http://www.qando.net/ - Gonzales Gone (updated)

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, whose tenure has been marred by controversy and accusations of perjury before Congress, has resigned. A senior administration official said he would announce the decision later this morning in Washington.

Of course the left is celebrating his resignation, but then its timing might be perfect as far as the administration is concerned. Can you say "recess appointment?"

Mr. Bush has not yet chosen a replacement but will not leave the position open long, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the resignation had not yet been made public.

I certainly wouldn't put it past Bush to make such an appointment given the fact that Congress will make a circus out of any confirmation hearing. We'll see.

UPDATE: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) interviewed by John Roberts:

ROBERTS: Safe to say any confirmation hearing will be an opportunity for democrats to air years worth of grievances about a number of different issues revolving around the department of justice?

SEN. SCHUMER: Let me say this - and I'm speaking for myself - I'd rather look forward than look back. I'd rather look at somebody who can straighten out some of the problems in the future rather than finger point in the past. When I called for the Attorney General to step down - I think I was the first one - it was because I was so upset at how the Justice Department was being run with the u.S. Attorney's investigation, with what has happened with wiretaps and so many other different kinds of issues. And so I think our number one goal is not to look back and finger-point. It's to, rather, look forward and find an Attorney General who can get the Justice Department working in the way it's always worked, under democratic and republican administrations alike, which is rule of law first.

For some reason -given recent Congressional history and an upcoming election - I think any confirmation hearing will be more like Roberts describes it than Schumer.

UPDATE II: Jonathan Adler at The Corner has a particular person in mind as a replacement for Gonzales:

If the Administration could avoid a protracted confirmation bloodletting — a very big if — I think that replacing Alberto Gonzales with Michael Chertoff would be a very positive step.

I'm not buying. Chertoff would come over as an administration insider and, given the need many Democrats have to bolster their national security bona fides, he'd be the perfect target for discussing their perception that we're ill prepared. Nope. I believe Adler has it completely wrong. It would indeed be a "protracted confirmation bloodletting" he thinks Chertoff would avoid.

UPDATE III: Politico says Paul Clement is a more likely candidate for the job:

The acting attorney general with be Solicitor General Paul Clement. He "can stay in that position for quite a while," a senior administration official said.

TrackBacks

Return to Main Blog Page

Comments For This Post

Previous Comments to this Post

Comments

So Adler says:

I think that replacing Alberto Gonzales with Michael Chertoff would be a very positive step.

Michael "Teary-Eyed Children" Chertoff? I’m with you McQ - not a good choice.

Written By: Billy Hollis
URL: http://

"...timing might be perfect as far as the administration is concerned" - McQ

Agreed. Chuck Hagel predicted this resignation a few weeks ago at a Panetta Institute Lecture that I attended.

"The news of the day was Karl Rove’s resignation. Panetta wondered whether the resignation could have an effect rehabilitating the last year of the Bush presidency. Graham was dismissive, saying it is just too late for this President to salvage his legacy. Hagel was more sanguine, saying that Rove and Gonzales are lightning rods for criticism and their resignations would open a door. He spun a scenario where Gonzales also resigns, Bush shifts strategy on Iraq in the fall, and gets a major piece of bi-partisan legislation through congress next year. That, he asserts would elevate the Bush legacy."

Hagel also said that the administration year end strategy shift on Iraq was telegraphed by Gates on Meet The Press.

So, the answer to the timing, courtesy of Chuck Hagel: Rove resignation, Gonzales resignation, beginning the Iraq drawdown are all part of the George W Bush Presidential Legacy Rehabilitation Surge. GWB has surprised those who "misunderestimated" him before. Methinks that rumor of the death of this presidency have been greatly exaggerated.

Written By: mw
URL: http://westanddivided.blogspot.com/

Eh. It’s all really inside baseball. For all the hue and cry over Gonzalez and what he did, didn’t do- nobody really cares.

Written By: shark
URL: http://

Can’t Bush do a recess appointment. That would dodge the messy confirmation from Congress for a year.

Written By: jpm100
URL: http://

Never liked Gonzales as a potential Supreme Court nominee; never minded him as Attorney General. When Democrats, like Schumer the Reprehensible, object to someone, I just assume that the person being objected to is doing his job.

On Gonzales watch, including his tenure as White House Counsel, we haven’t had more terrorism inside the United States. I wouldn’t attribute that directly to him, but he was part of the team.

