That is what U.S. attorney general Alberto Gonzales must be thinking: “The former Justice Department official who carried out the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year told Congress that several of the prosecutors had no performance problems and that a memo on the firings was distributed at a Nov. 27 meeting attended by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, a Democratic senator said yesterday.”
As Dan Eggen and Paul Kane point out, “the statements to House and Senate investigators by Michael A. Battle, former director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, represent another potential challenge to the credibility of Gonzales, who has said that he never saw any documents about the firings and that he had ‘lost confidence’ in the prosecutors because of performance problems.”
Meanwhile, Gonzales will testify tomorrow (again) and will apologize to the fired prosecutors and will admit that “he has been ‘less than precise’ in describing his role in the firings.”
“Less than precise” is probably a euphemism for “completely wrong”.
Senator Arlen Specter (Pa.) has already suggested that Gonzales should “consider reinstating the fired U.S. attorneys.” That, of course, would be a major defeat for Gonzales and for the White House.
Every day new revelations, new lies exposed and… every day Gonzales continues to fight for his job, spinning here, spinning there, contradicting himself, contradicting his (former) aides, etc. etc.
I find it amazing that Gonzales seems to be determined to commit political suicide as slowly as possible. He also drags his long time friend George W. Bush with him (through the dust). In this particular case, damage control means… get out of the fight now. The longer he puts up a fight, the more lies will be exposed and the more badly it will reflect on the White House.
Bush must be thinking by now: ‘with friends like Alberto and Paul, who needs enemies?’.
To Alberto: Resign man, you’re making a fool of yourself.
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