Here’s Senator Chuck Schumer announcing it at a press conference. And his statement does sum it up quite well:
OUTLOOK: The White House or its allies will find a way to ensure it doesn’t happen. The White House’s hand on how it was planning to deal with the final two years of the Bush administration was tipped shortly after the election, when news reports noted that Bush hired Fred Fielding to replace the hapless Harriet Miers (recently in the news for being cited for contempt of Congress for not even showing up to a hearing). This was a sign that Bush & Co. planned to fight the Congress every step of the way.
Even if they win in the end — and the balance of powers falls by the wayside as Congress becomes an impotent body that can clamor but be ignored by any President of ANY party — the constant barrage of news reports is going to be catastrophic to the administration’s already on-life-support-machine credibility.
And the GOP will pay the price at the polls in 2008, as independent voters and Democrats are motivated to flock to the polls — and perhaps some traditional conservative Republicans and other GOPers who wanted an administration like the one Bush and Dick Cheney promised to have in their 2000 campaign will feel it’s time to clean house in their own party.
Advice to GOPERS: beware of Presidential candidates whose campaigns are heavily peppered with former Bush operatives. It’s time for a new batch of Republicans to rise in the party and make key decisions. You can’t clean the messy house if you have the same poor housekeepers.
Advice to Gonzales: Cut your losses. If we had to place money, we’d bet that a lot more will come out and it will get increasingly worse. Yes, your boss does have the power to give a “half a peace sign” to the Congress and many Americans of both parties and independents and say he is the one to decide if you stay or go.
But it’s time to resign for your own good, the good of your administration, the good of your party — and particularly for the good of the United States, which deserves better.
Using the most charitable explanation of what’s going on — that you have a really bad memory and giving testimony, answering questions, or giving answers consistent with others is just not your bag — you are no longer up to or qualified for the job as Attorney General.
UPDATE: The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson:
It’s way past bedtime for Gonzo. At this point, every day Alberto Gonzales continues as attorney general means more dishonor for the office and the nation — and higher blood pressure for Senate Judiciary Committee members trying desperately to get a straight answer out of the man.
Gonzo has managed to do something no one else in Washington has managed in years: create a spirit of true bipartisanship. After his pathetic act in front of the committee Tuesday, it’s no surprise that Democrats are threatening to investigate him for perjury. But it was Sen. Arlen Specter, a Republican, who looked Gonzo in the face and told him, “I do not find your testimony credible, candidly.”
Over time, one becomes almost numb to this administration’s relentless lies and can-you-top-this transgressions. A kind of “outrage fatigue” sets in, accompanied by the knowledge that whatever it is that they’ve done this time, it could have been worse.
Read it all.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.