Impeach Gonzo at your own risk

I'm all for impeaching Alberto Gonzales; I think there's sufficient evidence not only to impeach his ass, but to chuck him in the clink today. He spent another few hours lying to the Senate yesterday, and now he doesn't even bother feigning respect or humility while using the Bill of Rights as Depends undergarments. He lies in a condescending manner, sneering at times with open contempt for the very processes he's sworn to uphold and protect. I was against Gonzo from the get-go, and upon his nomination pointed out that he was worse than the lunatic he replaced. John Ashcroft would never attempt to pressure a hospitalized and sedated AG to overturn the Constitution, as Gonzales did. Ashcroft would perhaps have anointed the sedated's head with oil and sung a rousing song about eagles...

The problem with impeaching Gonzales is that Bush has even worse assholes waiting in the wings. I suspect this is intentional, a sort of bizarro self-protection racket. "Impeach me, muthafuckas," Bush thinks to himself, "and you get Preznit Cheney. Impeach Alberto and you get Theodore Olson, or John Yoo."

The fact that we finally have a Senate that won't rubber-stamp whatever hoodlum the Administration sends up for approval means nothing to Bush. Recess appointments, baby.

Let the Eagle Soar

It's hard to admire John Ashcroft. His politics are disturbing to say the least. Statue boob-covering and the anointing of Justice Department staff with oil a la some Old Testament patriarch? Looney Toons indeed.

But Comey's testimony yesterday shows that there are depths to which even Ashcroft wouldn't go for the Cheneyites. He stood his ground from a hospital bed, and perhaps preserved a bit of Constitution that otherwise mightn't have made it.

AG the soon-to-be-former AG

I listened to a couple hours of Gonzales's abysmal performance yesterday. A remarkable display of ineptitude. The guy can't learn a script, or tell a competent fib; if you can't even lie well, what can you do, Alberto?

I mean aside from trashing the Constitution, the Geneva Conventions, etc.

Gotta love this Times editorial:

Mr. Gonzales came across as a dull-witted apparatchik incapable of running one of the most important departments in the executive branch.... He delegated responsibility for purging their ranks to an inexperienced and incompetent assistant who, if that’s possible, was even more of a plodding apparatchik....

Now!

After Kyle Sampson's testimony, Congress must act immediately to impeach Alberto Gonzales. Enough is enough.

Reductio ad absurdum

Keith Olbermann did a great job poking holes into (and poking fun at) Alberto Gonzalez's lame TV interview with Pete Williams. Brief summary?

Uh, I know for a fact that these attorneys were asked to resign for reasons completely appropriate, but I don't know any particulars, nor was I at all involved in the process, but I do know why they were fired and it wasn't for political reasons, but I have no knowledge of the reasons they resigned. Other people who know my job advised me to fire them, so I did.

Hmmm. That's a bit like using the "these attorneys serve at the pleasure of the President" argument for firing the attorneys, and then claiming the President had nothing to do with the terminations, and no knowledge of the machinations involved.

Of course the enormous document dumps of emails and memos reveal that Gonzo and Rove and Miers and Bush were heavily involved.

Now Gonzo's senior counselor won't testify. Impeach the sonofabitch! Bush will only with great reluctance hang him out to dry because he'd rather have Gonzo inside the tent pissing out then outside pissing in, to paraphrase LBJ on Hoover.

Mentí, estoy mintiendo, mentiré

It's as if someone in the Cheney Administration is reading about Nixon's demise in order to brush up on how to unravel in the same manner. We've even had CIA guys with hookers again. The parallels grow more uncanny daily. Unfortunately (well, perhaps fortunately) we don't have cable TV at the new place yet. I can't see what kind of coverage the Gonzalez/Rove Justice Department purge of attorneys who would not use their office to suppress Democratic voters is getting. These guys love to purge and surge, they surely do.

Lots of good coverage at Kos (here, here, here). The WaPo and the Times appear to be working the story, almost to the point I'm considering re-subsribing.

It's a serious, serious thing, and yet another in a long list of articles of impeachment that need drawing up should be drawn up for this. Remember Harriet Miers' sudden departure last year? Now Gonzalez' Chief of Staff has resigned as well. Get them in front of Congress and seize their passports post haste.