The Interesting Dr. Hatfill

The Justice Department has come forward to explain that applying the term "person of interest" to Dr. Steven Hatfill with regard to the ongoing—and going—anthrax investigation is not intended to ID Hatfill as a person remotely interesting to investigators.

In fact, the term was intended to "deflect media scrutiny from Dr. Hatfill," assistant attorney general Daniel J. Bryant explained in a letter to Congress that could not have been written with a straight face.

Meanwhile, the FBI is back poking around Hatfill's one-time home town of Frederick, Maryland, this time looking for lab equipment supposedly ditched in park lands.

Let's stop the charade. Either the guy is a suspect or he isn't.