Sen. Whitehouse On Gonzales In National Law Journal: He Must Go Now

[Hissyspit]

http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1178701484575

ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES

Why he must go now
Sheldon Whitehouse/Special to The National Law Journal
May 14, 2007
The evidence from our Senate investigation of the unprecedented firing of eight U.S. attorneys shows an attorney general whose misjudgments are profound, and who is complicit in the greatest politicization of the U.S. Department of Justice since the Nixon administration. As a U.S. attorney, I saw up close the traditions and practices of the Justice Department that protect against political interference, and give structure to the fair administration of justice. In that light, here are some of the particulars of why Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should go:

Incompetence and misjudgments

• His incompetence and misjudgments fail by far the test he set for the fired U.S. attorneys. Rules for others don't seem to apply to the Bush administration's politically privileged class. His argument that he still has confidence in his own leadership doesn't cut it — I'm sure those U.S. attorneys have confidence in their own leadership.

- snip -

• White House political operatives were all over the U.S. attorney firing decision. The wall carefully bricked up over decades to block White House political influence within the Department of Justice has been knocked down. Based on sound experience, previous administrations narrowed the list of people at the White House and Justice Department who could talk about criminal cases to only four White House officials (including the president and vice president) and only three Justice Department officials (including the attorney general). Under Gonzales, it's now 417 and 42, and Rove is among the 417.

• This problem will linger. The "consensus" management practiced by the attorney general leaves no person responsible for any decision, perhaps deliberately. Who decided, when and why, will take extensive investigative reconstruction. It won't go away.

It may take a decade to repair the damage caused by Attorney General Gonzales, and every day that passes without his resignation is one more day before the repair is begun. But will he go? From the perspective of Bush administration officials, a wounded, grateful attorney general on a very short leash may be just what they want as they try to exit Washington without further indictments. But that's not the attorney general America needs to maintain the best traditions of the Department of Justice and assure the fair administration of justice in our country.

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[quiet.american]

1. K&R. N/T

[maddezmom]

2. K&R

:kick:

[L. Coyote]

7. K&R

[Kagemusha]

3. Sad but the Senator has it exactly right: Gonzales is what Bush wants.

A wounded, grateful attorney general on a very short leash who runs the "Just Us" Department.

[bdamomma]

4. kick

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. bbbut he acknowledges that mistakes were made, that he has learned from

others' mistakes, and that he promises he won't let others make the same mistakes again.

isn't that good enough?

[L. Coyote]

6. IS HE GONE NOW? .. no longer running DoJ ?? Did he say that? Wexler Grilling

DSCUSS http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3260838
underpants Fri May-11-07 09:01 AM

Wexler (D-Fl) absolutely GRILLS Gonzales
VIDEO posted on DU: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x27944

Wexler is grilling Gonzo like a machine gun and finally asks,

WEXLER: "Do you run the Department of Justice?"

GONZO: "Yes I did. It's been frustrating to me...."

SO, WHO is running the DoJ today?
Is Gonzo NOT because he is a TARGET of an investigation himself????