Right on, LM. The real tragedy is not that Gonzales is a lying toadie, but that he has corrupted the DoJ with so many of his pustular flunkies. It will be a generation before we are shut of them.
It's gonna be a bumpy ride.
Stop beating around the bush, LM. What do you REALLY think?
We all knew this guy was a sucky loser (WH Plame files, Kerik nom, Abu Ghraib, etc) back in Jan '05 and most tried to warn our senators to reject him. The Gonzales GOP was aided & abetted by these Democratic yoyos:
Mary Landrieu
Joe Lieberman
Bill Nelson
Ben Nelson
Mark Pryor
Ken Salazar
Be sure to drop them a line reminding them of their shallow statesmanship, egregious misjudgement and careless damage to America's justice system. A shrill absence of deference is OK. It's not like they have any shame.
Well...damn, LoLo - yeah, I actually do miss Singin' Swingin' Johnny Ashcroft a little, now that you mention it. WTF has this country come to...
The question really becomes...wtf is going on here?
Seriously. It's a really important question I think. Why are they doing this? Why hasn't AG been fired? Why hasn't he resigned? Maybe he's refusing to resign. But why don't they fire him?
#1. They don't want to let the dirty hippies win, as Atrios would put it. I think this motivates a lot of the post-blogosphere conservative worldview, to be honest.
#2. More importantly, who would replace AG? They're not going to be able to slide anybody through, really. Those confirmation is going to be tough, and the Democrats might go as far as demanding someone on their own, who they can be sure will do a full and impartial investigation. So is the WH blocking said full and impartial investigation?
What are they scared of?
Are they scared that they fired attorneys who weren't significantly loyal? This really is a wonk issue, to be honest, and doesn't really have legs (although it IS critically important)
Were they too aggressive in going after terrorists? Well, if this is the case Bush could pardon everybody involved and that would be that. Nobody would blink an eye.
Were they funning surveillance results into Karl Rove's office? I think this is the ding ding. At the end of the day, this is what I think is going to come out. That Karl Rove has been looking at the raw surveillance data, which includes political opponents.
Tell me. What else does AG have his fingers in, what pie has he spoiled, makes any sense at all?
Ya hit it on the head as usual, LM. My only gripe: for that graphic you're justifiably proud of, you didn't use a pic of one of those guano-eatin' grins Abu Gonzales usually uses when he does things such as lie to Congress, receive an approving pat on the head from his taskmaster El Preznidente, or just breathes in general.
And to think this joker went to Harvard?..................
Monica Goodling for AG.
Ding, ding, indeed, friend Karmakin, and I think political surveillance may be the least of it.
I think that little Alberto has at least as much on Bush & Cheney as Libby. Gonzales would be an even more dangerous loose cannon than Scooter because he was at ground-level on all the things that can put them all in prison for war crimes--Torture, rendition, Geneva Convention violations, the bundle. Our boy 'Berto has both of them in the nut vise. Don't be surprised if he is a "tragic casualty" in the next "terrorist attack".
If you think it can't get worse? Try this one out: Recess appointed Attorney General John Yoo. If Gonzalez does resign, Reid better not go into recess until a replacement is made.
Selah.
Karmakin:
You have hit on the crux of the story—namely, the unspoken, hidden ugliness. What is keeping Gonzo in place is the fact that the Bush administration is SO rife with corruption—from the tippy-tippy top, to the bottom of it's cloven little hooves, that to give on any front, no matter how egregious the crime, would open the door to its total collapse.
The things we know that they've done, we can barely live with. Giving in to an investigation of any sort, or admitting wrongdoing via a dismissal would be the beginning of the end. The proof of the pudding is how press cynicism ramped up after the dismissal of Rumsfeld, along with highly negative public sentiment.
They don't want a repeat of that kind of wheeling about. So, no admissions of wrongdoing—and absolutely NO deep-probing investigations can be brooked. I for one, don't think Bush'll go the whole 18 months remaining without someone with access to really damning info not leaking it. And when that someone does, I think it's gonna set the whole fucking house on fire. The Gonzo stall is a desperate gamble to wait out the clock. He'll never rat out "W", but his being knocked out of power would wound Bush severely , leaving his flank open for enemies obvious, and as yet, hidden.