In the aftermath of 9/11 he was among the people who rose to the occasion and made sure that what needed to be done was done, including the Guantanamo detentions and NSA surveillance program. Would anyone here trade those back for a WMD attack on a major U.S. city?

So I say, F**k the Democrats who made Gonzales’s hide a priority, and I mean that with utmost sincerity.

And to Republicans and their sometimes friends: stop buying the conventional wisdom manufactured by the Left and the Democratic Party.

Written By: Martin McPhillips
URL: http://mcphillips.blogspot.com/

Sorry, but Gonzales was a complete incompetent at the politics of the job. "The attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president. The president no longer desires their service." I don’t think this necessarily means he is a bad man or even a bad lawyer. He was a bad AG.

After he knew he would be grilled on the firings, he was totally unprepared to testify. Why?

Written By: MarkD
URL: http://

Mark writes:

After he knew he would be grilled on the firings, he was totally unprepared to testify. Why?

Maybe, after actually doing his real job under high-pressure to deter terrorism, he couldn’t downshift to answer stupid, inappropriate, and meaningless questions about replacing U.S. Attorneys. Questions asked by the worst hacks in Congress.

I don’t want to be mistaken as any big Gonzales fan. I wasn’t and I’m not. But anyone from the administration who becomes a target of the snivelling creep Schumer becomes a friend of mine.

And I don’t see any evidence that Gonzales was a "bad AG." For all I know, apart from the bad PR thrown at him, he was the best AG of all time. The fact that nobody in DC seemed to like him would support that argument.

Every president will eventually jettison someone who has become a political liability, but that doesn’t speak to a man’s competence one way or the other.

Never, ever, buy the Left’s conventional wisdom about anything. It is never anything but lies, sometimes mixed with a little truth, sometimes not. The big brouhaha about the firing of the US Atty’s being a case in point — a confection of total b**ls**t mixed with the fact that, indeed, some US Atty’s were fired.

And when Republicans are themselves buying the Left’s conventional wisdom it’s a sign that we need new Republicans.

Written By: Martin McPhillips
URL: http://mcphillips.blogspot.com/

Never, ever, buy the Left’s conventional wisdom about anything. It is never anything but lies, sometimes mixed with a little truth, sometimes not. The big brouhaha about the firing of the US Atty’s being a case in point — a confection of total b**ls**t mixed with the fact that, indeed, some US Atty’s were fired.

Why look, I don’t need to go to the Huffington post to get my daily dose of wild-eyed delusion with a soupcon of hate. Alberto Gonzales probably set a modern record for number of lies to Congress, later retracted. Of course, you’d applaud if Gonzales had simply had one of his flunkies set off a bomb inside his Judiciary Committee hearing, rather than just flagrantly and repeatedly lie to Congress, abusing the integrity and honesty the national sovreign legislature.

That’s because you have no capacity for reason, no understanding of governance, and no sense of integrity yourself. From what I can see on here, you’re a flaccid sack of hate with a website. You don’t have any idea what Gonzales has or hasn’t done, and you don’t care, as long as he’s not nice to liberals. That’s the be-all and end-all of your comprehension and interests.

Written By: glasnost
URL: http://

glasnost kids himself about himself:

Why look, I don’t need to go to the Huffington post to get my daily dose of wild-eyed delusion with a soupcon of hate. Alberto Gonzales probably set a modern record for number of lies to Congress, later retracted. Of course, you’d applaud if Gonzales had simply had one of his flunkies set off a bomb inside his Judiciary Committee hearing,

That deterioration set in pretty quick.

The fact is that there never was an issue about the U.S. Attorneys. It was a confection. Saying that Gonzales "probably set a modern...blah, blah" is just that: blah, blah, and more blah, blah.

And that’s before you get to the bomb.

Written By: Martin McPhillips
URL: http://mcphillips.blogspot.com/

Add Your Comment

	NOTICE: While we don't wish to censor your thoughts, we do blacklist certain terms of profanity or obscenity. This is not to muzzle you, but to ensure that the blog remains work-safe for our readers. If you wish to use profanity, simply insert asterisks (*) where the vowels usually go. Your meaning will still be clear, but our readers will be able to view the blog without worrying that content monitoring will get them in trouble when reading it.
	Comments for this entry are closed.
Name:
Email:
URL:
HTML Tools:
Comment:
	Remember Me

Vicious Capitalism

Buy Dale's Book!