The U.S. Attorneys Purge

[AuntieEmma[$]]

Well, they are still there.

[erik_kosberg]

Lots of purge developments yesterday.

Worst. President. Ever.

[erik_kosberg]

And then there were nine.

[erik_kosberg]

"...it is far better to take a graceful exit than to do something that you should be ashamed of."

Gotta wonder what they wanted him to do that was so shameful.

"This is going to get worse, not better."

[erik_kosberg]

"Administration Withheld E-Mails About Rove"

Contempt of Congress or obstruction of justice? Which carries the stiffer sentence?

[drmomentum[$]]

Congress is just a bunch of do-nothing, corrupt, incompetent, rubber-stamping, pedo... oh, wait; that was the previous congress. Nevermind.

-JP

[erik_kosberg]

Alberto Gonzales, Zen Master

George W. Bush, the walking, talking, Get Out Of Jail Free Card.

History will not be at all kind to this ongoing criminal conspiracy.

[erik_kosberg]

All roads lead to Rove.

[erik_kosberg]

"Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty said Monday he will resign, the highest-ranking Bush administration casualty in the furor over the firing of U.S. attorneys, The Associated Press has learned."

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

[AuntieEmma[$]]

"The financial realities of college-age children and two decades of public service lead me to a long overdue transition in my career," McNulty said in the letter, which did not mention the firings controversy.

Most creative excuse yet. Because, you know, most people with kids in college couldn't afford to make it on the salary of the #2 position in the DOJ. < / snark >

Anyway, it does seem like the DOJ is starting to unravel completely.

Did anyone see the "60 Minutes" piece last week about Pat Robertson's Regent University, alma mater of Monica -- "I tried to take the 5th" -- Goodling, and 150 or so other administration staff members?

[erik_kosberg]

"The White House (and to a limited extent, Alberto Gonzales) held McNulty responsible for this scandal, almost from the outset. Because he politicized the process? Because he misled lawmakers? No, because he inadvertently told the Senate Judiciary Committee the truth, which was the opposite of what the Bush gang wanted."

I guess that bloody horse head on his bed was the hint he needed to resign.

[erik_kosberg]

"Throwing McNulty under the bus"

I guess this means he won't be getting a White House Christmas card this year.

Call it a wild guess, but if Bush and Gonzales think that designating a fallguy is the end of the scandal, they're sadly mistaken.

[drmomentum[$]]

Jonathan Adler, from Volokh's blog, sends this link along as "worth reading:"

Balkinization


I know some people here read Volokh; surprised this didn't get posted.

After the 2000 election, if not before, Karl Rove and other Republican operatives decided that Republican political prospects would be immeasurably improved if they would only repeat, as often as possible, the unsupported claim that voter fraud is rampant

They decided to use the levers of federal governmental power -- the prosecution power, in particular -- to go after nonexistent voter fraud, and thereby to further suppress voter turn-out in closely contested elections,

[pippadaisy[$]]

Go see The Daily Show on it. Where one minute Gonzalez says he wishes he'd involved McNulty more and the the next he claims McNulty had all the information.

Do they really think no one is paying attention?

[drmomentum[$]]

They really tried to turn the Justice Department into a Ministry of Loyalty. I would have felt that was an over-the-top statement during the Ashcroft years.

Now the only criticism of it is that it's an exaggeration or perhaps an oversimplification.

[erik_kosberg]

"People were disgusted as much as livid."

Is that really the best that they can come up with, a we're really stupid explanation? Wow.

Just when you think that Team Bush can't possibly get any worse, they lower the bar.

Impeach. Them. All.

[drmomentum[$]]

They only have to come up with an explanation that the 7 people who still believe them can hang onto.

You don't get it, do you, Erik?

They only have to come up with an explanation that you can repeat over and over again that makes semantic sense. For instance:

"The dog ate my homework."

You don't own a dog? The homework was a metalworking project? Doesn't matter. The explanation is a complete sentence and anyone can understand it. It qualifies. Watch:

Person 1: You didn't have your homework in on time.
Person 2: The dog ate my homework.
Person 1: But you don't hav...
Person 3: [Interrupting] Didn't you hear him? The dog ate his homework. Dogs sometimes eat homework. You don't know his dog.

[erik_kosberg]

"Goodling's testimony is sure to lead to questions about whether Gonzales was trying to tamper with a witness of a congressional investigation."

Perjury, witness tampering, bedside visit to a drugged man for a signature -- um, is it really appropriate to have a criminal as the highest law enforcement official in the land? That's been tried before and look what happened.

[erik_kosberg]

It's being drug out.

[drmomentum[$]]

I agree; can we just skip to the impeachment?

[erik_kosberg]

"I'd rather trade places with Jose Padilla"

Looks like the Law of Unintended Consequences is biting them in the butt.

[erik_kosberg]

Bush is lawyering up.

And the no-confidence vote on Gonzales is just around the corner...

[AuntieEmma[$]]

Pass the popcorn.