Novak: Bush Setting Stage For Gonzales’ Departure

Was it a case of appearance versus reality?

In his Evans-Novak Report, well-sourced columnist Robert Novak says President George W. Bush knows that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will have to go and that there was much more to Bush’s combative press conference yesterday than met the eye:

1. President Bush’s gesture of phoning Gonzales to reaffirm his support is just that — a gesture. His press conference last night to challenge the Democrats was a means of political positioning. As President Bush announced that Gonzales would appear on the Hill to testify, he was in fact throwing him to the wolves. [The boldface is Novak's] At best, he has a few months left in office. Only a few Republicans on Capitol Hill have called for Gonzales’s resignation so far, but the others are doing almost nothing to defend him..

2. Bush’s willingness to allow only informal, closed-door interviews with members of the White House staff was an attempt to present what he repeatedly called a “reasonable” offer to Democrats. In warning Democrats against holding “show trials” or engaging in a “fishing expedition,” Bush is trying to take the high ground. He is also expressing just how powerless he is to do anything about it. Democrats were preparing subpoenas for the White House staffers this morning.

A word on this kind of report. Novak has been proven to have solid sources (just look at the Plamegate affair) and doesn’t make his columns up. But reporters often have sources representing a given faction within an administration. Sources also usually have some kind of vested interest in spilling their guts with inside information to a reporter.

Even so, Novak’s report is an indication that Gonzales may have been given the equivalent of “you’re doing a heck of a job” yesterday and that he might be wise to start revising his résumé. Novak’s piece also coincides with more recent reports from The Politico that, despite their earlier report saying Gonzales was Political Dead Man Walking having been hotly denied by the White House, Bush administration insiders who had been putting out feelers about possible Gonzales replacements don’t feel their work was in vain at all.

On balance: more than ever it appears that Gonzales won’t be celebrating Christmas in his office at the White House next year. And, once again, George Bush was rallying his conservative base inside and outside of Congress yesterday to do battle. The motif of this administration is to never yield anything without a fight and the fights it picks are done with a maximum of political polarization.

Be sure to read our extensive earlier post HERE.