Gonzales and the myth of "at will employment"

Ed Morrisey has an excellent post that puts the US Attorney Purge and the incompetence of Alberto Gonzales in realistic perspective. Like me Ed has been an employer and explains that "at will employment" is a myth. Before you can fire someone it takes weeks or even months to get all your ducks in a row. If you don't you will open yourself up to expensive legal problems. Go read the entire thing but Ed concludes with this:

Now, we have heard that the President has the ability to fire any of these prosecutors at any time, for whatever reason he sees fit, as long as it isn't to obstruct justice. That's true. It presupposes some kind of reason, however; one shouldn't fire people without having a reason. So what were the reasons for firing each of these people? Even Gonzales couldn't explain them after a month of research and preparation for this hearing. He offered some performance issues, but couldn't say whether he had ever communicated those issues to the attorneys themselves before or during the terminations. And regardless of the political nature of the appointments, the AG and the White House had to know that people would ask questions about the rather unprecedented terminations -- and it's obvious that despite their planning, they had no good or consistent response to them.