Justice Dept. Lawyers Join Chorus Criticizing Gonzales

[TexasLawyer]

Source: NYT

Justice Dept. Lawyers Join Chorus Criticizing Gonzales

By PHILIP SHENON and JIM RUTENBERG
Published: July 28, 2007

WASHINGTON, July 27 — Daniel J. Metcalfe, a lawyer who began his government career in the Nixon administration and retired from the Justice Department last winter, said morale at the department was worse under Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales than during Watergate.

John S. Koppel, who continues to work at the department as a civil appellate lawyer in Washington, wrote this month that he was “ashamed” of the department and that if Mr. Gonzales told the truth in recent Congressional testimony, “he has been derelict in the performance of his duties and is not up to the job.”

Even though they worry that it may hinder their career prospects, a few current and former Justice Department lawyers have begun to add to the chorus of Mr. Gonzales’s critics who say that the furor over his performance as attorney general, and questions about his truthfulness under oath, could do lasting damage to the department’s work.

It is a view that is widely shared on Capitol Hill, even more so after the grueling questioning of Mr. Gonzales on Tuesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at which his credibility was repeatedly challenged. After the hearing, several Democratic senators called for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate whether he committed perjury on Tuesday.

<snip>



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/28/washington/28gonzales.html?ref=us

[TexasLawyer]

1. Analysis: Gonzales Endurance Is Baffling--WaPo

Analysis: Gonzales Endurance Is Baffling

By TOM RAUM
The Associated Press
Friday, July 27, 2007; 4:22 PM

WASHINGTON -- The collapse in confidence in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is all but total among both Democrats and Republicans. Still, President Bush is standing by his longtime friend from Texas. Bush is known for his loyalty, but his reluctance to act this time is baffling Washington.

Gonzales has shouldered the brunt of congressional criticism over Bush's warrantless wiretapping program and the Justice Department's firings of U.S. attorneys last year. He now faces calls for a perjury investigation, and Democrats are clamoring for a special prosecutor.

<snip>

So why is Gonzales still around? Two personality traits long identified with Bush --stubbornness and loyalty to those loyal to him --are clearly factors. Also, Bush's advisers are mindful of the fact that it could be next to impossible to win Senate confirmation this late in his term for any possible replacement.

Also, Gonzales has long served as an enabler for Bush.

<snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/27/AR2007072701658.html

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Why are they baffled? There's nothing standing between Gonzo and Bush.

If they defeat Gonzo and his reasoning, the next stop is Bush. So that's your paradox. If Congress is just sitting around with their thumbs up their ass, waiting for Bush's term to finish because "elections resolve all problems," then Gonzo's reasoning stands as precedent and we will be in for more of the same.

First off, elections don't resolve all problems, because there's a lot of damage and victimization that goes on when crony groups take over, and after they're gone, there's no way for the victims to get true restitution because nobody validated that a crime was committed to begin with. It's like getting raped and society telling you that the predator gets a freebe.

Second, our election system is hackable so waiting for the next election to clean out the criminals is stupid. We have had the last two presidential elections stolen, and with this federal prosecutor scandal, they were preparing to steal a third. How ludicrous is it to allow them to get away with this abuse without filing criminal actions to prove once and for all that this is not a grey area?

If Congress doesn't do its job and, thus, fails to take down Gonzalez as well as Bush and Cheney, the message is very clear. Precedent is set for Republicans to come in after Democratic presidential terms to clean out the coffers. Of course, the point may be moot, because we may not be able to easily get out of the mess created by this Republican administration.

[UpInArms]

4. may I alter your statement

that I agree with in every other sense of the word -

It's like getting raped and society telling you that the predator gets a freebe.

In this particular case:

It's like getting raped and society telling you that the predator gets a do-over.

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. God yes. Thank you for your fine editing, sir.

[maryallen]

11. Brilliantly said and ...

Absolutely the correct response to:

"Let's wait until the next election and vote our people in."

Listen up, Nancy and Harry.

[Peace Patriot]

6. AP wrote that? "Gonzales has long served as an enabler for Bush"?

Since all the election data on 11/2/07 was run through an AP computer to the networks, where the consortium exit pollster doctored the exit polls to force them to fit the results of Diebold/ES&S "trade secret" vote tabulation formulae (coming from AP)--in other words, the election was run through several insider hackable bottlnecks, all of them private, corporate, war profiteering entities, and AP was one of them--I think the party's over for the Bush Junta, except for those fun debriefings in Dubai or wherever they are headed with our money.

Really--"enabler"?

You just don't see gratuitous swipes at Bush like that from AP. Feels like a thunderbolt, or as much of one as they can muster. (A toot-toot?)

-------------------------------

As for the difficulty of getting a replacement through the 50/50 Senate, with Lieberman as the pivot, I dunno. Our Senators were sure laydowns for previous Bush toadies. But there is definitely a bit of a bristle in the air, lately.

Anybody know if Comey is still at the DoJ?

[gratuitous]

7. No, but you do see gratuitous swipes at Bush . . .

All the time from me. I'll gladly step aside for a moment to let the AP finally get in a lick. Maybe since their "ace" reporter John Solomon moved on to the Washington Post, they've been freed up to do some actual reportage.

[tiptoe]

8. Not at DoJ...private sector since Aug 2005:

Schumer: Mr. Comey is currently the senior vice president and general
counsel of the Lockheed Martin Corporation.

TRANSCRIPT
May 15, 2007 COMMITTEE HEARING...SEN. PATRICK J. LEAHY HOLDS A HEARING ON THE U.S. ATTORNEY[br />FIRINGS]

[donkeyotay]

9. Lieberman is one of the people who has benefited

from a non-functioning legal system. He ran as a Democrat, and when he lost the nomination, the law required him to set aside - that he could not be a spoiler. So, he created a fraudulent new party whose only purpose was to allow him to run as a spoiler. Some guy took over the party - since Lieberman wasn't using it, and is challenging him in court. From what I read it was Lieberman's political drag that let him run with his fake party, and the state's legal system was just getting around to maybe looking into perhaps prosecuting him if it wasn't too much trouble or wouldn't take too long.

[Miss Chybil]

2. #5. nt

[donkeyotay]

10. I applaud them. May the chorus sing louder. nt

:applause:

[Supersedeas]

12. but according to the Sunday Talking Pt shows, it is just a Congressional political issue