AGAG blinked.
I guess my bigger question was, what’s changed from the AG’s perspective?
If the only thing that was keeping him from leaving months ago was some misplaced loyalty to the President (rather than to the rule of law), then has he suddenly gotten that old time religion?
Our Accomplisher In Chief must be taking this one pretty hard.
Please, please, people, the man’s name is Gonzales. Is it too much to ask to spell his name correctly?
As for his resignation and replacement, that should be fun watching. Both on the pundit shows (I can’t wait for Countdown) and on C-Span.
Apart from the agreement previously mentioned by ElvisL1ves, Bush’s previous recess appointments at least had the support of many Republicans in the Congress, but that’s something that would be far from guaranteed if he tried it again.
Bush’s stock with Republican lawmakers is very low right now. Quite a few Republicans have been extremely angered by the whole Gonzales thing, and many are also keen to distance themselves from the Bush White House as much as possible in the hope that they can avoid being tainted by its problems in the run-up the the next election.
CNN seems to think Vick’s guilty plea is a much more newsworth story of the day . . . but the question of whether Chertoff will replace Gonzales (thanx, asterion) at least came up for a mention.
You’re assuming he resigned on his own initiative, he may have been asked to do so by the Prez. As for what changed, my guess is that the administration realized they didn’t have enough support in Congress to pervent some sort of perjury investigation from going forward.
Or perhaps they intended to dump him all along, and just wanted to wait it out for a bit to make it look like they weren’t caving to pressure.
I’m still wondering as to motives. It was the widely held view on this Board the AG would never resign because that would open up the Administration’s handling of various issues (elements of the security system primarily) up to scrutiny during the confirmation process for whoever has to follow Gonzales. Fair enough point. BushCo’s extreme inner-apparatus loyalty also got batted around as a point. That’s what gives me pause to think the Prez asked for the resignation - he (Bush) puts incredible stock in personal loyalty and I don’t see him looking for a resignation that will 1) appear as him being disloyal to a fellow Texan that he’s essentially groomed and 2) open the administration up to investigation during the confirmation process. In either instance, the Administration (or, perhaps more accurately, the President) is on the short end of the stick). As far as I can figure, the AG’s resignation would have no impact on Congress’ ability to carry on a perjury investigation even after AG resigns.
My money is that Gonzales finally had enough of being the goat and looking like a complete ass in front of Congress. “Enough of this shit - I’m heading to K Street.”
Well, since his resignation is effective Sept 17, there will be no recess appointment. (Unless the confirmation takes too long, and Bush does it over a holiday recess.) I’ve heard speculation on NPR that John Danforth and Orrin Hatch are both possibilities. Danforth would bring tons of credibility that’s so badly needed, much as Saxby did after Watergate.
Credibility is not the first and foremost, loyalty is first and foremost. If they wanted credibility, they would have tapped Pat Fitzgerald, who has credibility up the wazoo. Trouble is, he’s earned his credibillity, he appears to be as billed, an honest conservative of a stripe I thought extinct.
Not a team player. Lacks the crucial quality of loyalty to The Leader.
My WAG: its the “Big Enchilada” ploy developed by Nixon: throw one of the chubbier children off the troika and perhaps the wolves will be satisfied. “OK, OK! You got Gonzo! Enough, already!”
They’re desperate. The slime revealed is not all, there is more. Only an utter Bushivik can be relied upon to do what needs be done.
Where is the line between inappropriate behavior and abuse of power? Some of the US Attorneys have said that they were pressured to pursue charges against Democrats before elections. If this is true, I call it abuse of power. If they were told NOT to pursue specific cases against Republicans, then I’d call it obstruction of justice. When you start bringing charges or witholding charges in order to influence elections, that undermines the entire democratic process. If that ain’t a crime, it oughta be.
It’s the chutzpah principle: it wasn’t made a crime because no one believed anyone could be brazenly corrupt enough to attempt it, or dumb enough to believe they would get away with it.
I don’t much care about the legality, I don’t need anyone to go to prison. I simply want full sunlight on this conspiracy of maggots.
I think they got the timing off though, Labor Day isn’t until next Monday. Why not wait to make the announcement until this Friday @ 4:45 pm starting the long Labor Day weekend? Or is Gonzo really that incompetent that he got his days mixed up? Or maybe there is more bad news [for the Bush Administration anyway] to come out later this week?
Maybe they figured Vick’s guilty plea would push the Gonzales story off the front page.
And maybe they’re right.
The fuck if I know, and I was definitely a part of that consensus.
My thinking was that it would be hard for Bush to find someone simultaneously un-hackish enough to get confirmed, but hackish enough so that, when in office, he would keep DoJ from investigating Bush’s crooked allies and henchmen.
Maybe Bush’s sense is that Congress has gotten back in the habit of caving in to Bush and being willing to rubber-stamp Chertoff. But your WAG is as good as mine.
I don’t believe in the death penalty. I do think Gonzales (can’t believe I’ve been misspelling his name for so long) morally deserves being locked up for the rest of his life, regardless of what charges may or may not be brought against him. (Of course, that applies to so many in the current administration.)
When John Ashcroft left, I was foolish enough to say “Well, at least the next one has got to be an improvement.” Ha! Won’t say that again.
Chertoff just might have too much post-Katrina baggage to get through the Senate. If not Danforth or Hatch, there must be some other William Websteresque gray eminence they can put in at DoJ. They’re going to need him (or her) to calm the waters in the last few days of the President’s term.
Been looking over some conservative blogs, at least the major ones.
No one seems to have liked Gonzalez. They say he was a political bumbler, able to turn any situation into an embarassment to himself and his bosses.
Few, if any, seem to like Chertoff. The whole immigration thing really turned the tide against him, in addition to the stuff already mentioned.
So if Chertoff does get in, it seems only the Administration will be happy. And maybe Presidential candidates (Democrats get something else to shout about, Republicans get the opportunity to distance themselves from Bush in a way they know their constituents won’t mind).
Which underlines that if it is Chertoff, its by default, not by choice. They are on the fork: pick somebody with a reputation for stern integrity, and they risk having the giant economy sized Can O’ Worms opened up. And the supply of absolute Bushiviks loyalists is declining drasticly, as the rodents exhibit nautical emergency behavior (“Swim away! Swim away!”).
The overall impression is of a Republican party (or a faction thereof, to use a narrower brush…) determined to use the mechanisms of government to cement their grasp on power. And if everything they might wish to hide had already been revealed, they would bring in an iron-ass like Fitzgrald, whose very presence would confirm that. If he said “Nothing more to see here, move along, move along, you looky-loos”, I’d be inclined to believe him.
Conclusion: there is something yet hidden, big enough to worry them, big enough so that any porcine cosmetics are preferable to facts. Big Trouble in Little China.
I think you need to change your user name to “Pollyanna” if you’re buying that notion. I think the DEMS would pull the same shit if they thought it would work.