Their candidate in the White House, their party with a strong grip on Congress and control of nearly every position worth mentioning in our state, this should be New Mexico Democrats' time to howl.

Yet the United States attorney for New Mexico isn't their guy: Greg Fouratt, judicially appointed acting federal prosecutor after David Iglesias was scandalously bounced by the Bush administration, is still on the job. Having put the powerful Manny Aragón behind bars, and having convicted a former Albuquerque mayor, Fouratt is still on the scent. His ongoing grand-jury investigation of Gov. Bill Richardson and assorted assistants has plenty of Dems nervous.

It's almost like a scene from Becket, where King Henry II asks, rhetorically, "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" Done. But that was in medieval England, and carried out in the bloody fashion of the time. Today, the way to get rid of Richardson's tormentor is only slightly more civil: President Barack Obama could appoint a new prosecutor — someone like Santa Fe attorney John Pound, who co-chaired Obama's campaign in New Mexico.

But hark — if that happens, and the governor goes unindicted, wouldn't that cast a shadow on the president — and on our state's Democratic senior senator, who by custom gets to choose the U.S. Attorney?

Jeff Bingaman, then, must be very careful about his party's wishes to relegate Fouratt back to his previous job as a deputy prosecutor — or to usher him doorward. The senator is being characteristically cautious about who gets this political-spoils position, and when.

Were it to be Pound, he would come to office carrying heavy baggage: Besides a few law-firm connections to Richardson, he was treasurer for the now-beclouded Eric Serna's ill-fated congressional campaign of 1997 — which drew a federal fine for abuse of get-out-the-vote communications money.

It's possible that the feds aren't finished with their pursuit of Serna on another front: He went on to be state insurance superintendent. His deputy, Joe Ruiz, was convicted and sent to prison for the kind of bribe-solicitation his boss had to have known about — or directed him to do, as Ruiz contends ...

Prosecution shouldn't be carried out on partisan grounds. However, going after the opposition seems to offer great incentives to those sworn to uphold and enforce the law — as does taking it easy on like-minded pols.

Pound, were he appointed, would swear on a stack of Bibles that he'd mightily pursue criminals equine and elephantine — but who besides selected Democrats would even say they believe him, or anyone else the president might appoint? Better that Obama stay with the prosecutor he's got, and give the genial Pound an ambassadorship for his hard work.

Does that mean Fouratt is federal attorney for life? Just keep plugging away at our state's plentiful corruption and keep his replacement at bay until he's old and gray? He and the jurors are certainly taking their sweet time deciding whether or not to indict the governor or anyone else on what's airily described as pay-for-play politics, but better known as bribery.

The leisurely prosecutorial pace already has cost Richardson a place on the Obama Cabinet, and maybe an ambassadorship as well; worse yet is the shadow over the reputation of the dynamic leader our state long needed.

Even an indictment doesn't mean the governor's guilty — and a trial could take as long as the investigation has. Justice delayed being justice denied, there's got to be a reasonable wrap-up, regardless of assertions that this case could go on long after he leaves office at the end of next year. So whether or not some close associates have ratted Richardson out, it's getting time to put up or shut up.

Then, but only then, should talk turn to Greg Fouratt's successor.