Things are beginning to get ugly on the legal front surrounding the Defense of Marriage Act (DoMA). We're rather disgusted to have to report that the Attorney General of Virginia, Ken Cuccinelli (R), has fired King & Spalding, the law firm that dropped the U.S. House of Representatives as a client. And instead of just saying, “Sorry, fellas. We're letting you go,” Cuccinelli's slinging mud.

Cuccinelli wrote to firm partner Joseph Lynch, “King & Spalding's willingness to drop a client, the U.S. House of Representatives, in connection with the lawsuit challenging [DoMA] was such an obsequious act of weakness that I feel compelled to end your legal association with Virginia so that there is no chance that one of my legal clients will be put in the embarrassing and difficult situation like the client you walked away from, the House of Representatives.”

After an outcry from the LGBT community last week, King & Spalding chairman Robert D. Hays, Jr. released a statement explaining his decision to keep the firm out of the DoMA case, saying, “In reviewing this assignment further, I determined that the process used for vetting this engagement was inadequate. Ultimately I am responsible for any mistakes that occurred and apologize for the challenges this may have created.”

And we'll admit, it does kinda look like King & Spalding caved to pressure. But we like to think they just don't want to defend a law that even President Obama says is unconstitutional.