I’m stuck here at home with a sick baby, watching Alberto Gonzalez testify. His testimony has already led to this revelation: Gonzalez has some seriously cheesy hair, which he has made exceptionally bouffant-y for the benefit of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
I believe he should resign for this reason alone.
Funny. But for those of us who can’t watch - how is he doing?
Must be that Alberto VO5.
Truth be told, I’m having some trouble following closely, thanks to the fussy baby on my lap. I have, however, seen:
Herb Kohl (D-Wis) asking some pretty tough questions.
Gonzalez using cute language to evade responsibility for the firings. (“I approved Sampson’s recommendations” instead of “I decided.”)
Gonzalez making it appear that he knew nothing about the reasons for any of the firings at the time he “approved the recommendations.”
Orrin Hatch tossing some softballs.
Dianne Feinstein seeming unprepared and asking questions based on confused facts.
According to the National Review, uh, badly:
Ouch.
He has very convenient memory lapses .
Judging by the NYT synopsis of his conversations with Leahy and Specter, that was the extent of his preparations.
He has repeatedly stated, in response to questions about the process that led to the US Attorney firings, in essence that “You have more information about this than I do, because you have interviewed members of my staff. Out of respect for this investigation, I have not asked them these questions myself.”
What BS. He hasn’t asked anyone anything (so he says) because he wants to be able to say “I don’t know” or “I don’t recall” to as many questions as possible. He does not want to assist this investigation in any way. If he really wanted to assist, he would have showed up PREPARED and having informed himself of the facts to the extent necessary to provide helpful testimony.
One of the more telling moments (I’m paraphrasing here):
Some Senator: “Did the President ever ask you to fire a U.S. attorney?”
Gonzales: “I don’t recall.”
What the FUCK? You can’t remember if your BOSS asked you to FIRE one of your own EMPLOYEES? I guess things work differently in A.G.'s world, but in my world if my boss asks me to do something important I better fucking pay attention and do it!
He’s either lying out of his ass or he’s so stupid he’s not qualified to make coffee at the Justice Department, let alone run it.
See, if it were me, I would have asked, “Did that fat fuck Karl Rove or that inhuman automaton fucktwit Dick Cheny ever tell the president to tell you to fire a U.S. attorney?”
According to the Daily Show, he said some variation of “I don’t remember” over 40 times. I called it the Ronald Reagan defense. Perhaps he is in the early stages of Alzheimers, too?? 
And this is exactly the kind of thing that has made me come out to my evangelical Republican family that I dislike W as a person, not just as a politician. He waved the Christian flag and then puts up with lying on this level. He violates so many Christian principles that I’m very much reminded of “And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.”
Statements by Dana Perino, WH deputy press secretary, delivered today, after Gonzales testimony:
“President Bush was pleased with the Attorney General’s testimony today…”
“The Attorney General has the full confidence of the President, and he appreciates the work he is doing at the Department of Justice to help keep our citizens safe from terrorists, our children safe from predators, our government safe from corruption, and our streets free from gang violence.”
Un-freakin’-believable. The puppet master manipulates the main puppet, who in turn operates another and so on. It’s like looking into one of those mirrors that keeps repeating the image until it fades into infinity.
This country is in deep trouble, I’m seriously concerned about how much more damage this administration can do before their term ends.
On the national news last night they showed a guy with two pieces of paper on his chest for display purposes keeping count of the number of times Gonzales said “I don’t remember” or a variance thereof. According to them, this phrase was uttered a mind numbing SEVENTY SOMETHING TIMES.
I can’t imagine this not being the beginning of the end.
You are talking about the Rapture, aren’t you, when those Christians Bush, Gonzalez, Rove, etc., are taken physically up to Heaven, leaving us sinners in peace. I must say that I can’t wait for it to happen.
Schumer actually confronted Gonzalez with a similar number during testimony. After being given the opportunity to ask a second round of questions, Schumer declined, citing Gonzalez’s lack of responsiveness. He said that Gonzalez had said “I don’t know” or “I don’t remember” to almost 100 questions. I had assumed he was keeping a tally himself; maybe he was just following the signs being held up, though.
How bad is this guy? Incompetence is too mild an expression. I hears he did not recall 74 times . Sometimes about meeting with the president. oops forgot. The firing of attys is huge. Yet he claims to be in charge but it was entirely handled by subordinates without his knowledge.
Not to mention, he tells them “I’ll resign if at any time I am no longer effective,” after they told him about sixty-one times that he’s not effective.