two.

In September 2006, Bogden's office indicted a Reno doctor on charges that he distributed smuggled and unapproved human growth hormone from Israel to an undercover agent who claimed he wanted to look younger.

The details of the case are pretty juicy in the medical community, because Dr. James Forsythe was called "one of the five most serious physician offenders known in the state of Nevada" by a state medical board investigator.

But the political details are even juicier as they apply to Bogden's firing.

Forsythe is the husband of Earlene Forsythe, who chaired the Nevada Republican Party during Bush's 2004 election. He is also the father of Lisa Marie Wark, wife of Republican political consultant Steve Wark.

Earlene Forsythe was well-known to Rove. Back in May 2005 when Sen. Harry Reid called Bush a "loser," she went on the offensive, saying Reid's comments had "stirred the anger of Republicans across the country and here in Nevada."

But the anti-Reid bona fides don't end there. Steve Wark managed Richard Ziser's campaign against Reid in 2004, when the White House had hoped a top-tier Republican candidate could "Daschle" Reid's career.

Wark also has Bush credentials. In 2004, he established Choices for America, which solicited cash from Republicans to help third-party candidate Ralph Nader qualify for the ballot in states nationwide. His e-mail solicitations suggested he needed to raise $30,000 to qualify Nader for Nevada's ballot. Wark had said in previous interviews that he thought Nader would make the difference for Bush in Nevada.

"I didn't do it for my own health," Wark said at the time.

The Forsythe case, scheduled for an April trial, just might have been strike three.

Bogden is searching his mind to figure out what did him in.

He thinks being asked to step down for no reason so Bush could install a new Nevada prosecutor is "political."

"I'm not going to speculate," Bogden said of the Floyd, Forsythe and Porter cases. "There's lots of different things mulling through my mind. I really can't venture a guess."

When I asked him about Floyd and Forsythe, Bogden mentioned the Collins letter about Porter.

"I've got some others, too, but I'm not going to speculate," Bogden said.

Ensign believes the obscenity case, which Bogden said he didn't have the resources to pursue, is the reason for Bogden's firing. And while the senator has been critical of the Justice Department, he hasn't called for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign.

Ensign has met with Gonzales and Bush about the Bogden firing and said that while he had hoped Bogden could be reinstated, he is pleased the administration is working to find Bogden a new job. Additionally, Ensign said he's been promised more resources for the Nevada office and said Justice officials have pledged to change the system used to evaluate U.S. attorneys.

Ensign doesn't buy my three-strikes theory. "It's just a conspiracy, that's all it is -- a fantasy," he said. "I'm in the high 90s that this was just gross incompetence."

Stranger fantasies have occurred in this political league. Although Ensign is using an approval rating barometer, Bogden may well have been sunk by his political batting average.

Erin Neff's column runs Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. She can be reached at (702) 387-2906, or by e-mail at eneff@reviewjournal.com.