Open your eyes and ears, for God's sake! Where were you when the letter to Ted Kennedy from the NAACP asked him to torpedo a confirmation? ...It was turned into Memogate and REPUBLICANS were made the bad guys. Martinez deserves an ass-whipping for being bag-of-rocks stupid.
Bet your hiney, he does! Dumping an aide is almost always a CYA move. Those guys/girls don't do things like that without being asked to.