The Democrats and others are spinning their wheels trying to get Alberto Gonzales to resign as Attorney General. Alberto Gonzales is not the real issue here. The real issue is the terminated investigation by Carol Lam, one of the fired US Attorneys, into Republican corruption at the highest levels of government, namely, at Dick Cheney's office. For weeks the conventional wisdom among the punditry and TV anchors such as Katie Couric is that Alberto Gonzales's resignation is imminent. As if the Bush Administration really cares what the punditry and TV anchors think. This is supposed to represent "mounting pressure" on Alberto Gonzales to resign. Ha! Think again. The Bush Administration is just tweaking the noses of the Democrats, letting them expend a lot of energy and waste a lot of time over a phony issue, and then they'll demonstrate how ineffectual they are by keeping Alberto Gonzales in place.
The fact of the matter is that Alberto Gonzales, like the fired US attorneys, serves at the pleasure of the President, and the President's pleasure is to show that the Democratic Congress has no power to get rid of Alberto Gonzales. Gonzales is nothing more or less than a lackey of and water carrier for the Bush Administration, completely bought and sold to do their bidding, practically an automaton dictated to by Bush, Cheney and Rove. So, Democrats, you don't like it? What are you going to do about it? Nothing! Because Bush-Cheney-Rove are using this issue to demonstrate not only your impotence, but the impotence of the whole Washington media and punditry establishment! When are you going to wake up and pursue those things where you do have some real power - like cutting off funding for the war in Iraq? Are you, Congress, going to pick up where Carol Lam left off and continue her investigation into Republican corruption at the highest level or are you going to let the Bush Administration stick it to you by sticking like a tar baby to Alberto Gonzaless?
In another blog we have laboriously laid out the facts regarding Cheney's awarding of a $140,000 contract to Mitchell Wade, who never before had received a Federal contract, shortly before Wade paid $140,000 for a yacht, the Duke-Stir, which he used to bribe convicted Congressman Duke Cunningham. Cunningham was also bribed by Brent Wilkes whose connection to Dusty Foggo, number 3 man at the CIA, also aroused Carol Lam's suspicions with the result that Foggo was indicted. It was these investigations that the Bush Administration wished to terminate by firing the US Attorneys including Lam. Gonzales was merely the waterboy. Mike Huckabee got it exactly wrong when he said:
"Sometimes the best position would be for the appointee to make the decision and not force the president to do so. You best serve the person you work for when you can decide that if you are a distraction that you no longer will create that level of problem for your boss," he said.
"The attorney general is clearly creating a major distraction for the president and for the administration and for the Republican Party," Huckabee said.
Huckabee has it exactly wrong. This is exactly the kind of distraction the Bush Administration wants to see Congress and the rest of the country engaged in - a pointless, futile waste of time and energy getting somebody to resign which would change nothing because, if he did resign, he would only be replaced by another Bush lackey. So what would change?
If the Democrats and the punditry think that they can accomplish anything by "pressuring" the Bush Administration, they've got their heads up their collective asses. Bush-Cheny-Rove will use this little excercise as an example that the Democrats can plead, bellyache and wring their hands all they want but in the final analysis Gonzales will only go if Bush says he will go and Bush and Gonzales are joined at the hip to the proposition that Gonzales is going to stay and let that be a lesson to y'all Democrats and sundry Republicans! Nothing will please Bush-Cheney-Rove more than tweaking your noses, ears and other body parts. And, meanwhile, you're distracted from the real issues: the criminality of the Bush Administration in Iraq and corruption at home.
The following excerpt from the New York Times nicely illustrates my thesis that the Bushies are enjoying the heck out of watching the "respected punditry and hoary politicians" foam at the mouth to no avail over Alberto Gonzales in the full knowledge that there is really nothing any of them individually or collectively can do about the situation except to illustrate their impotence:
WASHINGTON, April 23 — President Bush said Monday that the Congressional testimony of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales last week, roundly panned by members of both parties, had “increased my confidence in his ability to do the job.”
Speaking during a short question-and-answer session in the Oval Office, Mr. Bush said of Mr. Gonzales’s performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, “The attorney general went up and gave a very candid assessment, and answered every question he could possibly answer, honestly answer.”
Mr. Bush has repeatedly asserted his confidence in Mr. Gonzales, a longtime adviser, as criticism has mounted over the dismissals of eight United States attorneys.
But his statement on Monday was his first direct comment about Mr. Gonzales since the attorney general appeared before the committee, and it was at considerable odds with an overwhelmingly critical assessment of his testimony by members of both parties. It indicated that Mr. Bush, at least for now, has concluded his attorney general can weather the challenge to his leadership at the Justice Department, barring any evidence of wrongdoing.
That challenge had seemed all the more daunting as of Sunday, when Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican on the committee whom both sides view as a barometer of support for Mr. Gonzales, appeared on “Fox News Sunday” and said, “The attorney general’s testimony was very, very damaging to his own credibility,” and that his continued tenure was “bad for the Department of Justice.”
Asked to comment on Mr. Bush’s assessment of Mr. Gonzales’s testimony on Monday, Mr. Specter said in a telephone interview, “I’m not going to get involved in evaluating the president’s decision to retain the attorney general.”
Mr. Specter added, “I will continue to work with the attorney general as long as he has that position.”
Several other Republican senators who have been critical of Mr. Gonzales, including Jeff Sessions of Alabama, John E. Sununu of New Hampshire and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.
With many lawmakers working in their home districts, it was unclear whether their unresponsiveness was a result of busy schedules or a concerted effort to avoid a running, tit-for-tat debate with the White House over Mr. Gonzales’s future.
One senior Republican Congressional aide at work in Washington on Monday, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, called Mr. Bush’s statement that his confidence in Mr. Gonzales had grown after his testimony “curious”; another senior Republican aide asked, “Was he watching the same hearing as everyone else?”
White House officials were confronted Monday with questions about whether Mr. Bush’s statements of confidence would ultimately be followed by a resignation, with reporters recalling that Mr. Bush had pledged support for Donald H. Rumsfeld shortly before his ouster as defense secretary. “He’s staying,” the White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said of Mr. Gonzales in one such exchange on Monday morning.
Later, asked if Mr. Bush had seen all the testimony, Ms. Perino said the president had been traveling but had received updates from aides and had seen some of it on television news reports.
Pressure to push Mr. Gonzales out is likely to continue. Although Mr. Gonzales has sought to maintain the impression that the country’s legal business is going on without interruption, several Justice Department officials say that the attorney general and his advisers have been greatly distracted by the uproar.
Some administration allies had even voiced optimism last week that Mr. Gonzales would resign and spare Mr. Bush the discomfort of standing by him as support erodes even within his own party.
Speaking at a news briefing on Monday after announcing an initiative to fight identity theft, Mr. Gonzales indicated he had no such plan.
“I will stay as long as I can be effective, and I can be effective,” Mr. Gonzales said in response to questions about his plans.
He said he “can’t just be focused on the U.S. attorneys situation.”
“I’ve also got to be focused on what’s important for the American people,” he said.
Mr. Gonzales said he needed to spend time on his priorities, like combating terrorism, drug abuse and the danger to children from the Internet.
Emphasizing the point, the White House released a statement late Monday commending Mr. Gonzales and the Federal Trade Commission chairwoman, Deborah Platt Majoras, for their work on identity theft.
Asked how he knew he was still effective, Mr. Gonzales responded: “I think a cabinet secretary or the head of an agency every day should wake up and ask themselves that question: Am I still effective in this position? I think that’s a question that all of us should ask, every day.”
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