Overheard at a Starbucks in San Diego: “Where is Donald Trump when George Bush needs him?”
The comment wasn’t referring to Trump’s recent “dissing” of Bush, but to the fact that perhaps Trump could take Attorney General Alberto Gonzales into the Oval Office for Bush and say his (unsuccessfully) patented “You’re fired!” to resolve the growing scandal over the firing of Republican Party member prosecutors who many believe were let go because they were not going after Democrats or going after too many Republicans.
And that’s the big political drama of the moment: will he or won’t he? Will George W. Bush stand by his longtime personal lawyer and confidant Gonzales no matter what or will Gonzales have to be dealt with like the politically late Harriet Miers — hurled over the side to steady the ship to save others (among them, White House political maven Karl Rove)?
While that remains an uncertainty, two things are abundantly clear:
(1) Gonzales is not picking up a lot of support, outside from Tony Snow and Bush’s comments. His friends in Congress could be counted on not even one finger….perhaps on a bit of dirt underneath a fingernail.
(2) News reports suggest his political standing is worsening in Congress, and not just among Democrats.
A CBS News story suggests Mr. Gonzales might start polishing off his resume:
The fallout from the firings continues to grow in Washington, and sources tell CBS News that it looks like Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will take the fall.
Republicans close to the White House tell CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod that President Bush is in “his usual posture: pugnacious, that no one is going to tell him who to fire.” But sources also said Gonzales’ firing is just a matter of time.
The White House is bracing for a weekend of criticism and more calls for Gonzales to go. One source tells CBS News he’s never seen the administration in such deep denial, and Republicans are growing increasingly restless for the president to take action.
Yet another sign of disarray — and yet another tidbit that will undercut this administration’s credibility — is the sudden decision of the White House to back off of blaming former White House counsel Harriet Miers for the prosecutors’ furor. The Washington Post:
More than two weeks after a New Mexico U.S. attorney alleged he was fired for not prosecuting Democrats, the White House and Justice Department are still struggling to explain the roles of President Bush, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and other key officials in the dismissals of eight federal prosecutors late last year.
Yesterday, the White House retreated from its four-day-old claim that former counsel Harriet E. Miers had started the process two years ago by proposing the firing of all 93 U.S. attorneys.
It has been described as her idea . . . but I don’t want to vouch for origination,” press secretary Tony Snow said. “At this juncture, people have hazy memories.”
The Post adds:
Snow’s comments mark the latest revision of the administration’s account of the firings, which has shifted repeatedly over the past week as new e-mails and other evidence have come to light in response to congressional demands for information. The precise roles of Gonzales, presidential adviser Karl Rove and the president himself remain unclear, even as calls for Gonzales’s resignation continue to mount.
The Sydney Morning Herald‘s Washington correspondent puts this controversy into perspective for Australian readers this way:
IN A SENSE, the rise and fall of the US Attorney-General, Alberto Gonzales, is a metaphor for the major failing of George Bush and a pointer to the ordeal that the President will have to endure at the hands of a Democrat-controlled Congress for the remaining 22 months of his term.
The growing controversy over the sacking by the Justice Department of eight federal attorneys – senior prosecutors – threatens to further harm an already badly damaged president and to seriously affect the prospects of the Republican Party’s presidential candidates.
Democrats say the sackings were a politically-motivated purge, alleging the federal attorneys were removed to make way for White House allies.
It is a story of incompetence and cronyism and of a disengaged president who has placed loyalty and ideological compatibility above all other political virtues.
The danger for George Bush is that members of his own political party could soon agree with this analysis.
SOME ADDITIONAL ARTICLES:
GOP support erodes for Gonzales
No decision on White House’s Rove testifying
Bush Cynicism on Law Shows Up in Firings: Ann Woolner
Al Gonzales should know politics, justice don’t mix
A CROSS SECTION OF OPINION:
—Prairie Weather: “It’s interesting to watch Karl Rove through the haze of spin. As the fog dissipates, we see the the chain saw is alive and buzzing near his ankles, then moves up slowly towards his knees. You get the feeling that pretty soon he may be sliced in half.”
A case can be made that the firings done under the auspices of the Patriot Act is a stupid and careless use of that power. But it is not illegal. And perhaps the Democrats (and Republicans) can look at not only that amendment, but others as well where the potential for abuse by the Executive branch is outweighed by any gain we might achieve in countering terrorism. This can be done legislatively and doesn’t need to be tossed about as an example of some deep, dark, conspiracy by the Bushies to destroy the Constitution. That also, is rank paranoia – something we’ve grown tired of over the years coming as it does from the same sources time and time again.
…The netnuts will flog this story for all it’s worth, driving the mainstream press to cover every revelation – trivial or important – as if the fate of the Republic were at stake. Too bad they can’t get as exercised about the jihadis and terrorists out there. Now that would be newsworthy.
—-Daily Kos: “The Gonzales watch is like March Madness for political junkies, with everyone consumed with one question: How much longer can he last?…This is another story that just won’t die, and that we’re bound to see much more information about in coming weeks. As for the Prosecutor Purge, there’s going to be another document dump on Monday.”
—Pennsylvanian In Exile: “The whole US attorney fiasco is a lesson for the GOP to not underestimate the dems.”
—Donkey Path: “Suddenly, a virus is loose in the White House: the cconvenient hazy memory virus that appears every time White House officials get in trouble….Scooter Libby has hazy memory. Karl Rove has hazy memory. Alberto Gonzales has hazy memory. Tony Snow appears to be the press person for a whole White House of hazy memory. It’s amazing any of these guys can find their way to the front door of the White House each morning.”
—Joe Conason writing at Salon:
Whatever else Bill Clinton is or was or someday may become, he will forever remain the favorite scapegoat for Republicans in trouble. When they’re caught, they always point at him — just as they are doing now in the midst of the scandal over the political dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys and growing demands for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for his role in the matter….
…So let’s begin this journalistic sanitation project with a question. Was the firing of eight U.S. attorneys by George W. Bush last December in any way comparable to the dismissal of the entire corps of U.S. attorneys by Clinton in 1993? Even the dumbest pundit in America should be able to figure out that the answer is no — because every president receives the resignations of all political appointees, including U.S. attorneys, at the beginning of his term….
…When the president fires a carefully selected group of his own U.S. attorneys in the middle of his second term for reasons that appear to be political, that’s different from what Clinton (and Reagan) did. The difference is not in the rule that allowed Bush and Clinton and Reagan to dismiss U.S. attorneys — which is that those appointees serve at their pleasure — but in the reasons behind their actions.
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.