Story here, but at present there’s nothing to go on but “the buzz among top Bushies.” If it happened, could Chertoff get confirmed easily? And who would replace him at Homeland Security?
I don’t suppose it would affect Congressional investigations of Gonzalez’ conduct in office one way or another.
Chertoff is the best nominee one can expect to get, so yes, he’d get confirmed.
It doesn’t matter who replaces him at HS.
And the Gonzalez problem is primarily his own fitness for office, and Rove’s involvement, so yes, the investigations would peter out.
No, the Gonzalez problem is mainly the attorney-firings affair, which is part of a coordinated program to rig future elections against Democratic candidates. A Dem-controlled Congress isn’t going to let that go so easily.
It was part of a *past * effort regarding *past * elections. There’s too much public awareness of it now for it to work in the future. Most likely. We hope.
Well, Chertoff confirmation hearings would give Dems a good reason to bring up the gov’t response to Katrina again, which depending on how close to '08 we are, might give Bush some pause in selecting Chertoff.
Indeed, the whole dept. of Homeland Security is pretty unpopular, I’m not sure the GOP would want to give the Dems another forum to grill its head on its various failings.
Since when does potential public disapproval prevent Bush from doing anything.
I think at this point the White House is more interested in covering their own ass than anything else. That means putting a reliable crony in charge of Justice.
The scary thing is, I expect you’re right on both counts.
And I regard Chertoff as a political hack and a proven incompetent.
I would hope that the Dems would block the confirmation of any AG nominee who didn’t have a much stronger track record of both competence and impartiality. But at this point my opinion of the Dems’ effectiveness is pretty low.
Can’t Bush just have Gonzalez resign while Congress is in recess and appoint whoever he want’s using a recess appointment (depriving the Senate of any say). That would last until 3 weeks before his term is up.
I wonder what Chertoff’s gut feeling is about all this?
The WH has an agreement with Reid not to do that - the result of Reid’s previously announcing plans to keep the Senate formally in session continuously, with a pro-forma gavel banging as required, in order to prevent any more such fuckyou appointments.
NPR’s Morning Edition is saying – repeatedly – that Gonzalez will announce his resignation later today.
It was. Now it’s the commission of perjury in an apparent attempt to forestall inquiry into those firings. Fromw here I sit, the firings, while politically idiotic, were legal. Lying under oath to keep the details quiet, however, is most certainly illegal. And as I said here several weeks ago, it’s for that reason that Gonzales needed to either resign or be fired.
I also said that a grand jury needed to hear perjury charges against him, and I think that should be the next step.
A couple weeks ago a reported asked Bush (occasionally they get to ask him a question) about Gonzalez being held to a high standard of accountability. Bush answered (as nearly as I recall): “I don’t accept the premise of your question. Alberto Gonzalez hasn’t done anything to be held accountable for.”
So why is he resigning? Maybe he wants to spend more time with Karl Rove’s family.
Well, I hope he he dies in a prison cell. (Not likely, but I’m a bit of a sentimentalist about these things.)
Wow. What other crimes do you believe should carry the death penalty, or life in prison, as punishment?
I think the official line is that the (unfounded, of course) accusations have become too much of a distraction for the Justice dept. and so Gonzales is resigning for the greater good.
If Bush appoints Comey, I’ll be forced to say something nice about the administration for probably the first time since at least '04.
I hope they have Gonzalez’s Medal of Freedom ready in time.
“Gonzo, you’ve done a heck of a job”
We laugh because it is funny, and we laugh because it is true.
A couple of months ago the consensus of this Board was that Gonzo would never go - there were too many skeletons in the closet that could potentially come out during the confirmation hearings for a new AG.
What’s changed?