Bush is more inclined to issue medals than fire incompetent underlings. And he is especially loyal to his close friends. Take Alberto Gonzales, a man that Bush bonded with when they executed prisoners together down in Texas. Bush should have fired him weeks ago. I have no idea why Gonzales even testified if he is just going to be shit-canned for the effort. But the White House sent a clear message even before today’s hearing concluded. From Campaign for America’s Future:
Further, CNN White House reporter Suzanne Malveaux just aired this report:
…people who we have spoken to, White House insiders, those involved in discussion with members, senior staff, behind me in [the White House] as well as outside, are saying that Gonzales is in trouble…
…I just want to read a couple of things, describing the testimony as, from two senior level White House aides, “going down in flames,” “not doing himself any favors,” that this was “predictable.”
One prominent Republican describing the testimony this way, as “watching a clubbing of [a] baby seal.”
Clearly, these people are saying, this all hangs on one person, and that is the President.
If that wasn’t clear enough, the Repubicans’ most rabid frothmaker, Sen. Tom Coburn, flat-out told Gonzales to drop dead.
“It was handled incompetently, the communication was atrocious. It was inconsistent. It’s generous to say that there was misstatements, that’s a generous statement,” said Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK). “And I believe you ought to suffer the consequences that these others have suffered, and I believe the best way to put this behind us is your resignation.”
Lindsey Graham didn’t ask Gonzales to resign but he did basically call him a liar.
“Most of this is a stretch. I think it’s clear to me that some of these people just had personality conflicts with people in your office or at the White House and, you know, we made up reasons to fire them. Some of it sounds good. Some of it doesn’t,” Graham said.
It sounds to me like the GOP has decided to throw Gonzales to the wolves. I suspect that Bush has given a quiet thumbs up for this embarrassing spectacle. Why he felt the need to put his execution buddy through this humiliation is anybody’s guess. It’s probably because he is a very bad person. Or…he’s covering up a bigger problem…like Karl Rove and his missing emails. Or something. These are not good people.
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to watch executions. Staged or not!
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."He’s Hispanic. Bush doesn’t want to fire a Hispanic, because of his big outreach to hispanics.
That total moron Reuben Navarette has said about as much. He has said that the effort to get Gonzales is due to his hispanicity. I think that’s all that protects him at this time.
I disagree. Bush is known for his loyalty. That’s why he always has “full confidence” in the enablers of his ego. Especially the ones that have followed him from Texas.
I’ve wondered about the loyalty. I figure Bush’s buddies just know way too much for him not to at least make a pretence of supporting them.
Gonzo still got his lips pressed against W’s ass..from Texas to Washington. If he was smart, he’d realize he’s the scape goat..hmm I wonder if at any time during his testimony he wondered why he wasn’t sitting in that chair Samuel Alito has.
…But once Abu goes it’s all downhill from there, because he is so close, and his dirty work so key. All W can do is try to run out the clock or make deals. This is stonewalling a la Nixon except the IQs of the players are several points lower than they were in 1972. The Bushies are lying trash with ideas as big as WalMart and their “opposition” has enabled them every step of the way.
The Bush Administration and their interpretation of executive privilege prove what Gore Vidal said: the United States is a second rate culture.
Senator Schumer did a kind of postmortem with reporters after the hearing which was shown on CSPAN3. (Before that, you could hear a woman say, “He said he did not recall 75 times. How did he get through law school?”)
Schumer said that there are two things. (1) Gonzales today himself made the case that he should resign, and the White House, “intransigent” as it is, will ask for his resignation. (2) We still don’t have an explanation for why each of the eight US attorneys was put on the list. We have testimony from the AG, from the Deputy AG, and the AG’s Chief of Staff. When asked who put the names on the list, each of them points his finger at the others. Thus, the Justice Department still has not provided the Committee with an explanation for why those attorneys were fired.
According to Schumer, this can mean only one thing. The names had to come from the White House. That is why the Committee wants to get Rove’s and Harriet Miers’ testimony, with a transcript at the very least.
When a reporter asked Schumer about the White House’s claim of executive privilege, Schumer said that if you look at the history, the Court usually doesn’t uphold claims of executive privilege, and it decides in a matter of a couple of months.
Schumer is really sharp, and doesn’t show a hint of the stuffiness that many senators exude.
If Gonzales does resign, I do hope the Democrats don’t keep their “powder dry” when confirming his replacement.
Let me see, now. The AG, the DAG, the AG’s COS cannot tell us who made the list of names of attorneys to be fired. Yet, the AG can assure us that none of them were fired for political or improper reasons. How would he know that to be true? If he doesn’t even know where the list came from or who made it. BTW, just for the record, a Texas governor cannot commute a death sentence. As I understand it, it’s either a full pardon or the needle. State law, and all.
So it looks like they’re going to keep him on at least a week or two, to save face. Doing it otherwise would be an admission that Bush has been forced to give some recognition to Congress.
This is kind of analogous to when the Republicans lost both houses in 2006. Bush is going to have to respond in some way. But simply letting Gonzales go would be to humiliating—for Bush. They’re going to have to find some other place to put him, and one that wouldn’t look like a demotion. Appointment to a judgeship in a federal appeals court, perhaps?
Maybe foreman of the brush (or is it bush?) cutting crew in Crawford Texas.
From a comment at TPMmuckraker:
That reminds me of what HAL said in 2001 as he was about to be disconnected:
Lindsey Graham didn’t ask Gonzales to resign but he did basically call him a liar.
“Most of this is a stretch. I think it’s clear to me that some of these people just had personality conflicts with people in your office or at the White House and, you know, we made up reasons to fire them. Some of it sounds good. Some of it doesn’t,” Graham said.
Actually what struck me about Graham’s comment is that he also alluded to impropriety coming from the White House.