This...is gonna be fun. 
As a practicing attorney in Maryland, I remain ashamed and comprehensively disgusted at the undermining of fundamental confidence in the administration of basic, meat-and-potatoes justice by this shameless hack whose signifying and lying would outdo Joe Isuzu.
In Maryland, they disbar you for putting a slug in a parking meter. No joke - true case and good law. Gonzales has done far more than twenty-five cents worth of damage. I want his law licenses shredded.
LM- Great rant and as to your comment above, my god, I hope you're right.
Great post...but to be honest...I don't care...good liar, bad liar........some might say Tony Snow is a better liar or Ari Fleischer was a better liar. But a liar is a liar. And if you know the man's a liar, it also harms the nation for you to leave him in office. They're our elected leaders and reflect on us.
The quality of the lies isn't the point. LM, as you point out, Abu G is only running out the clock, so he doesn't have to be a good liar. Until January, in the unlikely event the Republicans held a hearing, he could have read The Great Gatsby if he wanted and speculated on the Democrats' parentage.
None of the Bush cronies had to be good liars at all, until now. The Democrats didn't have any power to make them talk in the first place, while the regular media would, at worst, let them pass along their lies without comment.
A Three-Card Monte dealer on the street has to be a good liar because his survival depends on it.
Actually, nobody in DC has to be a good liar. Somebody once said DC is Hollywood for ugly people. It's true in another sense, and maybe LM can back me up on this. Everyone in Hollywood pretty much agrees to believe everyone else's bullshit. The film school graduate working at the video-store clerk could be a player tomorrow. It doesn't happen that often, but often enough you don't dismiss her bullshit out of hand. You, in turn, have this really brilliant treatment and it might have to go through the hands of a few little people before a player sees it. And all those little people have ideas they'll want to try on you, so you'd better be patient.
Well, DC's like that too. That intern you cussed out yesterday could be blowing the Congressional Committee Chairman who directly holds the purse strings to your department, and you've been shitting yourself until November, when suddenly that Chairman becomes only the ranking minority member. What a relief!
The Republicans had a master plan to stay in power forever, and once they had all three branches, the stone nuts voting reliably and the unfriendlies scared awa from the polls, it looked like they'd never have to answer questions again.
Then November 2006 hit. The shock is still wearing off, so as a Bush apparatchik, and you're going through the symptoms.
Denial/anger: Who are you to ask *me* these questions?
Hope: Not too long ago, those lies were, operationally, truth. Maybe it still is, for awhile.
Not sure what this is: Or you keep waving the Preznit's mojo at the Committee Chairman (post January, so it's a different one) like Medusa's head, but it just doesn't work like it used to. Nobody fed the snakes and they all died, and the Snaky Lady's face kinda slid off in the summer heat, so the head looks kinda like a soggy skull with dreads. And the Committee Chairman doesn't turn to stone but just looks disgusted instead.
Bargaining is out. You don't want to jeopardize that Regnery book contract.
Despair: Probably not.
Final Acceptance: Absoluelly not.
Did you ever—EVER, think that you'd look back on John Ashcroft's hoary singing, backward ways, and yes...freaky aversion to breastage on federal statuary with a sense of laughing nostalgia?
Often since Ashcroft and Olson resigned. It made my skin crawl to wonder what was soooooo bad that they couldn't stick around.
I want to hear from Russell Tice on how many people have been spied on and blackmailed.
Great post...but to be honest...I don't care...good liar, bad liar........some might say Tony Snow is a better liar or Ari Fleischer was a better liar. But a liar is a liar. And if you know the man's a liar, it also harms the nation for you to leave him in office. They're our elected leaders and reflect on us.
TC
So TC, You were in favor of the removal of Bill Clinton from office as a practiced liar as well?
"Recess appointed Attorney General John Yoo."
OK, thanks for stopping my heart!
btw I read it was Monica Goodling that was breasty adverse and responsible for the drapes.
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