Fired U.S. attorney was going places - Observers had David C. Iglesias pegged as a rising GOP star.

LAT

Until recently, David C. Iglesias was best known in New Mexico as one of the role models for the military lawyer Tom Cruise played in "A Few Good Men."

A trim, straight-backed former Navy lawyer, Iglesias rode that all-American reputation to high levels in Republican politics: He nearly became the state attorney general and was appointed U.S. attorney.

Now Iglesias has a new role: star witness. The Bush administration fired him in December and contended it was for poor job performance. On Tuesday, Iglesias, 49, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that two prominent Republican politicians had called him to ask whether indictments would be filed before the November election against Democratic politicians in an ongoing criminal investigation. In the weeks that followed, Iglesias and seven other federal prosecutors were forced to resign.

"I felt sick afterwards," Iglesias said of his response to the second call, which was made by Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.).

To friends and observers in New Mexico, the only surprise is the speed at which the GOP establishment has turned on one of its rising stars....