New Mexico Senator Pete Diminici has been one of the usual suspects rounded up by the Imus in the Morning posse. The keys words being " has been. "

I listen to Imus regularly, and I haven't heard Diminici's voice lately. But the last few times I heard it I was struck by how, uh, how shall I put this? Limited? OK, I'll use that one.

I was struck by how limited he was in his ability to keep up with the pace of the conversation Imus was attempting to have with him. The Senator seemed, at least to me, to be off his game, if not completely off his rocker. I wondered: What's the deal with Diminici?

The New Mexico Senator has been in the news for the past week. One of the fired U.S. Attorneys, David Eglesias of New Mexico, had an op-ed piece in the New York Times yesterday. In it he described a phone call he had received from the Senator. The call was in connection with a corruption case Eglesius was prosecuting. According to Eglesias, Diminici asked him if indictments would be handed up before an upcoming election. Eglesias said no, they would not be. Dominici said, according to Eglesias, " I'm sorry to hear that. "

" Then the line went dead, " wrote Eglesias. He was fired six weeks later, despite a record of exemplary performance reviews by the Justice Department.

Diminici has hired a defense attorney. To my knowledge, he has not appeared in public, nor has he issued a statement. Makes me wonder if the gentleman from the great state of New Mexico is the next public figure to announce he's going into rehab.