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.