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I have no idea why Democrats always run around shrieking that the Republican Party is mean, vicious, merciless.

Democrats get love taps.

It's Republicans who are hammered by the Republicans.

We direct your attention to the case of United States Attorney David Iglesias, a Republican who was dumped from his post by the jagged machinery in his own party.

The hit on Iglesias was issued on Dec. 7 - "Pearl Harbor Day," he says without irony - though news of his departure as the top federal prosecutor for New Mexico didn't make the papers until this week.

Naturally. Iglesias' forced departure had all the charm and grace of a "Sopranos" episode, so it stands to reason it might take time to find the body.

Iglesias, 48, wasn't alone. He says several U.S. attorneys have been dismissed by the Bush administration in recent weeks. But the purge of Iglesias smacks of something more personal, more local - and for the Republicans, far more troubling.

Iglesias isn't saying that; I am. For the most part, he talks about his departure with a calm, measured dignity.

"I can't complain that I only had 5 years," he says. "It was a fantastic ride. I think we got some good results for the people of New Mexico. And no one can say we hosed up the office. The opposite is true."

Here's what's also true: In taking out Iglesias, the White House (and whoever was advising it) is doing what the Republican apparatus in New Mexico does best: eating its young.

The GOP can say it's hampered by a vast registration differential; by a Secretary of State's Office that tilts to the Democrats; by a brass-knuckled, partisan governor who plays for keeps.

Blah, blah, blah. What the party never says is how it destroys strong, budding candidates seemingly without thought.

This is the GOP that ran John Sanchez for governor in 2002, long before he was ready to take on a mauler like Bill Richardson. It did the same disservice to the promising Jim Bibb, whose Minute-Rice rise to prominence in the state attorney general's race didn't obscure the fact that he was an absolute unknown trying to battle a commodity like Gary King.

And now this: Iglesias, a straight arrow from GOP Central Casting, being deposed in a way that may hurt him if he ever runs for office.

Given his r‚sum‚, he'd be a natural for something big. A young, intelligent, telegenic Hispanic Republican with federal prosecutorial credentials? Think that might work in an election?

Apparently, someone in D.C. didn't care. That's what's so interesting. Maybe someone there - in close contact with someone here - was incredibly disappointed by the results of the corruption case of former state Treasurer Robert Vigil, a Democrat. Or, maybe, that special someone wanted November indictments in an unrelated public corruption investigation that may make the Vigil-Montoya affair look like a jaywalking ticket.

Maybe someone thought the right kind of results in both instances might've helped the GOP's fortunes in November's elections.

For his part, Iglesias merely says he bears no malice. He allows that "the hung jury (in Vigil's first trial) was a disappointment; it was unexpected. But you never know what a jury is going to do."

Iglesias also is quick to point out his successes: a new law he helped push that will make it easier to prosecute crimes committed on privately owned sections of Indian reservations; a better, more accessible database that aids law enforcement; the push to prosecute corruption and the conviction of Vigil on one count in his second trial and the guilty plea of former state treasurer Michael Montoya to an extortion charge.

Those things, he says, allow him to anticipate the next stage in his life, which for now means looking for a job in the law.

He's got prospects. And maybe someday, he'll consider running for office.

"I've loved public service," he says. "I've really enjoyed it."

Making a run, of course, likely will be a drag. Who could possibly relish the fund-raising, the kowtowing, the mudslinging? But compared to what Iglesias has seen this month, how rough could the opposition party really be?

For a moment, he chuckles at the thought of Wilde's old line: "True friends stab you in the front."

"That," he says, "is a hilarious and truthful quote."