Captain's Quarters -

Attorney General Gonzales or any other witness before the Democrats in Congress could not have escaped the skewer. His testimoney before these ghouls does not convince me of anything except that "Rope-a-Dope" works.

Waas does not come at this from a law-breaking angle, so I am not sure where you get your opinion as to what Waas "wants to make this". Did he mention any criminal aspect of this? Is anything in the article inaccurate? No, and no.

Waas wants to make a scandal that politically-connected senior staff members directly serving the AG could have hired and fired people in political positions, but that hardly rates as a scandal.

I think the news item was that DOJ tried to fix it so those "senior" (in reality wet-behind-the-ears) officials, Goodling and Sampson, could clear out the political brush (so to speak) without Gonzales' approval. That didn't go over with OLC for constitutional reasons, so they did the next best thing - adhere to the letter of the law and skewer the intent behind it, by ensuring that Gonzales would be no more than an after-the-fact rubber-stamper. This would preserve his role as firewall to some degree - unless someone actually took the time to step back and look at this sham with a critical eye.

Every time another piece of the puzzle comes out, we see more clearly that (a) USAs were being hired and fired by political hacks in the service of the White House, (b) that these decisions were based on politically charged prosecutorial decisions, and (c) that the WH knew its exposure all along and has used Gonzales as a political buffer who did nothing, saw nothing, knows nothing.

Once you start seeing the forest for the trees, though, it is very transparent.

The thing is that this goes, in my opinion, beyond even mere incompetence, but to the question of whether this administration takes the prosecution of federal criminal law seriously. Instead, it seems that they see the DoJ as just a political organ. This is inappropriate.

And delegating these responsibilities to two young staffers with mediocre resumes is especially troubling.

Whether criminality is involved or not, this is not how the DoJ should be run (something I think that we all focus too much on--Democrats are too busy looking for a crime and Republicans are too busy saying "nothing illegal here" to ask whether we want our government to work this way).

Some thoughts here.

Gonzales' alledged incompetence is looking more and more like good old fashioned stonewalling when there are "secret" memos that should have been given to Congress being discovered. It certainly narrows the number of people who had a hand in making decisions about the hiring and firing DoJ personnel, as well as pointing out their boss, Karl Rove. Such ham-handed politicization of the DoJ is indeed unprecedented.

once you lose all credibility it really does not matter anymore ... all that is left now is to wait and see which GOP supporter sinks along with him by continuing to lock step with this lame duck whitehouse and how long it will take the GOP to return to the Reagan days after 8 years of this disaster.

This is absurd. We have a show trial going on over a Potemkin issue and, because the AG is not deft enough to avoid the problem, we have conservatives serving the dems purpose by demanding his head.

The dems do not deserve a scalp here. Gonzales is not very capable but he has done nothing wrong. When we cringe in fear over democrat spun media attacks, we only make the enemy bolder.

Who next, Rove?

Nothing wrong except lie to congress ... but I guess some may think thats ok, afterall it's only congress ... obviously conservatives like you must believe that.

I guess this is what Nixon called "letting people twist slowly in the wind?" And, he knew a few, too.

As to Gonzales, when he went to Haaarvard, to speak at a 25th year reunion. He got heckled. By the "bright undergraduates" who had nothing else to do that day.

I guess this also puts affirmative action hires up on the ropes, too?

Well, Bush seems to like the people around him, being more uncomfortable wielding power. So when the tough decisions come along? They "delegate." I believe Aschcroft did that, too. To Comey. And, the DC was not willing to "test the Constition" on the legality of "turning over the decision-making powers that come with your job."

That's this Bush's white house. And, it's been producing problems. I'm sure, ahead, there will be a lot of stuff that emerges that fits this behavior pattern. INCLUDING WAYS TO AVOID NOMINATING BUSH'S TO JOBS WELL ABOVE THEIR ABILITIES!

Heck, Slate, yesterday (through a link I found at InstaPundit), did a "drive by" on Tenet. They pointed to Woodward's 2002 book. And, how Woodward used the "description" of his undercover fountain of knowledge. He called him a fat greek boy.

I guess? Tenet knew how to advance by kissing ass. Both asses above him; and asses below.

Asses as far as the eye could see.

And, you're wondering why Bush's popularity plummets? Why he's not helping others, now, gain a posture with the American People?

Well? The donks have to deal with Fat Albert Gore and Jimmy Carter. And, Teddy's liver. So their nomination stage isn't exactly "star studded."

But why did the GOP throw away its advantages?

Per DeLay? Too much infighting. And, no one standing up to protect anyone else's back. Given that Hastert could have protected DeLay's. But chose NOT. Then, what do you make of Hastert's fall from grace? Where he was an over-stuffed piggy on pork.

Anybody listening? If you want to see the GOP constantly in the minority; then what you're seeing WORKS.

If you want to advance TWO PERCENT, however, you need to recover. And, change your ways. Weed's not the problem! It's the blue-noses. And, the goody-two-shoe dancers, who are clueless among the real cheek kissers. Even as FOG blowers you're stuck on a very small stage.

Goodling and Sampson had no business being in charge of the hiring and firing of the civil servants. Sounds like Gonzalez tried to "hide" this little fact from Congress. Uncle Pat (Leahy) might have to take Al to the woodshed next week when he comes before the Judiciary Committee. Can't wait till Monica has to testify.