I have to admit that I did not at all see this one coming: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Has Resigned. Gonzales has been embattled for months, but George W. Bush has defended him all the while.
Why now, when not before?
It’s far too late for the Bush Administration to save itself any political capital by having Alberto Gonzales resign as Attorney General now. By resisting the resignation for so long after the perjury of Gonzales, and his manipulation of government resources for political purposes, became clear, President Bush himself has been clearly tainted. There’s no way that Bush can say that he didn’t know what Gonzales was up to, or can distance himself as a quick cutting of ties might have done.
So, with the Bush White House devastated by association with Alberto Gonzales by keeping him on for so long, why wouldn’t Gonzales stay on until the bitter end? Also, how is the resignation of Alberto Gonzales tied to the sudden resignation of Karl Rove?
Furthermore, there’s the question of who will succeed Gonzales as Attorney General. I remember, back after the 2004 election, that I could not possibly imagine an Attorney General as bad as John Ashcroft. Then, Alberto Gonzales surprised me by showing that he was even worse than Ashcroft. Who could possibly follow-up the twin disasters of Ashcroft and Gonzales?
Four possibilities scream out at me as audaciously awful:
1. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, known for his disregard of constitutional rights in the name of security
2. John Michael McConnell, currently Director of National Intelligence, architect of Total Information Awareness, and partner in snooping under the Protect America Act with the Attorney General
3. Porter Goss, former Congressman, then briefly head of the CIA, just implicated with hushing up the failure of the CIA to do anything with the information it had of suspicions of September 11 hijackers before the attacks
4. John Bolton, the brutally ineffective former ambassador to the United Nations
Of course, these are just the obvious disasters. Who else might Bush pick?
I really don’t know what to make of this resignation, particularly in the context of the Protect America Act, which just passed Congress a few weeks ago, giving the Attorney General unprecedented powers.
What the heck is going on there in the shrinking camp of Bush? Any thoughts, readers?
Harriet Miers? Oh, wouldn’t that be a peach of a pick.
Who will be Bush’s brain now?
Regardless of who the replacement is, Gonzales’s resignation is a great day for freedom and for the American people. He was corrupted by his blind loyalty to an arrogant, cowardly, lying, bullying, incompetent president. They are one of a kind. For at least one day in the tenure of this amoral, unethical administration, Americans can breathe free. Let’s try for another day, and then another and yet another again, until the power has been returned to the people where it rightfully belongs.
We may find out Real Soon Now; with Congress on its August break, Bush can use the “recess appointment” scam to put someone in without any Congressional review.