investigation proceed unimpeded. at the influential legal blog there's a great treatment how the confirmation hearings went for bill saxby and elliot richardson before him. richardson and saxby were confirmed in the midst of not only major presidential scandal, they were confirmed in the midst of an ongoing justice department investigation that was chasing the current president like his own tail was on fire. and so what is the precedent there? what could we learn from the way those two men were confirmed to ag? we've posted a link to our own blog, maddow blog.com. la fair has posted the transcripts of the hearings so you can read them. you can see what the senators did in the early 70s in the midst of water gate to try to make sure the investigation would be protected from nixon, that the justice department would let the watergate investigation proceed unimpeded despite whatever pressure was