Alberto Gonzales, our inept Attorney General and Friend Of George (FOG), made an appearance before the House Judiciary Committee this week. Last month, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he set new a new standard for selective amnesia when he couldn't remember or recall answers to 71 questions.
This time, however, things were not quite as bad, primarily because the House Republicans, unlike their Senate counterparts, treated Mr. Gonzales with kid gloves. I have to admit here that I did not listen to his testimony, so I do not have first-hand information.
But he still messed up. He still could not or would not say who put David Iglesias, the fired U.S. Attorney for New Mexico, on the "hit list". I thought Chair John Conyers (D-MI) was going to have a cow. Like Rep. Conyers I find it incredulous that the "top man" does not know how or by whom a man he fired was put on the "hit list".
But Bush is not going to fire Alberto. He's too valuable to him. Not because he is a good AG, but because: 1) he's a good punching bag, and since he's a loyal soldier he'll keep taking a beating for his boss; 2) his presence will help keep the Democrats distracted from the real issue - the pathetic mismanagement of the Iraq war; and 3) Bush does not want to have to nominate an AG because the nomination hearing will be an embarrassment to Bush as the Democrats will use it to unearth all sorts of things in the Department of Justice.
Some Democrats don't want Gonzales to resign because he's now an emasculated AG and will remain a convenient whipping boy. Feeling down today? Hey, let's have a few laughs and drag Alberto up here for some testimony.
And Alberto won't resign because: 1) as stated above, he's a loyal soldier; and 2) his wife won't let him - she can not bear returning to Texas under such humiliating circumstances.
Alberto Gonzales will be sticking around for a while, so get used to it. In a couple of years, Alberto can then obtain a sinecure as Dean of Regent University's law school. That is Pat Robertson's school, and that's about Alberto's speed.
"Mistakes were made." -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
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